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The Morbach Werewolf (real name Thomas Johannes Baptist Schwytzer) is an antagonistic figure in Germanic folklore and urban legends. He is said to have once been a soldier during the Napoleonic Wars who led a gang of army deserters in the Bernkastel-Wittlich region before he was cursed to become a werewolf by one of his victims, leading him to become even more vicious as he terrorized the Morbach area until he was slain in the town of Wittlich. However, he would return if the light of the Virgin Mary over his grave site went out.
Biography[]
According to legend, Schwytzer was a soldier in Napoleon Bonaparte's army who deserted from the military in 1812 while enroute back to France after the failed invasion of Russia. He formed a bandit gang with a group of Russian deserters and together the men made their way to the German village of Morbach, where they raided a farmhouse for supplies. They were caught in the act by the farmer and his sons, whereupon Schwytzer murdered them in cold blood. Witnessing the crime, the farmer's wife angrily cursed Schwytzer that he would become a savage wolf at the full moon before Schwytzer killed her by crushing her skull.
Over time, Schwytzer's crimes began to increase in savagery as the woman's curse took hold. He robbed, raped and killed at random, with such barbarity that his fellow bandits abandoned him, leaving him to continue his life of crime alone. Reports soon began to spread throughout the region of a wolf that walked upright like a man terrorizing Morbach, raping women and devouring humans and livestock. Several women purportedly became pregnant after being assaulted by the creature, although none of their children showed any sign of inheriting their father's curse.
Schwytzer's reign of terror continued for years before finally coming to an end when he raped a farmer's daughter named Elizabeth Beierle. A group of local villagers decided that it was finally time to act and tracked Schwytzer to his camp in the woods, where they confronted the bandit and demanded he come with them to the authorities. Schwytzer fled and was pursued to the town of Wittlich 40 miles from Morbach, where the vigilantes managed to corner and kill him. Afraid that the werewolf may return to life, they constructed a shrine to the Virgin Mary on the spot where Schwytzer was buried and lit candles around it in the hope that the power of the Blessed Virgin would be enough to keep him from returning. It was said that if the candles did not burn on the night of the full moon, the werewolf would return.
Supposed real-life sighting[]
The Morbach Werewolf is said to have been seen once in 1988 by a group of American soldiers stationed at Hahn Airbase near Wittlich towards the end of the Cold War. Supposedly, three technicians were off-base for the night when they came across the shrine at Schwytzer's burial place and saw that the candles had gone out. Either not knowing or not believing the legend, they thought nothing of it and did not bother replacing the candles.
Later that night, an American security patrol was sent out to investigate a possible disturbance along the perimeter of the base. They came upon the grisly sight of three horrifically mutilated deer, each of which had their throats ripped open and severe injuries to their torsos through which their innards were exposed. It appeared that a large animal had killed the deer and begun feasting upon their entrails before escaping into the bushes when it heard them coming. The patrol then prepared to return to base before hearing a large animal growling in the bushes. One of them went over to investigate before the animal leapt from the bushes towards the patrol, who fled the scene in a panic.
A few minutes after the patrol's return, another patrol saw an intruder near the munitions lockers and attempted to give chase. The intruder fled into the shadows and was pursued through the base for several minutes before escaping by jumping over a nine-foot security fence. Only one soldier had been able to get a good look at the intruder in the dark and described it as a wolf-like creature that walked on its hind legs. Tracker dogs were deployed but refused to pursue the creature.
The candles at the shrine were re-lit the following day and no sightings of the werewolf have been reported since.
Trivia[]
- The legend of the Morbach Werewolf is one of the only real-life legends in which a werewolf is said to transform at the full moon, which is otherwise an invention of the 1941 horror film The Wolf Man.
