It all begins with the old children's rhyme: "Once upon a time, there was a man who had a sponge." But then the rhyme and the story take on a life of their own, and the man with the childlike spirit and strange clothing embarks on an anarchically humorous journey around the world. He meets a beaver with Ottilie, a ship that walks on six legs, and a shirt that "was strangely foreign to him." Finally, on the moon, he encounters a man "who had a sponge / and so the story starts all over again." Hans Traxler, the author and illustrator of this cult book, was a contributor to the legendary magazine "pardon" and a founding member of the satirical magazine "Titanic." Together with Robert Gernhardt, F. W. Bernstein, and others, he wrote a chapter in the history of German philosophy as part of the "New Frankfurt School.".