Krischan mit der Piepe (?)

1858–1865

Work for the “Fliegende Blätter” and Kaspar Braun

Busch drew close to the artists' association Jung München (Young Munich), wrote and drew for its newspaper, and the publisher of satirical papers Kaspar Braun proposed a collaboration that gave him enough to live on. Between 1860 and 1863 he contributed more than a hundred pieces to the “Münchener Bilderbogen” and “Fliegende Blätter”.

1862

The end of his courtship of Anna Richter

His courtship of the seventeen-year-old merchant's daughter Anna Richter, whom he had met through his brother Gustav, ended in 1862; the biographer Diers suggests that her father probably refused to entrust his daughter to an almost unknown artist without regular income.

1862

The fairytale masquerade ball with the future King Ludwig II

Busch spearheaded the Fairytale Maskenfest, a fairytale-themed masquerade ball attended by the future king Ludwig II.

until 1863

Unsuccessful attempts to write opera libretti

In his early Munich years Busch tried his hand at libretti — a romantic opera, “Liebestreu und Grausamkeit”, “Hansel und Gretel”, and the opera buffa “Der Vetter auf Besuch” — without success; after a quarrel with the composer Georg Kremplsetzer over the staging of “Der Vetter”, Busch's name was removed from the production.

1864

A new publisher, Richter, and the failure of “Bilderpossen”

Feeling his dependence on Kaspar Braun had become constricting, Busch appointed the Dresden publisher Heinrich Richter, son of the painter Ludwig Richter, as his new publisher, but the tales published in 1864 as “Bilderpossen” were a failure.

1865

“Max and Moritz”: Richter declines, Braun buys

Busch offered Richter the manuscript of “Max and Moritz” without a fee, but Richter rejected it as sales prospects seemed poor; his former publisher Braun bought the rights for 1,000 gulden, roughly twice a craftsman's annual wage. The book tells of seven pranks by two mischievous boys who are finally ground up and fed to ducks.