Abstract

This article analyzes whether anti-Judaism, which was widespread during the German Romantic period and which was evident in organizations such as the "Christlich deutsche Tischgesellschaft", and here especially in Achim von Arnim, also included the Brothers Grimm. One could conclude so when considering mainly the publishing history of their collection of fairy tales, which since its third edition has been appended. The same was already true for the previously published selection of tales for children. However, a closer look reveals the stylistic nature of these appendixes, which provided a linguistic characterization for the tales' character types. The actual problem that the Brothers Grimm – especially Wilhelm Grimm – did not recognize and/or ignored is evident in the breaches of law as depicted in the fairy tales "Der gute Handel" and "Der Jude im Dorn." Thus, while one cannot accuse the Brothers Grimm of clear-cut anti-Judaism, one can fault them for their careless handling of problematic texts, which still causes irritation today.