Dutch Michel

"A giant guy. (...) For a hundred years he drives his spook

in forest, and he is said to help many people to get rich!"

"Rich?"

"At the expense of their poor souls!"

Lisbeth's father tells Peter Munk the story of the

Holländer-Michel

The Holländer-Michel is the main antagonist of the german

fairy tale "Das kalte Herz" by Wilhelm Hauff. He was a lumberjack in the Schwarzwald, who tricksted his chief's, sold the woods for the fourfold price and gambeld his money away. When that turned out, Michel had disappeared. ====

In the fairy tale
The story is about a poor boy called Peter Munk, who takes the three richest, but crulest men to prototypical.

Because Peter is born on a Sunday, he wants three wishes from the friendly ghost called Glasmännlein: having as much money as The fat Ezechiel and having the greatest house. It turned badly when Peter and Ezechiel gambled against each other and Peter won, so no one of them had money and his house was sold. Because his two first wishes were stupid, the ghost refuses the third wish. Peter makes a deal with the Holländer-Michel, an evil ghost who helped many people to get rich. He makes the same deal with Peter like he did with the others: switching the heard with a stone. This is why for example the fat Ezechiel, the long Schlurker and the dancefloorking became rich. With the stone his breast, Peter becomes emotionless and cruel. Without happiness, goodness or sadness, Peter becomes the richest man in the Schwarzwald. When he kills his wife Lisbeth because she wanted to give a piece of bred to the disguised Glasmännlein, the ghost tells Peter to refuse the stone. When Peter and Ezechiel are gambling again, Peter tells Ezechiel about his own deal with Michel and asks Ezechiel what will happen with the heart after death, Ezechiel answers that they'll be weighed to see their sins and their "hearts" will be very heavy. On the next dayPeter goes to the Glasmännlein to ask for his real heart, but the Glasmännlein didn't make the deal with him. To help him, he gives Peter a glasses cross. Peter then vistits Michel, saying that he lied to him and Peter would still have his own heart, Michel wants to prove that Peter truely has a stone and switches the heart again. Then, Peter takes the cross and begins to pray. Michel falls down and Peter runs away (in some medias, Michel dies). When he comes back to the Glasmännlein, he's regreting everything. Suddenly Lisbeth and Peter's mother who was send away by her son, come and forgive him.