Father and Son Reconciled
In 1956 Edgar and Michael Ende began to overcome their differences. Michael Ende had always had a good and trusting relationship with his father, and both men were relieved by the rapprochement. Michael was convinced that he needed to put things right between them, so he supported and encouraged his father in everything he did.
Father and son spent a great deal of time together, and would stay up all night discussing the parallels and divergences between writing and visual art. They shared ideas and subject-matter, trying to express them in their respective media. Michael Ende wrote poetry in which he attempted to find words for the motifs in his father’s sketches and paintings. ‘I was trying to use words to convey what he expressed in his artwork,’ he explained in answer to a question about the relationship between his own work and that of his father.