100 years of Hinterkaifeck

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the legendary Hinterkaifeck murder case. We would like to take this as an opportunity to comment on why we called ourselves “Kaifeck” as a band. Most people who know the case know about its gruesome course of events and its unclear background. There is a lot of speculation about the perpetrator(s) and the motive behind the crime. To date, however, there is no definitive evidence that provides a clear answer as to how and why six people were killed on a remote farm on the night of March 31st to April 1st, 1922. Some of us in the band have known this story since childhood due to the geographical proximity to the place where it happened, and it has been a warning sign for at least as long. On the one hand, the crime reminds us of the depths of human abysses, of a community's conspiracy, of secrecy and betrayal, of the social and political changes of the interwar period with all their far-reaching consequences, which only arrived late in the Upper Bavarian countryside. On the other hand, we are fascinated by a certain melancholy and an aura of darkness that surrounds the place and its myth to this day. Hinterkaifeck is not just a murder case, but also a window to other worlds, dark worlds, worlds beyond what can be expressed through words. There is an aesthetic of the unreal in them, an aesthetic that we also suspect acoustically and visually in the word “Kaifeck” itself, but which can only be served by music. With our songs we also want to express those feelings, moods and psychological states that are not reflected in words or pictures.