-1924 Totentanz

A Death Dance or Danse Macabre

In Budzinski’s wordless story, Totentanz, the Grim Reaper attempts to seduce the Maiden with music and dance, only to find the tables turned with the Maiden triumphing over Death.

Totentanz consists of a folder cover with an image, an introduction, and 8 sheets telling the story. The publication provides no information as to the printing date, place of publication, etc. A WorldCat listing supplied the publication information. The image on the folder cover appears to be a woodcut. It was not used in the 1948 version.

Title: Totentanz
Author: Robert Budzinski
Illustrator: Robert Budzinski
Introduction: Max Barthel
Date of publication: 1924 (Note: the year 1924 is based on worldcat.org entry details. Other sources have advanced 1918 and c. 1920s)
Publisher: Verlag Die Wölfe (Note: the name of the publisher is based on the worldcat.org entry details)
Place of publication: Leipzig
Printer: ?
Copyright: Artist?
Dimensions:
Binding: 8 sheets and the introduction loose in a folder
Language: German titles, etc
Paginated: sheets are numbered
Printed: sheets are printed one side only
Printed from the original matrix: ?

These 8 images tell the story of Death approaching the Maiden, attempting to seduce her with music and dance, but ultimately the Maiden vanquishes Death, at least for the time being.

Image #2 was later used for the cover of the 1948 version and #6 was not used in the later version.

All 8 sheets are initialled in the lower right of the image. Each sheet has printed below the image lower right “R. Budzinski”; lower left is printed “Totentanz, Blatt” (German for “sheet”) and then the sheet number.

There is a suggestion Budzinski’s mistress and muse, Erika Stern, had been seriously ill but made a recovery and this series was based on that. Any information in this regard would be appreciated.

1948 rewrite

In 1948, Budzinski streamlined the story to make it clearer. He also used a new introduction. The 1948 version can be seen here.