Erich Kästner (1899-1974) was a "singer of the little man and the poet of the little freedoms” (Marcel Reich-Ranicki). With his witty and reflective verses that appear so simple, he guaranteed the continuity of the literary cabaret of the twenties into the postwar years. Following his first performances with his "utilitarian poetry” during the post-inflationary era of "new objectivity” prior to 1933 in Berlin cabarets such as Küka, the Tingel Tangel, Cabaret of the Comedians (Kabarett der Komiker) and Werner Finck’s Catacombs (Die Katakombe), he was only able to publish during the Third Reich with a special authorization or under a pseudonym. After the war, the pessimistic enlightener continued work of the Berlin era, now in Munich. With his melancholy and poetic songs, scenes, and sketches for the Showbooth (Schaubude) and Little Freedom (Kleine Freiheit), he influenced the cabaret of the years immediately following war until the foundation of two German states. His ideal of the cabaret as a moral and philosophical institution and a lyrical theater of the times anticipated the political and satirical ensemble cabarets of the fifties. "My writing is directed against the indolence of the heart and the stubbornness of the mind.” (Erich Kästner)