Thomas Schallnau

Thomas Schallnau (born November 8, 1940 in Berlin ) is a German children's book author , illustrator and graphic artist . He was particularly known for his two children's book characters, the elephant trunk and the mouse.

Life

After graduating from high school, Schallnau completed an apprenticeship as a gravure retoucher . At the University of Fine and Applied Arts Berlin-Weißensee , he studied with Professors Klemke, Vogenauer and Mohr with subsequent aspirations.

In 1966 he founded "Flieger-Schallnau-Wongel" with R. Flieger and G. Wongel, the second state-independent graphic studio in the GDR after "Group 4". The studio won poster competitions on political issues and received the “Best Poster” award several times. When the group was excluded from all competitions as a result of a studio party in 1969, its members distinguished themselves in other areas and worked independently of one another.

Schallnau created illustrations for 50 books for children and young people by other authors (e.g. mother, father, child (Dr. H. Brückner), the cat slept high in the tree (A. Könner), the chain smoker (G. Ruthenberg), Wilhelmine - all adventures (K. Potthoff), Santa Claus in hibernation , Little Christmas ABC and The Hangover in the Airplane (M. Seidemann)) as well as 44 children's books based on their own ideas, e.g. For example, the picture book Stop for Willi (Der Kinderbuchverlag 1980) with editions by Carlsen (Germany), in Denmark, Finland, Cuba, Czechoslovakia and England. He designed numerous book covers (mainly Verlag Volk und Welt) and received two awards for "Most Beautiful Book Cover". In 1987 the first edition of the Rüssel series for children aged 2 and over was published. Under the motto “Before reading comes picture reading”, the books in the series tell stories that encourage speaking only in pictures. At the end of the GDR in 1989, the series comprised 14 volumes with a circulation of 2.5 million books. In addition to the German, there were also issues for Denmark , the United Kingdom , France , Czechoslovakia , Yugoslavia and Australia . In addition to these books, coloring books and posters are published in large numbers.

After the German reunification, the series was continued and today comprises 32 titles (as of 2011). Picture books with text such as Rot für Rüssel (Verkehrsbuch, Postreiter-Verlag 1996, LeiV 2009) as well as Ein Jahr mit Rüssel (LeiV 2010) and 6 Rüssel mini books in verses (Postreiter 1994) completed the series. The total circulation of all Rüssel titles exceeded 3 million copies. The magazines Bummi and small and large published trunk picture stories. In 1995, 1996 and 1997 a trunk calendar appeared , which was reissued in 2011.

Schallnau created 55 film posters for Progress Film-Verleih , 6 of them for children's films . The poster for the film Der Strohmann (subject of political persecution under McCarthy ) received a special award from the Association of Film and Television Creators in the GDR . From 1967 on, Schallnau took part in the GDR's annual art exhibitions in Dresden and the Warsaw poster biennial. The poster Die Schweizermacher was taken over under license from Hungary , the poster Beverly Hills Cop banned. Theater posters for the stages of the city of Magdeburg were Mother Courage and her children (Brecht) 1984, Levins Mühle (Opera / U. Zimmermann) 1985. Fish for two became the best-selling poster in the GDR with a circulation of 1 million.

Further areas of work were:

• Program graphics for programs on GDR television
• the visual appearance of the 2nd GDR television
• Participation in the broadcast with the mouse of the West German Broadcasting Corporation
• Illustrations and cartoons for newspapers and magazines
• Brochures (1995 and 1996) for the Ministry for Urban Development, Housing and Transport of the State of Brandenburg
• Design of two enamel panels in the Berlin subway station Klosterstraße and of bridge signs on bridges on Märkische Allee in Berlin-Marzahn 1998 (bridge numbers 21-031, 21-032 and 21-033)
• Design of 120 postcards and 12 Advent calendars (some of which are archived in the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin-Dahlem and in the Nuremberg Toy Museum )
• Film posters (partly archived in the collection Kunstmuseum Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus , in the collection of the Akademie der Künste Berlin and in the collection of the Cinémathèque française Paris)
• Guest lectures on the conception of the Rüssel books at the 2nd State College for Social Pedagogy in Berlin in 2003, as well as at the Institute for German Studies at the University of Halle-Wittenberg in 2005
• from the mid-nineties intensified work on free painting and graphics

Exhibitions

• Written, painted, read. Children's books from 1974–1984, Berlin 1984
• Visually. Berlin 1986
• Painting / graphics. Rathausgalerie Berlin-Pankow, 2005
• Everything about proboscis. Exhibition on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the book series in the Francke Foundations in Halle, 2007
• Illustrations Kleine Galerie, Eberswalde 2008
• Free work. Flexim Gallery, Berlin 2009
• Pasted over - posters from the GDR. Schwerin 2009
• Painting and graphics. Graphic Studio Gallery Berlin, 2011

Web links

• Literature by and about Thomas Schallnau in the catalog of the German National Library
• official homepage