Creativity and biography of Otfried Preusler. German children's writer

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Otfried Preusler, whose biography is very interesting and informative, was not born in Germany at all, as many people think, but in the Czech Republic. The future great storyteller was born on October 20, 1923 in the city of Reichenberg, which is now called Liberec. The writer died on February 18, 2013 at the age of 89.

Childhood

The future writer from an early age was interested in the history of his native land, the love for which his father instilled in him. Otfried Preusler's father collected local stories, legends and fairy tales, in order to later retell them to his son. The parents of the future writer were ordinary school teachers. Despite this, they owned fabulous we alth - a huge home library, in which little Otfried Preusler was very fond of spending time. Books became his passion, he eagerly read a variety of publications: from good children's fairy tales to serious impressive works. Otfried was very fond of traveling with his father, who told him many interesting stories. Basically all of themwere on a mystical theme and with the participation of fairy-tale creatures: water, elves, goblin … Naturally, this was reflected in the future of the writer's work: magical creatures are involved in most of his works.

War years

But all good things come to an end sooner or later. So it happened with the grown-up Otfried Preusler. As soon as he managed to enter the University of Prague, the Second World War began. He was immediately called to the front, despite his youth and inexperience. The future writer served on the Eastern Front. He began his military career as an ordinary private, and at the end of the war rose to the rank of lieutenant.

In 1944, Otfried Preusler was captured by Soviet soldiers. He was in captivity until 1949, for 5 years. He was sent to Soviet camps, which were located on the territory of the Tatar Republic. There, the future writer had to try on a variety of professions: a masons, a builder, a worker … In captivity, he learned to understand Russian well and spoke Russian himself. This time did not pass without a trace for Otfried Preusler: he keeps his sad memories of imprisonment for a long time, and then writes his memoirs, where he describes in detail everything that happened to him during the captivity.

Life first

After being released from prison, the writer returns to his native country. As soon as he arrived in Germany, it was very difficult for him: after all, he had no family, no home, no job. It was necessary to somehow solve problems, and Otfried again enters the university, where he receiveseducation and continues the teaching dynasty that his parents started by becoming a school teacher. Otfried Preusler loved children very much, dedicated his heart and the best years of his life to them. And he chose the profession of a primary school teacher as the best in the world, as he later admitted to people.

Love for what you do

His little students were everything to him: light, air, the meaning of life. Otfried played with them, took them on excursions around his native city and beyond. But most of all, Preusler liked to tell different funny stories to naughty people: funny and not very funny, scary and funny, carefree and serious at the same time. The Little Ghost had not yet been written, but Otfried was already telling the schoolchildren about him and his adventures. The children listened to their teacher, absorbing his stories like a sponge. The writer himself, coming home, wrote down what he told the children during the day in a special notebook. Later, from these recordings, “Little Baba Yaga”, “Little Waterman”, “Krabat, or Legends of the Old Mill”, so dearly beloved by us, were born. He created other works that have received no less distribution.

Family life of Otfried Preusler

In parallel with the problem of employment, the question arose of creating a family. Otfried had no relatives. The writer got married, and then found his relatives, however, with great difficulty, which was subsequently generously rewarded.

The family had to be fed somehow, the salary of a school teacher was barely enough for a piece of bread and a glass of water. I had to think about additionalearnings. And then the writer recalls the treasured notebook, hidden in his house, in which children's stories were recorded. He decides to try his luck and take them to a publisher. And also begins to compose more and more new works.

The beginning of literary activity

The book "Little Merman", which was published in 1956, was a great success. Luck inspired the writer, especially since in the same year he receives a writer's award for the best debut. Inspired by good luck, Otfried continues his work, and soon a no less kind and magical work called “Little Baba Yaga” comes out from under his pen.

The story of this book is very interesting. Once the writer was putting his little daughters to bed. They did not want to go to bed, were capricious and misbehaved. When the infuriated father asked what the matter was, the little ones complained to him that they were very afraid of the evil and terrible Baba Yaga, who would come after them while they were sleeping and take them away with her. Dad listened carefully to the daughters, and then said that there was absolutely nothing to be afraid of. And when the girls unanimously asked “Why?!”, he told them an amazing story about Little Baba Yaga, who at first was harmful, and then became kind and good. So good that it deprived all witches of the opportunity to conjure, and remained the only Baba Yaga in the world who never commits evil deeds. The calmed little ones fell asleep, and the bedtime story of Otfried Preusler grew into a serious children's work that everyone knowsand loves the whole world.

The second successful work of the writer is "Krabat, or Legends of the Old Mill". It was written on the basis of the legends of the Western Slavs - Serbs living in the east of Germany, on the banks of the Spree River. It was this book that brought real fame to the author, his works began to be published in huge editions and sold out everywhere both in Germany and around the world.

Krabat was followed by Little Ghost, Herbe Big Hat, Robber Hotzenplotz and others.

Features of Otfried's fairy tales

Otfried Preusler wrote non-standard works, unusual for the German reader. Usually German fairy tales abounded with negative characters who fully justified their "villainous" title: they robbed houses, set fires, executed people. On the example of the notorious Grimm brothers, one can judge what was the children's literature in Germany. And if these writers' negative characters were the most inveterate villains, then Preusler's vice versa - negative images later turn out to be very positive.

It is very touching to watch how one of the characters that Otfried Preusler invented, Little Baba Yaga, behaves. She knows that she is evil, and is not shy about it, but on the contrary: she really likes to play pranks. Sometimes the raven Abrajas even restrains her, for example, he persuades her not to spit on hat hunters. But the 127-year-old girl really wants to get to Walpurgisnight is a holiday of all witches and evil spirits, that she makes a firm decision to become a good witch, as the main sorceress bequeathed to her. And when Little Baba Yaga finds out that, it turns out, “being a good witch” meant doing as many evil deeds as possible, then the good and bright in her finally outweigh the bad. And Little Baba Yaga does, perhaps, the last negative act in her life - deprives all witches of the opportunity to conjure, remaining the only Baba Yaga in the world.

Based on this, we can conclude that the tales of Otfried Preusler teach the little reader kindness and honesty, clearly show how bad it is to do bad things. This lays the foundation for a future comprehensively developed and successful personality, a good person who is able to distinguish good from evil.

General recognition

The writer has a lot of awards - about a few dozen. In addition, films were made based on his works, theaters staged performances based on the works of Preusler. Otfried received good fees for his works. In total, the writer published 32 books that were translated into 55 languages of the world, including Russian, and the circulation of all his works in total is about 55 million copies.

Conclusion

Otfried Preusler's books need to be read and re-read. You should start acquaintance with them in childhood, and continue throughout your life, because in his works there is that very “reasonable, kind, eternal” that helps a child and an adult not to stray from the rightway.