Book excerpt: This book, which was first published in 1988, deals with the neglected history of the lowest layers of German society, of marginal, outcast and deviant groups such as arsonists, witches, bandits, infanticides, poachers, murderers, prostitutes, vagrants and thieves, from the end of the thirteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. This book is ideal for students of history, particularly the German history.