Bohemian Commandments

The Bohemian Commandments (Bohêmbud) or Nine Bohemian Commandments (Bohêmens ni bud) is a frequently cited text from the Kristiania Bohemian movement in Oslo:


 * 1) Thou shalt write thine own life.
 * 2) Thou shalt sever thy family roots.
 * 3)  Man kann seine Eltern nie slecht genug behandeln (Thou can not treat thy parents badly enough.)
 * 4) Thou shalt never smite thy neighbor for less than five crowns.
 * 5) Thou shalt hate and despise all farmers, such as Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.
 * 6) Thou shalt never wear celluloid cuffs.
 * 7) Neglect not to make a scandal in the Christiania Theater.
 * 8) Thou shalt never repent.
 * 9) Thou shalt take thine own life.

The commandments come from an article published in Impressionisten no. 8 in February 1889, which is often attributed to Hans Jæger. However, in the biographical novel Jæger – en rekonstruksjon (Jæger: A Reconstruction), Ketil Bjørnstad writes that the journal's publisher, Johan Collett Michelsen, wrote the piece together with Oda and Christian Krohg as a parody of Jæger, with whom they were in dispute.