Zum wilden Mann

by Wilhelm Raabe

"Zum wilden Mann" by Wilhelm Raabe is a novella written in 1873 and published in 1885. In a small German town near the Kyffhäuser, apothecary Philipp Kristeller recounts to friends how he acquired his pharmacy thirty years earlier with money left by a mysterious acquaintance named August. When August returns as a decorated Brazilian colonel, the reunion seems joyful—until his true intentions emerge. This tale explores how friendship crumbles when confronted with greed and self-interest in Germany's materialistic Gründerzeit era.