Otfried Preußler
German children's books author (1923–2013)
Otfried Preußler (pronounced [ˈɔtfʁiːt ˈpʁɔʏslɐ] ; sometimes spelled Preussler; born Otfried Syrowatka; 20 October 1923 – 18 February 2013) was a German children's book author.
More than fifty million copies of his books have been sold worldwide and they have been translated into fifty-five languages. His best-known works are The Robber Hotzenplotz and The Satanic Mill (Krabat).
Life and work
He was born in Liberec, Czechoslovakia. His mother, Erna Syrowatka (née Tscherwenka), and his father, Josef Syrowatka, were both teachers. They changed their family name from the Czech Syrowatka to the German Preußler in 1941 during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia.
After he graduated school in 1942 – in the midst of World War II – he was drafted into the German Army. Although he survived the military action on the Eastern Front, he was taken prisoner as a 21-year-old lieutenant in 1944. He spent the next five years in various prisoner-of-war (POW) camps in the Tatar Republic.
After his release in June 1949, he found his displaced relatives and his fiancée, Annelies Kind, in the Bavarian town of Rosenheim.
The public source identifies “Otfried Preußler” as german children's books author (1923–2013). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Otfried, Preußler and German.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Otfried Preußler”, the useful work is to connect “german children's books author (1923–2013)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q44647. VIAF identifies the subject as 71396478. The Library of Congress control number is n50027470. 6 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1923, 2013, 1941 and 1942.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Otfried Preußler”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Otfried Preußler primary sources, Otfried Preußler archive and Otfried research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Otfried Preußler”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Otfried Preußler” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.