The Latest at Goethe

They are the heroes of our early childhood. We demanded that the stories of Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin and Snow White be read to us again and again. Films and television put them on our screens. And they have lived happily ever after. By Daniela Gollob

The odd thing is that Grimms’ Fairy Tales do not really belong in today’s world: the riddle of Rumpelstiltskin’s mysterious name could be solved today by search engines. And the younger generation must wonder what the “spindle” in Briar Rose could possibly be. Yet, the tales from the olden days are “in.” Publishers regularly put new editions of Grimm’s Fairy Tales on the market – sometimes as traditional versions, sometimes with artistic ambitions or brought up to date. Amazon, Apple & Co follow suit with e-books and apps. The fairy tale world is everywhere. In the weather reports, Mother Hulda brings us snow, old trends awaken like Sleeping Beauties, and at Christmas Markets, baked goods are advertised with a “nibble, nibble, little mouse.”

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This year, there is lots of nibbling being done, for the first edition of the Grimm brothers’ Children's and Household Tales is 200 years old. Hollywood went straight to work and put two interpretations of Snow White on the silver screen: Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman. There is hardly another work that has been filmed, recorded, animated, dramatized, performed and adapted as often. We love the wondrous stories where in the end good prevails.

Where did the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm get these tales? They did not think them up themselves, but compiled them from the pool of folktales, most of them passed on orally, some already written down. Over a span of years they revised and published them in seven volumes. When the first volume appeared in Germany in December 1812, it was as if the Star Money fell from heaven – and the people emptied the shelves of them.

Then, in 1823 the first translation of Grimms’ Fairy Tales appeared in Great Britain and in 1887 in faraway Japan. By the end of the 19th century, the Brave Little Tailor and his companions had enchanted almost every nation on earth.

Of course, others had already printed folktales before the Grimms: Straparola, Basile and Perrault, for example. But the fairy tale duo from Kassel did it – whether consciously or not – at the right time. When, in the early 19th century, compulsory schooling made literacy widespread and mothers spent more time in the nurseries, “they believed to have discovered in the Grimm’s collection of tales a valuable storybook to read aloud,” writes fairy tale researcher Heinz Rölleke in his book Die Märchen der Brüder Grimm. The same held true in many countries of Europe.

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Grimm Dossier: Märchenwelten (Fairy Tale Worlds)

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Today, the famous compilation is available in about 160 languages and is, next to Luther’s Bible, the most-read book in German cultural history. Its 200th birthday is dear to the Goethe-Institut’s heart: in the online dossier Märchenwelten (Fairy Tale Worlds) it puts the tales on the screen – to read, listen to and play an interactive game. It also contains fairy tales from Ghana, Malaysia and the Czech Republic. For global German lessons, the portal provides abundant fairy tale materials: transforming words like Backofen, Kugel, Schneeflocken and Spiegel into memorable vocabulary.

Goethe is also taking Grimm on tour. The award-winning travelling exhibition Märchenwelten has been travelling through Europe, North Africa, North and South America since March. Around the Mediterranean, a toy frog has become a fairy tale ambassador, recording well-known and newly written fairy tales in a blog with schoolchildren from eight countries.

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The virtual portal Grimmland is packed with original content. For example, there is Culicchia’s story of 60 would-be politicians who are sent into the forest so that they can learn that free air travel at the public’s expense are not very laudable. Boris Becker and many other famous people tell us what their favourite fairy tales are. And the Twitter community took up Grimms’ Fairy Tales for a new remix of the tales. For the animation competition Grimm Animated, young filmmakers from Germany and Italy submitted ten original short videos that you can now rate.


The writing contest Once upon a time … Grim(m) Fairy Tales for New Zealand by the local Goethe-Institut received high-ranking mention. In his opening speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair, the project’s patron, New Zealand’s “literary icon” Bill Manhire, praised the contest for bringing forth imaginative, contemporary adaptations of Grimms’ Fairy Tales. The winner of the contest can now look forward to a language journey to Germany and publication in the New Zealand weekly Listener. A number of other competitions promote young creative artists, fairy tale painters and comic illustrators in Argentina, Belarus, Chile, Greece, Paraguay and Uruguay. In its language and cultural work, the Goethe-Institut is using ten new television fairy tale adaptations by the ARD.

Back to the beginning: “In the old times, when it was still of some use to wish for the thing one wanted, there lived a King whose daughters were all handsome, but the youngest was so beautiful …” – the Brothers Grimm begin the first fairy tale in their collection from the third edition with these words. Which is it? Tell us in the Fairy Tale Quiz next Thursday on The Latest at Goethe. One hint: it’s not Snow White!