The storyteller James Krüss was one of the most successful German children's book authors of the post-war period. He was born on May 31, 1926 on the North Sea island of Helgoland.
by Annette Volland
"The lighthouse on the lobster cliffs", "My great-grandfather and I", "Timm Thaler or The sold laughter":James Krüss (1926 - 1997) from Helgoland wrote numerous successful children's and youth books. Krüss spent his childhood and youth on Heligoland. He was born there on May 31, 1926. Along with Michael Ende, Otfried Preußler and Erich Kästner, the storyteller and rhyming artist Krüss was one of the most successful German children's book authors of the post-war period.
Helgoland as a backdrop for fantastic adventures
Krüss' father was an electrician, his grandfather and great-grandfather earned their living as a lobster fisherman on Heligoland. At the age of 16, James Krüss had to leave the island because of the war. He later returned there only as a short-term visitor. But in many of his books, songs, plays, radio plays, films and satires, Helgoland is the backdrop for fantastic adventures and funny ideas.
"On small islands with little space, you have to while away the time, you start telling stories yourself." James Kruss
Training as a teacher in Lüneburg
After the evacuation from the island of Heligoland, the young Krüss begins an educational training course in Lunden in Schleswig-Holstein, in Ratzeburg and Braunschweig, but has to join the Luftwaffe in 1944. The war will be over before he can go there. Krüss initially lived with his parents in Cuxhaven, then studied at the Lüneburg University of Education and passed an exam there. However, he does not work as a teacher, but writes for radio and the press. In Reinbek near Hamburg he founds the magazine "Heligoland", a newsletter for exile Heligolanders. But soon, in 1949, the young man from the far north made a "jump to the south", as he himself notes:He lives near Munich, where he becomes friends with Erich Kästner. He encourages him to write children's books.
Reading in the "Tagesschau" makes him famous
The first major success came with the children's book "The Lighthouse on the Lobster Cliffs", published in 1956.
A recording from the 1970s:Krüss has long since established himself as a successful author of children's books.Before it appears in German, it is already available in Yugoslavia - in Cyrillic script. In Germany, the first book made it onto the shortlist for the German Youth Book Prize. And when Krüss was allowed to read "My Great Grandfather and I" in the "Tagesschau" four years later, he became famous overnight. For this book he was awarded the German Youth Book Prize. In addition to many other prizes in his career, Krüss also received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1968 for his complete works. This international prize for children and literature is also known as the "little Nobel Prize" by those in the know.
"Timm Thaler" and when the good starts to get bad
Krüss is also very productive in other respects:he writes hit texts and radio plays for children, collects folk songs and poems and writes theoretical texts on children's and youth literature.
In addition, the ex-Helgoland traveler likes to travel a lot, for example to Holland, Hungary, Greece, Great Britain, several times to Italy and again and again to Yugoslavia. Krüss visited his home island for the first time in 1961. There he refined a book he had been working on for years:"Timm Thaler oder Das selle Lachen" was published in 1962 and was filmed for television in 1978 with Horst Frank and Thomas Ohrner - it is a huge success. The fantastic story also contains socially critical tones. "My greatest concern is not only to tell the children about good and bad, but also when the good starts to become bad," says Krüss once.
30 years in Gran Canaria
In 1966, at the age of 40, Krüss moved to Gran Canaria with his partner, where he bought a house - again on an island. "JUMP TO THE AFRICAN COAST" is what he wrote in capital letters on his curriculum vitae and after that he is "only for visits in Europe". For example, he celebrates his 50th birthday on Helgoland - and in the GDR in Köpeniker Castle. Because most of his books also appear there, some even first. A heart attack forces the travel-loving author to adopt a quieter lifestyle from 1984 onwards. James Krüss died on August 2, 1997 at the age of 71 in his new home. On September 27, 1997 he was buried at sea off Helgoland. The International Youth Library in Munich receives his literary estate.
Krüss for reading and listening
A small museum on Helgoland in two replica "lobster shacks" in the museum village in front of the North Sea Hall has been reminiscent of the poet since 2007. In one of the booths, visitors can leaf through Krüss books and listen to the author's voice in original radio recordings. There is a special handicraft, painting and reading corner for children. The second house documents what James Krüss' study looked like in his adopted home of Gran Canaria. Letters, postcards, photos and paintings made by the writer are also on display.