On the trail of Red Riding Hood in Germany’s Grimm country

When it comes to European breaks, Germany isn’t high on many tourists’ travel lists. It lacks the beaches of the Mediterranean or the majesty of the Swiss Alps. Aside from the usual culture trips to Berlin, beer festivals in Bavaria, or wild weekends in Hamburg, most of Germany is somewhat overlooked. But in the middle of the country there’s a region famed for magic, enchantment and fairy tales. We’re heading deep into Grimm country.

A quick 90-minute drive or train ride from Frankfurt will launch you straight into the heart of North Hesse. It’s an area of Germany that Jacob and Wilhelm, aka the Brothers Grimm, called home for many years, and where they penned their legendary Kinder-und Hausmarchen, more commonly known in English as Children’s and Household Tales.

Away from the autobahn, the view offers gentle hills and dense forests, small villages, and little else in between. The terrain is ripe for folklore, and as I try and follow the brothers’ footsteps, I can’t help but wonder what I’ll find. Our first stop is the largest city in North Hesse: Kassel.  

Unlike many picture-perfect German cities, Kassel has no quaint historical old town. Due to heavy Allied bombing campaigns between 1942 and 1945, most of the city centre’s old buildings were reduced to ashes. Today, it’s a jumble of grey concrete boxes and 1950s design. Despite the bleak portrait, Kassel is Germany’s second greenest city (after Potsdam) and green spaces and landscaped parks abound.

Any fairy tale hunter worth their salt would be wise to begin their quest at GRIMMWELT, a museum dedicated to all things Grimm. The building is an architectural marvel that offers beautiful views of the city and houses an extensive collection of Grimm-related historical and literary exhibits, as well as interactive installations. First editions, handwritten tales and personal items of the Brothers Grimm are on display, along with in-depth explorations of some of the most beloved European fairy tales.

I delved deeper into the lives of the legendary storytellers over a pint with a bonafide Grimm expert in the adjoining beer garden. Julia Ronge knows all there is to know about the life and works of the Brothers Grimm, with plenty of suggestions for fairy tale locations in the region.  

“Take a trip to Niederzwehren. Many of the Grimm’s tales come from there.” It just so happened that the beer garden looked out towards this small suburb on the outskirts of the city. Niederzwehren was home to a woman named Dorothea Viehmann, who would go down in history as one of the brothers’ greatest sources of European folklore.

In total, Viehmann recounted no less than 40 tales to the pair, and her contributions laid the foundations for their seminal work. Today, Niederzwehren honours the famous storyteller with a number of monuments in the town’s timber-framed Marchenviertel, or Fairy Tale Quarter. These include memorial signs on the houses she lived in, as well as a beautiful park that bears her name.

“In Kassel, you can stroll the Karlsaue, where Jacob and Wilhelm would often stroll, and visit the Friedericianum, the library where the brothers worked. It’s now a modern art gallery.”

We discuss the Grimms, their work and landmarks they’re associated with, but one region had already caught my eye: the Schwalm-Eder Kreis, dubbed “Rotkappchenland,” or Little Red Riding Hood Land, by the local tourism authority.

“Le Petit Chaperon Rouge is French in origin,” says Ronge. So why does the region lay claim to the fairy tale?

Nestled between the Eder and Fulda rivers, and in the shadow of the Knull mountains, the Schwalm-Eder Kreis is a quiet district in central Germany’s uplands, with manicured farmlands, forested hills and a light peppering of timber-framed houses. It truly is fairy tale country.

The local tourist board isn’t shy about reinforcing the theme either, with countless posters showing young girls wearing little red hats while wandering along forested paths.

The traditional Schwalmer Tracht is an instantly recognisable outfit, decorated with complex embroidery and topped with an iconic coloured cap. Red caps are worn by young, unmarried girls; green caps by married women; blue for older ladies; and black for widowed women.  

It was this curious headpiece that Jacob and Wilhelm associated with Red Riding Hood, and one of the main reasons that their telling of the story was emblazoned with imagery and scenes from the region. The Museum der Schwalm in Schwalmstadt is a treasure-trove of knowledge about all things Schwalm and ideal for folklore lovers, embroiderers, and history buffs. (It also gets extra points for being located in a moated fortress).

On the advice of Brigitte Buchholz-Blodow, a fairy tale enthusiast working for the Deutsche Maerchenstrasse (Germany’s Fairy Tale Route), I headed to the nearby town of Homberg Efze to track down what every fairy tale needs: a villain. The market square is everything you’d want from a quiet German town: half-timbered houses, a spectacular church and an impressive castle looming high on a hill.  

Her directions took me into the wild. Or rather, into the woods. Nestled in the foothills of the Knull mountains, tourists can find Knullwald Tierpark, a forested wildlife park that stars all of the greatest hits from Grimm’s fairy tales and more. The resident Big Bad Wolves weren’t as big or as bad as the legends would have me believe, but they were dangerous enough to be kept in a safe enclosure. However, the park’s free-roaming deer can be fed and interacted with at your leisure. You may not end up in a lupine belly, but the risk of losing your packed lunch to a family of deer is very real.

Next, I took a short drive and parked up at the village of Wallenstein in search of a fairy tale woodland scene. A network of prize-winning forest hikes crisscrosses through the woods. The most famous of these takes walkers through the forest to the Lochbach ravine, where wooden bridges, logs and stepping stones cross back and forth over a lazy stream.

In my mind, I’d found Little Red Riding Hood, seen a Big Bad Wolf and walked through a magical forest that ticked all the fairy tale boxes. But had I really found a slice of the Brothers Grimm’s inspiration?

“Of course, Jacob and Wilhelm collected fairy tales that originated from all over Europe,” Julia Ronge explained to me back in Kassel. “The beauty of these stories is that they could be set anywhere. It just so happens that North Hesse provided the ideal backdrop for their versions.”

Despite the magical attraction of the region’s dense forests, undeniable charm of the countless derelict castle ruins and tumbledown towers, and, of course, the poetic license taken by local tourism authorities, Little Red Riding Hood never walked here and there was no Big Bad Wolf. But if you’re looking to find an authentic setting for a time that never was, then the Schwalm-Eder Kreis is a fine place to explore.

Low cost carriers run regular services into Frankfurt. From Frankfurt’s main train station (Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof), a short train ride can take you to the cities of Marburg or Kassel.  

Alternatively, travellers from the UK can cross the channel and drive through France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, to reach this part of Germany in around seven hours.