People: Olchi creator Dietl – Krötig and cool for the 70th birthday

People
Olchi creator Dietl – Krötig and cool for his 70th birthday

The children’s book author and illustrator Erhard Dietl is the author of the “Olchis” books. photo

© Peter Kneffel/dpa

The 70th birthday – a turning point for many, even if it is ultimately just a number. The time has now also come for Erhard Dietl. To go with his Olchi books, he’s planning a roaring party.

When it comes to swearing, the Olchis are world class. “Putty fly slime” or “lousy bug fart” are just a few of the insults that the dirt-loving beings throw at each other more or less friendly. The Munich author and illustrator Erhard Dietl came up with the stories around 30 years ago. And – “at the bone fart” – on Monday (May 22nd) he will be 70 years old.

Children love Dietl’s stories about the funny creatures that live in the garbage, like to dig in the dirt and have lots of “toady” adventures, as they call it. A mixture of carefreeness, cheekiness and joie de vivre runs through the books, with echoes of the Regensburg native’s own childhood, who above all remembers a feeling of freedom. “Do your homework superficially after school, then get out. I spent afternoons out with my friends and nobody took care of us. Our parents trusted us and certainly had other problems,” he told the German Press Agency.

Looking back is not entirely carefree

But Dietl’s childhood was not entirely carefree. “My father was a strict, unhappy and ultimately unhappy father,” he says. He gives insights in the recently published autobiography “A father like mine”, an exciting and very moving read, sometimes also with very humorous experiences.

In it, Dietl tells of a man who worked as a journalist, even spied for the GDR, was educated, generous and outgoing, but on the other hand quickly got angry and sometimes even gave out beatings. “In vain my sister and I tried to please him. In vain we waited for a sign of affection, a loving gesture or kind words,” he writes. “But there were also the nice moments when my father was in a good mood, then I was happy to tell him a joke that I had memorized especially for him.”

In the midst of this difficult and ambivalent relationship, Dietl created his own world. He wrote lyrics, drew and made music. And he praises the boredom he used to feel without cell phones and television. “If you sit in a tree for two hours, maybe it gets boring then. Then you just think of something,” he says. “We spent long afternoons at the Baggersee, there was nothing there, not even a sausage stand or an ice cream kiosk. Maybe we had a bottle of soda with us, but otherwise only our bikes and a towel.”

The Olchis take over what children are no longer allowed to do

A paradisiacal condition that many children today no longer know, as Dietl suspects. “Sometimes I have the feeling that the Olchis are doing something that the children are no longer allowed to do. All children are encouraged to be tidy, punctual and dutiful.” Everything that the Olchis are not. The children thank him – with letters, which sometimes also include drawings that get a place of honor. “I hang the pictures on my wall, where they hang for a while before they go into a folder. I keep everything, every child’s letter and every drawing.”

For his birthday, Dietl is planning “a big party,” even if the number at 70 is terrible. But he also sees advantages: he may have become a little calmer and happier. The prospect of more milestone birthdays doesn’t scare him either. “If you’re lucky, you get that old. Then you have to make sure that you’re still a cool old man. That would be my role model: the man is 80, but look how he’s still coming along!”

dpa

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