April 28–June 25, 2010
Once upon a time... – On the one hand Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm tried to document the “ethnic” poetry of the people (“Volkspoesie”) and on the other hand this collection of fairy tales was The supposed to serve as an “educational book”. The fairy tale appears to have a simple structure with clearly defined divisions of being: good and evil, bright and dark, Life & Work conscious and subconscious. Brothers The exhibition presents for the first time in North America, the life and the work of the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and attaches special value to the fairy tales. Grimm Dr. Bernhard Lauer, The Association of the Brothers Grimm
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ACKOWLEDnGEMENTS n Scott McDonell, Chair; Dane County Board of Supervisors Kathleen Falk, Dane County Executive Brad Livingston, Director, Dane County Regional Airport Rodney F. Knight, Airport Counsel
Dane County Regional Airport Commission Dennis O’Laughlin, Chair
Supervisors Citizen Members *ART ADVISORS Perry J. Armstrong David de Felice William F. White Duane Gau Diane Everson* Judy Sidran John Hendrick Bill Haight Diane Everson Paul Rusk Sally Probasco* Sally Probasco
The exhibition was curated by Dr. Bernhard Lauer, International Association of the Brothers Grimm (Brüder Grimm-Gesellschaft e. V.) as part of the Dane County–Landkreis Kassel, Germany Sister County Partnership. It was coordinated by Paula Panczenko and the staff of Tandem Press, UW–Madison on behalf of the Dane County Regional Airport. Special thanks to Karin Peterson Thurlow and Gabriele Haberland. n A Dane County Regional Airport Exhibition BROCHURE DESIGN: Linda Endlich, MERIT (Media, Education Resources & Information Coordinated by Tandem Press UW–Madison Technology), School of Education, UW–Madison. The brothers Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859) of the constitution by Ernst August, the new King of Hanover. As Grimm were born in the city of Hanau near Frankfurt and spent a consequence, they not only lost their positions at the university, their childhood and early youth in Steinau. But during the most but they also had to leave the kingdom. Without employment they important period of their life and work, they lived in Kassel, the returned to live in Kassel, but they were highly respected throughout capital of the electorate of Hesse in the 19th century. All their lives, Germany and Europe and supported by donations. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm stayed together and cooperated in a In 1841 they moved from Kassel to Berlin and worked in the capital unique partnership, in regard to both life and work. During their of Prussia until their deaths as members of the Royal Prussian school years in Kassel and their studies at Academy of Science. Here they crowned their unique academic the University of Marburg they shared one activity by editing the “German dictionary”, which was supposed room. Later they worked in two adjacent to become the “sacred repository of language” and record the entire studies. Central to their lives was their New High German vocabulary from Luther to Goethe. Recognized library, which they used and continuously as scholars and as politically active persons, both brothers enlarged. It comprised more than 10,000 died in Berlin: there they are buried side by side at the old volumes at the end of their lives. Matthäi-Cemetery. For about 15 years Jacob and Wilhelm The “Children’s and Household Fairy Tales” (Berlin 1812-15) is the Grimm held positions at the state library of most famous work by the Grimm Brothers and has been translated Kassel and until 1829 both brothers lived there with their siblings and into almost all languages of the world and published manifold. created their great collections and works: the famous “Kinder-und Hausmärchen” (Children’s and Household Fairy Tales: 1812-1815), the “Deutsche Sagen” (German Legends: 1816-1818), several critical editions of medieval literature like the heroic “Hildebrandlied” (The Poem of Hildebrand, 1812), the Nordic “Edda” (1815) or the works of Hartmann von Aue or Freidank, the “Deutsche Grammatik” (Historical Grammar of all Germanic Languages: 1819 ff.) and the “Deutsche Heldensage” (The German Heroic Legends: 1829).
From 1830 to 1837/38 the brothers Grimm worked as librarians and professors at the University of Göttingen, but their time there ended abruptly in 1837, because they protested with five fellow professors against the revocation