Is the song "Mack the Knife" based on a real person?

Question

The famous song "Mack the Knife" is all about a violent gangster. Is this based on a real person? Please include links.

Answer 1

No. It's from an work called "the Threepenny Opera" which is a German work, actually based on an 18-century English opera called "The Beggar's Opera". I knew this already, but here's a wikipedia link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threepenny_Opera

Answer 2

I was attracted to this by your rant against the Wikipedia. The Wikipedia has its limits but sometimes it is a great resource, and does indeed, credibly, point to a real person as the indirect ispiration of the character who is described in the Moritat which we now call Mac the Knife.

Mac the Knife is a very loose adaptation of a song which in some translations of die Dreigroschenopfer is called Moritat vom Macke Messer. This describes a character taken directly from John Gay's play, "The Begger's Opera" The relevent passage in the Wikipedia comes from a page devoted to an eighteenth century criminal named Jack Sheppard. "Perhaps the most prominent play based on Sheppard's life is John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728). Sheppard was the inspiration for the figure of Macheath; his nemesis, Peachum, is based on Jonathan Wild....Two centuries later The Beggar's Opera was the basis for The Threepenny Opera of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill (1929)."

A source is given for the part of the statement before the ellipses. That source is Lucy Moore The Thieves' Opera, p. 227. I had read such statements before, but I believe that was back in the '70s so I don't remember where. I've read the second part of that statement many times, including in an old biography of Sir John Geilgud who starred in a production of the Beggar's Opera.

I've listed two other sites. The first is Marilyn Manson's website. The second is a PDF file called Polly II Reader: Plan for a Revolution in the Docklands. There are other resources out there and search engines are among them. Frankly, though, I'd forgotten Sheppard's name (and Wild's) and probably wouldn't have remembered it if not for the Wikipedia. Read critically and with the notes they are trying to enforce on contributions, it is a great GENERAL introduction to many subjects.

Answer 3

No, the chracter of Rose is based on a real life artist named Beatrice Wood. However, "Rose" can also be seen as a composite of many of the society girls of the 20 years before and after the year 1900 that were often forced by their families to marry for money or status rather than love. People like Consuelo Vanderbilt... as well as a symbol of the way the lives of women in general changed over the century, too.

Answer 4

Funny you should ask. A few days ago I was listening to "Mack the Knife" by Ella Fitzgerald because my friend likes the Clay Aiken version and so I decided to listen to some older versions.

"Mack the Knife" is a medieval version of a murder ballad based on the story of "Mackie Messer" which is based on the (anti-hero) character Macheath in "The Beggar's Opera" by John Gay.

The character isn't exactly a real person but its creator certainly is. ;)

Answer 5

It's about "Mackheath" a character from "The Beggar's Opera" - the song Mack the Knife is from a version called "The Threepenny Opera" see the link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Threepenny_Opera

Answer 6

Well, I can't give you links, but I can tell you that he was a real person. My eight grade teacher Mrs. Hanson told us a story about him. Sorry if this isn't helpful.

Answer 7

Mack the Knife is my all time favorite old song, and I don't like old songs. I wish some group would "rock it up" I'd love to hear it redone.

Answer 8

The only one that can really sing that song is Hildegard Knef the rest is .....

Answer 9

I too got here from your blog comment about wiki.

In this case, the best answer was already given here:

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmacktheknife.html

Answer 10

No, he's a character in Three-Penny Opera. The song was originally done in German.