As it happened, they soon left Königsberg: Philipp von Zwisteln was appointed Komtur in Labiau [Polessk], and Wigand von Qualenburg was sent to Osterode [Ostróda, Poland].
A little later the latter was killed in the heat of a quarrel. On the night after his death Brother Wigand appeared before Brother Philipp, who was asleep in his little cell, and spoke to him thus: "By the grace of God I have come to you, as we once agreed. Ask me whatever you wish, for I may not stay here long."
Brother Philipp asked: "Tell me, what is it like there, in the other world?"
The dead man answered: "Each of us receives what he has earned. Know that those who were poor here often become masters there over the rich of this world."
The living man asked: "Where do you dwell now?"
And the dead man answered: "I am where one comes out and thousands upon thousands keep coming in. And an hour in that place seems like a thousand years, yet even there mercy and compassion are granted to us."
Philipp went on to ask: "And how is God's judgement carried out: does forgiveness await us, or condemnation?"
The spirit answered: "I saw my bad and good deeds weighed before God, but I did not see which pan of the scales went down, for at that moment I was taken away from there. And one more thing I will tell you before I go: it will come to pass that the masters will be servants, and strangers will possess our land."
And having said this, he vanished.
SOURCE
Tettau/Temme. 1837. Folk Legends of East Prussia, Lithuania and West Prussia. (Tettau/Temme. 1837. Die Volkssagen Ostpreussens, Litauens und Westpreussens).
Illustration: Epitaph to a knight brother of the Teutonic Order in the garden of Marienburg Castle (Malbork, Poland). Photo by Mikhail Ogorodnikov.
● Editor's note: Read on VisitPrussia.com an interview with the translator of German, and in particular Prussian, fairy tales, our regular contributor Tatyana Kolivay, who runs her own blog, where countless other parables, legends and fairy tales in her translation have been published.
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
