Modern stagings of Grimm fairy tales at enchanting "fairy tale places" in the surroundings of Kassel

In the summer semester 2016, Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner offered another seminar on the attractive topic of the Grimm Fairy Tales with a multilingual, multicultural and multiperspective approach. The seminar was entitled "The Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tales: A Multilingual, Multicultural, Multiperspective Approach." The highlight can be seen in the day excursion, which led the students together with the seminar leader Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner, the visiting professor Prof. Dr. Jiening Ruan from the USA as well as Prof. Dr. em. Gerd Rohmann to four important symbolic places of the Grimm Fairy Tales. On the bus ride, Prof. Dr. Ruan from the USA started with a lecture and enlightened the students about the so-called "purified" or "sanitized versions" of the Rapunzel fairy tale in the USA. Prof. Dr. Ruan was initially enormously surprised when she read a translation of the original German version about Rapunzel, in which it became clear that Rapunzel (still unmarried) had become pregnant by the prince and had two children. This fact is not found in the American version she is familiar with: here Puritanism still has a strong influence on the way the fairy tale is told, which is considered "correct".
At the first stop in the primeval forest Reinhardswald  Prof. Dr. Rohmann presented the special habitat forest as a place of sagas, legends and fairy tales. He emphasized that the Sleeping Beauty Castle Sababurg became nationally known beyond the Reinhardswald through the fairy tales of Snow White associated with it. He also provided information about beech and oak trees in the Reinhardswald, whose oldest trees are up to 400 years old. Also, the old proverb "Buchen sollst du suchen und Eichen sollst du meiden" was explained in relation to the correct behavior during thunderstorms. Although exciting as a fairy tale, the students then got lost in the forest like Hansel and Gretel, but were put back on the right track by the loud French horn.
At the second stop in the Sleeping Beauty Castle Sababurg, the group was warmly welcomed by Günther Koseck, whose family has lovingly managed the castle for almost 60 years.  The fairy tale tour was exciting and was perfectly accompanied by the scent of the roses that entwine around the castle. With a strong singing performance to the song "Sleeping Beauty was a beautiful child" led by Mr. Koseck, the students and teachers entered the Sleeping Beauty Tower  at the end of the fairy tale tour and marveled at the spindle and a fairy tale guest room for hotel guests. The highlight of the Sababurg station was to be seen in the staging of the student group, which transferred the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" into a modern context by replacing the spindle with KO drops, thus achieving a change of perspective.
The experience at the third stop, Trendelburg Castle, was no less exciting. Here, all participants climbed the Rapunzel Tower with 130 steps. The climb, which was certainly not easy, was duly rewarded by the fantastic view 40 meters above the village and countryside below. Here, too, the students impressed with a modern staging of the Rapunzel fairy tale and an imaginative musical realization. Completely surprisingly, the prince chose Rapunzel's mother for this version due to her wonderful voice and kidnapped her instead of the daughter. At the fourth station, the fairy tale of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was staged as a mystery play. All seven dwarfs and the wicked stepmother were called in for questioning because Snow White had been poisoned by a modern drug in a discotheque. Through a cleverly designed interrogation and the active contribution of all students as a jury, the seventh dwarf was revealed as the culprit. After highly creative modern productions in various languages, the students drove back to Kassel after an eventful day with the certain feeling that they would want to return to these places with their students.
Authors: Karen Dedekind and Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner