Emil Tischbein is the main character in the children's novel "Emil and the Detectives" written by Erich Kästner. He is a young boy who lives in a small town in Germany and is traveling to Berlin alone to visit his grandmother. On the train, Emil's money is stolen by a man named "Smoothie", and with the help of a group of local boys he meets in Berlin, he sets out to catch the thief and recover his money. Through the course of the story, Emil learns important lessons about trust and responsibility, and he becomes a leader among the group of boys. The novel was first published in 1929 and is widely considered a classic of children's literature.