Editing Wilhelm Busch (section)

==Themes, technique, and style==
[[File:Jaja, das kommt von das.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Final illustration from ''Diogenes und die bösen Buben von Korinth'']]
Busch biographer Joseph Kraus divided his work into three periods. He points out, however, that this classification is a simplification, as some works by their nature may be of a later or earlier period.<ref>Kraus, p. 46</ref> All three periods show Busch's obsession with German middle class life.<ref>Ueding, pp. 296–297</ref> His peasants are devoid of sensitivity and village life is marked by a vivid lack of sentiment.<ref>Ueding, pp. 301–302</ref>

From 1858 to 1865 Busch chiefly worked for the ''Fliegenden Blätter'' and the ''Münchener Bilderbogen''.

The period from 1866 to 1884 is characterized by his major illustrated stories, such as ''Helen Who Couldn't Help It''. These stories are different in theme from works of his earlier period. The life of his characters start well, but disintegrate, as in ''Painter Squirtle'' (Maler Klecksel); someone sensitive who becomes a [[pedant]]. Others concern recalcitrant children or animals, or make the great or significant foolish and ridiculous.<ref>Ueding, p. 46</ref> The early stories follow the pattern of children's books of orthodox education, such as those by [[Heinrich Hoffmann (author)|Heinrich Hoffmann]]'s ''[[Struwwelpeter]]'', that aim to teach the devastating consequences of bad behaviour.<ref>Ueding, pp. 71–72</ref> Busch did not assign value to his work, as he once explained to Heinrich Richter: "I look at my things for what they are, as Nuremberg trinkets [toys], as Schnurr Pfeiferen [worthless and useless things] whose value is to be found not in its artistic content, but in public demand (...)".<ref>Weissweiler, p. 120</ref>

From 1885 until his death in 1908 his work was dominated by prose and poems. The 1895 prose text ''Der Schmetterling'' contains autobiographical accounts.<ref>Pietzcker, Frank: ''Symbol und Wirklichkeit im Werk Wilhelm Buschs – Die versteckten Aussagen seiner Bildergeschichten.'', Europäische Hochschulschriften, Frankfurt am Main 2002, {{ISBN|3-631-39313-X}}, pp. 71, 104</ref> Peter's enchantment by the witch Lucinde, of whom he regards himself a slave, is possibly in reference to Johanna Kessler. Peter, like Busch, returns to his birthplace. It is similar in style to the romantic travel story that [[Ludwig Tieck]] established with his 1798 ''Franz Sternbalds Wanderungen''. Busch plays with its traditional forms, motifs, pictures, [[Literary topos|literary topics]], and form of narration.<ref>Ueding, p. 221</ref>

===Technique===
Publisher [[Kaspar Braun]], who commissioned Busch's first illustrations, had established the first workshop in Germany to use [[wood engraving]]. This [[letterpress printing]] technique was developed by English graphic artist [[Thomas Bewick]] near the end of the eighteenth century and became the most widely used reproduction system for illustrations over the years. Busch insisted on first making the drawings, afterward writing the verse. Surviving preparatory drawings show line notes, ideas, and movement, and [[physiognomy]] studies.<ref>Schury, p. 87</ref>

Then the draft was transferred by pencil on white-primed panels of [[hardwood]] [[Wood grain|end grain]]. Not only was it hard work, but the quality of the printing block was crucial.<ref>Schury, pp. 89–90</ref> Everything left white on the block, around Busch's drawn lines, was cut from the plate by skilled [[Engraving|engravers]]. Wood engraving allows a finer differentiation than [[woodcut]] and the potential tonal values are of almost the quality of [[Intaglio (printmaking)|intaglio]] printing, such as copper [[engraving]]. Sometimes the result was not satisfactory, leading Busch to rework or reproduce plates.<ref>Schury, p. 91</ref> The wood engraving technique did not allow for fine lines, which is why Busch's drawing, especially in his illustrated tales up to the mid-1870s, are boldly drawn, giving his work its particular characteristic.<ref>Diers, pp. 41–42</ref>

From the mid-1870s Busch's illustrations were printed using [[zincography]]. With this technique there was no longer any danger that a wood engraver could change the character of his drawings. The originals were photographed and transferred onto a photosensitive zinc plate. This process allowed for the application of a clear, free pen-drawn ink line, and was a much faster printing method. Busch's use of zincography began with ''Mr. and Mrs. Knopp''.<ref>Weissweiler, p. 254</ref>

===Language===
The effect of Busch's illustrations is enhanced by his forthright verse, with taunts, derision, ironic twists, exaggeration, ambiguity, and startling rhymes.<ref>Kraus, p. 126</ref> His language had an influence on the humorous poetry of [[Erich Kästner]], [[Kurt Tucholsky]], [[Joachim Ringelnatz]], and [[Christian Morgenstern]].<ref>Wessling, pp. 120–121</ref> The contrast in his later work between comic illustration and its seemingly serious accompanying text&nbsp;– already demonstrated in his earlier ''Max and Moritz''&nbsp;– is shown in Widow Bolte's mawkish dignity, which is disproportionate to the loss of her chickens:<ref>Kraus, p. 47</ref>
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<poem>
Fließet aus dem Aug', ihr Tränen!
All mein Hoffen, all mein Sehnen,
Meines Lebens schönster Traum
Hängt an diesem Apfelbaum!"
</poem>
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<poem>
Flow, my tears, then, scoring, burning,
All my comfort, hope, and yearning,
All I dreamt might come to be
Dangles from this apple tree!"
</poem>
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[[File:Max und Moritz (Busch) 014.png|thumb|right|240px|A scene from ''Max and Moritz'']]
Many of Busch's [[couplet]]s, part of contemporary common usage, give the impression of weighty wisdom, but in his hands become only apparent truths, hypocrisy, or [[Bromide (language)|platitudes]]. His use of [[onomatopoeia]] is a characteristic of his work: "Allez-oop-da"&nbsp;— Max and Moritz steal fried chickens with a fishing rod down a chimney&nbsp;— "reeker-rawker"; "at the plank from bank to bank"; "rickle-rackle", "hear the millstones grind and crackle"; and "tinkly-clinket" as Eric the cat rips a chandelier from a ceiling in ''Helen Who Couldn't Help It''. Busch uses names he gives characters to describe their personality. "Studiosus Döppe" (Young Bumbel) has little mental ability; "Sauerbrots" ([[Sourdough]]) would not be of a cheerful disposition; and "Förster Knarrtje" (Forester Knarrtje) could hardly be a socialite.<ref>Diers, p. 118</ref>

Many of his picture stories use verses with [[trochee]] structure:<ref>Pietzcker, p. 26</ref>
<poem>
'''Mas'''ter '''Lam'''pel's '''gen'''tle '''pow'''ers
'''Failed''' with '''ras'''cals '''such''' as '''ours'''
</poem>
The overweighting of the stressed [[syllable]]s strengthens the humour of the lines. Busch also uses [[Dactyl (poetry)|dactyls]], where one accented syllable is followed by two unaccented syllables, as in his ''Plisch und Plum'', where they underline the pedantic and solemn words with which teacher Bokelmann educates his pupils. They create tension in the Sourdough chapter from ''Adventures of a Bachelor'', through the alternation of trochees and dactyls.<ref>Pietzcker, pp. 28–30</ref> Busch often synchronizes format and content in his poems, as in ''Fips the Monkey'', where he uses the epic [[hexameter]] in a speech about wisdom.<ref>Pietzcker, p. 30</ref>

In both his illustrations and poems Busch uses familiar fables, occasionally appropriating their morality and stories, spinning them to illustrate a very different and comic "truth",<ref>Ueding, pp. 103, 105</ref> and bringing to bear his pessimistic view of the world and human condition. While traditional fables follow the typical philosophy of differentiating between good and evil behaviour, Busch combines both.<ref>Ueding, pp. 106–107</ref>

===Canings and other cruelties===
[[File:Busch Werke v3 p 326.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Two scenes from ''Fips the Monkey'']]
It is not unusual to see thrashing, tormenting, and [[caning]] in Busch's works. Sharp pencils pierced through models, housewives fall onto kitchen knives, thieves are spiked by umbrellas, tailors cut their tormentors with scissors, rascals are ground in [[Gristmill|corn mills]], drunkards burn, and cats, dogs, and monkeys defecate while being tormented. Frequently Busch has been called a [[Sadistic personality disorder|sadist]] by educators and psychologists.<ref>Weissweiler, p. 94</ref> Tails that are burnt, pulled off, trapped, stretched, or eaten is seen by Weissweiler as not aggression against animals, but a [[Phallus|phallic]] allusion to Busch's undeveloped sexual life.<ref name="Weissweiler, p. 194"/> Such graphic text and imagery in cartoon form was not unusual at the time, and publishers, the public, or censors found it not particularly noteworthy.<ref name="Weissweiler, p. 51"/> Topics and motifs for his early work were derived from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century popular literature, the gruesome endings of which he often softened.<ref>Pietzcker, pp. 15–16</ref>

Caning, a common aspect of nineteenth-century teaching, is prevalent in many of his works, for example Meister Druff in ''Adventures of a Bachelor'' and Lehrer Bokelmann in ''Plish and Plum'', where it is shown as an almost sexual pleasure in applying punishment.<ref>Mihr, pp. 76–79</ref> Beatings and humiliation are found in his later work too; biographer Gudrun Schury described this as Busch's life-motif.<ref>Schury, p. 27</ref> <!--In the 1904 poetry collection ''Zu guter Letzt'' there is written:
:''Es saust der Stock, es schwirrt die Rute.
:''Du darfst nicht zeigen, was du bist
:''Wie schad, o Mensch, daß dir das Gute
:''Im Grunde so zuwider ist.
-->

In the estate of Busch there is the note, "Durch die Kinderjahre hindurchgeprügelt" (Beaten through the childhood years),<ref>Mihr, p. 71</ref> however there is no evidence that Busch was referring to himself.<ref>Schury, p. 23</ref> He couldn't recall any beating from his father. His uncle Kleine beat him once, not with the conventional [[rattan]] stick, but symbolically with dried [[dahlia]] stalks, this for stuffing cow hairs into a village idiot's pipe.<ref>Kraus, p. 15</ref> Weissweiler observes that Busch probably saw canings at his village school, where he went for three years, and quite possibly he also received this punishment.<ref>Weissweiler, p. 22</ref> In ''Abenteuer eines Junggesellen'' Busch illustrates a form of nonviolent progressive education that fails in one scene, and caning in the following scene; the canings that ensued indicate Busch's pessimistic picture of life, which has its roots in the [[Augustine of Hippo|Protestant]] ethic of the nineteenth century,<ref>Mihr, pp. 27–40, 61–70</ref> in which he believed that humans are inherently evil and will never master their vices. Civilisation is the aim of education, but it can only mask human instincts superficially.<ref>Pietzcker, p. 67</ref> Gentleness only leads to a continuation of human misdeeds, therefore punishment is required, even if one retains an unrepentant character, becomes a trained puppet, or in extreme cases, dies.<ref>Schury, pp. 29–30</ref>

===Antisemitism===
[[File:Busch Werke v3 p 477.jpg|thumb|right|upright|240px|Preface of the fifth chapter of ''Plisch und Plum'']]
The [[Panic of 1873]] led to growing criticism of high finance and the spread of radical [[Antisemitism]], which in the 1880s became a broad undercurrent.<ref>[[Volker Ullrich|Ullrich, Volker]]: ''Die nervöse Großmacht: Aufstieg und Untergang des deutschen Kaiserreichs 1871–1918'', [[S. Fischer Verlag|Fischer Taschenbuch]] 17240, Frankfurt on the Main, 2006, {{ISBN|978-3-596-11694-2}}, p. 383</ref> These criticisms saw a separation of capital into what was construed as "raffendes" ([[financial capital|speculative capital]]), and what constituted "constructive" creative ("schaffendes") production capital. The "good", "native", and "German" manufacturer was praised by Antisemitic [[Political demonstration|agitator]]s, such as [[Theodor Fritsch]], who opposed what he saw as "'rapacious' 'greedy', 'blood-sucking', 'Jewish' financial capitalism in the form of '[[Plutocracy|plutocrats]]' and 'usurers'".<ref>Piefel, Matthias: ''Antisemitismus und völkische Bewegung im Königreich Sachsen 1879–1914'', V&R unipress Göttingen, 2004, {{ISBN|3-89971-187-4}}</ref> Busch was thought to have embraced those [[stereotype]]s. Two passages are often underlined, one in ''Helen Who Couldn't Help It'':
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<poem>
Und der Jud mit krummer Ferse,
Krummer Nas' und krummer Hos'
Schlängelt sich zur hohen Börse
Tiefverderbt und seelenlos.
</poem>
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<poem>
And the Hebrew, sly and craven,
Round of shoulder, nose, and knee,
Slinks to the Exchange, unshaven
And intent on usury
</poem>
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<!--
Even more obvious remarks are found in ''[[Plisch und Plum]]''; according to biographer Joseph Kraus, they could have been written for anti-Semitical hate sheets, and Weissweiler noted they were the most memorable and ugliest depictions of a German Jew.<ref>Kraus, p. 87</ref><ref>Weissweiler, p. 300</ref>
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<poem>
Kurz die Hose, lang der Rock
Krumm die Nase und der Stock
Augen schwarz und Seele grau,
Hut nach hinten, Miene schlau&nbsp;—
So ist Schmulchen Schiefelbeiner
(Schöner ist doch unsereiner!)
</poem>
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<poem>
</poem>
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-->
[[Robert Gernhardt]] defended Busch by stating that Jews are satirized only in three passages, of which the oldest is an illustration of a text by another author, published in 1860. He stated that Busch's Jewish figures are merely stereotypical, one of a number of stereotypes, such as the "limited Bavarian farmer" and the "Prussian tourist".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.literaturkritik.de/public/rezension.php?rez_id=6369&ausgabe=200309|title=Schöner ist doch unsereiner|author=Gernhardt, Robert|language=de|access-date=29 January 2013}}</ref> Joseph Kraus shares the same view, and uses a couplet from ''Eight Sheets in the Wind'' (Die Haarbeutel),<ref>Kraus, pp. 88–89</ref> in which profit-seeking people are:
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<poem>
Vornehmlich Juden, Weiber, Christen,
Die dich ganz schrecklich überlisten.
[Mainly Jews, women, Christians / Who outwit you terribly]
</poem>
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<poem>
Most often wenches, Christians, Jews,
Who would much sooner see you lose
</poem>
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<!--The non-Jew is therefore not better, as the ironical row "Schöner ist doch unsereiner!" indicates in ''Plüsch und Plum''.-->Although Gernhardt felt that Jews for Busch were alien, the Jewish conductor [[Hermann Levi]] befriended him, suggesting that Busch's bias against Jews was slight.<ref>Kraus, p. 90</ref>