Killing chickens, stealing pretzels and filling the teacher's pipe with gunpowder. It's probably not the behaviour most parents try to encourage – but it's been a part of German youngsters ...

They stole chicken and died a painful death in the mill. Germany's most famous tricksters, Max and Moritz, pulled pranks kids today wouldn't dream of and were read about around the world. They ...

The deeds of Max and Moritz The first thing the doomed pair do in the tale is tie some bread crusts together. Not too bad, you might think – until they feed the bread to Widow Bolte's chickens ...