Children’s book author Janosch dies at 95

Janosch, whose given name was Horst Eckert, was born on March 11, 1931, in Zabrze, an Upper Silesian mining town (now in Poland). His childhood was marked by poverty, violence, and his father’s alcoholism. The beginning of his artistic career was also characterized by setbacks, including a rejection from the Munich Academy of Fine Arts.

“I wanted to create a kitsch book,” he once explained in a documentary. “There has to be a cuddly bear, and the bear has to go on a journey, and he has to have a friend. And then the women start to cry.”

This seemingly “kitsch” brought him the long-awaited breakthrough with “Oh, How Beautiful is Panama,” which was first published in 1978. According to Beltz-Verlag, the work has sold over two million copies worldwide and has been translated into numerous languages.

Further works such as “Kasper Mütze” and “Lari Fari Mogelzahn” solidified Janosch’s reputation as an empathetic and imaginative author and illustrator for children. His novels for adults are also worth reading. He wrote more than 150 books, with some sources claiming up to 300 works.

His children’s books represent a departure from his own past, which he later sought to suppress. He told his biographer Angela Bajorek, who wrote a biography about him in 2016: “Whoever needs almost nothing has everything.”

In his novels, which are more geared towards adults, he addressed the dark side of his childhood, as in “Cholonek or the Loving God Made of Clay,” in which he describes the gray working-class settlement where he grew up. After World War II, his family fled and settled near Oldenburg. Zabrze remained a place of longing for Janosch, as he noted in “Polski Blues”: “Poland is a land of longing.”

Although his characters became a trademark, Janosch distanced himself from the lucrative licensing business of Janosch Film & Medien AG. “I have nothing to do with it, I don’t see it either, it’s too far away. That’s a different construction site,” he told dpa ten years ago.

Janosch had lived with his wife, Ines, on Tenerife for decades. His favorite place was the hammock. There, he led a simple life, as he told dpa on the occasion of his 85th birthday on March 11, 2016: “With food, and I drink this wine. And I plant potatoes in the garden, for example.” His wish at the time was: “That I can sit here forever and the flood only comes when I’m completely gone. So AFTER my ascension.”,