Heart-Eaters

Last year I mentioned a book by Christa A. Tuczay about demonic crimes in the Donau Monarchy: Die Herzesser: Dämonische Verbrechen in der Donaumonarchie (Seifert Verlag, 2007). I bought a copy of it when I was in Vienna, and from the parts that I have read I can say that it is a nice and informative book about subjects like cannibals, werewolves, murderers and vampires from the countries that have been part of the Donau monarchy!

There are about a dozen pages about vampires that provide an overview of some of the 18th century vampire cases, including Georg Tallar's examinations of victims of vampires. Gilles de Rais, Elisabeth Báthory, Vlad Tepes and a few other well-known characters are also briefly described, slightly ironically, as Tuczay says in her afterword: 'obwohl sie sicherlich meist nicht zum Lachen reizen, sich aber mit einer Prise Humor leichter ertragen lassen.'

The 'heart eaters' mentioned in the title refer to various tales of literal and symbolic eaters and stealers of hearts, including Le Livre du cuer d'amours espris by René d'Anjou, which exists in an illuminated manuscript in Vienna (see the above illustration which is shown in black and white in the book). In this poem the poet is in love and dreams that Amor takes out his heart and gives it to Desire, cf. the illustration. In other tales, the heart of a lover is served as food by the cuckolded husband to his wife.

The foreword is by Mark Benecke, and there are useful notes specifying sources and further reading. All in all 160 illustrated pages at €19.90, and once again: it is in German...

Addendum: I notice that Tuczay is also one of the editors of a new anthology entitled Faszination des Okkulten: Diskurse zum Übersinnlichen published by Francke Verlag that also published the Poetische Wiedergänger anthology on vampires.

Annotations reviewed

The New Annotated Dracula has been mentioned a couple of times in this blog after the editor notified me of it in a comment to a post. I haven't received it yet, but you can read a review here.

The Josephinum

Next to van Swieten Gasse on Währinger Strasse in Vienna lies the so-called Josephinum. The building was designed to house the Medical-Surgical Academy that opened in 1785 during the regin of Maria Theresa's son, Joseph II, hence the name (today probably best known by many people via Amadeus). Today the building houses the Institute for the history of medicine, the Kurt Gödel Research Center for Mathematical Logic, and - the part that is open to the public: the Museum of the Medical University.

As vampires were of particular interest within the field of medicine in the 18th century it is naturally of some interest to see the parts of the exhibition concerning that century. Actually, the first person one meets in the room concerning the earliest history of Viennese medicine is none other than Gerard van Swieten!

The museum then follows the development of medicine in Vienna. The exhibition is pretty old fashioned, but that suits the subject and surroundings pretty well. In fact, I don't think this is one of the most popular museums, and there was only one other visitor while I was there.


The most spectacular part of the exhibition is a very large collection of anatomical wax models made in Italy in the late 18th century. It's quite incredible to see the meticulous work put into making these remarkable and colourful models of human intestines, veins, tissue, skeleton etc.

As photography is not allowed in the museum, I am unable to show any photos of the van Swieten material exhibited or of the wax models apart from the one below that I have borrowed from the web site of the Josephinum.

Forthcoming books

Here are some books that might prove interesting and that are published in the near future:

Dracula Unbound. Kulturwissenschaftliche Lektüren des Vampirs edited by Christian Begemann, Britta Herrmann and Harald Neumeyer (Rombach Buchverlag): 'Der Vampirismus gehört zu den wenigen genuinen Mythen, die die Moderne hervorgebracht hat. Vampirgeschichten sind keineswegs nur Produkte einer anspruchslosen Unterhaltungsindustrie, sondern Schauplatz komplexer kultureller Verhandlungen zwischen den Künsten, der Medizin, Psychologie, Theologie und Philosophie, sozialen und politischen Diskursen. Als Ausdruck eines ›wilden Denkens‹ geben sie daher in vielerlei Hinsicht Aufschluß über das Selbstverständnis der Moderne, ihre Problemstellungen, Faszinationspotentiale und Ängste.'

Blutspuren: Die Geschichte der Vampire. Auf den Spuren eines Mythos by Hagen Schaub (Leykam Verlag): 'Zahllos sind die Exhumierungen, die man auf den Friedhöfen Mittel- und Osteuropas vornahm, um Vampire aufzuspüren. Und nicht selten fanden sich gut erhaltene Leichen mit „rosiger Haut“, langen Haaren und Fingernägeln sowie Blutspuren um den Mund. Waren es tatsächlich Untote? Ihre Geschichten werden oft überliefert, sind immer die gleichen und haben wenig mit den Klischees aus Romanen und Filmen zu tun: Vampire bissen, würgten und drangsalierten ihre Opfer bis zum Tod. Aber sie verfügten dabei weder über spitze Eckzähne noch fürchteten sie sich vor Knoblauch. Sie trugen keine schwarzen Anzüge und waren nie adeliger Abstammung. Sie waren brutale Untote, die man nur mit außergewöhnlichen Maßnahmen vernichten konnte. „Blutspuren“ zeichnet die Geschichte der Vampire auf der Basis neuer Forschungsergebnisse nach, räumt dabei mit zahllosen Irrtümern und Fehlern auf und zeigt anhand von aktenkundigen Fällen, zahlreichen akademischen Abhandlungen und archäologischen Funden, warum die Menschen glaubten, es wirklich mit einem Wiederkehrer zu tun zu haben. Totenbräuche, Aberglaube und Notzeiten waren der Nährboden für den Vampir, der vor etwas mehr als zweihundert Jahren eine zweite Karriere als Romanfigur startete und damit zur wohl erfolgreichsten Horrorfigur aller Zeiten wurde.'

Vampire! Vampire! Alles über Blutsauger by Markus Heitz (Piper Verlag): 'Im Jahr 1731 kommt es nahe Belgrad zu mysteriösen Todesfällen. Die Behören sprechen von Vampirismus. Doch ist dieser historisch verbürgte Fall wirklich der erste? Woher stammt der Vampirmythos? Gibt es Beweise für ihre Existenz oder ist alles erlogen? Wie sehen Vampire aus, und mit welchen Mitteln kann man sich gegen sie zur Wehr setzen? Mit Spannung, Witz und glänzend recherchierten Anekdoten führt Bestsellerautor Markus Heitz durch die Geschichte der Blutsauger und bietet das unverzichtbare Rüstzeug für alle Fans der spitzen Eckzähne.
Alles, was man über die unheimlichsten Geschöpfe der Menschheitsgeschichte wissen muss.'


Das Vampirbuch by Ditte and Giovanni Bandini (dtv): 'Der Vampir ist nicht lieb und nett - Töten gilt als sein Metier. Er ist mit der Nacht und deren Wesen im Bunde. Dennoch übt er, seit er vor mehr als hundert Jahren als Dracula die literarische Bühne betrat, eine unglaubliche Faszination auf die Menschen aus. Er nimmt Einfluss auf Aussehen, Kleidung und Lebensstil ganzer Gruppen. Doch was sind eigentlich »Psivamps« und was genau »Vampyre«? Müssen Vampire unbedingt Blut trinken? Sind sie mit den Werwölfen verwandt, den Wiedergängern oder den Zombies?'.

Slavic Folklore: Vampires and Werewolves

The internet allows you to get a sneak preview of many things. You can e.g. see the material that is put online from a current course on Slavic Folklore: Vampires and Werewolves by Professor George Gutsche of the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies at The University of Arizona. The goals specified are:

'Desired outcomes of the course include: (1) knowledge about Eastern European cultures, in particular vampire and werewolf lore; (2) development of reading and film-viewing skills (which in turn will enhance appreciation for literary and cinematic works); (3) basic familiarity with the terminology and concepts of folklore, literary study and film study; (4) an increased awareness of the ways in which social problems are reflected in popular culture and art; and (5) a better understanding of how beliefs are acquired.'

Compact history

One of the books I have brought back with me from Vienna is a 136 page introduction to the history of witches and the witch persecution of the Early Modern Period, Hexen und Hexenverfolgung in der Frühen Neuzeit, by Walter Rummel and Rita Voltmer and published this year by WBG in a series called Geschichte kompakt. It aims at giving a lucid and precise overview of the history based on recent research, which sounds very welcome considering the number of more specialised books on the subject that has published over the last decade or so. Rita Voltmer is also the author of a small paperback, which I didn't purchase, that provides short and clear answers on some of the most popular and important questions concerning this subject: Hexen. Wissen was stimmt (Herder). Both books will hopefully serve to correct some of the myths and misconceptions about this subject that still persist, e.g. concerning the number of witches that were executed.

A matter of language

In Vienna I had the pleasure of meeting the organizers of the forthcoming conference on vampirism and magia posthuma, Dr. Ursula Reber and Dr. Christoph Augustynowicz. They told me about what they had been doing to invite speakers, and what they were planning to do. As soon as I have more information, I will publish it here. But I should mention one important thing, namely that the conference will be in German. There are various reasons for this decision, but it means that it is necessary to understand that language to benefit from attending.

I have earlier written about language barriers, e.g. in one of my earliest posts, Languages and barriers. One visitor to this blog recently mentioned in a private e-mail that it would be a great help in this field to read German, and my answer was that reading Latin would be a great help, but that understanding German is essential. I don't think there is any other way of bridging the gap than by learning enough German to at least read relevant texts.

Military History

One of the places I had been looking foward to visiting in Vienna was the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, the Museum of Military History, located near Belvedere and Südbahnhof. I was in particular interested in the exhibitions related to the wars against the Turks, Eugene of Savoy, and the 18th century.

I was not disappointed and spent quite some time in those parts of the museum. Actually I found it hard to concentrate on the rest of the exhibitions, although they contain many interesting objects from the Napoleonic wars, the first and second World Wars etc.

It is allowed to take photos if you pay a fee of €1.50, but it is unfortunately very dark in some areas of the exhibitions. Furthermore, it is usually hard to take decent photos in a museum because of all the reflections, which is the explanation for the poor quality of my photo below of a detail of a print showing an 18th century Feldscherer (field surgeon) and his assistants treating a wounded soldier.

If I were Brown

If I were Dan Brown or some other author writing a vampire novel in the style of Brown's bestselling novels, I would consider incorporating the Pestsäule (Plague Column) in Vienna in the storyline to be one of those enigmatic clues leading to the solution of some enigma of grand proportions. At least, I feel it would be easy to use the part of the column shown in the above photo as some cryptic symbol of a vampire being slain using cross and stake :-) It's not a stake and the teeth aren't fangs, but if they had been, the 'secret message' would have been too obvious...

The column is a commemoration of the end of the plague that swept Vienna in 1679, the Great Plague of Vienna.

Viennese vampires?!

While in Vienna, I attended one of those tours of Vienna concerning ghosts and vampires that I have mentioned before. Well, it was quite entertaining and informative, although to be taken with at least a pinch of salt. It lasted for over one and a half hour and consisted of three parts, the two first concerning ghosts of either commoners or nobles, and the final one vampires. Our guide was very talkative, humorous and good at starting a dialogue with our little group of 'ghost hunters'. The language was (Austrian) German.

He claimed that about tales of about 800 vampires were known in Vienna, but that most of them were located outside the center. That was certainly news to me :-) Anyhow, one of his tales concerned an 'arch vampire' that should have been seen at Freyung, and one of the others was about Elizabeth Bathory, whose Vienna house he pointed out the location of (see the photo below). This was the place where, according to a contemporary witness, the cries of Bathory's victims were so loud that the monks living in the monastery next door had to protest. We also got a rather curious version of the story of Gerhard Van Swieten who was described as a 'vampire hunter'!

Our guide, however, probably isn't familiar with the archival documents concerning 18th century vampire cases, because we strolled past one of the archives where some of these documents are stored without any comment from him!

But it was quite entertaining and also enlightening on other aspects of Viennese history.