»Mosaic« | Who was Hannes Hegen?

A GDR invention from 1955 remains a cult classic to this day: the Digedags. They were the heroes of a series of comic-style illustrated stories (a term frowned upon 50 years ago), which celebrates its 70th anniversary in December. They were conceived by the illustrator Johannes Hegenbarth, who used the nickname Hannes Hegen in the youth magazine "Mosaik," which he founded for the Neues Leben publishing house. Hegen had previously drawn caricatures for the GDR press under the name Johannes. Who was the man shrouded in mystery?

On May 16, 100 years ago, he was born into a glassmaking family in Bohemia and trained in Steinschönau and Vienna before being forced to go to war. After the war, ethnic German residents were forced to leave the Sudetenland, and the Hegenbarths eventually settled in Ilmenau, Thuringia. His son, Johannes, was able to study art in Leipzig. Max Schwimmer discovered his student's particular talent for caricatures, and his great-uncle Josef Hegenbarth, a renowned graphic artist and illustrator, found him commissions in Berlin, where he lived from 1951 onward. He worked for, among others, the "Neue Berliner Illustrierte" ("NBI"), designed the lettering for the "Wochenpost," created the cover for "Das Magazin," and became an indispensable contributor to "Frischen Wind," the predecessor to the satirical magazine "Eulenspiegel." But he wanted to develop further.

When he presented the concept for the magazine "Mosaik" to the publisher Neues Leben in 1955, he met with great interest because they wanted to counter the flood of Western comics with something from the East – without speech balloons, as Hegens suggested. Initially, the new magazine was published quarterly, but from the summer of 1957, it was published monthly at a price of 60 pfennigs. The goblin-like creatures Dig, Dag, and Digedag quickly became audience favorites with their time travels and adventures among pirates, in the circus, in ancient Rome, in space, among inventors of various eras, and soon with Knight Runkel von Rübenstein in the Middle Ages, before finally moving on to the Orient. The imaginative stories, which always had a real core, the original characters, and, last but not least, the consistent color printing (albeit on poor quality paper) thrilled the readers, whose circle of readers grew constantly.

Hannes Hegen couldn't handle the work alone. He had gathered a "Mosaik" collective of artists around him, and one of them, Lothar Dräger (1927–2016), proved to be both an imaginative and historically well-versed author. He assumed a key role when Hannes Hegen fell out with the publisher in the mid-1970s.

When he presented the concept for the magazine "Mosaik" to the publisher Neues Leben in 1955, he met with great interest because they wanted to counter the flood of Western comics with something from the East.

Hegen had a bad experience in the 1950s when he designed the Rumpelmännchen (little gnome) as a mascot for the state-run scrap metal trade. Because he hadn't trademarked the character, other illustrators were able to continue working with it when Hegen had too much work with "Mosaik." However, he owned the rights to the Digedags. So the publisher, which wanted to continue producing "Mosaik," had to find a replacement. Author Lothar Dräger and illustrator Lona Rietschel developed the Abrafaxe: gnomes not unlike the Digedags. Hegen sued for plagiarism, but a settlement was eventually reached.

Old Digedags adventures were republished in book form, and Hegen drew additional illustrations. Many other drawings were also created, for example, when he accompanied his wife Edith Hegenbarth, who had designed figurines for "Mosaik," in her work as a costume designer for theater and film.

Since the 1990s, Tessloff Verlag has published adventures of the Digedags in well-designed reprint folders. In 1995, director Peter Wohlfeil released a short animated film featuring the Digedags and Knight Runkel, and the previously rather shy Hegen and his wife appeared before a cheering audience at the premiere at the Potsdam Film Museum. Unfortunately, it remained a one-off film.

After Edith Hegenbarth's death in 2008, Hannes Hegen found enthusiastic collaborators at the Leipzig Forum for Contemporary History to preserve his life's work. The elderly illustrator was able to view his first "Mosaic" exhibition there in 2012. He died in 2014 at the age of almost 90.

His 100th birthday is being celebrated in a variety of ways. Author Harry Rolf Herrling has written a comprehensive biography of Josef Hegenbarth and Hannes Hegen; fan magazines like "Mosa-icke" are honoring Hannes Hegen with special publications; and, as a highlight, a new mosaic featuring the Digedags will be released on his 100th birthday.

Hannes Hegen's estate included manuscripts intended to continue the inventor series, which was abruptly discontinued in 1964 with issue 89. The publisher considered the series about submarine inventor Wilhelm Bauer too slapstick. The current Mosaik publishing house, nicknamed "Steinchen für Steinchen," has now reactivated long-time "Mosaik" illustrators Ulf S. Graupner and Steffen Jähde. They created issue 90, "The Duel on the Neva," entirely in the style of the "Mosaik" collective, and the printing paper also recalls the old days. Lothar Dräger's style is recognizable in his verses: "Everyone wants to be king once, / even if only as a water god. / One demands applause, but neither / whistles nor loud mockery." Only the original price of 60 pfennigs from Hegen's time is significantly exceeded for this collector's item at 15 euros!

Harry Rolf Herrling: Hannes Hegen and Josef Hegenbarth. Comic Legend and Master of Illustration. Mosamax, 624 pp., hardcover, €59. The Duel on the Neva. Mosaik-Verlag: Stone by Stone, 24 pp., paperback, €15.