Max and Moritz
Max and Moritz is a German illustrated rhyme book by Wilhelm Busch, published in 1865. It is a funny but naughty story about two boys who get into mischief and pull seven pranks, told entirely in rhyming verse with pictures.
The pranks start small but end badly for the boys. They set a trap with bread in a chicken yard to steal the widow Bolte’s chickens, climbing onto the roof to help their plan and using a fishing pole to pull the birds down the chimney. They trick a friendly tailor named Böck by taking apart a wooden bridge in front of his house, taunting him with goat noises until he falls into trouble and almost drowns, saved only by two geese. While their devout teacher, Lämpel, is at church, they fill his pipe with gunpowder and ignite it, leaving him blackened and hairless after the blast. They drop May bugs on their uncle Fritz as he tries to sleep, and sneak into a bakery, tumble into a vat of dough, and are baked but manage to escape by gnawing through their crusts. They hide in the farmer Mecke’s grain storage, cut open sacks, and are finally ground up by the mill and eaten by the ducks.
No one regrets the mischief, and the tale ends with the consequences the boys face for their troubles. Max and Moritz became very famous in German-speaking countries and beyond, influencing many later cartoons, books, and stage works. The story is still told to children today and remains a well-known part of culture, often recognized by the two cheeky faces that symbolize mischief.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 03:56 (CET).