Background
He was born in Hindenburg (now Zabrze, Poland) in Upper Silesia to a family of mixed German and Polish heritage.
He was born in Hindenburg (now Zabrze, Poland) in Upper Silesia to a family of mixed German and Polish heritage.
In 1953, he went to Munich, where he studied for some terms at the Academy of Arts, but broke off his studies eventually.
He said in an interview that he is Silesian and that it is his nationality. After World World War II, the family fled to West Germany. In the area of Oldenburg, Janosch worked in a textile mill.
Afterwards, he worked as a freelance artist.
Within the next 10 years, numerous books for children followed with different publishing houses. In 1976, he published his own rather different version of the fairy tale Tom Thumb, known as a fairy tale called, Der Däumling (English version as "Tom Thumb"), which is part of the children"s book Update on Rumpelstiltskin and other Fairy Tales by 43 Authors, which is compiled by Hans-Joachim Gelberg, illustrated by Willi Glasauer, and published by Beltz & Gelberg.
He also published books for adults, in which he deals with his childhood experiences of growing up with an abusive father and a God-fearing mother, constantly recurring topics being friendship, family relationships, and the quest for the meaning of life. 1975: the Literature Award of the City of Munich 1979: 1984: the Zilveren Griffel 1993: the Bundesverdienstkreuz By 1980, he had published over 100 books for children in nearly 30 languages.
By then, he had left Germany, and now lives on the island of Tenerife in the Atlantic Ocean.