Writer and illustrator Janosch is dead

The writer and illustrator Janosch is dead. He died on Tuesday at the age of 95 in Tenerife, as his Tübingen publisher Bernhard Feil announced to the dpa news agency. With lovingly illustrated books such as “Oh, how beautiful is Panama,” the artist has delighted children all over the world since the 1970s.

Janosch, whose real name was Horst Eckert, was born in 1931 in Hindenburg, Upper Silesia, now Zabrze in Poland. After the war the family came to West Germany. After working in the textile industry and abandoning his art studies, he worked as a freelance artist and writer. Janosch had lived in seclusion on Tenerife since the 1980s.

Janosch had his big breakthrough in 1978 with the children's book “Oh, how beautiful is Panama” about tigers and bears. According to Beltz Publishing, the book sold more than two million copies worldwide. Janosch also created the Tiger Duck and wrote more than 150 books for children and adults; his works have been translated into more than 40 languages. In 1993 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for his artistic work.