Erich Schilling made his first caricatures for Der Wahren Jacob. He was on the editorial board of Simplicissimus magazine from 1907 to 1944, and also contributed to Kladderadatsch. Although initially opposed to the Nazi Party, he eventually became a supporter of the new regime. He continued to work for Simplicissimus after its transformation to national-socialist propaganda paper. He took his own life in Munich when the Third Reich collapsed in 1945.