MAG 23: Schwartzwald

Statement of Albrecht von Closen, regarding a discovered tomb near his estate in the Black Forest.
==Statement==
Albrecht von Closen was visited by Jonah Magnus, the original founder of The Magnus Institute in the spring of 1815, where they discussed Jonah's interest in the esoteric. Albrecht shared some stories that he knew, but sent him a letter on 31st March 1816 to discuss another story that he thought Jonah might find interesting.
Albrecht's family had an estate in the Kingdom of Württemberg at the heart of the Schwarzwald (the Black Forest) in a town called Schramberg. The estate belonged to his brother Hendrik, and when he died the estate passed onto Albrecht's nephew, Wilhelm, who was 14 when Hendrik died. Albrecht and Clara, Albrecht's wife, looked after him, so when he took ill in the winter of 1815 they decided to go and look after him.
When they arrived at the estate, they found Wilhelm slowly recovering and they decided to remain until winter passed. Albrecht would go for long walks during this time. During one of these walks, he found an ancient graveyard buried deep in snow. In the centre was a mausoleum with the name "Johann von Württemberg." Albrecht was not aware of anyone of that name, not from good stock anyway, and mused that this was an odd place for a graveyard, so far from the nearest town, approximately 6 miles from Schramberg. He returned home.
Over dinner, Wilhelm admitted that he didn't know of Johann. The next morning Albrecht went back to the graveyard where he met a man wearing an old fashioned black frock coat and knee breeches with a wide brimmed hat. In peasant German the man asked if Albrecht was going to explore the tomb. Albrecht said he was and the man said that he had nothing to fear from the dead. When Albrecht turned around again the man was gone.
At this point Martin interrupted Jonathan Sims' recording. He apologised and Sims said that he had been getting in earlier as he didn't want to leave after nightfall. It appears that a week has passed since his encounter with Jane Prentiss, and there has been no sign of her.
As Albrecht entered the mausoleum he saw a slab of marble in the centre of the room which hid a staircase, which he descended down the stairs, through a short corridor which had Johann's name engraved on it. The room was surrounded by books, which were damp. The books were on marble shelves, each engraved with a small open eye. 
Albrecht spotted a coin and book on the floor. The coin had the letters "JW" on the front and an image of a man with long flowing hair and the number "1279," the other side had the words "Für die Stille" ("for the silence") on it. The book appeared to be in Arabic.
As he retired to bed that night, a serving girl, Hilda or Helga, asked if he had been to the graveyard, which he admitted. She paled and explained the story that she had heard from Tobias Kohler, an 80 year old man from Schramberg. When he was a child, he used to play Johann's Steps, where you would creep down the steps of the mausoleum until you were seen, then run back. Hans Winkler's mother decided to put a stop to this and chased Hans down the steps. There was a scream, and the other children ran back to town. The local priest gathered 6 of the strongest men and ventured to the mausoleum. None of those men ever spoke about what they had found on that expedition; Hans went to live with the Becker family and the children never played Johann's Steps again. Tobias also said his great uncle referred to Johann as "Ulrich's bastard", which could refer to Ulrich I or Ulrich II based on the date from the coin.
The last night they stayed at the house made them leave earlier than planned. When Albrecht was out walking he was jumped on by the man from the cemetery, who wasn't wearing his hat, showing his bald head and empty eye sockets. Smiling, the man reached towards Albrecht before he snapped his head up as though he heard a gunshot. He vanished into thin air. Albrecht and Clara took the first coach home the next morning. It was only during his journey that he realised the coin was missing.
== Post-Statement ==
Jonathan Sims could only find one reference to Johann in any of the German history reference books. In Jan Moira's "Cradle of Germany - Württemberg through the Centuries" it mentions rumours that Ulrich I, count of Württemberg, may have had a second son out of wedlock in 1255 (making him 24 in the year on the coin). 1279 was the year that Ulrich II, Ulrich I's successor, died, who was succeeded by his half brother Eberhard I.
In H. T. Moncreef's "Grim Tales", a book about unexplained and macabre deaths in 19th century Europe, a man called Rudolf Ziegler died in Schramberg in 1816. Rudolf Ziegler worked for Wilhelm von Closen, but had been stealing jewelry. Wilhelm was investigated for his murder, but the doctors of the time claimed that the severity of the wounds inflicted were "beyond the capacity of human violence" and it was ruled an animal attack.
John also found a genealogy for Wilhelm von Closen. He married and had children, a branch of this family emigrated to England in 1908. They had a daughter, Elsa, who went on to marry Michael Keay in 1920. In 1924, their daughter, Mary Keay was born.
== Notes ==
* In MAG 33: Boatswain's Call, this case is one that Tim Stoker notes has inconsistencies: it is not clear if Albrecht von Closen is married to Clara or Carla. John says he misspoke.
== Continuity ==
*Related Entity: The Eye
* In MAG 127, it is revealed that Albrecht took the books he found in Johann's tomb. They were later stolen by Jonah Magnus.
Category:The Magnus Archives Episodes