Off-Topic: Max and Moritz

Today I bought a children's book for my grandson, Oliver. "So what?" I can hear you asking. "That's nothing special". I disagree. This book has a special importance that only people in German speaking countries understand. There's nothing comparable in the English language.

I also bought this book for my children 30 years ago. In my wife's bedroom I found a tattered old copy that she read as a child. So it's a book that's been read for three generations? Not just three. It was first published in 1865, and it's been popular ever since. What's so special about this book that's made it popular for more than 150 years?

The author, Wilhelm Busch, wrote the story in a series of rhyming poems with pleasantly repetitive rhythms, adding humorous illustrations. The story of Max and Moritz is so ingrained into German culture that anyone can recognise random quotes that are mixed into conversation. It's a children's book, it's one of the first books that children read at home, but it's also read in school.

It's a very moral story, about right and wrong, though not in a strictly Christian context. Two naughty boys play tricks on grown ups, and in the end they receive a harsh punishment. By this you can see that it's not just meant to entertain children, it's also intended to teach children how to behave. Let's go through the seven chapters of the book, each of which are about a prank.

1. First Prank

The old Widow Bolte is feeding her hens bread to fatten them. The boys tie the pieces of bread together with long pieces of string. The hens swallow the bread, but the string is still hanging out of their mouths. They panic and run in circles, until the string strangles the chickens.

2. Second Prank

Widow Bolte cooks her dead chickens on the fire. The boys sit on the roof with fishing rods and pull the chickens up when they're fully cooked. The Widow sees that the chickens have disappeared and beats her dog.

3. Third Prank

The local tailor, who lives by a river, is mocked because he looks like a goat. The boys weaken the bridge in front of his house by sawing it. Then they make goat noises from the other side of the bridge. The tailor runs onto the bridge, but it breaks and he almost drowns.

4. Fourth Prank

The boys put gunpowder in their teacher's pipe. The explosion burns his hair and makes his face black.

5. Fifth Prank

The boys put bugs in their uncle's bed. He wakes up in the middle of the night when they start to crawl on his body.

6. Sixth Prank

The boys attempt to steal pretzels from a bakery, but they fall into a vat of dough. When the baker sees them he puts them in his oven and bakes them until the dough is brown. They survive the oven and escape from the dough by eating their way out.

7. Seventh Prank

The boys cut holes in grain bags. When the farmer carries the bags to the mill the grain runs out. The farmer sees the boys and puts them in a sack. He carries them to the mill and asks the miller to grind them in his machine. The remaining parts of the boys are fed to the ducks.

8. The Aftermath

When the village hears of the boys' death everyone in the village rejoices. Wow! It's one thing spanking naughty children, but is Wilhelm Busch really advocating the death penalty for naughty boys? Some people object to the book because of this, but most parents just grin about it and treat it as an exaggeration.

Some literary critics see a political message in the books. Max represents Karl Marx, Moritz represents Friedrich Engels, and the other characters represent politicians in the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848 to 1849, well known at the time, but now long forgotten except by history students. If you consider this the book's hidden meaning the death penalty is more logical. Marx and Engels caused anarchy in the well behaved German society, so they deserved to die.

For anyone interested in the book, the copyright has long expired, so it can be found online.

Click here to read the complete book in German. The pages are formatted identically to the book I bought today.

Click here to read the book with an English translation. Please note that this is a translation from German poetry into English poetry, so the emphasis is on rhythm and rhyme, not on accuracy.

If the links are broken, don't worry. Just do a web search, I'm sure you can find them somewhere else. The links to buy a hardcover copy of the beautiful book are below, but if you want to buy for yourself, not your children, it's free on Kindle.

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de