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Works of Poet and Painter Wilhelm Busch Still Bring Joy to Young Readers and Young at Heart
Author and painter Wilhelm Busch, Germany’s foremost poet and humorist, was born in Wiedensahl, near Hannover, on April 15th, 1832. Most known for his satirical picture stories, Busch is regarded as one of the forefathers of the modern comic strip. Due to a lack of space at his parent’s house, the young Wilhelm, the eldest of seven children, was forced to move to his uncle’s home in Ebergötzen near Göttingen when he was nine years old. There, the son of the local miller, Erich Bachmann, became his closest and lifelong friend. In their youth, the two friends spent much time together at the father’s mill, which is described in Busch’s most famous and loved book, “Max und Moritz.” The mill in Ebergötzen can still be visited today and draws many tourists to the region. When Busch was 15 years old, his father sent him to study mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Hanover. Unhappy with his father’s selection of a vocation, Busch broke off his studies there in 1851 and began studying applied arts at the academies of art in Düsseldorf, Antwerp, and Munich.
In 1865 he wrote and illustrated “Max und Moritz.” As he was still a student at the time and had no money or experience, Busch sold the rights to the book to his publisher, Kasper Braun, for 1,700 gold marks. Braun became rich from the sales of the book. Only years later did Busch receive a settlement of 20,000 gold marks, which he donated to charity. In addition to his numerous picture stories, Busch painted about 1,000 oil paintings, which were not released until after his death on January 9th, 1908. Today, Wilhelm Busch’s satirical stories are still very popular and read by children and adults alike; recordings have been made of several of them. The city of Hannover is celebrating Wilhelm Busch Year in 2007, and a documentary on his life was recently telecast in Germany. Every year the Wilhelm Busch Award is presented to an author for humorous and satirical composition. Some of Busch’s verses have even become proverbs, such as, Vater werden ist nicht schwer, Vater sein dagegen sehr (“to become a father is not hard, to be one, however, is very.”) Two exhibitions are currently on display in Hanover at the Wilhelm Busch Museum to commemorate Wilhelm Busch’s life and work on the anniversary of his birth. April 15, 2007 Links the following links are only available in German
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