On Christmas Day of 1842, a letter published in the Leipziger Allgemeine Zeitung caused quite a stir among the readers. The letter, which was addressed to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, was written by Georg Herwegh, a young revolutionary poet (and important representative) of the Vormärz period in Germany. In a defiant and provocative tone, the author condemns the political situation in the German Empire – in particular the repressive treatment of the unpopular literature and press in Prussia, where the consequences of the Carlsbad Decrees were keenly felt particularly in the form of increased censorship. The King reacted immediately by banishing Herwegh in December of the same year and punishing publication of the letter by banning the Leipziger Allgemeine Zeitung throughout Prussia.

The caricature, which appeared anonymously at the beginning of 1843, shows the suffering of the newspaper, which – like Prometheus – is being punished for its wrongdoing by a huge eagle. At the scene, in front of the F. A. Brockhaus publishing premises, members of various groups – among them clerics and the military, but also members of the literary community – watch what is going on with disinterest on their faces. Only the publisher Heinrich Brockhaus and his editor Gustav Julius, who appears to be stabbing himself with a dagger out of desperation, bemoan together with the weeping godly messenger Hermes the sad fate of their newspaper and the loss of the freedom of the press.