Wilhelm Busch, cryptic enigma

Abstract

The principal aims of this study are to dispel the notion that Wilhelm Busch was little more than a popular entertainer, and to show, on the basis of his biography and selected primary works, his serious contribution to letters. By using humour as a primary means to conceal social commentary, his cryptic criticism, directed primarily at the philistine limitations of the bourgeois lifestyle, is often overlooked and as a result, readers may remain incognizant of the underlying message.

The study begins with a close, literal translation of Busch's autobiography Von mir uber mich (1864), deviating as little as possible from the semantics of the German original. A comparison of this autobiography to its earlier versions is followed by an analytical comparison with the biographical facts about him that can be derived from archival sources. This draws attention to Busch's socio-professional origins, refutes legends that have been woven around his persona and establishes the impetus for his development from an aspiring artist making funny pictures for his own pleasure to the creator of mass produced picture stories that succinctly captured contemporary society by integrating societal expectations and cultural trends. In a synthesis of drawings and verses, he depicted a world that became surreal through elimination and exaggeration and in that way presented unmasked reality. Busch's legacy lies in his success in perfecting and popularizing this new form of expression, the new medium to express the problems of the era. Addressing the readers' intuitive understanding rather than intellectual comprehension, his work provokes laughter and invokes the dynamics of society. The reader recognizes Busch's picture story world as a humorous representation of the real world with which he is familiar; he can sense the absurdity of the modern human condition and his alienation from society, but at the same time his unwilling participation in it.

These biographical and sociological investigations of Busch as an author are followed by close textual analyses of the two prose tales, Eduards Traum (1891) and Der Schmetterling (1895). Transcending reality, their surreal environments allegorically mask the absurdity of human existence; here Busch unmistakably demonstrates materialism and resulting selfishness, hostility and dishonesty as universal and irradicable. He had used caustic humour in word and picture to disguise systemic societal hypocrisy in the picture stories, but he clarifies his perceptions through the allegories in Eduards Traum and Der Schmetterling. Thus, if the social criticism and the messages inherent in the prose works are read and understood before the picture stories, then the social criticism in the picture stories becomes heightened and self-evident. Busch's depiction of scenes from the micro-environment allow an accurate extrapolation to the broader social environment and the collective identity of his contemporary society. They open a window on the bourgeois epoch so that the value systems that provided a behavioural framework for the 19th century bourgeoisie can be recognized. Die fromme Helene and Fipps der Affe are examples of futile indoctrination and the consequence of resistance. The power of authority and the futility of defiance are seen when Plisch und Plum are brought to heel by force, or in the annihilation of Max und Moritz. The individual who thinks himself completely in control of his life and his world, but is really without power, is shown in bachelor Tobias Knopp's rude awakening after marriage, in the poet Baluin Bahlamm, thwarted by so many trite occurrences, and in Maler Klecksel, the megalomanic philistine. The citizens in Der Geburtstag oder Die Partikularisten demonstrate a collective identity and the superficiality of such conformity. Through the conduct of his figures, Busch exposed greed, arrogance, bigotry and narrow-mindedness as the results of a society perverting interpersonal relationships. Because his works grant this insight into the late 19th century, they represent a contribution to our understanding of the bourgeois epoch. They can help us understand which interpersonal relations, spiritual and intellectual elements were prevalent, and how the bourgeois lifestyle and mentality functioned. Furthermore, because Busch doesn't see the egotism and duplicity of his own environment as a specific product of that society, but rather as a general human evil that cannot be eradicated, his work still provides opportunities for unmasking facades in society today. Busch's innovative method of line drawings accompanied by verse or short text contributed to the modern beginnings of the comic strip cartoon, which is demonstrated through an analysis of his legacy in that genre and his influence on North American comic strip authors and illustrators, the most far-reaching likely being The Katzenjammer Kids. Analytical comparisons include Busch's progressive forward movement from picture to picture, his method of synergizing drawings and text, as well as (dis)similarities in motifs, characterizations, pranks and messages. In the context of reviewing Busch's legacy, the study also demonstrates how Busch and his works were exploited during the Third Reich, and that efforts to categorize him as a forerunner of National Socialism were base propaganda. The investigation of Busch's legacy concludes by examining the continuing presence of Busch and his work in the awaerness of German-speaking people, as manifested by an abundance of intertextual and intermedial paradigms which convey messages in poignant, easy to remember fashion. This ongoing reference to Busch's works is vastly different societies is final evidence that modern societies still extract answers from the enigmas in his work.