The Brothers Grimm and the Dutch-speaking world

In 2012, it will be two hundred years since Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published their fairy tales for the first time. The fairy tales are part of the cultural heritage of many countries - including the Dutch-speaking world.
The Brothers Grimm also devoted themselves to researching German and Dutch narrative traditions and languages.

Oldenburg-based Dutch scholar, Germanist and Heisenberg fellow PD Dr Rita Schlusemann hopes that the brothers' correspondence with Dutch and Belgians will provide a new perspective on their significance for the history of science. Her project to produce a scholarly annotated edition of the correspondence, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), has now been extended for a further two years.

Since the start of project, the number of letters found - primarily in the Rijksarchief van Noordholland in Haarlem and the Royal Library in The Hague - has increased by around a quarter, reports the researcher. In the meantime, 285 letters have been transcribed in German, Dutch, French and Latin. Beyond this purely quantitative aspect, the letters - especially the newly discovered ones - are also of great qualitative importance: "They shed new light on the Grimms' early relationships with the Netherlands. The two linguists do not regard the literature of the 'nidere lande' as a kind of 'German offshoot'," says Schlusemann. The correspondence bears witness to the Grimms' mutual appreciation and concern for Dutch literature.

The Oldenburg scholar sees the edition of the correspondence as an important source for a fundamentally new assessment of academic relations between Dutch and German studies in the 19th century. Schlusemann emphasises that the correspondence demonstrates the high esteem in which the two German scholars and their work on Dutch language and literary history were held.

In 1812, Jacob Grimm (1785 - 1863) received a letter informing him that the "Hollandse Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letterkunde en Schoone Kunsten", the forerunner of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, had appointed him "Membre Correspondant". Subsequently, an intensive correspondence developed between the secretary of the "Instituut", the poet Willem Bilderdijk (1756 - 1831), and Jacob Grimm. They discussed aspects of comparative linguistic history, but also literary history. They corresponded about the tradition of the Dutch animal epic "Van den vos Reynaerde", exchanged views on the verse epic "Reynaerts historie" and the Middle Low German incunabulum "Reynke de vos" printed in Lübeck in 1498. It is considered the oldest precursor to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Reineke Fuchs".

Four years after the correspondence began, in September 1816, the "Instituut" appointed Jacob Grimm as its first foreign member as a "membre associé". As early as 1813, the letter writer of the time-honoured "Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde" (Society for Dutch Literature), which is still based in Leiden today, informed him that he had been appointed a member. The reason: his knowledge and merits.
Schlusemann hopes to gain further insights into the history of science in the three countries by analysing existing and new documents.

Schlusemann has been a Heisenberg Fellow at the University of Oldenburg since 2009. She completed her habilitation at the University of Münster in 2007 and teaches and researches German and Dutch literature of the Middle Ages and the history of science.