hans kossatz

my collection of illustrations created by hans kossatz for the radio magazine HOER ZU goes back to the late fifties. still in elementary school I was fascinated by his chaotic drawings that told so many stories and were full of funny hidden gags. so I started to collect them. hans kossatz, 1901 – 1985, was a self taught german freelance illustrator, who worked from the early thirties on for various german magazines and newspapers. after WWII a dog character he created, teckel willi, became very popular.

© hans kossatz / hoer zu magazine

Advertisement

STERNchen 3

© stern

STERNchen 2

in the fifties and sixties the german magazine STERN contained an eight page smaller magazine STERNchen for the younger readers. of course I collected them all, already in these early years I was interested in the illustrations, created by the best in german illustration ( most of them at the beginning of their career ), like LORIOT and BUSCH, LANGE and KOHLSAAT. many years later I destroyed the precious collectors magazines, cutting out the illustrations. they were less heavy during my numerous moves. here now the first part of the collection, in my opinion some amazing pieces of illustration-art in their stylistic variety.

© stern

german illustration 4

during the sixties and seventies I collected as many of the illustrations of DIETER LANGE as I could find. besides the children-stories he illustrated the adult series in the german magazine STERN as well. from the hundreds of cut-outs I selected a few.

© dieter lange / gruner&jahr

german illustration 2

the following are some illustrations from children books I enjoyed when I was a lot younger. I found out more about the illustrator, it is FRITZ BAUMGARTEN, 1883 – 1966. he studied art at the royal academy in dresden and munic. first he made a living designing picture postcards, but soon he became well known as an illustrator of children books. his imagination and the love for detail is impressive, no wonder his over 500 illustrated books were very popular and some still are in new editions.

© schwager & steinlein publisher / fritz baumgarten

STERNchen

DAS STERNCHEN ( little star ) was an added eight pages children magazine inside the bigger-format german weekly magazine STERN, founded 1948 by HENRY NANNEN. the children magazine started in 1953 and lasted until 1961 when it was changed into a doublepage within the bigger STERN. from the very beginning well known german writers and illustrators contributed their art, amongst others ROLAND KOHLSAAT and his series JIMMY DAS GUMMIPFERD ( 1953 – 1977 ) as well as LORIOT with REINHOLD DAS NASHORN ( 1953 – 1970 ). early on my father collected the magazine for me and my brother and bound them at the end of the year into a thick ‘collector’s book’. they were treasures for us and probably they started an interest in illustration and comic strip very early. following I put together a small collection of my favorite covers mostly from the fifties.
this post will be the start of a series about GERMAN ILLUSTRATION. during the last weeks I went through my archives and there are thousands of illustrations from the fifties on. I am sure I am not the only one who is interested in them. so far I haven’t seen any of these treasures anywhere in bookform, what is a shame.

© stern / gruner&jahr