Tiger duck creator Janosch is dead: Oh how sad Panama is

dpa | What would Tiger and Bear have done? They looked after Janosch lovingly until the end, cooked him bouillon with carrots from the garden and brought freshly picked wild berries to his bed for dessert. And after his death they would have cried, first in despair, then later consoling themselves with stories and memories. Now the time has come: On Tuesday, the writer and painter with the stage name Janosch died in Tenerife at the age of 95, as his Tübingen publisher Bernhard Feil announced to the dpa on behalf of the artist's wife.

Children and adults love the bold, cheerful works of the artist, who also lived on Lake Ammersee south of Munich for several years. He wrote more than 150 books, some of which are around 300 works. They have been translated into around 40 languages ​​and the total circulation is in the millions.

The beginnings were difficult for the writer and illustrator, whose real name was Horst Eckert. The art academy in Munich did not accept him. And his first work “The Story of the Horse Valek” was not a success. But he continued undeterred and created books like “Hannes Strohkopp and the Invisible Indian” and “Lari Fari Mogelzahn”. He wrote plays and novels for adults and illustrated spicy stories by the French nobleman Marquis de Sade.

Janosch's breakthrough came in 1978 with the children's book “Oh, how beautiful is Panama”. Tigers, bears and tiger ducks became stars and soon adorned products such as pacifiers, socks, lunch boxes and bicycles. The items sold well and boosted book sales. The cute characters had the potential to become mascots from the start and were also cleverly marketed, librarian Christiane Raabe once said. “The success of his Panama books is unthinkable without the associated merchandising machinery.”

Janosch Film & Medien AG took over the copyright. A lucrative hype about licensing rights and marketing, but the successful author made himself rare. "I have nothing to do with it, I don't see it either, it's too far away. That's a different construction site," said Janosch.

But Janosch's success cannot only be explained by clever marketing. The language of his children's stories is strong and straightforward. His imaginative illustrations and stories are bizarre character studies that show the quirky and at the same time lovable nature of the characters.

The world of Tiger and Bear is happy, peaceful, permeated by a quiet melancholy. Paradise is in Panama, smells of bananas and the friends want to find it. At the end of their journey they realize that happiness has always been in their little house by the river. “Everyone has always lived in paradise, they just didn’t know it,” the author once commented.

In contrast, the works for adults provide insights into the harsh childhood of the author, who was born in 1931 in Zabrze, Upper Silesia, in what is now Poland. In “Cholonek or the Good Lord Made of Clay” he describes everyday life in the gray mining settlement, mercilessly but also wistfully.

The father drank to excess, had delusions of grandeur and projected absurd dreams onto his son. And he raged when his hopes were not fulfilled. The mother also took out her frustration on little Horst and beat him - or dressed him up so nicely that he became the laughing stock of the school. An extremely strict Catholic upbringing fueled fears of sin and purgatory, as well as later “torture” in the Hitler Youth.

“The first years of my life were the total destruction of myself,” Janosch once told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Then in 1946 a new beginning: in the turmoil of the post-war period, the family moved to Oldenburg. "My own mood was one of adventure. I really enjoyed the chaotic time; anything was better than living as a Catholic in Nazi Germany with a drunk father," Angela Bajorek quotes him in her biography "Those who need almost nothing have everything."

Janosch's children's books are a counter-proposal to his own past, which the artist later tried to repress by drugging himself with alcohol. He created his own paradise on paper. Colorful and naive, with bizarre creatures who stand up for each other and defend themselves against injustice and authorities.

Nevertheless, his characters are not virtuous. In the Christmas story “The Old Man and the Bear,” for example, pious churchgoers carelessly pass by those in need. Janosch is convinced that it doesn't take much to make someone happy. His characters indulge in simple pleasures: wild berry compote with honey, spring trout with almond seed sauce or mushrooms that you have picked yourself.

Janosch found his private paradise decades ago on Tenerife, where he lived with his wife Ines. His favorite place: “Always a hammock,” he confided to his biographer. There he lived a simple life, as he told the German Press Agency on his 85th birthday on March 11, 2016, "with food, and I drink this wine. And I plant potatoes in the garden, for example." His greatest wish at the time: "That I could sit here like this forever and that the flood only comes when I'm completely gone. So AFTER my ascension to heaven."