Johannes Thiel, painter, printmaker, illustrator and author, was born on 11 September 1889 in Speicher, Germany. He studied at the academies in Munich and Stuttgart as well as with Peter Halm. Thiel lived and worked in Ebnet, a district of Freiburg in the Black Forest. He engraved illustrations for Mollière’s comedies, as well as for the works of Shakespeare and Cervantes. Also an author, Thiel wrote and illustrated children’s books for the publishers Herder and Kösel. Johannes Thiel died in Ebnet on July 31,1962.