SOURCE: "Cultural Nationalism: The Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tales," in Roots of German Nationalism, Indiana University Press, 1978, pp. 35-54.

In the following essay, Snyder discusses the Fairy Tales in relation to German nationalism and the Romantic movement, focusing on how the tales present positive, praiseworthy traits common to the German people while at the same time promoting the idea of fear of the outsider, personified in the character of the Jew.

All my works relate to the Fatherland, from whose soil they derive their strength.

Jakob Grimm

For generations the Grimm Fairy Tales have enjoyed international popularity. Children all over the world have been and are still fascinated by the stories of Cinderella, and Hansel and Gretel. Yet, paradoxically, the scholars who collected and refined these tales worked within the framework of that romanticism which became an important element of German nationalism. The Grimms regarded all their work, including...