This article traces the concepts of time in two novels by Otfried Preußler. The children’s novel Das kleine Gespenst (The Little Ghost) tells the story of an out-of-sync ghost that causes chaos in the nearby town. The restoration of the time regimes of both town and ghost represents an adult world governed by strict rhythms. The protagonist’s childlike, rebellious curiosity is a temporary glitch; correcting it serves a pedagogical purpose. In the young adult novel Krabat, the protagonist leaves behind the familiar concept of time to immerse himself in the mill’s enchanted time. There, he becomes a victim of endless, meaningless work, in contrast to the salvation he experiences in his dreams. Work, war, dreams, and trauma serve as crucial disruptive elements in the narrative, but they also allow for reflection on Krabat’s own existence and necessitate a reinterpretation of it. Both the little ghost and Krabat learn, change, and come of age as they confront these different time regimes. Time thus serves as a crucial strategy in Preußler’s novels to represent and question power structures, as well as the possibility of their disruption by the individual.