The Fear Before the Wife

Imprisoned in a lunatic asylum, Professor Karl Barkentin writes the confession of how he came to murder his wife.

I watched Lilli wordlessly for quite some time, and then - then it climbed up in me for the first time; an uncanny delight beset me with the thought, "If this women were to lie dead before you, then you would be single and rid of all the worrying; death is the actual lover she needs, he will hold her fast and guard her.

Georg Julius Leopold Engel (1866-1931) was a German author and dramatist whose works were banned and grave desecrated by the Nazis. A number of his novels were bestsellers, and some were adapted into movies during his own lifetime.