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| | | Born at 17:15, November 12, in Garmisch-Patenkirchen, Germany, as Edgar and Luisä's only son. Named Michael Andreas Helmut Ende and born by a Caesarian due to Luisä's age(38 years old). The delivery was too difficult. Edgar was a paintor and Luisä was keeping a shop for lace accesories and jewelry. Michael weighed 4.5 kg and his parents gave up the baptism because the robe they had bought for him was too small for the baby. |
| | | Moved to Pasing, near Munich. Edgar's works sold well and the family's economy was stabilized. He came to know Buchner Family and the paintor Fanti who told many fables and showed some sketches to them. Michael learned to tell stories from him. |
| | | Edgar sketched a dessein that modeled Michael who was bored and crying. |
| | | A poor circus troupe showed Michael and Buchner the tightrope walking and some magics. Michael was impressed by the group and the entertainers. |
| | | Mischievous Michael burnt a tar with Buchner's two children only to kill time, which led to the whole forest fire. Edgar's economy went bad due to the artistic activity restriction Nazi had imposed to him as a reprisal of his refusal to Nazi's "culture policies" that obliged him to be a member of the "Empire Cultural Society," |
| | | Moved to Kaulbach in Munich where rent was cheaper. The "Third Reich" begins and the military conscription took in effect. "The Empire Cultural Society"'s reviewer condamned Edgar's pictures as "white elephant" in Munich Modern Museum. |
| | | Michael enters the Wilhelm Elementary School but without succeeding in study. At home he was the mediator between the parents who always quarrelled on the economy. Michael sees the anthroposopher teacher Liegel. The Empire Cultural Society refused to sell Edgar's pictures. H_e was forced to suspend all his artistic activities, and his exhibition was also forbidden. |
| | | Dies Willie, a friend of Michael, by pneunomia. Michael cried again and again to the first death of his friends. Willie's fat and brown-haired image would be revived as Bastian in "The Neverending Story." Michael has fishes, tortoises and lizards at home and he spent the summers from 1937 to 1940 in some friend's home. The Bavarian custom and costume he saw at this period would inspire him the "Geggolori." He read all the "Dr. Dolittle" books and was fascinated by this world. Edgar's works that museums and galleries possessed were confiscated by Nazi's "Anti Decadent Arts" policy. Luisä makes ends meet by obtaining the medical exercices and massage licence. |
| | | The World War II begins. Life standard was worsened. Edgar made ends meet thanks to the few clients. His works got rid of the war due to the State Museum director's dicision to evacuate them as "important ones." Michael sees the "Wax-figure-like" Hitler with Edgar. Edgar painted "Four Vices" on an old wardrobe and gave it to Michael as a present. |
| | | Michael enters the Maximilian Gymnasium. In February Edgar was called up to the antiaircraft artillery. |
| | | Michael was suspended at the first grade on the Gymnasium and thought of suicide near the Isar river. |
| | | Michael enjoys riding a horse thanks to the permission to do so instead of entering Hitler Jugend. His teacher who worked also for a circus gave him tight lessons. |
| | | Raids in Munich city became harsher and he fled to the Garmisch where he was born. He studied at Klamer House and begins making poems after being motivated by his good school friend Bokarius. He saw a raid in July when he visited his uncle in Hamburg. |
| | | Their residence at Kaulbach Street was raided and Edgar's more than 800 works varnished. During 7 concentrated raids as many as 130,000 bombs burst out. |
| | | His friends were called up to the army. After only oneday training they were sent to the front with helmet and guns and three died on the very first day. Michael, however, teared it out when he received it and fled, by walking as long as 80 kms all the night, to Burach near Munich where his mother. He contacted an anti-Nazi organization "Bavarian Free Front" and ran to and fro as a messenger in the town that suffered raids. Edgar came back to home after captured by Americans and lived in an apartment offered by Richard Schmidt at Leopold street. Michael came to know "Christian Community" that was based on Steiner's philosophy. |
| | | Gymnasium classes begin. He went to Steiner's Goetheanum many times. He fell in love with a three-year-older girl but her parents sent him to a Steiner school only to break their good relation down. The facts at concentration camps during the War were disclosed step by step. |
| | | Michael enters the Steiner school in Stuttgart on April 15 and lives at Kroppstock. He was absorbed by the theater and founded "the Attic Theater" with his friends at an attic of an American House. He translated Cocteau's "Orfet" and performed it, beside writing a virgin play "The Time Comes" dedicated to Hiroshima. |
| | | He bought a guitar in July with the forty marks he gained by the monetary reform. He managed to enter Otto Farkenberg Theatral School in Munich. Fortunately he got 200-marks-per-month scholarship for two years when he said he wanted to be an actor "because my family's economy didn't allow me to study how to write plays." |
| | | He hears, for the first time and during the jazz cantata performance "Apocalypsis", the voice of Ingeborg Hoffmann who would be his wife. He came to know Brecht's theatral ideas when he encountered some obstacles for the stage. Edgar was permitted to show his works on an exhibition and became the president of "Munich Artistic House Museum," which robbed him of the time for painting. |
| | | Michael was graduated from the school in March. He was categorized as "best for romantic lover," but he had to wait until September when he got an employment. He plays at a theater in Lensburg for only one season with roles that were irrelevent to his title. He wrote the second play "Sultan's Second Power." Edgar knew Lotte Schleger who studied art and who would be his lover. |
| | | His contract in Lensburg went out and he went back to Munich. He bought some whisky and cognac with the little money that were left to him and invited some play reviewers to Edgar's atelier to recite them his plays without receiving a good repercussion. On the New Year's Eve Party he and Ingeborg came to know each other. |
| | | He got some little income thanks to Ingeborg who introduced him some cabarets in Munich. |
| | | Edgar began to live with Lotte Schleger who was almost of the same age as his son. Desperate, Luisä chopped her pictures and tried to kill herself. Michael had his mother draw so that she can feel consoled, and maintained her with his little income. After Luisä recovered so much she could have her own exhibition. Michael goes to San Andrea, Italy, for the coverage. |
| | | Michael was in charge of movie review radio program at Bavaria Broadcasting Station thanks to Ingeborg's aid. He saw some excellent Japanese movies (Kurosawa, for example) that were eye-opener to him. |
| | | Michael finishes the play "the Ugly" after studying Storindobery's work. |
| | | Reconciliation with his father. They spent many nights talking of literature and arts without having a sleep. |
| | | A friend of him, who was a graphic designer, suggested him to make a children's book together when Michael was giving up to be a writer after Brecht's theory on theater desperated him. |
| | | His work"Jim-Knopf" amounts to 500-page and finished in ten months. He sent the manuscript to the publishers to be refused. |
| | | He was fascinated by Lafcadio Hahn's mistery tales and wrote a radio drama based on "Botan Toro," which would be rejected. |
| | | Michael got the acceptance for publication from Tienemanns two years after he finished the work. |
| | | He was informed of having received the German Children Literature Award by his "Jim Knopf" when he was suited of not having paid the rent for 7 months. After receiving the award he went many places for recital and his life came to be stable thanks to the literary success. And He moved to an apartment at Hoelzok. |
| | | Moved to an apartment in Einmüller 13. |
| | | Concentrated on writing. Began doing "The Succession Game" |
| | | Married to Ingeborg Hoffmann in Rome. |
| | | Edgar dies on Dec. 27 by the second heart attack at 64. |
| | | "The Succession Game" finished. Hegot some ideas for "Momo" when the West German Broadcasting Station asked him to do so, but this idea was rejected because it was too "critical." |
| | | He got a severe backlash from newspapers and magazines when "The Succession Game" was first given in Frankfurt by a director who didn't understand the contents at all. |
| | | Moved to a former-court building in Falei village(30 kms south from Munich) after reforming it into a house. |
| | | Moved to Genzano, near Rome. Decided to accomplish "Momo." |
| | | "Momo" was completed. Tienemanns' president hesitated to publish it but in effect it was accepted thanks to his son. He drew some pictures for his own book. |
| | | Dies Luisä Ende on June 25 at 81 years. |
| | | "Momo" got the German Adolescents' Literature Award. |
| | | Michael writes an opera-script "Momo and Time-thieves" for the composer Mark Lotard. |
| | | "Circus Acrobat's Märchen" was completed. The Japanese version was published earlier in Japan than the original version in West Germany. |
| | | Michael visits Japan and stayed for two weeks. He saw noh and kabuki, visited the Japanese Archery Gym, talked with a old zen priest, which will give him some inspiration and that influenced him very much. Mariko Sato accompanied him during his trip. |
| | | "The Neverending Story" was completed and became a big hit in Fall. |
| | | "The Neverending Story" and "Momo" became bestsellers. Received many literary awards, he was asked of many interviews and recitals. He was annoyed of this trouble and suffers physical and mental trauma. |
| | | In the end of October "The Neverending Story" wins Janusch-Kortschack Award and Michael visits Warsaw for the ceremony. The money he received as the prize was donated to Warsaw's children institute. What pleased him most is the motive for this award in tribute to a Polish educator who gave up escaping for the children that suffered Nazi's persuasion. |
| | | Michael signed for the contract without noticing producers' will over the movie version of "The Neverending Story." Michael rushed to Munich's shot studio when he knew that director and play he wrote were replaced, but he was rejected to enter the room. |
| | | "The Mirror in the Mirror", for which Michael had worked for more than ten years, was accomplished with some new stories. |
| | | "The Neverending Story" movie was released despite Michael's claim to stop. Ende suited for movie producers and demanded to delete his name as author because the movie is too different than the original one. |
| | | Michael loses the suit. In February the opera "Goggolori", written in Bavarian dialect, was given at Gertner Theater. Ingeborg died on March 27 due to lung cancer at 64. In June Michael went back from Italy where he'd lived for 14 years to Munich and on July 22 he talked with Michiko Koyasu(a Japanese germanist who studies his works). |
| | | The movie version of "Momo" was accomplished. In August he visits Japan to attend the IBBY congress in Tokyo. On December 16 dies Helmut Ende(his uncle) at 84. |
| | | On November 24 Edgar Ende Exhibition took place at Lembach Museum, Munich. |
| | | On January 16 "Snark ?" was first given at the Prinzregenten Theater. At the same time "Ende Hiller Exhibition" took place at Gertner Theater. |
| | | Michael visits Japan from March to April for the "Ende Family Exhibition." In September he was married to Mariko Sato. |
| | | In March "Einstein Roman"(an NHK-TV special program) was shot and in july he stays in Madrid as a summer-school instructor. |
| | | "Einstein Roman" shoot(again). In August opens the Shinano-machi Kurohime Fables Museum which has a room for Michael Ende exhibition room. |
| | | In March an esophagus inflammation was detected on the checkup. He visits Japan from October to November to celebrate "Momo"'s million sell, which would be his last visit to this country. He also visited the Kurohime Museum during this stay. |
| | | In June a stomach ulcer was detected at Urm University Hospital. He stayed in medical treatment in Bat Tölz |
| | | In June cancer cells were discovered. He was operated at Munich Univ. Hospital where he would spend two weeks. After that he moved to a Catholic hospital Josephism where he stayed another two weeks. In August anti-cancer treatment began. |
| | | In January the treatment ended. As a side effect he suffered from eczema and entered a hospital to cure it. In April a doctor told him that his cancer won't be healed out. In May he moved to Filder Hospital near Stuttgard to do anthoroposophical treatments but in the end of July he became unable to eat. On August 28 at 19:10 on European Summer time(17:10 at GMT) Michael passed away at 65. On September 1st he was buried to Cemetery Waldfriedhof München, Munich city to the final chorus of Goggolori that said "Life is short and before long death will come, but even so life is Heaven's grace." On November 12 a memorial ceremony took place at Gertner Theater. |
Peter Bokarius (1929-) Good friend of Ende since 1943.He works as a writer and music reviewer on top of his professionas journalist.
Edgar Ende (1901-1965) Paintor and Michael's father.He painted many surrealistic-like(but not surrealistic itselfas Michael defines) works based on his creation called "Sketchin a dark room." During the World War II his activities wereforbidden as "decadence" by Nazi.
Luisä Ende (1892-1973) Former family name:Bartolomae.She was married to nine-years-younger Edgar in 1928 when she alsogave birth to Michael. After divorcing she began to paint by herson's advice. at more than 60 years old Her stile is naive andfantastic, and some exhibition were held. A little case she designedfor Michael is shown in Kurohime Fables Museum, Japan.
Rudolf-Steiner (1861-1925) Founder of the Anthroposophy.Born in Austria-Hungary, he established the Anthroposophy by combiningPlato's, Aristotle's, Goethe's and his own philosophies. He foundedthe Anthroposophy Institute in Dornach, Switzerland and engagedon the education, the medecine, the agriculture, arts and sociology.This association has a branch office also in Japan which engagedin some activities.
Goetheanum The building created by Goethe's meritand his world view in tribute to the anthroposophers. Originallycalled as "Johannes Architecture," the monument in Dornach,Switzerland, is composed of two vaults that are integrated eachother to show the figure of Steiner's philosophy.
CemeteryWaldfriedhof Muchen Tenminutes' walk from Holriegelskreuth in U6 line, Munich. Michael'stumb number is Old Part Field 212 - Waldgrab Nr. 3 and is madeof bronze. This information was obtained from the Munich_Tourist_Office.