Alraune (German for Mandrake) is the name given to a female character in fiction, artificially conceived from the semen of a hanged man and birthed by a prostitute.

Legend

The basis of the story of Alraune dates to the Middles Ages in Germany. It was widely believed that the humanoid shaped Mandrake root or Mandragora officinarum, is produced by the semen of hanged men under the gallows. Alchemists claimed that hanged men ejaculated after their necks were broken and that the earth asborbed their final "strengths". The root itself was used in love philtres and potions while its fruit was supposed to facilitate pregnancy. It was said witches who made love to the Mandrake root however, produced offspring which had no feelings of real love and had no soul.

Fiction

German novelist Hanns Heinz Ewers published a novel entitled Alraune in 1911. The novel deviates from the myth by concentrating on the issues of artificial insemination and individuality: genetics versus environment. A scientist Professor Jakob ten Brinken, interested in the laws of heredity, impregnates a prostitute in a laboratory with the semen of a hanged murderer. The prostitute conceives a child who has no concept of love, whom the professor adopts. The girl Alraune suffers from obsessive sexuality and perverse relationships throughout her life. She learns of her unnatural origins and she revenges herself against the scientist, her "father".

The novel was popular. During the early years of World War II, German soldiers were issued with copies of Alraune.

There have been a number of films made from the myth and the novel of Alraune.

• 1918, 80 minute black & white Austrian version, directed by Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz). It starred Margit Lux as Alraune. It uses the original myth and not the novel as its basis.

• 1928, 125 minute black & white German version (aka Unholy Love), directed by Henrik (Heinrich) Galeen. It starred Brigitte Helm as Alraune and Paul Wegener as the scientist Professor Jakob ten Brinken. It uses the novel and is regarded by critics as the definitive version of Alraune. When this film was first shown in Britain, film censors removed the details of the woman's origins, thereby making the story and motivations confusing to British audiences.

• 1930, 103 minute black & white German version (aka The Daughter of Evil), directed by Richard Oswald and again starring Brigitte Helm as Alma Raune (Alraune). This is the sound version of the above film.

• 1952, colour German version (aka The Unnatural), directed by Arthur Maria Rabenalt. This had an all-star German cast including Hildegard Knef as Alraune and Erich von Stroheim as the scientist.

Other movies which show influence of the Alraune theme include:

• Embryo (1976)
• The Species trilogy:
  • Species (1995)
  • Species II (1998)
  • Species III (2004)

Reference

• Ewers, Hanns Heinz (1911) Alraune, die Geschichte einer lebenden wesens. Munich: Georg Mueller. ISBN 3-928234-09-9

See also

• Artificial insemination
• Gynoid
• Homunculus
• Mandrake
• Nature versus nurture