Modern productions of Grimm fairy tales at magical "fairy tale locations" around Kassel

In the 2016 summer semester, 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 was the day excursion, which took the students together with the seminar leader Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner, the visiting professor Prof. Dr. Jiening Ruan from the USA and 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 began with a lecture and informed the students about the so-called "purified" or "sanitized versions" of the Rapunzel fairy tale in the USA. Prof. Dr. Ruan was initially extremely 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 does not appear 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 Reinhardswald primeval forest,  Prof. Dr. Rohmann presented the special forest habitat as a place of legends, myths and fairy tales. He emphasized that the Sleeping Beauty Castle Sababurg became known beyond the Reinhardswald region due to the fairy tales of Snow White associated with it. He also provided information about the beech and oak trees in Reinhardswald, the oldest of which are up to 400 years old. He also explained the old proverb "Look for beeches and avoid oaks" with regard to the correct behavior during thunderstorms. Although exciting as a fairy tale, the students then lost their way in the forest like Hansel and Gretel, but were put back on the right path by the loud sound of the French horn.
At the second stop at Sleeping Beauty Castle Sababurg, the group was warmly welcomed by Günther Koseck, whose family has lovingly managed the castle for almost 60 years.  The fairytale tour was exciting and was perfectly accompanied by the scent of the roses that grow around the castle. At the end of the fairytale tour, the students and lecturers entered the Sleeping Beauty Tower  and marveled at the spindle and a fairytale guest room for hotel guests with a powerful singing interlude to the song "Sleeping Beauty was a beautiful child" led by Mr. Koseck. The highlight of the Sababurg station was the production by the student group, which transferred the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" into a modern context by replacing the spindle with KO drops and thus changing the perspective.
The experience at the third stop, Trendelburg Castle, was no less exciting. Here, all participants climbed the Rapunzel Tower with its 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 production of the Rapunzel fairy tale and an imaginative musical interpretation. Completely surprisingly, the prince chose Rapunzel's mother for this version due to her wonderful voice and abducted her instead of his daughter. At the fourth station, the fairy tale of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was staged as a murder mystery. All seven dwarfs and the evil stepmother were called in for questioning because Snow White had been poisoned by a modern drug in a discotheque. Thanks to a cleverly designed interrogation and the active contribution of all the students as a jury, the seventh dwarf was unmasked as the culprit. After highly creative modern productions in various languages, the students returned to Kassel after an eventful day with the certain feeling that they would like to return to these places with their pupils.
Authors: Karen Dedekind and Prof. Dr. Claudia Finkbeiner