Doctor Faust and the Devil at Staufen
A real wandering magician of the 1500s became the legend of the man who sold his soul. At an inn in a small German town, the story says, the devil came to collect.
What was reported
Johann Georg Faust was a real wandering astrologer, alchemist and magician in Germany in the early 1500s, mentioned in letters and records, often unfavourably, as a boaster and fraud. Soon after his death, stories spread that he had made a pact with the devil, trading his soul for knowledge and pleasure.
Legend says he died around 1540 at the Gasthaus zum Löwen in Staufen im Breisgau, when an explosion, perhaps from one of his experiments, shook his room, and his body was found in a terrible state: proof, people said, that the devil had taken him.
Explanations offered
The legend was published in a popular book in 1587 and inspired Christopher Marlowe's play Doctor Faustus and Goethe's Faust. Historians think he may have died in an accident during an alchemical experiment. A painting on the inn in Staufen still tells the story.
- When
- Died about 1540
- Where
- Staufen im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
- Witnesses
- German legend
- Status
- Legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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