Wilhelm Busch

Heinrich Christian Wilhelm Busch (14 April 1832 – 9 January 1908) worked as a German humorist, poet, illustrator, and painter. He created illustrated stories that were highly original and still shape the medium today. His satire drew from folk humor and a deep knowledge of German literature and art, targeting contemporary life, piety of any kind, Catholicism, Philistinism, religious morality, bigotry, and moral uplift. His skill in drawing and verse influenced later comic artists and vernacular poets. For instance, *The Katzenjammer Kids* was inspired by his work *Max and Moritz*. His legacy is preserved through the Wilhelm Busch Prize and the Wilhelm Busch Museum. Germany celebrated the 175th anniversary of his birth in 2007. He is considered a major poet and artist in Western Europe and is often called the "Forefather of Comics."

Busch’s maternal grandfather, Johann Georg Kleine, bought a thatched half-timbered house in Wiedensahl in 1817, where Busch was born fifteen years later. His grandmother, Amalie Kleine, ran a shop where his mother Henriette helped while her brothers attended high school. After Johann Georg Kleine died in 1820, Amalie continued the shop with Henriette. At 19, Henriette married surgeon Friedrich Wilhelm Stümpe, but he died when she was 26, and their three children died as infants. Around 1830, Friedrich Wilhelm Busch, a farmer’s illegitimate son, settled in Wiedensahl after a business apprenticeship in Loccum. He took over and modernized the Kleine shop, then married Henriette Kleine Stümpe.

Wilhelm Busch was the first of seven children born to Henriette and Friedrich Wilhelm Busch, arriving on 14 April 1832. His siblings—Fanny (1834), Gustav (1836), Adolf (1838), Otto (1841), Anna (1843), and Hermann (1845)—all survived childhood. His parents were ambitious, hardworking, devout Protestants who, despite later prosperity, could not afford to educate all three sons. Biographer Berndt W. Wessling suggested that Friedrich Wilhelm Busch invested heavily in his sons’ education partly because his own illegitimacy carried stigma in rural areas.

As a child, Busch was tall and delicate. He was not coarse like his later characters Max and Moritz. In autobiographical sketches and letters, he described himself as sensitive and timid, someone who “carefully studied fear.” He reacted with fascination, compassion, and distress when animals were killed in autumn, calling the “transformation to sausage” dreadfully compelling. Pork nauseated him for life.

In autumn 1841, after his brother Otto’s birth, Busch was sent to study under his maternal uncle, clergyman Georg Kleine, in Ebergötzen. This was likely due to lack of space at home and his father’s wish for better schooling than the local one could offer. The nearest convenient school was in Bückeburg, 20 km away. Kleine and his wife Fanny Petri lived in a rectory, while Busch lodged with another family. They were caring and acted as substitute parents, offering him refuge in later difficult times. Kleine’s private lessons were also attended by Erich Bachmann, a miller’s son, who became Busch’s strongest childhood friend. This friendship echoed in the 1865 story *Max and Moritz*. A pencil portrait by the 14-year-old Busch showed Bachmann as a chubby, confident boy resembling Max, while Busch depicted himself with a “cowlick” in a Moritzian style.

Kleine, a philologist, taught in an older language, so not all subjects are known. Busch learned elementary arithmetic, and likely more comprehensive science, since Kleine was a beekeeper who published essays and textbooks on the subject—Busch later showed knowledge of beekeeping in his stories. Kleine also taught drawing and German and English poetry. Busch had little contact with his parents during this time. The 165 km journey between Wiedensahl and Ebergötzen took three days by horse. His father visited two to three times a year; his mother stayed home. When the 12-year-old Busch visited his family once, his mother did not recognize him. Some biographers think this early separation led to his eccentric bachelorhood. In autumn 1846, Busch moved with the Kleines to Lüthorst, where he was confirmed on 11 April 1847.

In September 1847, Busch began studying mechanical engineering at Hannover Polytechnic. Biographers disagree on why his Hanover education ended. Most believe his father had little appreciation for his artistic inclination. Biographer Eva Weissweiler suspects Kleine played a major role, and other possible causes included Busch’s friendship with an innkeeper named Brümmer, political debates in Brümmer’s tavern, and Busch’s reluctance to believe every word of the Bible and catechism. Despite initial difficulties, Busch studied at Hanover for nearly four years.