New Virtual Exhibition: “Grimm from A to Z – What the Brothers Grimm didn’t tell us”
“Perhaps it was time to set down these tales in writing, for those who should be their custodians are steadily diminishing…” – this is how the “Children’s and Household Tales” of the Brothers Grimm begin, perhaps the most famous collection of fairy tales in the world today. The original version of 1892 contained more than 200 texts. Today the “Children’s and Household tales” is one of the most widely-read books throughout the world and is part of the UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme. However, the first edition was not exactly a bestseller when it was published: hundreds of unsold copies were destroyed. It wasn’t until Wilhelm Grimm decided to publish an illustrated popular edition, the “small edition”, that it became a success.
The New Virtual Exhibition of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library) “Grimm from A to Z – What the Brothers Grimm didn’t tell us”, curated by Lidia Westermann, is devoted to the history of the origins of the Grimms’ collection of fairy tales and also to the extraordinary life of the brothers, their political commitment and their work towards a German identity. 23 stations, each captioned with a respective letter of the alphabet, lead the visitor through history and stories, illustrations, graphics, audio recordings and visual material surrounding the famous brothers.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
Jacob was born as the elder of the two brothers in Hanau on 4th January 1785. William followed just over one year later on 25th February 1786. They attend the grammar school in Kassel before both of them begin to study law in Marburg at the beginning of the 19th century. Even after the city was occupied by Napoleon, the brothers remain in Kassel until they receive appointments at the University of Göttingen in 1829. Here they become well-known as members of the “Göttingen Seven”: in 1837, when King Ernst August II of Hanover annuls the constitution of the Kingdom of Hanover only four years after it had been established, seven professors from the University of Göttingen protest, among these were Jacob and Wilhelm. The Brothers Grimm are dismissed from public service and return to Kassel.
Due to the influence of Alexander von Humboldt, Bettina von Arnim and others, the Brothers Grimm are appointed to the Academy of Sciences in Berlin by King Frederick William IV of Prussia. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm work on the “German Dictionary” in these “Berlin years”. In 1859 Wilhelm Grimm dies of blood poisoning, his brother Jacob dies in 1863 following a stroke.
The Power of Language
In the course of their lives Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collaborated on a collection of folksongs, compiled the “Children’s and Household Tales” and published their “German Dictionary”. For their collection of fairy tales they met up with storytellers, made public requests for contributions and received thousands of letters which brought together folk tales from all parts of Germany, which had only been passed down by word of mouth up till then. Their “German Dictionary”, which they were not able to complete in their lifetime, constitutes the largest collection of vocabulary in the German language and, with its 350,000 keywords, contains twice as many words as the Duden.
Their efforts and ambitions were driven by the desire for a German cultural and political identity, the search for a linguistic spirit and a national character, which should form the basis of the nation. This should, however, not be confused with nationalism as we understand it today – it was rather a reaction to a time of great political upheavals: the French Revolution, the end of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, foreign rule by Napoleon, wars of liberation and, last but not least, the turmoil of the emerging national states.
What else the Brothers Grimm didn’t tell us …
To the Virtual Exhibition “Grimm from A to Z – What the Brothers Grimm didn’t tell us”