The Dark Secret of Heidi’s Grandfather: Was the Beloved Character a Murderer?

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Heidi, the heartwarming story of a little girl living in the idyllic Swiss Alps, is one of the most beloved children’s classics of all time. First published in the 1880s by Swiss author Johanna Spyri, its tale of innocence, friendship, and the healing power of nature has captivated the world for generations. In Japan, the 1974 anime adaptation became a cultural phenomenon, its beautiful scenery and charming characters cementing its place as a timeless masterpiece.

But beneath this sunny exterior lies a collection of dark rumors and unsettling truths. From accusations of plagiarism to a main character who is far more sinister in the original book, the world of Heidi is not as innocent as it seems. And at the heart of its darkest secret is the gruff but lovable Alm-Onji, or “Grandfather Alp”—a man who, the book hints, may have been a murderer.

A Grumpy Hermit with a Dark Past

In the beloved anime, Heidi’s grandfather is a reclusive, grumpy old man who lives alone in a mountain cabin. He initially shuns human contact but is slowly softened by Heidi’s cheerful and loving nature. But the anime conveniently leaves out the chilling reason why he became a hermit.

The original novel reveals that Grandfather was once the eldest son of a wealthy farmer. However, he fell in with a bad crowd, squandered his family’s fortune on gambling and drink, and broke his parents’ hearts. After they died, he vanished, only to reappear decades later with a young son.

It was then that a dark rumor began to spread through the village: that he had joined the Neapolitan army as a mercenary, killed a man in a brawl, and was now a fugitive from justice.

A Tale of Two Characters: The Book vs. The Anime

While the novel presents the murder as an unconfirmed rumor, it makes it clear that Grandfather’s youthful behavior was appallingly bad, and his reputation was in tatters. His retreat to the mountains could be seen as an escape from a society that had judged him, or as the act of a man broken by war and the loss of his fortune, who could no longer bear the company of others.

This isn’t the only dark element of the story that was softened for the anime. In another famous scene, Clara, the wheelchair-bound girl from the city, becomes frustrated with her slow progress in learning to walk. In the anime, she angrily destroys her own wheelchair. In the book, however, the act is far more malicious: Peter, jealous of the attention Clara is getting from Heidi, intentionally pushes Clara’s wheelchair off a cliff.

The Plagiarism Scandal

The shadows surrounding Heidi extend even to its very creation. In 2010, German literary scholar Peter Büttner uncovered a story published 50 years before Heidi, written by German author Hermann Adam von Kamp. The story, titled Adelaide, the Girl from the Alps, bears a striking resemblance to Spyri’s work, detailing the life of a young girl who is taken from her grandfather in the Alps to live in a foreign city, becomes homesick, and eventually returns. The discovery sparked a major plagiarism scandal that has cast a long shadow over the beloved classic.

Heidi remains a beautiful and uplifting story. But like all great tales, it has its own hidden depths and dark corners. The story of a sweet girl in the mountains is also a story of jealousy, plagiarism, and a lonely old man who may have been hiding a terrible, violent secret. The idyllic world of the Alps, it seems, was never quite as innocent as we remembered.

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