Children's author Janosch, creator of the Tigerente, dies aged 95 on Tenerife

Death announced

Children's author and illustrator Janosch died on Tuesday, 3 November, aged 95, on the Spanish island of Tenerife. His Tübingen publisher Bernhard Feil told the German Press Agency dpa, speaking on behalf of the artist's wife. The news spread across German-speaking media the following morning, with reports describing him as known above all for his unconventional, inventive and honest books for children and young people.

A childhood that shaped the stories

Janosch was born in 1931 as Horst Eckert and spent much of his childhood in Upper Silesia, in what is now Poland. Reports describe that period as marked by poverty, violence and his father's alcoholism. His children's stories, by contrast, are funny, anarchic and often a little wistful, and their characters resist oppression and injustice. In adult works such as the novel Cholonek oder der liebe Gott aus Lehm he returned to that hard upbringing, and he once admitted to the Süddeutsche Zeitung that he had long tried to push those memories away with alcohol.

“The first years of my life were the total destruction of my person.”

Books, figures and merchandise

His illustrated books, including Oh, wie schön ist Panama, have delighted children since the 1970s. The works have been translated into 40 languages, and their total print run is in the millions. His figures Tiger, Bär and Tigerente were licensed and appeared on cups, bicycles and pacifiers. He also wrote plays and illustrated the stories of the Marquis de Sade. Since 2013 his alter ego Wondrak has commented on current events in columns for the Zeit magazine, and these were collected in the book Herr Wondrak rettet die Welt, juchhe! A Zeit editor, Tillmann Prüfer, wrote the afterword, observing that Janosch's characters become heroes whom nobody else notices.

Retreat to Tenerife

After the success of his books in the 1980s, Janosch withdrew to Tenerife, where he lived until his death. Reports on the announcement give no further details about his final illness or the funeral arrangements.