[1][2] The painting belongs to a series of "cosmic landscapes" that Klee created in a large number between 1917 and 1919, where its expressed a symbolic conception of nature.

Dangerous times begin now, when nature wants to swallow me, I am nothing anymore, but I have peace.”[3] The painting was purchased shortly after its completion by Paul Küppers, the director of the Hannoverscher Künstlerverein, and his wife Sophie, later Lissitzky-Küppers, directly from the artist's studio in Munich.

[4] In 1941, one of Hitler's official art dealers, Hildebrand Gurlitt[5] bought the picture from the German Reich for 500 Swiss francs.

It was then acquired for DM 700,000 by the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation and the city of Munich, which loaned it to the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus.

The principles of lifting the statute of limitations according to the Washington Declaration, to which the public museums in Germany have committed themselves, do not apply in this case, since the Lenbachhaus is a private foundation.