The Brothers Grimm and their Fairy Tales

On Thursday the new Welfare stamps will be issued and lucky for me they feature, like the last years, my favourite theme, fairy tales. The series of Welfare stamps has the Fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm as theme. Hansel and Gretel and the Sleeping Beauty were already featured, this year the stamps will show motives about the Little Red Riding Hood.

In my collection I already have many stamps about the Brothers Grimm and their fairy tales, so it is now time to show some of them.

The Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, were born in Hanau. Jacob Grimm was born in 1785, Wilhelm Grimm in 1786. They are especially known for their collection of fairy tales, although they published also other works like the German dictionary. Wilhelm Grimm died in 1859, Jacob Grimm in 1863.

On 10th January 1985 a stamp was issued about the 200th birthday of Jacob Grimm. It shows Jacob Grimm together with his brother Wilhelm and a part of the German dictionary.

The Brothers Grimm did not invented the fairy tales on their own. They collected them from different sources. Three persons who helped them with their collection were Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim and Annette von Droste-Hülshoff.
In my collection I have three stamps featuring the three persons. They were issued on 17th August 1978 in the Federal Republic of Germany, on 15th January 1981 in Berlin and on 27th December 2003 in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The first collection of the Children’s and Household Tales of the Brothers Grimm was published in 1812. It was the first systematic compilation and the first scientific documentation of the entire European and Oriental fairy tale tradition. Today the fairy tales were translated in over 160 languages and are one of the most well-known and most widely distributed books worldwide of German cultural history. Since 2005 they are a part of the Memory of the World Programme of the UNESCO.
On 14th June 2012 a stamp was issued about the 200th anniversary of the first publication of the Children’s and Household Tales. In my collection I have a mint block of four, five stamps issued in a coil, the stamps with the First Day Postmarks from Berlin and Bonn and the First Day Sheet. The stamp shows an opened book and various fairy tale characters, the First Day Postmarks show the signatures of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

It is not the first time that the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm are shown on the Welfare stamps. Already the Welfare stamps issued between 1959 and 1967 had the fairy tales as theme.

The Star Money and Brothers Grimm (issued 01-10-1959)

Little Red Riding Hood (issued 01-10-1960)

Hansel and Gretel (issued 02-10-1961)

Snow White (issued 10-10-1962)

The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids (issued 23-09-1963)

Sleeping Beauty (issued 06-10-1964)

Cinderella (issued 06-10-1965)

The Frog Prince (issued 05-10-1966)

Mother Hulda (issued 03-10-1967)