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German Mysteries - the Mirror of German Culture and History.

German lands have originated and gained lots of mysterious legends and myths for the centuries. All these fairy and true stories left their evidences on German culture - art and literature; and enriched German history by portraying German streets, cities, castles and palaces as fairy and mysterious buildings and places.

One of the German- originated mysterious creature that has featured German culture is elf. This quite pretty creature is originated from German folklore and is associated with wide and beautiful nature with thick forests and clear rivers.

German elves have influenced much on European folklore and German literature. For example, Goethe was inspired by the German legend about Der Erlkonig and described this 'King of Elves' in his poem with the same name.

For tourists visiting Germany the most attractive legends and myths are those which evidences can still be heard and viewed.

One of such mysteries still exists in Reichenstein castle and is called as a ghost of the man without a head. The legend says that this ghost is a soul of the knight called Dietrich von Hohenfels who robbed the castle together with his nine sons. He was caught by the owner and asked to save his sons' life. But when he saw all his sons dead his head fell and rolled towards the nine dead guys. Just after rolling over all his sons the knight's body began bleeding and fell next to the young men lying in one row. The legend says that all ten bodies were buried in St. Clement Chapel of the castle.

Another ancient legend remains ghosts of Emperor Charlemagne. The ghosts inhabit the place around Charlemagne's stones which he destroyed as an evidence of old religion. The stones are located in Osnabrueck-Haste and cannot be seen. But many visitors believe they can hear the Charlemagne's army riding towards the stones and they even can see the stones.

But the most real and horrid ghosts were left due to the acts of World War II. Nazi. The modern museum of Babenhausen Kaserne can still be heard by visitors with heavy steps of Nazi feet and seen with Nazi soldiers. The visitors have also fixed evidences of barracks' prisoners who still inhabit this place.