A fairytale journey through the Germany of the Brothers Grimm

BarcelonaSleeping in Rapunzel's castle, following the trail of the Pied Piper of Hamelin or Baron Münchhausen through picture-postcard towns are some of the attractions you can experience if you travel along the so-called German Fairy Tale Route, inspired by the Brothers Grimm. Immersed in an idyllic landscape, surrounded by green fields, forests, and rivers, travelers can travel more than 500 kilometers by car amid references to tales that are part of the popular imagination.

The city of Kassel, located in the state of Hessen, is a good place to start the trip. After all, the Brothers Grimm lived there for thirty years, and you can visit the Grimm Welt, a museum that chronicles the life and work of these two German philologists who lived between the late 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries.

Jakob Grimm was born in 1785 and died in 1863. His brother Wilhelm was born a year later and died in 1859. Both were born in Hanau, about 180 kilometers from Kassel, and, contrary to what many people believe, they were not the creators of the famous fairy tales. Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, The Brave Tailor either The Bremen Town MusiciansThe Grimms were philologists who, as can be seen in the Kassel museum, conducted research on the German language and, through conversation with people, collected folk tales that have been translated into more than 150 languages and, in many cases, adapted into films.

The Kassel museum, located high above the city, was built ten years ago and covers the different aspects of the Grimm brothers' philological work. The design approach is very German, to the point that a security guard scolded me for taking notes with a pen. "If the pen falls on the floor, the ink might leave a stain," he told me very seriously, as I hurried to change it for a pencil.

Kassel is a pleasant city of 200,000 inhabitants located in central Germany, with numerous green areas, trams, museums, and constant references at Documenta, the art fair held every five years. It is also famous for its university, which guarantees a lively student atmosphere, and for the 240-hectare Wilhelmhöhe mountain park, home to a spectacular Hercules monument and a large fountain that have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When it comes to getting busy, Kassel has some good restaurants, such as the Renthof, where you can eat the region's acclaimed asparagus and breaded veal in spring (Wiener Schnitzel) in a historic atmosphere, because the restaurant is located in a former Carmelite convent dating back to the 13th century.

Land of castles

The immersion in the Fairy Tale Route, created fifty years ago by German Tourism, begins, in fact, when the traveler leaves Kassel by car and crosses green fields surrounded by wooded hills. Nearby, in the village of Witzenhausen, Berlepsch Castle, perched on a hill, catches the eye. Built in the 14th century by Baron Arnold von Berlepsch, it has been lived in by nineteen generations of the same family, and has hosted illustrious guests, as recorded by Goethe.

"My father takes care of the castle's maintenance, and I take care of the commercial side," explains the son of the current baron. "It operates partly as a hotel, although it only has two rooms, and we also organize weddings, meetings, and events. A few days ago, there was an event commemorating medieval times, with people dressed as knights, tournaments, games..."

The castle also has a museum, where the current baron has gathered weapons, toys and all kinds of antique objects, and a restaurant where you can eat in an atmosphere that harks back to the old tales, those where Hänsel and Gretel, Cinderella and Sleeping White, Sleeping Beauty, Sleeping Beauty peek out.

Other castles in the region are Sababurgo, which is being restored to become a hotel dedicated to Snow White, and Rapunzel, in the village of Trendelburgo. There they fully play up the folk tale card, to the point that they have a high tower, like the one where the witch locks Rapunzel, from which hangs a braided rope reminiscent of the kidnapped girl's braid.

Storybook villages

There are some towns in the state of Hesse that could easily be found in a fairy tale museum. This is the case of Witzenhausen, with a center full of old wooden houses with facade details that hark back to medieval times. In the square, by the way, there's a statue of one of the Grimm brothers, Jakob, in memory of a speech in favor of freedom of expression he gave to students in 1837.

Another such town is Hann Münden. Its location on an island between three rivers has helped preserve the more than seven hundred old houses that remain, some of them six hundred years old. The wooden foundations of the houses posed a risk of fire, and that's why there was always a watchman at the top of the bell tower to sound the alarm at the first sign of fire.

Fortunately, there were no fires in Hann-Münden for many centuries. A real character appears on this fairy tale trail: Dr. Eisenbarth, who traveled through this region during the 17th and 18th centuries, operating on and treating the sick. His fame was so great that he has several statues in Hann-Münden, and he can even be seen appearing in the town hall chime at certain times. With three rivers and idyllic trails surrounding them, a peaceful tourist destination, especially for walks and bike rides, is concentrated in Hann-Münde, a town that built its wealth on the transport of goods that came down the rivers.

Baron von Münchhausen

Another notable figure on this fairy tale trail is a famously imaginative Baron of Münchhausen. He was born in 1720 in the village of Bodenwerder and lived there until 1797. He participated with the Russian army in wars against the Ottoman Empire, and upon his return, he told such fantastical stories that he became famous. Someone even wrote a book recounting how the Baron traveled to the moon, rode on a cannonball, and fought a crocodile, among many other adventures. Films made about the Baron, including one by ex-Monty Python director Terry Gilliam from 1988, have contributed to his fame. In the village of Bodenwerder, located on the banks of the Weser River, there is a museum and several fountains dedicated to the Baron, and even a real-life character who, dressed as the imaginative nobleman, walks the streets to add substance to the story.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

The further north we go on this route revisiting Grimm's fairy tales, the more important music becomes. The town of Hamelin, for example, which has around 60,000 inhabitants on the banks of the Weser River, has long been inextricably linked to a famous piper. The one in the story, of course. The center of Hamelin is very pleasant, car-free and with many old houses, and even with the occasional detail that some cobblestones have been replaced by metal pieces with a rat drawing, recalling the many rats the piper expelled from the town with the sound of his flute.

According to the tale recorded by the Grimms, the town of Hamelin suffered a plague of rats in the 13th century. Seeing that they couldn't scare them away, its inhabitants called a piper who, thanks to his magic flute, managed to get them to follow him until he drowned them in the river. This is the best-known part of the tale, but there's a wilder sequel. Seeing that they wouldn't pay him, the piper took the village children and, according to some versions, drowned them in the river as well.

Be that as it may, in Hamelin they prefer to remember the rats' version with a museum, a house they say was the piper's, a few statues, and even a real-life character who roams the town dressed as a piper, playing the flute incessantly. "Thanks to this tale, I'm lucky enough to travel the world," the character who plays him tells me. "I was recently in Japan playing the piper."

The Bremen Town Musicians

The journey through these fairytale lands ends further north, in the city of Bremen, where near the town hall there is a statue that everyone who visits wants to touch, because they say it brings good luck. The statue's musicians are four animals—a rooster, a cat, a dog, and a donkey—who represent, one on top of the other, the musicians from the story who escaped from a farm because they were too old and feared being slaughtered. They became musicians again and were thus able to have a new life.

Bremen, a city of around 600,000 inhabitants, displays in the buildings around the elegant Mercat Square the fortune it made thanks to its port and trade, led by the ships of the Hanseatic League. The main hall of the town hall, with model ships hanging from the ceiling, commemorates the captains who contributed to the city's wealth, while the nearby statue of Roland recalls that the city was under the protection of Charlemagne and his nephew Roland.

The Schnoor district, full of medieval-inspired houses and alleys, completes a city with several tourist attractions, such as Böttcherstraße, a short, narrow street with the distinctive brick buildings that have their origins in German Expressionism.

On Böttcherstrasse, by the way, there's a famous Schüttinger brewery, with huge halls where you can drink good beer and eat typical dishes like sausage, which comes by the meter here, or arm. If you prefer a less popular atmosphere, right below the town hall is the Rattskeller, where you can eat in a more elegant setting dating back to the early 15th century. Either place is a good place to toast the Brothers Grimm and remember the tales that made them famous. At some point, music will play, but it's unlikely to be played by the Bremen animal musicians. After all, it's all a fairy tale.