Hans Baumann addressed Passau Hitler Youth. After the war and a period spent in a prisoner of war camp, he distanced himself from the policies of the National Socialist government and made a remarkable comeback as one of the most popular contemporary writers for children and teenagers. His novels dealt with natural and historical themes (e.g. I Marched with Hannibal, The Sons of the Steppe, Barnabas the Dancing Bear, The Barque of the Brothers, Son of Columbus, In the Land of Ur) and won a number of international prizes, including the New York Herald Tribune prize for the best children's book in 1968 and the Batchelder Award in 1971. They have been compared to the novels of Rosemary Sutcliff, his earlier books described as major works: "long complicated stories, full of difficult concepts and problems of psychology". His attempted strides into other literature genres were less successful as he was viewed with suspicion by the post-war German literary and political circles because of his past NS involvement. In 1962 he was at a center of a literary controversy when forced to return the prestigious Gerhard-Hauptmann Prize received in 1959 for his drama Im Zeichen der Fische (written under a pseudonym), after his real identity was revealed. Baumann was also an accomplished translator, having translated numerous books from Russian to German, including works by Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Anna Akhmatova and others. His own work was translated into more than twenty languages. He died in Murnau am Staffelsee (Bavaria) on November 7, 1988. Bibliography Works translated into English The Caves of the Great Hunters (1955) Son of Columbus (1957) The Barque of the Brothers: A Tale of the Days of Henry the Navigator (1958) The Sons of the Steppe: The Story of how the Conqueror Genghis Khan Was Overcome (1958) The World of the Pharaohs (1960) I Marched with Hannibal (1961) Gold and Gods of Peru (1963) Lion Gate and Labyrinth (1967) Alexander's Great March (1968) In the Land of Ur: The Discovery of Ancient Mesopotamia (1969) Dimitri and the False Tsars (1970) References External links Hans Baumann songs at ingeb.org (German Folksongs) 1914 births 1988 deaths People from Amberg People from the Kingdom of Bavaria German children's writers German songwriters 20th-century German poets German male poets Nazi Party members People from Garmisch-Partenkirchen (district) German Army personnel of World War II 20th-century German male writers