Top 10 Most Demented German Folktales
Germany's folktales are some of the darkest and most twisted stories out there, and they're definitely not your typical bedtime tales. These stories go far beyond the more sanitized fairy tales that many of us grew up with. Instead, they explore bizarre punishments, eerie encounters, and haunting warnings that reveal the raw and often brutal worldview of a different era. These tales weren't just meant to entertain - they were meant to teach, scare, and leave a strong impression that stuck with people long after the story was told.To put this in a simple way, a father is offered money by the devil if he gives him anything that is behind his mill. What lies behind his mill is his daughter. The devil managed to persuade him to chop off his daughter's hand, and the daughter agrees to it. Moral of the lesson: Don't stand behind a mill, or else this happens.
The tale of a kid who sucked his thumb despite his mother's warning. He learns his lesson when his thumb gets cut off. Moral lesson: Don't suck your thumb, or you'll lose your thumb.
A hare tries to hunt a hunter down after the hare steals his musket. In the end, the hunter falls into the vale, and the hare's child is burned by hot coffee.
Simply put, a girl burns herself to death by playing with matches. Moral lesson: Don't play with matches! I repeat, don't play with them!
The story of two delinquents who steal food, blow up their teacher's pipe, and make a bridge collapse. With a nice dash of karma, these two meet their fate by being baked into bread and fed to chickens. Moral of the lesson: Don't commit felony or even terrorism, or you'll end up as chicken food.
Heard of it somewhere. It was scary.
This story involves a kid called Augustus who is picky when eating. One day, he is served soup but he refuses to eat it, which results in him losing a lot of fat and decaying into a skeleton. Moral of the lesson: Eat your soup, or have your skin wasted away and rot into a skeleton.
A Brothers Grimm story involves a mayor who wouldn't pay the Pied Piper, who drove all the rats that plagued his city into the sea. The mayor tries to avoid payment and, as an act of revenge by Piper, he himself lured kids with melodies played using his pipe to follow him and drown. Moral of the lesson: Pay your debt, or you'll expect to hear the news about your son who drowned himself to death.
A violent boy goes on a rampage, abusing animals and people, which eventually leads to him getting bitten by a dog right in the boy's "sausage." Moral lesson: Don't terrorize other sentient beings, or you'll have your sausage eaten by a dog.
The story involves Saint Nikolas who dips three boys into ink, making them black, for making fun of a negro. Moral of the lesson: Don't be racist, or you'll end up black.
A man named Faust seems to have the perfect life. He has everything he could ever want, and many people envy him. However, he is still not satisfied with life and makes a deal with a demon named Mephistopheles.
A story of a boy who disrupted family dinner time by being restless while eating. This ends up with him falling off from his table and bringing the food and plates with him. He learns his lesson by going hungry. Moral of the lesson: Don't screw around while having a family dinner, or else you'll end up starving.