About the work
“Krabat” is a young-adult novel by Otfried Preußler, first published in 1971 by Arena Verlag and issued by Thienemann since 1981. Preußler spent around ten years on it, drawing on a Sorbian legend from Lusatia about the sorcerer's apprentice Krabat. The story has been adapted for the stage many times, as a play as well as an opera and a ballet.
Plot
In the early 18th century, during the Great Northern War, the fourteen-year-old beggar boy Krabat follows a dream to a remote mill near Schwarzkollm and becomes an apprentice there. The master teaches his twelve journeymen black magic, but every New Year's Eve one of them must die so that he himself can live on. After the death of his older friend Tonda, Krabat grasps the price of this power; only the love of the Kantorka, a girl from the village who recognises him among the enchanted journeymen, can set him free.
Cultural significance
The book won the Deutscher Jugendbuchpreis in 1972 and the Dutch Silver Griffel in 1973, has been translated into 39 languages and has sold more than 3.8 million copies in Germany alone. Preußler saw it as the story of his generation and its susceptibility to the lure of power. Karel Zeman turned it into an animated film in 1978, and Marco Kreuzpaintner made a feature film of it in 2008.