Deal with the Devil

A pact with the devil is a mythological trading alliance between the devil and a human being, there is a human soul to the devil to wealth, power, talent, magical forces or similar gifts promised. Such a pact is the subject of many folk tales and legends. Also in the literature, the motif is taken up several times.

In the course of the early modern witch hunts of the pact with the devil under the previous witches teaching was regarded as the origin of the forces of a witch. The alliance with the devil can be made ​​with all details both celebrations, or simply through a simple business arrangement. When a pact is a binding for a long time, this involves making a promise by being subservient and for the Hereafter - to work for this - so after the death. But the spirit is the magician for some time. After his death, the magician enters into the sphere of the mind to abzuleisten its obligations there. Often the consideration is a kind of gift for supporters.

In a figurative sense is even talk of a pact with the devil, if a person to achieve a goal responds to form alliances with people or powers that actually conflict with his goal and his ideals. Especially in feuilletonistic comments on politics and current events, the picture is popular.

Examples from literature and society

• The most famous pact with the devil is probably the one which according to legend was closed between Johann Georg Faust and the devil. Literary gained world fame this by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) two-part drama Faust ( Faust I, Faust II ) ( 1790/1797/1833 ) and by Thomas Mann Germany parabola, the novel Doctor Faustus.

• A similar example can also be found in the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, in which the protagonist, Dorian Gray sells his soul to the devil, so that the portrait grows old in his place for him. In this way, the protagonist with eternal youth.

• Another famous literary example of a devil pact Mikhail Bulgakov's novel takes place in The Master and Margarita, in which the protagonist enters into a pact.

• To the Devil's Bridge, the Swiss of legends, that the devil had built as part of a pact with the local residents and the original bridge for the soul as the price of that demanded who crossed the first bridge.

• Also on the construction of the Stone Bridge in Regensburg, there is a saga that reports to the bridge builder, he had received a pact with the devil in order to finish the bridge in front of the Regensburg Cathedral can. The devil is said to have even called for in this case the first three over the bridge passing souls.

• Similarly, the construction of the cathedral at Aachen Aachen Dombausage goes back to a pact with the devil. Accordingly, the devil helped the people of Aachen during the construction with the promise of the first soul that were entering the cathedral. However, this would have been no less than the soul of the Church ordaining bishop. However, the Aachen outwitted the devil by forcing a she-wolf in the cathedral, which is still seen today as a bronze statue, but actually in the form of a bear, in the cathedral. The also there be visited bronze pine cones, the sculpture of the she-wolf ( bear ) compared with that symbolizes the animal stolen soul who threw the flared in anger devil to the ground. Then he tore the slamming of the Dompforte a thumbs down, which is to feel in the lock of the door today. To those who elicits the thumb, stands as a reward a golden dress in view. Even the Aachen Lousberg is powerful diabolical action arose after the Lousberg saga, as the devil would fill up the city in revenge for the list with a huge bag of sand, but only until shortly before Aachen came and was deceived by a cunning market woman.

• Is part of the myth by several musicians, especially the violinist Niccolò Paganini ( " devil's fiddler ") and blues musician Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson, that they had made ​​a pact with the devil for their talent.

• In Adelbert von Chamisso's fairytale Peter Schlemihls wondrous story is a young man, Peter Schlemihl, at the center who sells his shadow against eternal wealth of the devil. Later it will be exchanged for this Schlemihls soul.

• In the 1630s, a Catholic priest and pastor of the church of Sainte Croix was in France at the initiative of Cardinal Richelieu in the matter of the so-called Devils of Loudun against Urbain Grandier, made in Loudun in the diocese of Poitiers, a witch trial. The nuns of the convent of the Ursulines of Loudun accused the priest Urbain to have made ​​a pact with the devil and to have been bewitched by him.

• Neil Postman postulated that each technological change was a pact with the devil (English Faustian bargain ): technology out there and technology is increasing - and not always in equal measure. Sometimes a new technology creates more than it destroys. Sometimes, it destroys more than it creates. It has never, however, remains one-sided.