From my children's book cabinet - Ida Bohatta

When I wrote a post in connection with a children's book author which will be published in a few days, I looked at my little children's book collection and thought it could be fun to pick an author or just one book every, now and then and talk about it a bit.
My collection consists of books that have been mine since I was a child, but mostly of books I had borrowed from our city library as a kid and wanted to own myself - some of them I had to hunt for many years, it was a lot more difficult before the Internet and even then it wasn't always easy - or books I had found at fleamarkets.
It's the best feeling to find a book after you have been looking for it forever, and it's even better if it still manages to hold the same magic for you.

Sometimes, however, books sneak(ed) into my collection I hadn't heard of before.
The ex found the first one of these little picture books with poems by Ida Bohatta (Ida Bohatta-Morpurgo after she got married), "Der verkannte Bimpfi" (published in English as "The misjudged mushroom".

Ida Bohatta was an Austrian children's book illustrator and author. She was born in 1900 and began drawing as a child.
After studying at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, she started illustrating children's books and write her first own texts.

At the age of 27, she met the Austrian Josef Müller who had founded Ars sacra in Munich, a Catholic-oriented publishing house for religious prints, prayer books, holy cards, and theological books. Thanks to Müller's wife Maximiliane, who initiated contact to children's book authors and illustrators, they expanded into children's books at the end of the 20s and made an exclusive contract with Bohatta who was a faithful Catholic herself. Another known illustrator they took on was Sister Hummel.
At first Bohatta made illustrations for so-called "Fleißbildchen", pictures given as a reward for hard work in school. They have not disappeared completely, but today there are also stickers or gold stars given for a reward for example.
In 1929, Ars sacra published the first one of more than 70 picture books with watercolor illustrations and poems by Bohatta like the ones in my picture.
She got inspired by nature and created a world of magical little creatures. Some might think those to be kitschy, but on the other hand a lot of people are drawn in by the innocence of those illustrations.
Are they always that innocent, though? Let's have a look at Bimpfi.

Bimpfi is a good student which annoys his classmate Knolli. Now you've got to know that Bimpfi is a button mushroom while the name Knolli is short for Knollenblätterpilz as in death cap. Do you get an idea of what's going to happen?
A woman dies and Bimpfi gets accused for it and sent to prison, but his good friend, the gnome Heinzel, breaks him out and together they try to get the truth out of Knolli.

You'll forgive me for not trying to put this in poem form. "First a question, then a demand, pleading, begging, wild imploring - Knolli won't admit anything. Then appealing to the stubborn mushroom conscience for hours - but Knolli remains determinedly silent, finally their questions become quieter because they are both hoarse already. Knolli can't be persuaded to make a confession."

Bimpfi is getting his happy ending. When they grow up, it's obvious that he can't be the murderer because he's obviously not a death cap.
Knolli gets taken to prison ...

... and Bimpfi, being too big to fit in a school bench, gets his graduation without having to do more classes.

The other books I have are much more innocent and praise nature in cute little poems with very cute pictures, but I have to admit I find Bimpfi's story quite fascinating.

Beine unpolitical, Bohatta's books were never forbidden during the Nazi regime, actually she joined the "Reichsschrifttumskammer" which aimed at controlling all aspects of literature.
There is no evidence of Bohatta showing any National Socialist engagement whatsoever, though.

I don't get to fleamarkets anymore, but actually we didn't see that many Bohatta books there. I would prefer the old ones to the new editions - I have two of each kind - just because I like the vintage feel, but I would probably to stick to the edgier ones anyway if there are more out there.

Had you ever heard of Bohatta before?


Selected sources:

1. The Whimsical World of Ida Bohatta-Morpurgo: A Celebration of Nature and Innocence in Children's Illustrations. On: MFLibra, November 10, 2024
2. Peter Lukasch: Bohatta-Morpurgo, Ida; Buchillustrationen. On: Kinder- und Jugendliteratur zwischen 1900 und 1960 (in German)
3. "Frau B.": Von Wichteln, Blumenkindern und heiler Welt: die Kinderbücher von Ida Bohatta. On: Kinderbuch-Blog: Die Kinderbibliothek, February 22, 2023 (in German)