Erich Schilling was born in Germany in 1885. He studied art and developed a style that one critic has described as imitated the "bold, ragged lines and strong tonal contrasts of German medieval woodcuts".

Schilling worked for Kladderadatsch and Simplicissimus and although he was critical of the Nazi Party in the early 1930s, he changed his views after Adolf Hitler gained power. Whereas some of Germany's cartoonists such as Thomas Heine and Walter Trier left the country, Schilling became a fervent support of the new regime.

During the Second World War, Schilling portrayed Winston Churchill as a drunk. Erich Schilling committed suicide when the Third Reich collapsed in 1945.