Whilst working on it Büchner always feared arrest. It only reached print in 1835 after being heavily cut and having the politics softened by sexual innuendo. Research for the play started in late 1834 and he completed a first version of the complete script in five weeks from mid January to mid February 1835. The same year saw a version published by Karl Gutzkow in the "Literatur-Blatt" of Eduard Duller's "Phönix. Frühlings-Zeitung für Deutschland" and a book-version in Johann David Sauerländer's Phönix-Verlag, including both the original and Duller's version and giving them the subtitle "Dramatic Scenes from France's reign of terror" to appease the censor. This makes it the only one of Büchner's plays to be published in his lifetime, albeit in a heavily censored version.