Hans Ulrich Steger

Hans Ulrich Steger (generally known as H. U. Steger: 21 March 1923 - 18 June 2016) was a Swiss caricaturist, children's author and artist.

Life Provenance and early years H. U. Steger was born in Zürich and grew up in nearby Küsnacht. Adolf P. Steger, his father, was an architect. He trained between 1939 and 1943 at the Zurich University of the Arts ("Zürcher Hochschule der Künste"), focusing on graphic art.

The Swiss economy was badly affected by the bitterly destructive war being fought out in the surrounding countries: Steger's attempts to find work designing type faces or posters, or in other branches of commercial graphic art, were unsuccessful. At nights he reverted to his schoolboy habit of sketching portraits of the international political heroes and villains of the day, such as Mussolini, Stalin and Haile Selassie. Thinking this could become a source of income, he sent an illustration to the anti-fascist journalist-editor and caricaturist Carl Böckli. Later in 1943 his first published cartoons appeared in the satirical Zürich weekly magazine (since 1996 monthly), Nebelspalter. By this time he had become not merely a grandfather, but a great grandfather. His funeral announcement included the request from his family that those minded to send flowers should instead send money to Médecins Sans Frontières.

Caricatures Steger's caricatures often take inspiration from literature (in particular from fairy tales and nursery rhymes) and art (well-known paintings, sculptures and films). He has donated approximately 1,800 original caricatures to the archive for contemporary history ("Archiv für Zeitgeschichte") at the National Institute of Technology ("Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich" / ETH). These date from the period between the end of the Second World War and the end of the twentieth century. They principally concern international and Swiss politics.

Children's books Steger's two most successful children's books were "Reise nach Tripiti" ("Journey to Tripiti" 1967) and "Wenn Kubaki kommt" ("If Kubaki comes" 1976). They highlight his passion for small details and foreign travel. "Reise nach Tripiti" has been translated into various languages including English, Afrikaans, Danish, Swedish, Dutch and Japanese.