In the week right before Christmas of 1812, the first volume of a series was published, which contained probably the least Christmasy stories you could ever imagine. Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales) was a collection of German fairy tales released by the Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm.
The 'fairy tales' were controversial and radical even in their day, and what we would consider suitable for children now bears absolutely no resemblance to what got read to tender young ears then (As I found out once upon a time reading a book called 'Beyond the Looking Glass,' a compilation of Victorian fairy tales and fantasy stories) (Yikes.)
The Brothers caught grief for what they'd included in their kiddies' volume and made changes in later editions in response to critics and changing tastes.
...The first volume of the first edition was published in 1812, containing 86 stories; the second volume of 70 stories followed in 1815. For the second edition, two volumes containing the Kinder- und Hausmärchen (KHM) texts were issued in 1819 and the appendix was removed and published separately in the third volume in 1822, totaling 170 tales. The third edition appeared in 1837, the fourth edition in 1840, the fifth edition in 1843, the sixth edition in 1850, and the seventh edition in 1857. Stories were added, and also removed, from one edition to the next, until the seventh held 210 tales. Some later editions were extensively illustrated, first by Philipp Grot Johann and, after his death in 1892, by German illustrator Anton Robert Leinweber.[citation needed]
The first volumes were much criticized because, although they were called "Children's Tales", they were not regarded as suitable for children, both for the scholarly information included and the subject matter.[4] Many changes through the editions – such as turning the wicked mother of the first edition in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel (shown in original Grimm stories as Hänsel und Grethel) to a stepmother, were probably made with an eye to such suitability. Jack Zipes believes that the Grimms made the change in later editions because they "held motherhood sacred".[5]
They removed sexual references—such as Rapunzel's innocently asking why her dress was getting tight around her belly, and thus naively revealing to the witch Dame Gothel her pregnancy and the prince's visits—but, in many respects, violence, particularly when punishing villains, became more prevalent.[6]
Earlier this year, I ordered a gorgeous new edition from Bishop Barron's Word on Fire bookstore of a collection of 30 of the Grimms' fairy tales. After finishing a couple of them, the first thing I said to hubs was, 'Jeez, these are gruesome.'
Hansel and Gretel was one of the tales with a happier ending (and the Word on Fire version cleaves closely to the original version), but it is full of angst, violence, and family drama. According to historians, the tale itself dates back to the 1315 famine that hit Europe and the ghastly choices forced on families all over the continent who could not feed all of their children or themselves.
Throw in a stepmother who wasn't going to starve herself for someone else's children, and you have nightmare fuel based on historical precedent to scare your children straight.
...The Great Famine of 1315-1317 tends to get overshadowed by its more famous older sister, the Black Death, which reached Europe in 1347. But it's the first of the crises that stopped medieval Europe dead in its tracks. It was precipitated by the first rumblings of the Little Ice Age. (The Little Ice Age wasn't actually an ice age, but François E. Matthes called it that back in 1939 and the name stuck.) As glaciers expanded, temperatures in Europe cooled, leading to cooler winters, worse weather, and bad harvests. While the Little Ice Age was in full force from the 1500s to the 1800s, there's plenty of contemporary reports of bad harvests and rain — so much rain! — starting in the spring of 1315.
The successive bad harvests led to an astronomical rise in food prices for the limited supply. A murrain — a word used in medieval Europe as a catch-all for different diseases that afflict cattle — afflicted livestock, further depleting food sources. As people began to starve, their bodies became vulnerable to disease, including the murrain from the cattle they ate, and people began to die. In droves. Faced with what felt like the end of the world, some people turned to faith. Others abandoned their children.
And some turned to cannibalism.
..."Hansel and Gretel" reflects those very real fears — the idea that, when famine comes, the people who are meant to care for you will fail you. Hansel and Gretel contend not only with their mother, but with their father's inability to protect them from the consequences of famine. In the fairy tale, after the children successfully kill the witch, the mother dies, suggesting a connection between the two characters. The one trying to survive by abandoning the children and the one trying to survive by eating them might be one and the same, just at different points in their desperation.
No wonder "Hansel and Gretel" has always leant itself best to horror; it's always been rooted there.
How someone thought that was appropriate to read to children, as it's not exactly a reaffirmation of the undying love a parent would normally express for them, I don't know, but there it is. When you talk about imposing modern sensibilities and mores on a culture from centuries ago, this is exactly what it looks like.
The first thing that probably would take hold in a child's mind after hearing it was not to approach old women in lonely cottages in the woods. This is a 'stranger/danger' story that probably stuck fast with most obedient little tykes.
One can only assume those kids were made of sterner stuff than today's coddled, bubble-wrap-swathed, perpetually fainting violets.
In the Germany of 2026, where they would no doubt be as horrified as we American parents are thinking of little ones scared by some of the more graphic descriptions in the original Grimm stories being read in the story ring at Barnes and Noble to five- and six-year-olds, they do seem to have an issue with another wicked villain that no one will read about. Or discuss.
Perhaps because it's real and not a figment of anyone's imagination, and it's much easier to pretend otherwise, even though it's little children in much more danger.
🇩🇪 Girls as young as 11 are among the 358 child marriage cases recorded in one German state since 2012. Only eight marriages were formally annulled. Cases involved men from Syria, Iraq and Pakistan. Follow: @europa https://t.co/xhmYKn5Qfx
— Europa.com (@europa) October 13, 2026
How does this happen in a society that prides itself on its superiority?
That has the temerity to smirk and sneer at others even as it sinks beneath the waves of its own hubris?
This was Germany in 2016.
Germany will no longer allow migrants to have multiple marriages or child brides https://t.co/wz5IaZp49o
— Daily Mail (@DailyMail) June 15, 2016
This is Germany now.
@TRobinsonNewEra Polygamy is a criminal offense in Germany. I don't understand why that law is simply not being enforced. Why are we debating something that has already been decided? @grok is polygamy illegal in Germany?
— Spidey (@al4n_woot) April 20, 2026
This was Germany in 2017.
Germany Moves To Ban Child Marriages After Finding 1500 Cases Among Refugees https://t.co/dtkVsvAcaJ https://t.co/wZugkxLLvQ
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 9, 2017
And this is Germany now.
They have allowed this degenerate abomination to continue.
They have sanctified selling off child brides to their Islamic invaders with a state seal.
Hundreds of child marriages have been revealed in Germany, as new data indicates that girls as young as 11 are being married off to adult men.
Data revealed that since April 2012, officials in the German state of Baden-Württemberg recorded 358 marriages involving a child.
But in just eight of these cases were marriages formally annulled.
The data was revealed after local politicians from the hard-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party filed a parliamentary inquiry with the state government.
Among the most egregious marriages was the 2020 partnering of an 11-year-old Iraqi girl and a 17-year-old Iraqi teenager. It is unclear when or why this marriage was annulled.
In 2018, meanwhile, a 14-year-old Afghan girl was married to a 30-year-old Afghan man. This case also left questions as to when or why this marriage was annulled unanswered.
Since 2015, a total of 350 instances of child marriage were recorded. Many of those who were involved in these partnerships came from countries including Syria, Iraq and Pakistan.
Nikolaos Boutakoglou, one of the AfD politicians who requested the data, said on X: 'Nearly 40 per cent of child marriages were contracted between Syrians, while child marriages between two Germans account for only 0.3 per cent.'
And why is the Alternativ for Germany (AfD) the only political party looking?
AfD-Anfrage bringt Hunderte Kinderehen ans Licht – eine Ehefrau war erst elf Jahre alt https://t.co/lox5qtZzVe https://t.co/XDwn7D89EW
— WELT (@welt) October 12, 2026
AfD inquiry uncovers hundreds of child marriages – one wife was only eleven years old
The other parties wonder why AfD is the most popular party in the country.
„Die jüngste Braut, die zu uns gekommen ist, ist erst elf Jahre alt. Es ist so bodenlos und verantwortungslos, was dieser Staat innerhalb unserer Landesgrenzen toleriert. Und das auch noch voll durchzualimentieren, durchzufinanzieren auf Kosten der Steuerzahler!“ #Kinderehen: Mit der AfD ist damit sofort Schluss! @Alice_Weidel #Migration
— AfD-Fraktion im Deutschen Bundestag 🇩🇪 (@AfDimBundestag) October 13, 2026
"The youngest bride who has come to us is only eleven years old. It is so utterly deplorable and irresponsible what this state tolerates within our national borders. And to fully fund and finance it to boot, at the expense of the taxpayers!"
#ChildMarriages: With the AfD, that's immediately over! @Alice_Weidel #Migration
And the German taxpayer funds every last bit of it.
Hell, yes, they want it over and see only one party even willing to discuss it.
A moment is coming in Germany when cultural differences and the national habit of turning the other cheek will collide for the very last time.
Maybe it will be when FOR THE CHILDREN truly means that to a country, instead of simply being a means to an end.
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