MICHAEL KOHLHAAS

Around the middle of the sixteenth century, there lived on the banks of the River Havel a horse dealer named Michael Kohlhaas, the son of a schoolmaster and one of the most upright and, at the same time, one of the most appalling characters of his time. Up to his thirtieth year this extraordinary man would have stood as the model of a good citizen. In a village, which still bears his name, he owned a farm, on which he calmly plied his trade and lived off the proceeds. The children whom his wife bore him he brought up in the fear of God to be industrious and faithful. There was not one among his neighbours who would not have felt the benefit of his benevolence or his sense of justice. In short, the world might have blessed his memory if he had not run amok in carrying out one virtue – his fanatical quest for justice turned him into a robber and a murderer.

He set out on a trip abroad once, riding with a string of young horses, all sleek and well-nourished, and was turning over in his mind how he would invest the profit he hoped to make from them at the fairs. A part of it, in the way of a good manager, he would apply to earning future profits, but he would also spend a part of it to enjoy the present. On reaching the Elbe, and near a stately knight's castle in Saxon territory, he came upon a toll bar, which he had not seen on this way before. In an instant he stopped the horses in the heavily blowing rain, and called out to the tollgate-attendant, who soon