Wilhelm Busch

Born in Wiedensahl in 1832, Wilhelm Busch became one of Germany’s best-known poets, illustrators, and satirists. He studied art in Düsseldorf, Antwerp, and Munich, but found his real strength in humorous picture stories that paired lively drawings with rhyming text.

His most famous work, Max and Moritz (1865), made him widely popular and is often described as an early forerunner of the comic strip. He also wrote and illustrated other satirical favorites, including Die fromme Helene, and was known for a style that could be funny, mischievous, and quietly biting at the same time.

Busch also painted, though his literary and graphic work brought him lasting fame. He died in Mechtshausen in 1908, and his stories have remained influential for generations of readers, cartoonists, and humorists.