Stolen: The Skull Of 14th Century German Pirate Klaus Störtebeker

Stolen: The Skull Of 14th Century German Pirate Klaus Störtebeker

The 600-year-old skull of the famed German pirate Klaus Störtebeker, has disappeared from Hamburg’s history museum. It’s a valuable item. The guy was a total rockstar.

Störtebeker means “empty the mug with one gulp” in old German. In the late 1300s, he sailed around the Baltic Sea kicking ass and taking names and gold and provisions from merchant ships. Legend has it that when was caught in 1400, and set to be executed with 73 of his men, he made a deal with the Mayor of Hamburg: however many of his fellow pirates he could run past after his beheading would be set free. After the blade fell, his body got up off the ground and ran, headless, past eleven men. But then the executioner tripped him and executed all 73 anyway. (The executioner was from Wales, apparently.) Störtebeker’s head was put on a stake on an island in the Elbe River to ward off other would-be buccaneers. It was discovered there in 1867, the metal spike still protruding from the top, and has been displayed at the museum since 1922. The German punk band Slime immortalized Störtebeker in song in 1983, and now, apparently, Glenn Danzig has stolen his skull.