Sexualmörder in Düsseldorf

Berlin: Verlag der Neuen Gesellschaft, 1929. First edition. 64pp. Light foxing overall, else very good in publisher's wraps. Despite the sensational nature of its design, the book was a careful sociological study of the nature of the police force and the complacency of bourgeois society. First and only edition of this study of the murders committed by Peter Kurten, the Vampire of Berlin published in the midst of the crimes and before the killer's identity was known. Following the capture and execution of Kurten authorities severed his head and split it in half to search for a physiological cause of his crimes; after none was found the severed head was mummified eventually making its way after World War II to the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum where it still resides today displayed hanging from a hook.

Hyan, one of the more fascinating Bohemian characters of the Weimar period was at various times a cabaret artist and lyricist associated with Zum Hungrigen Pegasus, Silberne Punschterrine, and Rote Nachtigall, prolific crime novelist [his novel Die Verfuhrten (The Seduced) was suppressed on charges of lewdness], advocate for penal reform and an outspoken critic of bourgeois society exemplified in his song 'Lied der Arbeitslosen'.

Scarce with OCLC locating a single holding at Yale.