The largest Janosch collection in the world has been on permanent loan at the Picture Book Museum Burg Wissem in the city of Troisdorf since 2005. At that time, the artist decided to entrust his original illustrations to this specially tailored location as a permanent loan. Thanks to financial support from several institutions – including the Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR), the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the Sparkassen Cultural Foundation Rheinland – it was possible to convert the loan into municipal ownership. "Come, we have a treasure" is rightly the motto of the special exhibition celebrating this enhancement of the museum collection.

Janosch (real name: Horst Eckert) was born in 1931 in Upper Silesia Hindenburg (today Zabrze, Poland). After World War II, the family fled to West Germany. Janosch attended the Krefeld School of Applied Arts and later briefly studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. His career as a freelance artist and illustrator began in 1960 with the children’s book “The Story of Valek the Horse.”

However, his breakthrough came only in 1978 with the children’s book classic “Oh, How Beautiful is Panama,” followed by “Mail for the Tiger” (1980). His stories are characterized by a simple philosophy of happiness, friendship, and love for nature. In total, Janosch, who has lived a reclusive life in Tenerife since 1980, has published over 150 books, which have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold millions of copies. Around his lovable animal characters, a brisk trade in merchandising products, postcards, and calendars has established itself.