Es war einmal

Who told the Brothers Grimm what, when, and how? Nearly 200 years ago, their Children's and Household Tales were published in the first and largely unknown version. The lavish special edition from the Other Library was a great success. It is now available again in its unchanged interior design. Since its publication 200 years ago, the tales collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm have become the most published, most translated, and best-known book in the history of German literature - a bestseller and long a part of world literature. However, while the two philologist brothers named their literary sources, they provided only vague or nameless information about the orally or handwritten tales they received. The circle of mostly young informants remained largely anonymous. Only in the edited first edition from 1812 can we still read the tales of these informants behind the stories, as the dialogue between narrators and collectors still seems to come through. In the later and more pleasing versions, the original repertoire of the contributors becomes increasingly unrecognizable. Heinz Rölleke rescues the storytellers behind the tales, who have long become world-famous in the guise of their stories, from their anonymity and restores the names of 25 of them - where they came from and what repertoire they had, how they knew their material. Heinz Rölleke gives back the voice to the wondrous sirens who whispered the tales. Albert Schindehütte, also a great connoisseur of the Grimm's work and active since 1997 as their founder in the Schauenburg Fairy Tale Watch, adorns the tales with his magnificent and colorful calligraphies.