no culture is as fun-loving or light-hearted as Germany but there is also
a darker side thousands of years of division and hardship have left Germany
with countless twisted legends and they're not all about French people stealing
sausages many German legends are genuinely disturbing even traditional
fairy tales are thought to be inspired by real-life historical tragedies the Pied
Piper of Hamelin may once have been a real figure who kidnapped an entire
village of children and that's just a fairy tale more codified legends tell of
werewolves vampires cannibals and tragic ghosts
in a remote valley was once a desperate hunter. It had been weeks since he last killed an animal and he and his
wife were in danger of starvation at this point his rifle was broken so even
when he encountered a boar he was unable to do anything but one morning he was
approached by a stranger this stranger was wrapped in a cloak that hid his face
and has an accent he had never heard before
the stranger gave him a gun with seven bullets telling that it was a gift from
a friend and what no other kind of bullets would fit for gun these bullets
were special the first six would hit whatever target be hunter wished them to
but the mysterious stranger would decide the target early seventh in time this proved
to be true the hunter was soon providing more than enough for his wife and gave
much away to the community every week he brought home a boar without needing a
second shot about his until the seventh week that first day an especially large
boar appeared on their property it was too good an opportunity to miss so he
took aim and fired he heard the bullet connect and the
sound of its carcass hitting the ground but somehow verb or ran away unharmed
with no trail of blood it was only on turning of rounds where he saw his wife
on the ground bleeding to death
before writing a seminal gothic novel Frankenstein a young Mary Shelley spent
much time in Germany it was here she would learn of Legends for chilled her
bones once hold of an insane noble living alone in his remote castle behind
its vast walls he practiced alchemy he regularly had dead bodies stolen from
nearby cemeteries and brought to him for strange experiments by using God knows
what in God knows what way he created an elixir of life a solution that could
reawaken the dead, potentially granting immortality but it didn't quite work if
the corpses it was applied to would certainly reanimate but they were
mindless zombie like undead figures with no will desire or consciousness it was
far from the kind of immortality its creator was hoping for so he gave up
accepting failure he sent his creations out into the
woodlands surrounding his castle some were torn apart by wolves or simply by
the elements but many are still out there wandering the black forest of
seven Germany lacking everything that makes us human yet unable to die while
already dead
there was once a poor Miller who ran a small grain operation with his young
daughter year after year they struggled to stay in business barely making enough
to survive then one day he was approached by a man he had never seen
before there was something menacing about for man but he seemed nice enough
in fact he offered the miller a bag of gold in exchange for it he asked only
for what stood behind the mill. The miller knew an apple tree stood there a
small loss in exchange for that price so they agreed to the deal only after
accepting the gold did the miller realize his daughter was standing under
that tree he had sold her to the stranger one week later of a strange man returned
they now saw him for what he was: the devil. He had come to claim the girl's
soul but as for girl had come in no mortal sin he was unable to enraged
the devil demanded Lee Miller cut off four girls arms
fearing the devil would kill them both he complied, mutilating his own daughter
and for the rest of her life she was without arms
in a remote district of Germany can be found the tiny village of Morbach
nothing much happens in Morbach today but locals remember a time when people
across Europe knew of em the way they described it there was once a notorious
werewolf called Johannes Schweitzer while the Napoleonic Wars tore apart
Europe he've roamed freely terrorizing the German countryside as he went cast
by God for committing war crimes he was to live as a monster until his death for
years he seemed unstoppable but on arriving in Morbach
something happened somehow the impoverished locals of this unknown
village killed for Wolfman the last of his kind in Europe to commemorate this a
single candle was lit a candle that never burnt out not for hundreds of
years it was only in 1988 when that candle finally burns out within days new
reports emerged of a monstrous creature lurking in the forests reports that only
stopped when a new candle was lit still today that new candle burns and
terrified locals keep a close watch on it
it was for year 1212 ad the age of crusading but years before Jerusalem had
fallen to Muslim forces and Christendom had since been desperate to reclaim
it yet launching a crusade was never an easy feat and no one had been able to
then one day a 12 year old German boy emerged claiming to have been visited by
Jesus himself who told the boy to personally retake Jerusalem and convert
its inhabitants to Christianity he travelled in many states of Germany
proclaiming his divine quest of how he would lead an army to Jerusalem, retake her
through peaceful means, and convert every single Muslim. To ensure it was peaceful
if the army he gathered was entirely comprised of children by the time they
set off for the Holy Land he led a force of 30,000 children with
God as their guide the Children's Crusade marched on Jerusalem, expecting to
be greeted as heroes but across the Mediterranean they took on the help of a
group of merchants who promised to transport them for free it seems like a
gift from God but not for long taking advantage of their naivety the merchants
instead took them to North Africa where the children were sold into slavery
never to be seen again you
there was once a young woman called Walpurga living in rural Bavaria her
husband's dying young she was thrown into poverty this made her easy prey to
a male co-worker who soon seduced her one night she enticed her to drink a
vast amount of alcohol the next morning she awoke to find Satan himself standing
over her he revealed that female co-worker had really been a demon in
disguise and the last night she had sold her soul the devil now owned her soul
and she had no choice but do whatever he commanded in following years she would
regularly go out at night to murder children every time a body was found a
trail of blood led away from it but he was years before a blood trail was found
leading directly to Walpurga by that time she had killed 41 children breaking
their skulls and drinking their blood like a vampire
In the Bavarian alps small communities have long been plagued by a terrible
beast. Like a lizard with the head of a cat,
they made short work of lone travelers passing through remote mountains
possessing great strength and a long sleek body it is known to reside in
tunnels deep within the mountains only emerging to feed like a snake it senses
even slight vibrations in the ground knowing in advance when anyone was
approaching many unsuspecting travelers have fallen prey to this monster dragged
underground and eaten alive it's breath is poisonous, its claws sharper than steel
in 1811 a local Lord offered a bounty of gold to anyone who could
kill the Beast dozens of hunters and mercenaries set
out to find the monster aiming to bring back its head to say trophy
none of them were ever seen again
long ago there was an evil king hated by all who knew him a cruel tyrant he was
corrupt and emotional often venting his rage by abusing his subjects for years
he kidnapped murdered tortured looted as if he was deliberately causing his own
people to suffer sometimes he would even hunt humans chasing them down with a bow
and arrow one morning he shot dead an entire family he enjoyed it but it was
the last straw the Celtic gods of his tribe had long
tolerated his bloodlust but this was too much in revengefully massacre they cast
him the King and his family were transformed into stone with a king now a
statue the tribe descended into civil war soon fading from history it said
where stone figures can still be found somewhere in southern Germany
long ago there was a great king whose counsel stood atop a mountain it was a
time when Europe was still home to mythical creatures most notably for
Giants standing fifty feet tall no human had ever been able to kill a giant as
far as people were concerned they were invincible then one day a particularly
strong giant ventured south and demanded the king hand over his daughter the
princess was horrified by the prospect of marrying a giant But the King feared
reprisals and agreed to her marriage but the day before the wedding she decided
to escape mounting a horse and riding off the giant chased after her screaming
the whole time he seemed to be catching up but then they reached a steep
cliff edge the horse left from it with great strength clearing the gap and
learning safely on the other side but the giant was too heavy to do the same
falling to death on the rocks below
hiding in the forests of northern Germany can be founds terrifying undead monsters
by night these hideous beings emerge to feed on human flesh they
themselves were once human but after committing suicide were cursed
by God to forever walk the earth now they are driven by a constant hunger for
human flesh while their own flesh rots away. The more they consume, the longer
our own lifeless body will survive and so every night they head to graveyards
burial grounds and cemeteries anywhere dead bodies can be found it is easy to
recognize them within Long Fangs the smell of their flesh rotting and the
odd grunting sound they make but approaching them would be a mistake
the only known way to kill them is decapitation
and even that doesn't always work