Dieter Hanitzsch

Born in Schönlinde, Nordböhmen in the current Czech Republic, Dieter Hanitzsch is a German caricaturist, journalist and author. Hanitzsch is a trained brewer from the TU München. He began his career working with an advertising agency. Between 1964 and 1985 he was a science journalist with the Bayerischen Rundfunk. In addition, he took on cartooning, mainly for Quick magazine between 1980 and 1992. He became a fulltime cartoonist in 1985 and contributed to Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Berliner Morgenpost, Focus and Bonner General-Anzeiger.

For the ARD he was an artist for the children's show 'Floris Zapp Zarapp' from 1990 to 1994. Hanitzsch has illustrated all of Dieter Hildebrandt's books and together with the political editor Herbert Riehl-Heyse, he created the comic series 'Der grosse Max'. When Riehl-Heyse died in 2003, Hanitasch also took on the texts. This political comic, dealing with the adventures of fictional CSU parliamentary deputy Max Froschhammer, originally appeared in the weekend edition of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, but later became a cartoon film for the Bayerischen Rundfunk broadcast 'Abendschau'.