The aunt killer
The aunt killer is a morality from Frank Wedekind from 1902.
Time of origin
The poem was performed for the first time in 1902 in the Munich cabaret Die Elf Scharfrichter . Quelle was a court hearing in which a murderer confessed to having killed his decrepit aunt out of greed.
content
A murderer reports in court that he killed his decrepit aunt and, due to his flourishing youth, is hoping for a mild verdict, since money is more useful to him than an old aunt who couldn’t do anything with it anyway.
The poem ends with the following words:
I slaughtered my aunt,
my aunt was old and weak;
But you, oh judge, you strive for
my flourishing youth.
comment
The numbness with which the murderer describes his act is characteristic. Even the first sentence of the confession is shocking, as the murderer speaks of having "slaughtered" his aunt.
Wedekind borrows the popular stanza form and the primitive manner of speaking from the tradition of the petty singing, which is occasionally slightly relaxed by funny double words ("Kisten-Kasten", "Jugend-Jugend").
“The Aunt Murderer” is a role poem that reproduces the confession of a robbery murderer in the form of a monologue.
literature
Edgar Neis: “Interpretations of 66 ballads, moritos and chansons”. Analysis and Comments. Hollfeld: Bange-Verlag, 1978. ISBN 3-8044-0590-8
Other implementations
In 2003 the medieval rock group In Extremo made use of the aunt murderer in a slightly different form for their piece "Nightmare".
A chanson version of the "slaughtered aunt" can be found on the CD "We judge sharply and heartily - Chansons from 100 years of cabaret" by Jo van Nelsen from 2002.
