Josef Guggenmos

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Josef Guggenmos with mouse, bronze sculpture by Klaus Walter

Josef Guggenmos (born July 2, 1922 in Irsee ; † September 25, 2003 there ) was a German poet and author of children's books . His best known book is What does the mouse think on Thursday? from 1967.

Life

Josef Guggenmos was born on July 2, 1922 in Irsee in Swabia, the oldest of three children. His father was a nurse in the sanatorium in the former Benedictine monastery Irsee , his mother a seamstress. After elementary school he attended the humanistic grammar school in St. Ottilien am Ammersee as an intern. He was awarded his Abitur in 1942. In 1941 he was called up for military service in the Wehrmacht (the year the Nazi regime began the Russian campaign ). After training as a radio listener , he was stationed in Nikolajew (Ukraine) and in Reval . In 1945 during his marching orders to Oslo (another place for radio defenses) he was taken prisoner by the English for a few weeks at the end of the war in Denmark .

Both on the Black Sea and in Reval he was interested in the language and culture of the country. In Reval he published poems with his superior in the local newspaper.

From autumn 1945 to 1953 he studied German , art history , archeology and Indology with interruptions at the universities of Dillingen , Marburg , Erlangen and Bonn without a degree.

In 1951/52 he spent a year in Finland on Lake Saimaa. He then lived in different places, in Stuttgart , Verden (Aller), Donauwörth , Vienna and Salzburg , where he worked as an editor and translator for various publishers.

In 1959 he married Therese Wild and settled in the house where he was born in Irsee. There he lived with her and his three daughters as a freelance writer until the end of his life. He made various trips to Italy , France and Namibia, among others . In German-speaking countries he gave numerous readings, especially in schools. On his 80th birthday he was made the first honorary citizen of his hometown. He died on September 25, 2003.

Birthplace and home of Josef Guggenmos in Irsee

plant

Josef Guggenmos, the "master of the small form" is considered one of the most important children's lyricists in German literature. Because of his clear, profound language, which invites you to play with her, he is valued by children and adults alike.

The interest for children poems was in the translation of the book A child's garden of verses of Robert Louis Stevenson aroused. In 1956 the first book of poetry for children, Funny Verses for Little People, was published.

He achieved his breakthrough in 1967 with the volume of poetry Was denkt die Maus on Thursday - he was awarded the German Youth Book Prize for this. Over 80 other books followed. For his complete works he received the special prize for the German Youth Literature Prize in 1993 and the Austrian State Prize for Children's Poetry in 1997. After his death, Hans-Joachim Gelberg , his long-time publisher, published a compilation of the most beautiful poems ( Big is the world ).

Various schools are named after Josef Guggenmos, such as the primary schools in Irsee , Altötting , Dahlheim and Enkenbach . In Rhineland-Palatinate , there was the Josef Guggenmos competition from 2000 to 2012, a writing competition for all fourth grades.

In addition to poems, stories and natural history books for children, he also wrote the poetry book Gugummer geht über den See for adults .

At the beginning of the 1980s and increasingly in the last years of his life, he occupied himself with haiku , a Japanese form of poetry. His haikus were included as short poems in anthologies and a selection was published posthumously under the title Rundes Schweigen .

Quotes

Dandelions in the Dusseldorf Botanical Garden

from Josef Guggenmos:

  • “Perhaps children's literature can help to make children more alert, lively, fearless, and happier? So that they don't stop being human later. That would be a lot. "
  • “Theodor Haecker praises Virgil's art of language as the highest, because it does not strive for smooth perfection, but creates a work of language that is a living organism, here soft, there solid, here at rest, there mobile and flowing. But of this kind - no purring plaything, but living, flesh and blood through and through - children's poems must be. "

Awards and honors

Josef Guggenmos Prize

Since 2016, the Josef Guggenmos Prize has been awarded by the German Academy for Children's and Young Adult Literature eV, a prize named after Guggenmos and endowed with € 3000 (as of 2020) specifically for children's poetry.

Prize winners:

Works (in selection)

  • Funny verses for little people, 1956
  • Gugummer walks across the lake, 1957
  • I am making great strides, 1957
  • Perpetual children's calendar, 1958
  • The Book of Rivers and Lakes, 1961
  • Children's eyes - children's hearts, 1961
  • Mutzebutz, 1961
  • The motley children's book, 1962
  • My house, 1963
  • Hoppeldipoppel knows a treasure, 1964
  • Zilli, the goat, 1965
  • Helmut with the robbers, 1966
  • What does the mouse think on Thursday? 1967, 2010, Beltz Verlag, ISBN 978-3-407-79788-9
  • The young naturalist, 1967
  • The treasure chest, 1967
  • An elephant marches through the country, Recklinghausen: Georg Bitter Verlag, 1968
  • Dogs, 1968
  • Birds, 1968
  • Why the owls are big eyes, Recklinghausen: Georg Bitter Verlag, 1968
  • Who never saw a hippopotamus yawn, 1969
  • I saw it with my own ears, Ravensburg: Otto Maier Verlag, 1970, ISBN 3-473-39178-6
  • A grain for the peacock, 1970
  • Are you all there ?, 1970
  • Gorilla, don't get angry, 1971
  • Seven Little Bears, 1971
  • Three woodpeckers in the big city, 1972
  • Mann Knorre and the Burglar, 1972
  • Innkeeper August Knorre, 1972
  • Kasperl in Platschanien, 1972
  • On a star called Moritz, 1972
  • Hans, my rooster, 1973
  • I was born with long ears in 1973
  • The strong giant, Hauslupf, 1973
  • Theater, theater, 1974
  • The ghost castle, 1974
  • I ring in spring and other stories, 1975
  • The knee out of the wall, 1975
  • Storm in the Tower, 1975
  • I have to twitter you something, 1976
  • I have a goat, 1976
  • A rabbit is sitting in my garden, 1977
  • The hare, the rooster and the cow in the boat, 1978
  • A rabbit who loved reading books, 1979
  • When Giants Sneeze, 1980
  • Who Needs a Thousand Shoes ?, 1980
  • The fall of Icarus, 1981
  • Tower of Babel, 1981
  • The Bear on the Mountain, 1981
  • Mr Dachs invites you to a birthday, 1981
  • Hippopotamus and Mosquito, 1983
  • Sun, moon and balloon, Beltz Verlag, 1984, 2004, ISBN 978-3-407-78118-5
  • Around the campfire with the monster, 1984
  • With twelve haikus through the year 1984
  • Reading Lion Puzzle Stories, 1985
  • Surprise Stories, 1985
  • Korbinian the Bear, 1985
  • Imagine a purple house, 1986
  • Punch and Punch Pieces, 1987
  • There were three children walking through the forest in 1989
  • Two with four legs, 1990
  • Oh, sorry, said the ant, Beltz Verlag, 1990, 2008, ISBN 978-3-407-74076-2
  • I want to tell you something, 1991
  • The animals celebrate Carnival, 1994
  • You can tell cats everything, 1997
  • Round silence, Haiku Verlag, Hamburg, 2005, ISBN 3-937257-09-8
  • The world is big, Beltz Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-407-79913-5
  • And what does the mouse think on Thursday, Bajazzo Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-907588-79-6
  • Congratulations, Sanssouci, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8363-0213-5

Processing (in selection)

  • The adventurous Simplicissimus, Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen , 1975
  • The most beautiful sagas of classical antiquity, collected by Gustav Schwab , 1954, 2006
  • House book Sagen und Schwänke, 1972, 2007
  • The heroes of Troy, collected by Gustav Schwab, (1954 in: The most beautiful sagas ...), 2008

Translations (in selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Claudia Pecher: Master of the Small Form, 2002.
  2. ↑ cf. the school websites: Irsee , Altötting , Dahlheim , Enkenbach-Alsenborn .
  3. ^ Guggenmos competition. Mühlbach-Schule Miehlen, accessed on January 31, 2020.
  4. ↑ after Hans-Joachim Gelberg: A poet who writes for children. Special print in honor of the 70th birthday of Josef Guggenmos. Beltz & Gelberg-Verlag, 1992, p. 5.
  5. ↑ after the epilogue of What does the mouse think on Thursday? Georg Bitter Verlag, Recklinghausen 1967 and Beltz & Gelberg, Weinheim 1998.
  6. ↑ The first Josef Guggenmos Prize 2016 goes to Arne Rautenberg. Buchmarkt.de, September 9, 2016, accessed on September 9, 2016.
  7. ↑ The Josef Guggenmos Prize. German Academy for Children's and Young People's Literature, accessed on December 21, 2018.

literature

  • Dino Larese: Josef Guggenmos . Amriswil 1980.
  • Hans Meier: In honor of Josef Guggenmos . Laudation on the occasion of the awarding of the “Amriswiler Apple Tree”, In youth book magazine 31st year 1981, no. 2, 59 f.
  • Kurt Franz: Josef Guggenmos and the children's poem . In: Handbook of literature in Bavaria. Regensburg 1987. pp. (651) -660.
  • Hans-Joachim Gelberg : A poet who writes for children . Special print in honor of the 70th birthday of Josef Guggenmos. Beltz Gelberg-Verlag 1992.
  • Claudia Pecher: Master of the small form. For the poet Josef Guggenmos on the 80th birthday. In: Literature in Bavaria. Munich 69 (2002). Pp. 32-35.
  • Rosmarie Mair: Living a good life: Josef Guggenmos . In: The Schwabenspiegel. Augsburg 2008. pp. 184-210.
  • Dieterzeile : Virgil for children - Gugummer - master of haiku . In: Lebensbilder from Bavarian Swabia, Weißenhorn 2010. P. 381–412.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Guggenmos, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lyric poet and children's book author
DATE OF BIRTH July 2, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Irsee
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 2003
Place of death Irsee