로트라우트 수잔네 베르너 (Rotraut Susanne Berner)

otraut Susanne Berner studied from 1971 to 1975 Graphic Design at the Fachhochschule in Munich . From 1975 to 1977 she worked in publishing advertising. From 1977 to 1988 she worked as a freelance illustrator, book designer and author in Munich from 1988 to 2003, Heidelberg. Since 2003 she works as a freelance artist in Munich. It is on the German-speaking countries also one of the best known contemporary illustrators and book designers. She creates mainly book illustrations and covers for adults and children. Since 1994 appear from her increasingly books with his own texts and stories. 

Very well known are their Carlie-books and the five Wimmelbücher : Winter Wimmelbuch, Spring Wimmelbuch, Summer Wimmelbuch, Autumn Wimmelbuch and night-Wimmelbuch, all in the fictional town of Wimmlingen play. The special thing. Various characters appear repeatedly and develop from one band to another, for example, is a boy from the kindergarten to the school child, a woman is pregnant and only in the next volume with strollers go, etc.

In 2007 she earned with her decision attention not to let her work (Wimmel books) into the United States, although it thus escaped financial gain. Reason for this decision were demands to refrain from nudity in the factory, as applicable in the USA partly different ideas of publicly visible nudity. Berner however, felt the decision to portray nudity, as an expression of artistic freedom , which prudery has not subordinate. In the US publisher Chronicle Books the book series was published in autumn 2008 uncensored. Since 2013, Berner, in succession of their 2012 late husband Armin Abmeier , new editor of the series the tunnel books and curator of the Foundation Illustration in Trois there.

Rotraut Susanne Berner studied graphic design at the Munich University of Applied Science and worked for several years as in advertising before becoming a freelance graphic artist and illustrator. She has illustrated over 80 children’s books and almost 800 book covers. She combines several different techniques and materials: delicate pen-and-ink, brush drawings, coloured and accentuated borders to picture plates, linocut and stamped images. Her popular Wimmel (Winter 2003, Spring 2004, Autumn and Summer 2005) books depict life in the four seasons in whimsical detail with the narrative told only through pictures. Some of her best-known books include Dunkel war’s, der mond schien helle (It was dark outside, the moon was bright, 1999). She wrote and illustrated Karlchen-Geschichten (Stories of little Charly, 2003) and provided illustrations for Die Prinzessin kommt um vier by Wolfdietrich Schnurre (The princess arrives at four, 2000) and Als der Tod zu uns kam by the 2008 Hans Christian Andersen Award Winner, Jürg Schubiger (When death came for a visit, 2011). Many of her books have been nominated for the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis and she won in 1984 for Das Sonntagskind by Gudrun Mebs (The sunday child, 1984) and in 1996 for Als die Welt noch jung war by Jürg Schubiger (When the earth was still young, 1995). In 2006 she won a special recognition for her complete works as an illustrator with the Sonderpreis der Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis. Rotraut Susanne Berner has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award five times and was a Finalist in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2014.  ​