Munich and a famous bee from Schleissheim Palace
In the municipality of Oberschleißheim, Waldemar Bonsels created Maya the Bee.
An excursion into the lush greenery of Schleissheim Palace Park is a must for every Munich vacationer and visitor to Bavaria (ENGLISH, ITALIANO, FRANÇAIS, DEUTSCH)
Schleissheim - Munich. A little over 100 years ago, a young man sat under a linden tree in the Oberschleißheim Forest. Bees buzzed around him on the blossoms of the wildflower meadow. Beetles crawled on the tree trunk, and a grasshopper—a slender green one with very long legs—hopped from a nearby branch. The aspiring writer became absorbed in observing nature, becoming one with the trees, the meadows, and the bees. He picked up his fountain pen and began to write: “The older bee who helped little Maya the Bee when she awoke and emerged from her cell was named Cassandra and was highly respected in the hive. Those were very exciting days because a revolt had broken out in the bee colony that the queen could not suppress…” (Cf. Waldemar Bonsels, “The Adventures of Maya the Bee,” 3rd edition (1912), page 4).
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| Schleißheim Old and New Palace - Photo: Helga Waess (Press Photo Archive) |
And if you stroll through the lush greenery of the palace park and grounds today,
observing the cygnets or the colorful flowerbeds, it's easy to be transported back to the time of the writer Waldemar Bonsels.
With this fantastic world of insects, he became the voice of nature.
He gave a unique story to a small, industrious bee, which a few years later first flew into the hands of a publisher's editor and thus into the world of books and their readers. She and her friends from the meadow and the tree were given a literary voice.
In 1912, the first volume, "Maya the Bee and Her Adventures," was published by Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt in Stuttgart and Berlin.
"Maya the Bee and Her Adventures"
A bestseller was born with the very first edition.
For decades, this little bee has delighted generations of children, parents, and grandparents. Her adventures have been translated into 40 languages.
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| Flowers in Schleißheim Palace Park, Photo: Helga Waess (Press Photo Archive) |
Author Waldemar Bonsels (1880-1952)
... lived for just two years with his fellow writer Bernd Isemann in a villa at Schleißheim Palace. It was a very fruitful friendship artistically. At the same time, Isemann was working on "Nala and Re," a novel about an ant's friendship.
Thus, Schleißheim is the birthplace of a work that has graced countless children's rooms around the world and, after the launch of the animated series in the 1970s and the catchy tune sung by Karel Gott, once again became a bestseller.
Over 100 years after the publication of the first Maya the Bee book,
which is now highly sought after by collectors of first editions of children's books and traded on the antiquarian market (first edition: 3,000 copies).
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| Beer garden in front of Schleißheim Palace near Munich, photo: |
