Otfried Preußler
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Otfried Preußler (or Otfried Preussler) (born October 20, 1923) is a German children's books author. His best-known works are The Robber Hotzenplotz and The Satanic Mill (Krabat).
He was born in Liberec, Czechoslovakia. His forefathers had lived in this area since the 15th century, working in the glass industry. His parents were teachers. After he graduated school in 1942, in the midst of World War II, he was drafted into the German army. Although he survived the military action on the Eastern Front, he was taken prisoner as a 21 year old lieutenant in 1944. He spent the next five years in various POW camps in the Tatar Republic.
After his release in June 1949, he was lucky to find in the Bavarian town of Rosenheim his displaced relatives and his fiancée, Annelies Kind. They celebrated their wedding that same year.
Between 1953 and 1970 he was initially a primary school teacher, then a school principal in Rosenheim. There his talents as a storyteller and illustrator were put to good use, and often the stories he told the children would later be written down and published.
Otfried Preußler currently resides in Haidholzen, near Rosenheim.
[edit] Known works translated into English
- The Robber Hotzenplotz, ISBN 0200712721.
- The Satanic Mill (originally: Krabat), ISBN 0844661961.
- The Little Witch, ISBN 0340167041.
