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Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg
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Dr. Maria Effinger

Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Plöck 107-109
69117 Heidelberg
Tel: +49 (0) 6221-54-3561

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Bettina Müller, M.A.

Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg
Plöck 107-109
69117 Heidelberg
Tel: +49 (0) 6221-54-3528

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Fliegende Blätter – digitized

Erste Seite der ersten Ausgabe der Fliegenden Blätter von 1845 Fliegende Blätter, a humourous-satirical weekly was published from 1844 to 1944 by Braun & Schneider, a Munic publishing house. The individual issues, each about eight pages long, appeared weekly, for years undated.

Fliegende Blätter were highly esteemed for their precise and satirical characterization of the German bourgeoisie and can be considered as a compendium of humorous social criticism. Two popular comic characters – Biedermann and Bummelmeier – gave their names to the term "Biedermeier".

The artistic and typographical quality is remarkable. The initiators of Fliegende Blätter were the bookseller and illustrator Kaspar Braun (1807-1877) and the publisher Friedrich Schneider (1815-1864), the owners of the publishing house "Braun & Schneider". The astonishing expressive quality of the illustrations is due to the fact that the engravers were trained by the publishing house to print illustrations directly from the woodblock (galvanizing techniques were introduced in 1885).

A number of renowned artists contributed to Fliegende Blätter, e.g. Wilhelm Busch, Gustav Adolf Closs, Hans Kaufmann, Adolf Oberländer, Franz Graf von Pocci, Moritz von Schwind and Carl Spitzweg.

Further Reading

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