Generations of Children Know and Love Them: Pictures and Stories of Little Jim Knopf and Lukas the Train Driver. But the latest generation of readers, who will buy the novels in the new edition from February 24, will get to know a different, more politically correct version of Michael Ende's masterpiece, Spiegel reports.

For example, children's book publisher Thienemann decided to lighten Jim Knopf's skin color in the cover photo. In the original, the hair and skin of the dark-skinned boy could hardly be distinguished. There is a suspicion that Jim's skin shown as black should be equated with skin stained by Lukas's work. Something like that is irritating these days.

To achieve this, Jim was made to resemble his friend Lukas in a different way: the boy's once pitch-black eyes and barely recognizable nose were redrawn to be rounder and larger, based on Lukas's model. The stylistic connection between the two remains unmistakable.

The N-word will be removed from all books in the series

Textually, the novels have also been modernized. For example, the N-word has been deleted from every volume in the series. Author Michael Ende was “known to be cosmopolitan, respectful and always for children,” according to a statement from Thienemann Verlag. Discriminating a group of children based on their skin color was not Ende's intention.

In general, all of the decisions mentioned were made “against the background of black experiences of racism.” The necessary consent was also obtained from Ende's estate.

More and more classics are being modernized in a politically correct way

There were already similar controversies about Karl May's classic “Winnetou”. Although accusations of cultural appropriation continue to be raised, ZDF recently decided to broadcast the film adaptation of the novels unaltered.