Yes!
Its here!
Perhaps our most requested Urban Legends video so far!
With a population of over 82 million people - its no surprise that there are a lot of
stories to go about in Germany - it has a rich history dating back centuries and beyond
- if you've liked our European urban legends so far - then Germany is at the heart of all
of that - I think it has some of the scariest stories I've seen so far, and you know I've
seen a lot now, but lets see what you think - my name is Danny Burke and this is the Top
10 Scary German Urban Legends.
Coming in at number 10 we have The Morbach Monster.
The town of Wittlich is said to be the last place in Germany where a werewolf was spotted
and killed.
The story goes that a soldier named Thomas Schwytzer raided a farmhouse there with some
soldiers.
They murdered the family and according to legend, as Thomas killed the husband and sons,
the wife laid a curse on him -From now on, at each full moon, you will change into a
rabid wolf!- she cried.
From that day on, he began to change.
He became more brutal and murderous.
His appetite for violence and blood grew too much, his fellow soldiers left him.
He eventually abandoned civilization altogether and chose to live feral in the woods.
Locals began to talk of the wolfman who lived in the woods.
Then the killings began, the Wolfman was blamed for the brutal slaughter of people and livestock.
Nobody suspected it was Thomas until he raped a local woman called Elizabeth.
A group of villages confronted him and demanded he pays for his crimes.
He fled but was confronted near the village of Morbach.
They killed him and in order to stop him from returning as a werewolf, a shrine with a candle
was placed at the grave site.
Legend says that as long as a candle is kept burning there, the creature shall be bound
to the grave.
9 months later, Elizabeth gave birth to a son which, to her relief, showed no sign of
the curse and whose descendants still live in the area.
The story doesn't end there though, in 1988, a group of US Air Force personnel were returning
to a local base and passed by the shrine.
They noticed the candle had gone out and mocked the local superstition that a werewolf was
now on the loose.
That evening, sirens went off when someone activated the sensors perimeter.
The guards reported seeing a large wolf-like creature standing on its hind legs.
It stared for a moment before jumping over a 3m high fence.
They tried to use dogs to track the creature but the dog refused to follow the scent.
Make of this story what you will, but the dog certainly knew something we didn't …
Next up at number 9, we have Waldniel Hoster School.
This building used to be a place of learning, until the Nazis arrived.
They claimed that the Franciscan brothers who ran the school were charging too much
and kept using them.
Their plan worked, the brothers filed for bankruptcy and left in 1937.
After that, the Nazis stepped in.
They turned it from a school for disabled children to an extermination center.
There were 200 beds where disabled minors stayed before being gassed with carbon monoxide.
They did it slowly, a death could be drawn out over a week.
When the war was over, it was found that 97 children had been killed.
Their causes of death ranged from wasting to pneumonia to cardiovascular weakness.
In the years since then, people have reported hearing the sounds of children crying in the
hallways or weeping where their beds used to be.
Some have even described the sound as wails of pain - echoing down through the years …
At number 8 now we have The Marksman.
The story goes like this, one day, a marksman went out hunting for deer and wild boars.
However, the dark autumn forests made to see.
He was approached by a shady salesman who covered his face.
The man offered the marksman seven bullets - with one condition: the first 6 bullets
will hit whatever the marksman wants to hit but the man gets to choose where the 7th goes.
The marksman agrees - he quickly becomes famous in the town, bringing home kill after kill.
He catches the eye of the prettiest girl in the town and they fall in love.
Soon though, all 6 bullets were used up and when he shoots the 7th, it goes astray and
hits his love in the chest, killing her.
The salesman appears to the grieving marksman and reveals himself as the devil.
He told the marksman that if he lives a good life he will be reunited with the girl after
death.
He tries but soon he falls in love with another girl and marries her instead.
One year to the day after the fatal incident, the marksman rode through the forest where
he came to a clearing.
Skeletons were dancing around cold flames.
One of the skeletons belonged to the girl he first loved.
It entrances him and he dances with it into the night.
The next morning, the villagers found him and his horse dead, at the edge of the forest
…
Moving on to number 7 we have Babenhausen Barracks.
This place is known as one of the most haunted places in Germany.
As you can tell from the name, it was originally a barracks - now its a museum - but that hasn't
stopped the hauntings.
According to local legend, on certain nights, the ghosts of German soldiers, some in World
War 2 uniforms, can be seen wandering the grounds.
Lights will flicker off and then on again at the same time as voices coming from the
basement.
If that wasn't enough, footsteps have been heard along with the occasional command barked
in German, presumably for the soldiers who once lived there.
Locals say that if a soldier happens to visit the museum and pick up a telephone, a woman
can be heard talking backward - what she's saying will be completely unintelligible,
it's not German or English - but it sounds backward.
Whats the reason for all of this?
Well, some say its because the barracks is built on the site where a witch burned at
the stake by soldiers.
In death, she now seduces and kills any soldiers who dare to get close to the barracks …
Next up at number 6 now we have Der Grossman.
This creatures name translates to the Tall Man.
He's said to live in Germanys Black Forest, a place named by the Romans for its impenetrable
darkness.
The Tall man may be the basis for the Slenderman Urban legend.
He is tall, disfigured being with only white spheres where his eyes should be.
They say he is a fairy who chases bad children that find themselves lost in the forest.
He never stops chasing them - even beyond the woods - unless he catches them, or they
tell their parents all the bad things they have done.
Even then, that might not be enough.
One account from 1702 came from a man who lived in the Black Forest.
He said -Lars came into my bedroom yesterday, screaming at the top of his lungs that "The
angel is outside!", I asked him what he was talking about, and he told me some nonsense
fairy story about Der Grossmann.
He said he went into the groves by our village and found one of my cows dead, hanging from
a tree.
I thought nothing of it at first...
But now, he is gone.
We must find Lars, and my family must leave before we are killed.
I am sorry my son...
I should have listened.
May God forgive me."
… kinda sounds like the Slenderman to me.
Moving on to number 5 now we have Frankenstein Castle.
Yes, this place was the inspiration for the original Frankenstein novel.
It was built over 1000 years ago and inhabited by various members of the family until they
died out in the 1600s.
The last member of the family was killed in a chariot accident on his way to visit his
one true love, Anne Marie.
She was left waiting for him and died of a broken heart.
Now, she is said to wander the castle looking for her lost love while he wanders elsewhere,
both of them trying to find each other in the afterlife.
Another owner was Konrad Dipple von Frankenstein.
He was said to be a real-life monster in the form of an alchemist, scientist, and grave
robber.
He used to experiment with bodies, trying to reanimate the dead - yes, just like the
story.
The townspeople eventually stormed the castle to stop him but before they could catch him,
he drank one of his own potions and died.
Now, the creatures he created are said to roam the land nearby and his ghost still haunts
the rooms, looking for eternal life …
Next up at number 4 now we have The Nachzehrer.
This terrifying creature is basically a Germanic vampire.
They are cursed creatures that require humans to survive - but it's not in the traditional
way.
They don't suck blood - they simply devour whole bodies.
Kind of like a zombie vampire hybrid.
You cannot become one from being bitten or scratched either.
They are most commonly created when someone commits suicide or dies from an accidental
death.
If a large group of people dies of a disease, the first person to have died will become
a Nachzehrer.
When they first wake up, they devour their whole family members or if they get desperate,
they even eat themselves.
Some believe that they leave their graves, shapeshift into a pig and then visit their
family members to feast on their blood.
Perhaps the most chilling way that these creatures kill people is by their shadow.
Its believed that death will instantly befall anyone who is covered with the shadow of this
creature.
Another reason to keep an eye out for any moving shadows at night …
Next up at number 3 now we have The Pied Piper.
This is perhaps one of the most famous ones on our list.
In 1284, in the German town of Hamelin, a story emerged that would spread around the
world.
The town was suffering from a rat infestation when the pied piper arrived.
He claimed to be a rat catcher and promised the mayor he could save them.
The mayor was desperate and agreed, promising to pay the pied piper for his work.
With that, the pied piper pulled out his pipe and walked around the town - the rats came
pouring out from their hiding places - they were transfixed by the piper - following its
sound like zombies.
The pied piper then lured the rats into the Weser River where they all drowned.
Despite completing the job, the mayor refused to pay the pied piper.
He said it was a scam and that the pied piper had brought the rats in the first place.
The piper stormed out of town, vowing his revenge.
One day he returned when all the adults were in church - this time he played his pipe and
attracted the town's children.
130 children followed him into a cave and were never seen again.
Next up at number 2, we have the SMS Emden.
This ship was completed in 1909 and sailed all over the world before being sunk just
off Germany's northern coast.
It was returning from a long journey around the world.
Loved ones of the sailors were gathered at the harbor, ready to welcome them home.
However, the harbormaster refused them entrance due to a personal grudge.
As they waited, a storm brewed.
It got worse and worse, battering the ship until it could hold out no longer.
The Emden sank and there were no survivors.
The distraught families cried out in pain across the harbor.
In the century since then, many locals report the same thing.
On a full moon, especially on a stormy night, the ghost ship of the SMS Emden can be seen
bobbing on the horizon, trying desperately to stay afloat - but always to no avail …
And finally, at number 1 we have the Drude.
In Germanic folklore, this is an evil nocturnal spirit associated with nightmares.
They were said to take part in whats known as The Wild Hunt, a surge of spirits and supernatural
beings that were said to bring war or plague and death to anyone who witnessed it.
They are often said to be female in appearance - resembling a young woman.
They appear in peoples houses when they are asleep and sit on them - crushing their mind
in their nightmares and their bodies in real life - until they give out and die.
Once the deed is done, the Drude change appearance and become old and ugly.
She is pale and thin, her feet have 3 large toes, one of which points backward.
Perhaps the scariest thing about a Drude is that nothing can stop it from getting to you
if it wants to.
They are said to be able to enter anywhere, throw a window, a crack in the door, even
a keyhole - they can even transform into a feather.
According to some, she will never speak but is recognizable only by the sound of her footsteps
as you drift off to sleep.
Its thought that a Drude is actually an ancient princess who has been unable to find rest
for a thousand years - now she crushed sleeping men as some sort of twisted revenge.
OK, we finally didn't German Urban Legends!
I'm glad we got round to that because I loved some of them - I actually found it quite hard
to pick and choose for this one because there were so many good ones - perhaps I can use
them for a part 2!
As always, its up to you!
Thanks for watching as always guys, my name is Danny Burke and Ill see you all in the
next video.