R.I.P. Otfried Preußler - books from my childhood

With sadness I read in the news today that the German children's book author Otfried Preußler (sometimes spelled Otfried Preussler) has died. As a child I read most of his books - not only once but many, many times. And I have to admit I still like them!

Otfried Preußler's books have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 55 languages. Some of his best know works are The Robber Hotzenplotz and The Satanic Mill (Krabat).

But why does this qualify as a post on our blog you might wonder? Well. One thing that always stuck with me were the illustrations on the book covers. Put them amongst hundreds of other books and they'll stand out of the crowd. And furthermore they give a bit of an inside in the style of illustration that was used from the 1950s to the 1970s (the years the following books were first published) for children's books.

So here are examples of my favourite books and their cover illustrations:

The little Water-Sprite
Illustration by Winnie Gebhardt-Gayler
first published 1956

The little Witch
Illustration by Winnie Gebhardt-Gayler
first published 1957

The Robber Hotzenplotz
Illustration by Franz Josef Tripp
first published 1962

Further Adventures of the Robber Hotzenplotz
Illustration by Franz Josef Tripp
first published 1969

Final Adventures of the Robber Hotzenplotz
Illustration by Franz Josef Tripp
first published 1973

The little Ghost
Illustration by Franz Josef Tripp
first published 1966

The Satanic Mill (Krabat)
Illustration by Herbert Holzing
first published 1971

R.I.P. Otfried Preußler

[via wikipedia; Thienemann Verlag]