author
Engelbert Wittich
1878–1937
A self-taught German writer from the Jenisch community, he wrote from lived experience about itinerant life, language, and Sinti communities at a time when such voices were rarely heard in print.
2 Audiobooks
Blicke in das Leben der Zigeuner Von einem Zigeuner
by Engelbert Wittich
Die jenische Sprache
by Engelbert Wittich
About the author
Born in Lützenhardt in 1878, Engelbert Wittich grew up in a family that made and sold brushes and baskets through seasonal traveling trade. He had only a few years of formal schooling, but his talent for drawing and writing was noticed early, and he went on to publish work rooted in firsthand knowledge of marginalized communities.
Wittich is remembered as a writer, folklorist, and linguist whose work focused especially on Jenisch language and on Sinti life. His best-known book, Blicke in das Leben der Zigeuner, stands out because it presents observations from someone close to the world he described, rather than from a distant outsider.
He died in 1937 in Bad Cannstatt. Today, his writing is valued not only as literature, but also as a rare historical record of everyday life, speech, and identity in communities that were often misrepresented by others.