walter trier

Most of what I find about Walter Trier is in German, so I am nice and write you a short summary:

Walter Trier illustrated many of Erich Kästner's children's books. (I have three of them, "das doppelte Lottchen", "Die Konferenz der Tiere", and "das fliegende Klassenzimmer".) But despite that, he is almost forgotten in Germany. Partly because the humoristic genre is widely being looked down upon in Germany but certainly also because as a jew, he had to end his carreer in Berlin, and flee to London in 1936. In London he worked for Lilliput, for twelve years he did the covers, always a couple with a dog. (And I have a copy!) Disney offered to hire him as an animator, but Trier declined, he wanted to work under his own name. In London he also did anti nazi cartoons, and they were dropped out of airplanes over Germany. In 1947 he emigrated to Canada, where his daughter lived, and worked as a designer for J.S. McLean's successful meat-packing business, Canada Packers Limited. He died in 1951. The AGO had a Trier show in 1999, I read they even have a collection. I'll look out for it, next time I'm there.

Some scans from "Die Konferenz der Tiere": 1 2 3 4

Posted by eliane at August 12, 2004 08:40 PM