Max and Moritz
Max
and Moritz: A Story of Seven Boyish Pranks (original: Max und Moritz – Eine Bubengeschichte in
sieben Streichen) is a German
language illustrated story in verse. This
highly inventive, blackly humorous
tale, told entirely in rhymed couplets, was written and illustrated by Wilhelm
Busch and published in 1865. It is among
the early works of Busch, yet it already featured many substantial, effectually
aesthetic and formal regularities, procedures and basic patterns of Busch's
later works.[1] Many familiar with comic
strip history consider it to have been
the direct inspiration for the Katzenjammer
Kids and Quick
& Flupke. The German title satirizes the
German custom of giving a subtitle to the name of dramas in the form of
"Ein Drama in ... Akten" (A Drama in ... Acts), which became
dictum in colloquial usage for any event with an unpleasant or dramatic course,
e.g. "Bundespräsidentenwahl - Drama in drei Akten" (Federal
Presidential Elections - Drama in Three Acts).[2]
Cultural significance
Busch's
classic tale of the terrible duo (now in the public
domain) has since become a proud part of
the culture in German-speaking countries. Even today, parents usually read
these tales to their not-yet-literate children. To this day in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, a certain familiarity with the story and its rhymes is
still presumed, as it is often referenced in mass communication. The two
leering faces are synonymous with mischief, and appear almost logo-like in
advertising and even graffiti.
During
World War 1, the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen, named his dog Moritz, giving the name Max to another
animal given to his friend.[3][4]
Max
and Moritz is the first published original
foreign children's book in Japan
which was translated into rōmaji by Shinjirō Shibutani and Kaname Oyaizu in 1887 as Wanpaku
monogatari ("Naughty stories").[5]
Max
and Moritz became the forerunners to the comic strip. The story inspired Rudolph
Dirks to create The Katzenjammer Kids.[6]
After
World War 2, German-U.S. composer Richard
Mohaupt created together with choreographer
Alfredo Bortoluzzi the dance burlesque (Tanzburleske) Max
und Moritz, which premiered at Badisches
Staatstheater Karlsruhe on
December 18, 1949.
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