In 1883, he married Hulda Frieske, with whom he had three children. She died in 1919. Zille became best known for his (often funny) drawings, catching the characteristics of people, especially "stereotypes", mainly from Berlin and many of them published in the German weekly satirical newspaper
Simplicissimus. He was the first to portray the desperate
social environment of the Berlin
Mietskasernen (literally "tenement
barracks"), buildings packed with sometimes a dozen persons per room who fled from the rural regions to the
expanding industrial metropolis during the
Gründerzeit only to find even deeper poverty in the developing
proletarian class. His special talent was the scathingly humorous portrayal of what were in reality quite unfunny life conditions of handicapped beggars, tuberculous prostitutes, and menial labourers, and especially their children, making the best they could of life and resolutely refusing to give up. , 1922 Zille did not consider himself a real artist: he often said that his work was not the result of talent but merely of hard work.
Max Liebermann nevertheless promoted him. He called him into the
Berlin Secession in 1903, featured his work in exhibitions, and encouraged him to sell drawings – and when Zille lost his job as a lithographer in 1910, he encouraged him to live from his drawings alone. The Berlin "Common People" paid him the greatest respect, and very late in life his fame culminated when both poverty and freedom of expression reached new heights in the
roaring twenties, with the
National Gallery buying some drawings in 1921, the
Academy of the Arts honouring him with a professorship in 1924, and
Gerhard Lamprecht making the film
Die Verrufenen based on his cartoon characters and stories in 1925. His 70th birthday in 1928 was celebrated throughout Berlin. He died one year later. He is buried at the
Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery near Berlin. ==Legacy and honors==