History Literature / LottieAndLisa

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* LemonyNarrator: Erich Kästner's narration is lively and personal, often insering snarky asides about the situation or about the characters (Ludwig gets by far the most TakeThat comments towards him) or talk directly to the readers, wondering whether he used the right words or even chastising himself for writing a nonsensical sentence. At one point, before going into the parents' backstory and why they got divorced to begin with, he pauses to deliver an AuthorFilibuster about how wrong it is for parents to try and "shield their children from harm" by refusing to talk to them about certain topics -- instead of just trying to ''explain'' things in ways the kids can understand.

* IdenticalStrangers: The people running the camp first think that Luise and Lotte are examples of this. Mrs. Muther mentions reading about a tailor who looked exactly like King Edward VII, especially since they both had the same kind of beard. The King summoned the tailor to Buckingham Palace and had a talk with him, and at his wish, the tailor had to shave off his beard.

* LemonyNarrator: Erich Kästner's narration is lively and personal, often insering snarky asides about the situation or about the characters (the girls' father gets by far the most TakeThat comments towards him) or talk directly to the readers, wondering whether he used the right words or even chastising himself for writing a nonsensical sentence. At one point, before going into the parents' backstory and why they got divorced to begin with, he pauses to deliver an AuthorFilibuster about how wrong it is for parents to try and "shield their children from harm" by refusing to talk to them about certain topics -- instead of just trying to ''explain'' things in ways the kids can understand.

* HeroicBSOD: Lotte doesn't handle the charade quite as well as Luise does. Not only doesn't she have her sister's natural sass and cheekiness to defend herself with, but her situation is plain more stressful -- not only is her her less understanding and nurturing than her mother, but she also faces the prospect of getting Irene Gerlach as a stepmother -- and she's too smart to fall for the woman's false friendliness, and her attempts at talking to her fail spectacularly. Finally, overwhelmed and feeling powerless, she has an emotional breakdown, develops a fever and ends up sick, apathetic and bedridden. Thankfully she starts to recover when Luise and their mother show up and they don't is over.

* HeroicBSOD: Lotte doesn't handle the TwinSwap quite as well as Luise does. Not only doesn't she have her sister's natural sass and cheekiness to defend herself with, but her situation is plain more stressful -- not only is her her less understanding and nurturing than her mother, but she also faces the prospect of getting Irene Gerlach as a stepmother -- and she's too smart to fall for the woman's false friendliness, and her attempts at talking to her fail spectacularly. Finally, overwhelmed and feeling powerless, she has an emotional breakdown, develops a fever and ends up sick, apathetic and bedridden. Thankfully she starts to recover when Luise and their mother show up and they don't is over.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Ludwig Palfy. He's rather self-centered and often immature, bordering on an InnoocentlyInsensitive ManChild at times (and the LemonyNarrator isn't shy about letting the readers know this!), but he does care very deeply about his daughter(s), and at the end of the day, when he realizes he's done someone wrong, he is ready to admit it and make amends.

* DaddysGirl: Luise.

* JudgmentOfSolomon: PlayedWith. Lotte-as-Luise had a dream where the two sisters' father threatened to saw them in half, while mother begged him to allow her to keep both of them. In the end, they settled for a metaphorical SolomonDivorce (which is what had really happened).

* TwinSwitch: The twins don't switch for fun or mischief but out of a serious fear that they will never get to know their mother and father, respectively, since they were Main/SeparatedAtBirth and only met by coincidence. The switch going unnoticed is facilitated by the parents being distant in case of the father and constantly working in case of the mother. [[spoiler:At the end of the book they delight in the idea of switching at school for fun.]]

* AnimatedAdaptation: It got an anime in 1991 called ''Watashi to Watashi: Futari no Lotte'' (or "I and Myself: The Two Lottes")

* CoordinatedClothes: Lottie brought two dresses of the same kind to camp, and each girl wears one, complete with matching braids, for dinner. They wanted to confuse and amuse other children and their camp supervisors.

* TwinTest: The twins put on identical dresses and wear their hair the same way one day at summer camp. They then challenge the other campers to figure out who is who. No one manages it by looking at them, but since their personalities are very different, one girl has the idea to pull the hair of one of the twins. When this earns her a slap, everyone knows it was wild-tempered Lisa and not the shy Lottie.

Loud, sassy Luise Palffy from Vienna and shy, responsible Lotte Körner from Munich meet in a summer camp for little girls in the Alps. They are shocked to realize that they look completely alike, except for the fact that Luise's hair is curly while Lotte's is braided. Luise doesn't take it well that someone else is walking around 'with her face' and they get off to a rather bad start. However, over time they become friends and learn a lot about each other: They are both being raised by a single parent (Luise by her father and Lotte by her mother), they were both born in the same city, and they will both turn ten on October 14th of this year... They soon figure out that they are actually twins and their parents separated years ago, splitting them up, and agreed to never tell the girls that they had a sister.

* DaddysGirl: Lisa.

* ThinlyVeiledDubCountryChange: In a sense; The Hebrew translation of the book changed Luise's hometown from Munich to Zürich. At the time, Israel had a "Germany Taboo" not unlike the NuclearWeaponsTaboo in Japan today.

* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: The twins look exactly alike, save for their different hairstyles.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: This being a children's book written in the 1940s, it's very sublte, but there are some instances of adult themes being referenced:
** The painter Gabele throws a cloth over the painting he is working on when Lotte-as-Luise comes to visit him because scenes from classical antiquity are not always "appropriate for children". Made hilarious in the 1950 movie as he does hide the painting he is currently working on... only to have several other paintings of naked women around the flat.
** It's mentioned that when the parents were still married, the father often left the mother alone with the twins to compose... and "practise singing" with pretty opera singers. She apparently didn't think much of it and asked for a divorce.

If this all sounds kind of familiar, [[Film/TheParentTrap1961 both]] [[Film/TheParentTrap1998 films]] titled ''The Parent Trap'' were based on it. It has also been adapted as a film under its original title (a TruerToTheText version that retains author Erich Kästner as narrator and uses actual twins), as ''Twice Upon a Time'' and as ''Hibari's Lullaby'' (a Japanese telling).