Editing Michael Ende (section)

==Personal life==
On New Year's Eve 1952, Michael Ende met the actress [[Ingeborg Hoffmann]] during a party with friends. According to Ende, he was standing at an ivy-covered counter serving as barman, when Hoffmann strode towards him, looking "flame-haired, fiery and chic". She declaimed: "Leaning up against the ivy-covered wall / Of this old terrace"; "[[Eduard Mörike|Mörike]]", Ende said instantly, recognizing the quotation. Hoffmann, eight years his senior, made a big impression on Ende. She in turn was intrigued by his literary cultivation and artistic inclinations.<ref name="ingeborg-hoffmann">{{Cite web|url=http://www.michaelende.de/en/author/biography/ingeborg-hoffmann|title=Ingeborg Hoffmann|date=17 March 2011}}</ref> They began a relationship that led to their marriage in 1964 in Rome, Italy, and ended with Ingeborg Hoffmann's sudden and unexpected death in 1985 from a [[pulmonary embolism]]; she was 63 years old.

Hoffmann influenced Ende profoundly. In addition to assisting with getting his first major manuscript published, Hoffmann worked with him on his others, reading them and discussing them with him. Hoffman also influenced Ende's life in other ways. She encouraged Ende to join the [[Humanist Union]], an organization committed to furthering humanist values. Together they campaigned for human rights, protested against [[West German rearmament]], and worked towards [[peace]]. Thanks to Ingeborg Hoffmann's numerous contacts, Michael Ende was introduced to a variety of cabaret groups. In 1955, Therese Angeloff, head of ''Die kleinen Fische'' (the 'Little Fish' cabaret), commissioned Ende to write a piece in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of [[Friedrich Schiller]]'s death. Ende produced a sketch in which a statue of Schiller is being interviewed about current events, and replies with quotes from Schiller's writings. "There was rapturous applause, and commissions arrived from other cabarets too." Michael Ende began to compose sketches, chansons and monologues.<ref name="ingeborg-hoffmann"/>

For fourteen years, Ende and Hoffmann, who were both [[Italophilia|Italophile]]s, lived just outside [[Rome]] in [[Genzano di Roma|Genzano]], in a house they called Casa Liocorno ("The Unicorn"). It was there that Ende wrote most of the novel ''Momo''. Following the death of his wife, Ende sold the home in Genzano and returned to Munich. 

He married a second time in 1989, to Japanese woman Mariko Sato, and they remained married until his death.<ref name=biografie/> He first met Mariko Sato in 1976. Sato had emigrated from Japan to [[West Germany]] in 1974 and was working at the time for the [[International Youth Library]] in [[Munich]]. After their first meeting at the [[Bologna Children's Book Fair]], Sato translated some of Ende's books into [[Japanese language|Japanese]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.planet-schule.de/wissenspool/autoren-erzaehlen/inhalt/hintergrund/michael-ende.html|title = Planet-schule.de|date = 20 February 2008}}</ref> and helped answer his questions about [[Japanese culture]]. From 1977 to 1980 Michael Ende and Mariko Sato worked together to produce a translation into German of ten fairy tales by Japanese writer [[Kenji Miyazawa]]. The German text was never published, but their working partnership turned into a friendship. Mariko Sato accompanied him on a number of trips to Japan. The first trip took place in 1977 and included visits to [[Tokyo]] and [[Kyoto]]. For the first time Ende was able to experience [[Kabuki]] and [[Noh theatre]], and was greatly impressed by traditional Japanese drama. Michael Ende had no children.