The Brothers Grimm in Steinau
The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm lived as children in Steinau an der Strasse.
The family of the world-renown German linguists and collectors of fairy tales had long resided in the town.
Their great-grandfather Friedrich Grimm was a church inspector. The grandfather, Pastor Friedrich Grimm, preached as a reformed parish priest in the local Katharinenkirche (church of St. Katherine) from 1730 to 1777.
Their father Philipp Wilhelm Grimm initially served the landgrave of Hesse-Kassel. In February 1783 he married Dorothea Zimmer, the daughter of a Hanau office councillor. The couple had nine children.
In 1791 the Grimm family moved to Steinau, into the then already over 200-year-old magistrate's house. The only daughter of the family, Charlotte Amalie, was born here in 1793. As district magistrate, father Grimm was responsible for official duties in Steinau and Schlüchtern, i.e. two cities, with eleven villages and five cloisters.
In 1796 the father died, and shortly thereafter the widow Dorothea Grimm moved with her six children into the Huttensche Hospital before she was able to purchase a part of the old winery and move in there.
In 1798 the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm left Steinau in order to attend the gymnasium upper school in Kassel.
On the market square in front of the town hall where Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm liked to play as children, a fairytale well was set up in their honour in 1985.
The gorgeous Renaissance-style magistrate's house, today the Brothers Grimm House in Steinau, accommodates a museum on the life, work and impact of the Brothers Grimm. In 1998 the international Brothers Grimm-Gesellschaft Kassel e.V. founded the museum together with the city of Steinau an der Strasse.
In their own words, the Grimms experienced "a lovely childhood, whose impressions remained unforgettable all our lives" in Steinau; they were deeply fond of their little home town nestled "in the beautiful region of rolling fields crowned by beautiful mountains". Jacob Grimm writes: "My native land is the abode of my liveliest energies and ideas. There is where I spent the freshest and happiest time of my life." Steinau would now seem almost as familiar to the brothers today as it was then, since they would still find their favourite childhood spots intact. Steinau has preserved its personality. The over 200 Grimm "Tales of Children and the Home", in the meantime translated into 160 languages, have become the most widespread literature in the world after the Bible. The folktales belong to the fount of German cultural treasures and even in the lifetime of the Brothers Grimm had already attracted a larger public than on the brothers' undoubtedly great academic works on German language, poetry, and law. Their younger brother, Ludwig Emil, was a well-known painter and etcher in his time. He provided seven illustrations to the "small edition" (with 50 texts) of the Tales of Children and the Home. This edition contributed significantly to the success and distribution of the folktale collection and rapidly "overtook" the comprehensive two-volume "large edition" in the number and extent of print runs. After a visit to Steinau, Ludwig Emil Grimm enthused: "I have seen many charming regions, but none surpassing Steinau."
Nowadays the Grimm fairy tales come to life in the Steinau marionette theatre "Die Holzköppe". Guided tours "In the footsteps of the Grimms" are offered. The Brothers Grimm House in Steinau and the castle show exhibitions about the Grimms. The barn ladder on which the Grimm children played is found in the Museum Steinau. In the entertainment park, apart from many other attractions you can listen to fairy tales being told in the vaulted cellar. Recitations of fairy tales and fairytale-related events are held throughout the entire year.
