illustrator
“Unmistakable imagery”: Wolf Erlbruch died
Wolf Erlbruch died at the age of 74. photo
© Francoise Saur/Peter Hammer Verlag/dpa
He illustrated books by Goethe and Rafik Schami. Wolf Erlbruch is remembered above all for the illustrations for a children’s book in which a mole gets something on its head.
The illustrator and children’s book author Wolf Erlbruch died in Wuppertal at the age of 74. This was announced by Carl Hanser Verlag in Munich, citing the family.
Erlbruch became famous through his illustration of the children’s book “The little mole who wanted to know who hit his head”. The bestseller deals with the excrements of various animals.
The Hanser Verlag praised Erlbruch as an “artist with an unmistakable visual language”. To date, he has published around 30 books. In the 2021/22 season, the classic Mole was performed in Wuppertal as an opera suitable for children.
Erlbruch has been awarded the German Youth Literature Prize several times. He received the Hans Christian Andersen Prize in 2006. In 2017 he received the renowned Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize, which the Swedish government established in honor of the children’s book author of the same name.
Working at several universities
Erlbruch was born in Wuppertal in 1948 and lived there until his death on December 11th. He taught at several universities in the region: from 2009 to 2011 he was a professor of illustration at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, before that at the University of Wuppertal and at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences.
Erlbruch is also known for his illustrations for “Das Hexeneinmaleins” based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and “Duck, Death and Tulip”. He also illustrated books based on texts by Rafik Schami (“That’s Not a Parrot”), Mirjam Pressler and Yaakov Shabtai, and James Joyce.