Waldemar Bonsels

• Name — Waldemar Bonsels • Born — 21 February 1880 • Birthplace — Ahrensburg German Empire • Died — 31 July 1952 21 February 1880 • Place of death — Ambach, Münsing West Germany • Occupation — Writer • Years Active — 1912–1952

Waldemar Bonsels was born in Ahrensburg on 21 February 1880. Bonsels's most famous work is the children's book The Adventures of Maya the Bee (Die Biene Maja und ihre Abenteuer) from 1912. This work served the basis for a Japanese animated television series Maya the Honey Bee in the mid-1970s, as well as well as multiple other works for screen or stage. Heaven Folk from 1915 is a sequel with a more philosophical focus, describing in mystical terms the unity of all creation and its relationship to God. Bonsels wrote a number of novels and shorter stories dealing with love as Eros and the higher level of divine love in the spirit of romanticism (Eros und die Evangelien, Menschenwege, Narren und Helden, etc.), and about the relationship between man and nature in a simple life unchanged by modern civilisation (Anjekind, etc.). Bonsels also wrote a historical novel about the time of Jesus (Der Grieche Dositos). He travelled extensively in Europe and Asia, which resulted in the book Indienfahrt (Voyage in India). Bonsels was an outspoken antisemite and expressed his approval of Nazi politics against Jews in 1933, calling the Jew "a deadly enemy" who was "poisoning the culture" in an article (NSDAP und Judentum) which was widely published. He died in Ambach, Münsing.

• Die Winde • Angelika • Scholander • Die Stadt am Strom • Asja

• NSDAP und Judentum (1933)