Ruhenheim



Ruhenheim is Klaus Poppe's hometown located in the mountainous terrain of south Germany. Dr. Tenma discovered this place upon his visit to a picture book collector.

Lunge and Grimmer's discovery of the place
Inspector Lunge's investigation on Dr. Tenma case finally led him to this place. He located Ruhenheim through the help of Bonaparta's son, Jaromír Lipsky, who gave him a post card drawn by his father. When Lunge arrived in the high lands of Ruhenheim, he met Wolfgang Grimmer, who had made a connection between Bonaparta and Ruhenheim through the documents he had acquied during his research around East and West Germany. They talked about the massacre that is about to happen in this very quiet and peaceful place.

Bonaparta's post card to his son
When Lunge visited Lipsky on his usual place in Cedok bridge, Lipsky willingly supplied Lunge with information about his father and even gave him the post card his father sent him years ago. The postcard was a picture of a town surrounded by many mountains, drawn by Bonaparta himself, and scribbled 'K.P.' on the corner of the card, which strenghtens Lunge's, Grimmer's, and Tenma's theory that Klaus Poppe was Bonaparta's real name.

Das Ruhenheim Picture Book

 * Main article: Das Ruhenheim

Das Ruhenheim, (in English, The Peaceful House), is a picture book written by Bonaparta written most probably during his stay in Ruhenheim under the pen name of Helmuth Voss. It is a story about a monster who wanted to thieve around this place but was entranced by the peaceful of the town. The main character in the story somewhat parallels Bonaparta's liking of the town which he came to love after he left it a long time ago. This picture book helped Tenma locate Bonaparta's whereabouts.

Hotel Versteck

 * Main article: Hotel VersteckHotel_versteck.png

Hotel Versteck is where Bonaparta chose to stay and work in Ruhenheim. He is bartender and steward and became great friends with the Hotel owner Konrad, who makes jams and lets visitors of the hotel taste his materpiece. This is where Johan's 'adopted' grandparents stayed to give him ample information about the place. Grimmer and Lunge also stayed in this hotel to see the old and gentle Franz Bonaparta: Klaus Poppe.

In Real Life
Like most locations from Monster, Ruhenheim is based off of a real German town.

Oberstdorf
In episode sixty-nine of the anime, Tenma locates the home of Klaus Poppe using a map. "Ruhenheim" is clearly a misnomer, but by looking at the surrounding villages (Fischen, Tiefenbach, and Nebelhorn), it can be determined that the location belongs to the town of Oberstdorf. This is only seen in the anime.



Stepbergalm
When Tenma looks at the same map in the manga, Poppe's location occupies a different area. Although there is no definite confirmation of this, it appears to have taken the site of a mountain called Stepbergalm, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen. This was determined by the fact that it has six paths leading to it and is north of a town beginning with the letter G (Grainau) by Bundesstraße 23.



Kaufbeuren
Regardless of where Ruhenheim may be location-wise, the town itself is based off of the village of Kaufbeuren in Bavaria. After its position was determined by a Livejournal user, another of the series' fans went there the following summer. The individual uploaded photos of their visit onto Tumblr, which can be viewed by clicking the links below:

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI