Haarmann's Sausages part 2

A comic entitled "Kiełbasy Harmanna" (Harmann's Sausages) by Sara Sapkowska & Bartek Biedrzycki has just been published in Kolektyw#4 magazine. The story has little to do with real Fritz Haarmann (except the name of the character and the city of Hannover). In general, it was based on a song by Polish rock band T-Love (take a look at my previous post). It seems a little odd, as the factual story of Haarmann was way more surprising and interesting, than what the song describes (according to the latter, Haarmann was a butcher, who used to make sausages out of people). 

I made a very brief interview with writer Bartek Biedrzycki

Foodfirstblog: what was the source of inspiration for your comic? I presume, the song by T-Love, but anything else?

B.B.: In fact, this was the result of my readings about the Weimar Republic and its fall. When working on the comic, I was freshly after "The Black Obelisk" by Erich Maria Remarque. This is where my interest in that particular legend and these times came from. The dialogues and constant references to bankruptcies and suicides were inspired by the book. 

Foodfirstblog: When did you get the idea for the story?

B.B.: During works on Kolektyw #3, which was about urban legends. The comic was ready by then, but somehow it wasn't included in the magazine. 

Foodfirstblog: How did you work on the script? Did you research the archives, old newspapers or other sources?

B.B.: As far as I remember, we have seen just a picture of the street, that we used as a model. Otherwise we didn't do any research. I only checked some facts about the "Butcher of Hannover", who has little to do with the character from the song by Staszczyk [T-Love's leader].

Foodfirstblog: Were you interested in the real Fritz Haarmann?

B.B.: Yes and no. I was intrigued by him in the context of my minimal interest in serial killers, like for instance the "Vampire of Rostov". But this interest is really negligible, a spin-off of my research concerning interesting historical figures.

Foodfirstblog: Did you research on other similar stories from the 1920's?

B.B.: No.

Foodfirstblog: Do you know other works (comics, movies etc) about Haarmann or similar stories?

B.B.: No.

Haarmann's Sausages part 1

Just some links to other works inspired by Fritz Haarmann.

Haarmann's Sausages: Hamburg based group Reel Banditos included this instrumental piece on their CD Raspberry Ripples. Listen here.

Kiełbasy Harmanna (Polish for Haarmann's Sausages, although the killer's surname is a little misspelled): a song by Polish rock group T-Love. Listen here (hat tip to Maciej K. and Maciej Z. for this link).

The Oi group Rabauken published a CD entitled Warte, warte nur ein Weilchen... in 1993. With the picture of Fritz Haarmann being conducted to the prison on the cover and an Oi version of the well known song.

The American extreme metal group Macabre went even further by recording two songs about the "Werewolf from Hannover": Fritz Haarman The Butcher in 1989 and Fritz Haarmann der Metzger in 2003 (this is not a German version of the previous song, but rather yet another paraphrase of the already classic Warte, warte...). 

And last not least, Wumpscut's leader Rudolf "Rudy" Ratzinger (also founder of Beton Kopf Media) seems obsessed with Fritz Haarmann and other cannibal stories. In fact the label's logo uses a picture of Haarmann:

And obviously Wumscut quotes the famous lines in one of its songs: Warte, warte nur ein Weilchen...

Guido Zurli's movie The Mad Butcher (1970) starring Victor Buono has sometimes been described as inspired by the story of Fritz Haarmann, but its plot is rather an amalgam of mythicized biographies of Carl Grossmann and Adolph Luetgert with many other aditions.

Mikita Brottman's Meat Is Murder: An Illustrated Guide To Cannibal Culture is an excellent read if someone is interested in more cannibal related movies.