Otfried Preussler (1923 - 2013) was a popular writer of children fantasy books.
Preussler was born in Reichenberg (today Liberec), Czech Republic, where his ancestors had lived since the fifteenth century. In 1942 he was forcefully drafted into the German Army, before completing his studies, and sent to the Eastern Front. In 1944, he was taken prisoner and spent the next five years in several Gulags in the Tatar Republic, where he suffered from typhus and malaria.
After being released in 1949, Preussler found his displaced family and his fianceé, Annelies Kind, in the town of Rosenheim. Otfried and Annelies married that same year, and Otfried spent the next decades working as a school teacher and principal. In 1957, he published his first book, The Little Witch.
Preussler passed away on 2013 in Prien am Chiemsee, Germany.
Several of his books have been adapted to films.
Books written by Otfried Preussler with its own page:
- The Adventures of Strong Vanya (Die Abenteuer des starken Wanja) (1968)
- Krabat/The Satanic Mill (Krabat) (1971)
- The Little Witch (Die kleine Hexe) (1957)
- The Robber Hotzenplotz (Der Räuber Hotzenplotz) (1962)
Tropes found in his works:
- Interspecies Friendship: The Little Water Sprite befriends an old carp and three human kids.
- Underwater Base: In The Little Water Sprite, the titular character's house was built in the deepest side of a dammed river.
- Wicked Witch: Baba Yaga in The Adventures of Strong Vanya is a ruthless, murderous sorceress. The Little Witch's older witches are intentionally evil.
