22 Max und Moritz

Max und Moritz

You probably won’t find anyone in Germany who doesn’t know these two characters:

They are two naughty boys named Max and Moritz are characters from a rhyming illustrated story with the same name (Max und Moritz) by Wilhelm Busch. Max & Moritz played pranks on people in their village and set an example to all German kids of how not to behave as well as what happens to naughty kids. Check out how their pranks end, I guarantee that you will be very much surprised. 

German culture is full of references to the poem and almost every German can quote a few lines from it.

Check out this link for more information on the book and why it’s important. (It’s in English, don’t worry.)

And here is a link to the full version of the book. You can conveniently view it in both German and English on the same page.

Here is the poem read in German and here it is read in a decent English translation. 

And here is a German 1941 cartoon based on the book. 

If you are interested in more 19th century German stories, here is a useful link.