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Children's thrillers: TKKG creator Kalmuczak died

2019-11-17T12:32:07.047Z


Tarzan, Karl, Klößchen and Gaby, better known as TKKG, have long since become indispensable in German children's rooms. After a long illness, TKKG author Stefan Wolf aka Rolf Kalmuczak died in Munich.



Munich - Rolf Kalmuczak was 68 years old. His Munich-based publisher announced today that Kalmuczak had already succumbed to a long, serious illness last Saturday.

DPA

Author Kalmuczak: High demands on his characters

Since 1979 he had written under the pseudonym Stefan Wolf more than 100 books of the popular children's thriller series "TKKG". The acronym stands for the names of the four amateur detectives Tim (Tarzan), Karl, Klößchen and Gaby. With 14 million books sold and nearly 30 million radio plays cassettes and CDs sold, the stories about the four friends are among the most successful children's book series.

Kalmuczak was born on April 17, 1938 in Nordhausen, Thuringia, and worked as a journalist after school. According to the Munich cbj publishing house, he already wrote his first novel at the age of 22 and then wrote around 2700 short thrillers. This productivity earned him an entry in the Guinness Book of Records from 1991 to 1997.

Under more than 100 different pseudonyms, he also wrote magazine magazines, scripts, various books for teenagers, as well as radio plays. Kalmuczak will remember his companion not only as an incredibly prolific writer, but also as an ever gracious man, it said.

With the "TKKG" series he wanted to show the children how to achieve much for themselves and others with attention. "I noticed that children and adolescents sit too often in front of the screen, let themselves be sprinkled, become more and more comfortable, show no initiative and know adventure only second-hand." That was the incentive for him to write children's and youth books. That's why he deliberately made high demands on his characters: no drugs, environmental awareness, love of animals and commitment to any form of injustice.

He was often called "the Karl May of our time" and may this comparison, said the bustling author once. Rolf Kalmuczak lived with his wife Inka-Maria in a country house in Upper Bavaria. His daughter Inka served as a model for the character Gaby from the TKKG gang.

hae / dpa

Source: spiegel

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