Historical Figures

Wilhelm Busch:Comic pioneer and father of Max and Moritz

With the bitter pranks of "Max and Moritz" Wilhelm Busch achieved world fame. He not only wrote the verses and lyrics, but also drew and painted. He was born in Wiedensahl on April 15, 1832.

It is these rhymes, illustrated with drawings, that the name Wilhelm Busch stands for:

"Max and Moritz, not at all sluggish,
secretly saw with the saw,
Ritzeraze - full of malice,
a gap in the bridge."

Busch's "Max and Moritz" as early comics

With his tragic-comic stories about the two rascals, Busch achieved his artistic breakthrough in the middle of the 19th century - and his reputation as the inventor of comics is based on them. However, Busch will not get rich with the world-famous stories.

Wilhelm Busch was a loyal Lower Saxon

The father of "Max and Moritz", the "Widow Bolte" and the "pious Helene" was born on April 15, 1832 in the small town of Wiedensahl in Lower Saxony, west of Hanover. Despite many journeys, he always remains true to his northern German homeland. Busch spent almost 60 years of his life between Porta Westfalica and Steinhuder Meer. Experts at the Wilhelm-Busch-Land museum landscape in Wiedensahl, which provides extensive information about Busch's life and work, believe that he was less looking for the proximity of people than for the silence and the landscape. The painter, draftsman and poet honors this landscape in paintings and sketches. But the people he met there also inspired him - mostly to tell picture stories full of black humour.

Friendship with the miller's son

Because it was getting too cramped in the parental home, Wilhelm Busch, the eldest of seven children of a merchant, was sent to his uncle in Ebergötzen near Göttingen at the age of nine. He learns with pleasure to draw and paint from the pastor - together with his friend, the son of the miller. Not only the local mill later finds its place in Busch's satirical drawings. Many passages from "Max and Moritz" bear biographical features of Wilhelm and his friend. In 1846, Wilhelm moved with his uncle's family to Lüthorst, around 50 kilometers away - a place he would visit again and again later.

Busch goes to Hanover to study

But young Busch doesn't just have pranks on his mind. He also deals with scientific and philosophical questions. His father wants his son to study mechanical engineering. At first, 15-year-old Wilhelm complied and studied at the Polytechnic School in Hanover for more than three years. Then he goes his own way. He wanted to be a painter, so he studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and later in Antwerp. He is very impressed by the works of the great Flemish and Dutch masters of the 16th and 17th centuries.

First satirical drawings

In his early twenties, Busch fell ill with typhus and returned home for a few months to recover. In Wiedensahl he sketches and paints nature. He also writes down legends, folk tales and songs that until then have only been told - and he deals with beekeeping. Then he sets off again, this time to study at the Royal Bavarian Academy in Munich. Landscape and open-air painting are his passion. He joins the artists' association "Jung München" and gets to know the publisher Kasper Braun. Braun wins him over for his satirical writings "The Flying Leaves" and "Münchner Bilderbogen".

The money for "Max and Moritz" is collected by someone else

The picture stories of "Max and Moritz" became a global hit, but Busch didn't get rich with it.

When Busch was 32 years old, his picture story "Max und Moritz" was published in 1865. It will later be translated into more than 200 languages. Busch sold the rights to the story to his friend Braun for little money. The publisher makes a fortune from it. Only decades later does Busch receive financial compensation - and donates the money to the needy. "Max and Moritz" are quickly followed by "Hans Huckebein", "The bold miller's daughter" and "Schnurrdiburr oder die Bienen". But parallel to the satirical picture stories, many nature paintings were also created in Wiedensahl and Lüthorst.

Return to Wiedensahl in the second half of life

The artist spends the rest of his life with his family.

At the age of 40, Busch moved back home. In Wiedensahl he lives in the rectory with his sister Fanny, who married a pastor. But the artist also travels extensively, including to Italy and the Netherlands. He temporarily maintains his own studio in Munich. When his brother-in-law died, Busch moved to the parish widow's house with his sister and their three sons. Many of his famous picture stories, but also poems and prose pieces were created during this time:"The pious Helene (1872), "Fipps der Affe" (1879), "Herr und Frau Knopp". In 1884 his last big picture story "Maler Klecksel" was published.

Painting only exhibited after death

Wilhelm Busch became known for his picture stories. His oeuvre is much more diverse.

Busch now publishes stories such as "Eduard's Dream" (1891) and "The Butterfly" (1895). In between, he writes his autobiography in 1893 with a smirking look back:"From me about me" is a few pages short, pointed and as graphic as the friends of his drawings would expect from him.

In 1898 Busch moved with his sister to live with one of his nephews in Mechtshausen am Harz - again in a vicarage, because the nephew had also become a pastor. Wilhelm Busch died on January 9, 1908 at the age of 75 and was buried in the small town near Seesen. Only then will another side of Busch be made accessible to the public:the hitherto completely unknown paintings and drawings with nature motifs.

Wilhelm Busch Museum

The German Museum for Caricature &Drawing Art in Hanover, better known as the Wilhelm Busch Museum, has the most comprehensive collection of Busch's works. In addition to drawings and paintings, this also includes sculptures and texts. Correspondence and documents from the estate complement the collection.