One of the foremost children's authors in the Afrikaans language, the most notable of his books are the Huppelkind[1] series and Die wonderbaarlike motor van Barnabas Bombas (1981).
An interview with his wife and collaborator Dorothy Hill in 2018, 50 years after the first edition of the Huppelkind book, gave more details on their work together.
He taught at Vredehoek Primary School in Cape Town before joining the editorial staff of Die Burger where he worked, among other things, as a yachting reporter.
Huppel's appeal has been likened to that of Christopher Robin in English children's literature and the play on rhythm, words and sounds in Kühne's prose strongly reminds of Dr Seuss at times.
Kühne translated or retold a number of nursery stories such as Die flukse kabouters van Keulen (1969), My prentepoetseboek (1976), and four books in a series of Bible stories for children, namely The birth of Jesus, Moses in the basket, David and Goliath and the childhood of Jesus, all published in 1982.