20 Euros Erich Kästner

Issued to mark the 125th anniversary of Kästner's birth, this coin belongs to Germany's long-running series honoring figures from German literature and culture. Kästner, born in Dresden in 1899, is best known internationally for Emil und die Detektive, but his sharp satirical poetry of the Weimar period earned him a place on the Nazi book-burning lists of May 1933 — an event he witnessed in person on the Opernplatz in Berlin.

He was one of very few blacklisted authors who chose to remain in Germany throughout the Third Reich, working under pseudonyms for film productions.