born on October 13, 1936, in Vienna
died on June 28, 2018, in Vienna-Ottakring
Austrian author of children’s and young adult books
90th birthday on October 13, 2026
Biography
It was never my intention to write children’s books. I was so bored at home with my two children that I just wanted to draw a book of pictures for children. But to do that, I needed a story that I could illustrate. So I made one up and wrote it down. And once the children’s book was finished, people liked my story better than my illustrations. So I thought to myself: All right then! I’ll just skip the illustrations! I’ll stick to writing!
She wrote for daily newspapers, magazines, and the ORF, and later on, she wrote children’s and young adult books. As early as 1983, the author described herself as a “one-woman letter factory.” At the age of 47, she had already written more than 50 books for children and adults, 20 television plays, countless radio programs, and “many cubic meters of newspaper articles.” She is now considered one of the most successful German-language authors of young adult literature of the past 35 years—second only to Cornelia Funke—having published well over a hundred short stories, novels, and television screenplays, with some of her books reaching six-figure print runs.
In 1970, Nöstlinger ushered in a new era in children’s and young adult literature when her successful debut work, Die feuerrote Friederike (Fiery Frederica), was published. The author, who had grown up in the working-class neighborhoods of Vienna’s suburbs, broke with the idyllic “perfect world” trope in literature by presenting an emancipated, self-determined vision of childhood. Nöstlinger did not sugarcoat reality in her books; she wrote about complicated family situations, insecure parents, divorces and marital crises, frustrations and escape, gender roles, school problems, and environmental protection. And time and again, this mother of two daughters defended children’s right to self-determination.
Her books help readers navigate daily conflicts and, thanks to her boundless imagination and ironic, fresh, and age-appropriate language—spiced with the Viennese dialect—are enjoyable reading not only for children. Nöstlinger typically wrote from the children’s perspective. Drawing on her own childhood memories, she also addressed her strained relationship with her mother and sister as well as her wartime and postwar experiences in three novels for young adults.
As early as 1984, Christine Nöstlinger, who was married to the journalist Ernst Nöstlinger and lived in Vienna as well as on a farm in the Waldviertel region, received the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her entire body of work. She received many other awards, including the German Youth Literature Prize, the Austrian Children’s and Youth Book Prize, and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
(Text from 2005; translated with DeepL.com; edited by Ramona Fararo, 2026.
Please consult the German version for additional information, pictures, sources, videos, and bibliography.)
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