1883

Joachim Ringelnatz was born as Hans Bötticher in Wurzen near Leipzig on August 7. His mother, Rosa Marie Bötticher, worked on beaded embroidery patterns alongside managing the household; his father, Georg Bötticher, was a pattern designer and later a children's book author. The family lived in modest comfort and employed two maids.

1901 — 1909

Without his parents' knowledge, Ringelnatz signed on as a cabin boy and was later employed as a sailor on sailing and steamships. He completed a commercial apprenticeship in Hamburg, worked as a caretaker in a boarding house, began an apprenticeship in a roofing felt factory, and was employed in a Munich travel agency.

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1909 — 1914

Publication of first autobiographical stories, children's stories and grotesque-comic poems, including The snuff box  (1912), Everyone is alive  (1913). Among other things, he earned his living as a librarian for the York Graf von Wartenburg family in Silesia and as a tourist guide and window decorator in Munich. York Graf von Wartenburg later became part of the inner circle of resistance against Hitler, took part in the assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 and was executed in Berlin-Plötzensee.

1914—1918

Military service in the Navy. Ringelnatz became an officer.

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1919

Now he called himself Joachim Ringelnatz, perhaps because of the seahorse he adored, which is also colloquially called Ringelnass.

1920

Publication of Ballads of Sailor Kuttel Daddeldu and the gymnastics poems.

1923

On April 23, first public exhibition of his visual art at Flechtheim Gallery in Berlin.
In September, the second exhibition at Flechtheim.

From 1924

Exhibitions in the Würthle Gallery, Vienna, in the Frankfurt branch of Flechtheim Gallery and in December in the Nierendorf Gallery together with Otto Dix and George Grosz.

1925—1928

First participation in the annual exhibition of Academy of Arts, sale of the painting Winter before the opening. Exhibitions in the Berlin Gallery Wiltschek and in the Heinrich Brachfeld Gallery in Leipzig.

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1929

Participation in the exhibition New Art in the Orangery in Kassel. Joining artists' associations November Group and Young Rhineland.

1931

Exhibition in the club house of Berlin artist.

1933

Ringelnatz did not become a member of the National Socialist Reich Chamber of Culture and could no longer appear publicly. His image 11 o'clock at night became part of the Berlin National Gallery in 1937 at the campaign Degenerate Art and was bought by art dealer Gurlitt. It was considered lost for a long time until it reappeared in Cornelius Gurlitt's collection in 2012. It is now in the Kunstmuseum Bern.

1934

November 16: Joachim Ringelnatz died impoverished of a lung disease in Berlin. According to his last wish, he was carried to the grave under the sounds of the sailor song La Paloma.

1935—1945

The Secret children's playbook, The Children's confusion book, Kuttel Daddeldu and the Gymnastics Poems were on the list of harmful and unwanted literature. Other books were revised and erotic poems removed. During the war, Nazi publishing houses released "illegal" Ringelnatz poetry collections for soldiers, so-called knapsack books.

1955

Die documenta didn't show any works of his art. The painter Joachim Ringelnatz was forgotten in the post-war period. Only a few of his paintings found their way into public museums. His literature, however, fared differently: To this day, Ringelnatz's poems are a constant presence on stages large and small. His books are continually reprinted.