In the poem cycle Winter Journey, written in 1821/22, Wilhelm Müller works through earlier traumatic experiences. While stationed in Brussels during the Napoleonic Wars, he had an affair with a local woman that resulted in his dishonourable discharge from the army. During the cold November of 1814, he was forced to leave the city on foot – a humiliation he never got over. His political hopes were shattered by the Carlsbad Decrees, which restored the old power structures. These two experiences, the political and the personal, are reflected in the poems of the Winter Journey cycle. Twelve were published in 1823, the complete cycle in 1824. Schubert used the two editions displayed here.