The news came on Wednesday via his publisher in Tübingen: Bernhard Feil, who runs the Neues Kunstmuseum there and has acquired Janosch’s artistic estate, announced on behalf of Janosch’s wife, Ines, that the artist had died on Tuesday in Tenerife. He was 95 years old, and a third generation of children is now growing up with his little tiger, little bear and striped tiger duck on wheels.
On Tenerife, the news may strike a chord with many people even more so than in Germany. Janosch lived there for more than forty years – longer than many Germans who eventually moved to the island. Of course, he was rarely seen. He wanted to live a secluded life and never made any secret of his aversion to the press, public appearances and the hype surrounding him.
Perhaps it has something to do with Panama. In his most famous book, the tiger and the bear set off in search of the land of their dreams. In the end, they arrive home – only they don’t recognise it straight away. Janosch did exactly the opposite and found his Panama quite a long way from home: in Tenerife.
Janosch on Tenerife: life in a hammock
He’d come to the island in 1980 to recover from an illness. Janosch simply stayed on afterwards. He lived with Ines in a modest house in the mountains. Whenever anyone asked him how he spent his days, the hammock usually came up. And with Janosch, you could never be quite sure whether he was pulling your leg or whether it was actually true. We’re guessing it was the latter.
In fact, he loved to wrap his answers up in little stories, leaving his listeners unsure afterwards which parts were made up. There are a number of anecdotes circulating on the island about this often eccentric old German, some of which are no doubt embellished. Some, however, sounded plausible.
What is less well known is that he and his wife also championed nature on the island. To this end, the couple set up the Canarina Foundation in 2021, which is dedicated to nature conservation in the Canary Islands. They never made a fuss about it.
From Zabrze to children’s bedrooms around the world
Janosch was born on 11 March 1931 as Horst Eckert in Hindenburg, Upper Silesia – now Zabrze, which belongs to Poland. He often spoke later about his childhood. According to him, it was not a happy one: little money, a father who drank, and beatings at home. After the war, the family moved to northern Germany. He himself later went to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where things didn’t really go to plan at first.
His first children’s book, *The Story of Valek the Horse*, initially attracted hardly any interest. It was not until 1978 that he achieved great success with *Oh, How Beautiful Panama Is*. After that, one thing led to another: the Tiger Duck, Günter Kastenfrosch, and later Mr Wondrak, who shared his unconventional wisdom with the public in *Zeitmagazin* for many years. There have been well over 150 books, translated into around 40 languages.
What remains of Janosch
Was it strange that someone with such a childhood, of all people, should have written what are perhaps the kindest stories to be found in German children’s literature? Or was it precisely for that reason that he succeeded? In Janosch’s stories, the tiger and the bear look after one another, cook for each other and nurse each other back to health when one is ill. The idea that you don’t need money or a big world for this, but really just a good friend, was perhaps not merely a figment of his imagination, but also Janosch’s firm conviction.
When he turned 95 in March, it was said that he wanted to spend his birthday quietly on Tenerife, without any celebrations, whilst the Neues Kunstmuseum in Tübingen was hosting a major exhibition in his honour. Now Janosch has died there. In the place he had set out for and where he wanted to stay. Why Janosch chose Tenerife of all places as his ‚Panama‘ is perhaps one of those stories of his that can never be fully fathomed. Or perhaps only Ines, who had been his wife since 2013, knows the true story behind it. She had been Janosch’s best friend – the one he always needed by his side – for many years before that.
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