Brothers Grimm and the Old Masters in Kassel

Brothers Grimm

When they came closer, they saw that the house was made of bread, and the roof was made of cake and the windows of sparkling sugar (Hansel and Gretel) Brothers Grimm.

Often, when we read stories like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Prince, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and Snow White, we don't realize that these European folk tales were popularized by Brothers Grimm, namely Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, two Germans among the most well-known story-tellers in Europe.

For those who enjoy culture and reading, "The Grimm's Fairy Tales" were compiled, edited and translated into 160 languages in Kassel, a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany, that is easily reached by train or car from Frankfurt am Main. And in this town there is a Brothers Grimm Museum, dedicated for the brothers.It is surely the town's flagrantly open secret. This also means that culture fans have something magical to discover on the fairy tales route. 

The Grimm Brothers had been collecting fairy tales from the people of Hesse since the early 1800's.  It was in Kassel that a law professor, Friedrich Karl von Savigny, impressed by Jacob's appetite for learning, opened his private library to the older Grimm brother. The experience awoke in Jacob a passion for deciphering and saving ancient German literature and folktales, a cause which his younger brother would also embrace.

Children's and Household Tales

Children's and Household Tales, their great collaboration, began in an almost offhand fashion. Immersed in editing and translating medieval manuscripts, the brothers started to gather fairy tales as a favor for a friend planning a collection of German folk literature. After several years, the brothers had collected 49 tales, taking a few from old books, the rest from acquaintances in Kassel. But when the friend failed to produce the collection, the brothers decided to expand their efforts and publish their own volume.

Altogether some 40 persons delivered tales to the Grimms. Many of the storytellers came to The Grimms' house in Kassel. The brothers particularly welcomed the visits of Dorothea Viehmann, a widow who walked to town to sell produce from her garden. An innkeeper's daughter, Viehmann had grown up listening to stories from travelers on the road to Frankfurt. Among her treasures was "Aschenputtel"-Cinderella. The other important storyteller was Marie Hassenpflug, a 20-years-old friend of their sister, from a well-bred, French-speaking family. Marie was credited with narrating many of the most famous tales: Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.

Like the Grimms, Marie grew up in Hanau, which at the time was a very French town. Her nursemaids naturally told French stories. The Grimms may at first have thought Marie's tales all came from Hesse, but the famous ones we now know came from France and the book by Charles Perrault. Marie's wonderful stories blended motifs from the oral tradition and from Perrault's influential 1697 book, Tales of My Mother Goose, which contained elaborate versions of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty among others. Many of these had been adopted from earlier Italian fairy tales. In the second edition of their own collection, the brothers acknowledged the deep international roots of many of their tales. Included in their notes are references to variants from many other cultures, including Russian, Finnish, Japanese, Irish and Slavic. Between 1812 and 1857 their first collection was revised and published many times, and grew from 86 stories to 200. In addtion to writing and modifying folk tales, the brothers wrote collections of well-respected German and Scandinavian mythologies and in 1808 began writing a definitive German dictionary, that remained incomplete in their lifetime.

Brother Grimm Museum - Kassel

The life and times of the Brothers Grimm are vividly portrayed in Brothers Grimm Museum in Kassel through various permanent exhibitions as well as exhibitions commemorating special events and occasions. The exhibition rooms are located in the baroque-style Palais Bellevue which was originally designed as an observatory for Hesse's Landgrave Karl in 1714 by the French architect Paul du Ry.

In 2012, Kassel commemorated the 200 years of Children's and Household Tales. The main focus of the celebrations starts in 2013 with the title "Grimm 2013". There will be several activities in the name and in honor of the Brothers Grimm, such as Literary Spring, Forest of Shadows-night walk through forest with lanterns, performances and puppet theater as well as fairy tales festivals. The highlight of the celebration will be "Expedition Grimm" a large exhibition in documenta-Halle, Kassel, starting from 27 April until 08 September 2013.



Old Masters

Waterfall and Hercules statue

Visiting Kassel will be incomplete without visiting the Gallery of Old Masters, in Wilhemshöhe Castle. Landgrave Wilhelm IX of Hesse-Kassel had built the Castle, at the end of the 18th Century. The Castle itself was built at the foot of Hercules statue, and waterfall display, crowned by a fantastic 71 meter high monument: the Oktogon, built by Landgrave Karl in 17th century.
The Gallery of Old Masters contains the largest collection of Dutch paintings outside the Netherlands, as well as paintings from Germany, Italy, French and Spain from the 16th and 17th centuries. An outstanding connoisseurship and feeling for quality that informed Landgrave Wilhelm VIII as a collector, as well as the taste of his own time and his personal connections and resources, have left their indelible stamp on the gallery. Building on the collection left by his princely predecessors, it was he who created the Kassel Picture Gallery. In the 17th century, he became a knowledgeable connoisseur of Dutch culture, learning to speak the language fluently, and developed a strong interest in Dutch paintings. From the leading painters of The Hague he acquired delicately-painted decorative flower-pieces, allegorical works and history paintings, and he maintained relationship with countless painters and collectors in the Netherlands. He also bought seventeenth century French and Italian paintings.

Wilhemshöhe Castle

Under Wilhelm's successor, his son Landgrave Friedrich II, the Landgrave's formerly entirely private painting collection was opened to a select but general public, as part of a programme of educational reform inspired by the spirit of early Enlightenment. With the opening of the Picture Gallery for the diversion and education of the public, the Landgrave's art collection became enormously popular and drew many visitors to the city, some from great distance. During the French occupation, the gallery suffered great losses when many paintings were stolen and lost. In 1974, Wilhemshöhe Castle rebuilt as a museum has served as a home to the antique collection and to the Old Masters Gallery.

Old Masters Gallery

In the Old Masters Gallery, you will find Early German Paintings, such as from Martin Schaffner (Painted tabletop for Erasmus Stedelin), Albrecht Dürer (Portrait of Elsbeth Tucher), Michael Wolgemuth (Ursula Tucher).  Italian Paintings, such as from Jacopo Negretti (Venus and Cupid at Vulcan's Forge), Tiziano Vecellio (Portrait of Military Commander), Mattia Preti (The Feast of Herod), French Paintings, such as from Nicolas de Largilliėre (Portrait of a Man in Purple Robe), Nicolas Puossin (Bacchic Scene), Simon Vouet (Sophonisba Receiving the Poisoned Chalice), Spanish Paintings, such as from Jusepe de Ribera (Mater Dolorosa), Bartolomė Esteban Murillo (Joseph and Potiphar's Wife).

Saskia van Uylenburgh - Rembrandt

Early Netherlandish Paintings, such as from Maerten van Heemskerck (Pieter Jan Foppeszoon and Family), Frans Floris (The Judgement of Paris), Anthonis Mor (William I of Orange-Nassau), Dutch Paintings, such as from Jan Miense Molenaer (Schoolroom with Family Entering), Adriaen van Ostade (Merry Peasants), Adriaen van de Velde (The Beach at Scheveningen) Jan Weenix (An Italian Seaport), Gerard ter Borch (The Lute Player) and the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (A Man Sharpening a Quill; Portrait of Andries de Graeff; Saskia van Uylenburgh and Jacob blessing the Sons of Joseph). You can also find Flemish Paintings, such as from Peter Paul Rubens (Venus, Cupid, Bacchus and Ceres), Jacob Jordaens (The Satyr and the Peasant), Anthony van Dyck (Double Portrait of Frans Snyder and His Wife, Margaretha de Vos).



Note : This Blog is based on research of articles and books as well as private visits to Kassel.