Nachzehrer

In German folklore, a Nachzehrer (German: [ˈnaːxˌt͡seːʁɐ] ^ⓘ, literally "after-consumer" (a creature that consumes from the afterlife) in German; also spelt Nachtzehrer, literally "night-consumer") is a type of Wiedergänger (revenant), which was believed to be able to drag the living after it into death, either through malice or through the desire to be closer to its loved ones through various means.

The word Nachzehrer came to use in the nineteenth century, but belief in the creature the label is applied to precedes this by several centuries. The nachzehrer was prominent in the folklore of the northern regions of Germany, but also in Silesia and Bavaria, and the word was also used to describe a similar creature of the Kashubes of Northern Poland. The nachzehrer was similar to the Slavic vampire in that it was known to be a recently deceased person who returned from the grave to attack family and village acquaintances.