Lottie and Lisa


Lottie and Lisa is a 1949 novel by Erich Kästner, about twin girls separated at birth who meet at summer camp.
The book originally started out during World War II as an aborted movie scenario. In 1942, when for a brief time Kästner was allowed by the Nazi authorities to work as a screenwriter, he proposed it to Josef von Báky, under the name “The Great Secret”, but before he could proceed the Nazis once again forbade him to work.
After the war, Kästner worked the idea into the highly successful book. Subsequently, it has been adapted into film many times, most notably
Disney's 1961 movie The Parent Trap starring Hayley Mills, the subsequent film series, and their various translations.

Plot summary

Two nine-year-old girls, Lisa Palfy from Vienna, and respectful shy Lottie Horn from Munich meet in a summer camp in Bohrlaken on Lake Bohren, where it is discovered that they are identical twins whose parents divorced, each keeping one of the girls.
The girls decide to trade places at the end of the summer so that Lottie will have a chance to get to know her father and Lisa will get to meet her mother. While many adults are surprised at the changes in each of the girls after they return from camp, no one suspects that the girls are not who they claim to be.
When Lottie finds that her father is planning to remarry, she becomes very ill and stops writing to her sister in Munich. Meanwhile, Lottie's mother comes across a picture of the two girls at summer camp, and Lisa tells her the entire story. The girls' mother calls her former husband in Vienna to tell him what has happened and to find out why Lottie has stopped writing. When she hears that her daughter is ill, she and Lisa immediately travel to Vienna. At the daughters' request, the parents are reunited.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The story was adapted as: