A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz
The present day district (and formerly castle) of Wölpe lies near Nienburg on the Weser River. In olden times a Count Erich (others say he was a court official) lived there.
His wife gave birth to twelve boys at one time, and was so cruel that she ordered her servant girl to set one aside and to drown the remaining eleven in a brook that flowed past the castle. The servant girl, intending to carry out this order, put the little ones into a basket and went outside. However, as she walked up onto the earthwork, she was met by Count Erich who asked her what she had in the basket. To escape detection, she said it was young wolves, which at that time were still plentiful in that area.
The count insisted upon seeing the animals and discovered the eleven little boys, each one identical to the others. He then commanded the servant girl to follow him and to tell no one what he was about to do. With that he found various foster homes in the vicinity for the children, and they stayed there until their confirmation.
After their confirmation he had the eleven boys dress up exactly like the twelfth, took them to the countess, and asked her to select her own son from among them, but she was not able to do this.
Now earlier he had once asked her what should happen to a mother who killed her own children. She had answered that such a woman should be thrown into boiling oil or something similar.
The count now reminded her of what she had said and told her that these were the twelve children that she had given birth to, and that he had rescued eleven of them and had had them raised. But he did not carry out the judgment that she had spoken against herself, allowing her instead to live, so that she could rejoice over her children.
And that is what happened. He lived with her and their twelve children a long time, and the place, because of this unusual occurrence, has since then been called Wölpe.
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