Nineteenth-Century Fairy Tale Debates and the Development of Children's Literature Criticism in Germany

When scholars used to look at the rise of the Romantic fairy tale, especially in respect to the formation of the collections by the Brothers Grimm, they focused on the variations between the texts: in the Grimms' case, versions of tales from the first edition of 1812-14 to the last in 1857. It seems legitimate to judge this process as an essential step in the transfer of the folk tale to the fairy tale addressed to children, and thus in the development of children's literature. In comparison to the discussion of folktale variations, the development of criticism about children's literature and its references to the fairy tale gained much less attention, with the probable exception of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimms' forewords to the early editions of their collections. But debates about the fairy tale genre had already arisen during the early nineteenth century, not only in Germany, and it is clear that they touched upon the most important questions: the confrontation of imagination and reality, the relationship between didactics and poetry, and the relationship of folk and fairy tale to childhood. This lively debate took place mainly among the pedagogical intelligentsia and marks the beginning of the historiography and criticism of children's literature in Germany. I intend to discuss their pedagogical and literary reflections on folk and fairy tale and to demonstrate the development of different concepts of children's literature during the nineteenth and early twentieth century.

In Germany the very first history of literature ever to mention literature for children and young people was published in 1828 in Die deutsche Literatur [German Literature] by Wolfgang Menzel. The essay on children's literature by this quarrelsome writer, who certainly belonged to the enfants terribles of his time, reflects above all the conflict between Enlightenment and Romantic concepts of literature, with Menzel taking the Romantic view. He attacks pedagogical positions on literature in general, and he does so in a highly spiteful manner. He is not interested in naming and criticizing specific authors and their books, which is why not a single author or title is mentioned in his seven-page treatise on literature for children. Instead he incessantly complains about "parents and so-called friends of children" with their "craze for the latest fashion" and their "pedagogical zeal" (271). Likewise, he holds in contempt the market for children's books because he thinks it is dominated and exploited by ruthless book dealers selling "wretched and hollow superficial products only shining bright on the outside." In short, he gives the impression that powerful malignant forces are harming the growing generation.

Philanthropically inspired literature for children and young people, with its narrow-minded and rationalistic approach, was an easy target for this passionate critic, who opposed with embittered animosity all noteworthy German authors of the early nineteenth century with the exception of Friedrich Schiller. In spite of all his belligerence, however, his brave resistance to current pedagogical opinion is worthy of recognition; that is, his resistance to the moral talc as the only legitimate form of children's literature. Occasionally some illuminating conclusions can be found in his criticism, for example his differentiation between a "Socratic" method of rationalism (in his opinion typical of children's literature and too demanding and exasperating for this age group) and an empiricism based on the accumulation of facts (also typical of young people's literature and hardly offering enough intellectual stimulus for this reading generation) (276). Speaking in pedagogical terms, he emphatically calls for the acceptance of the soul and the imagination but also for the development of a rational, logical instrument for expressing it. This demand leads Menzel to value the fairy tale as the most appropriate literature for children. This is the only genre, among all the other publications for children and young people, that finds his fullest and unequivocal approval. Nevertheless, he only goes so far as to confirm that the fairy tale is "authentic children's poetry," in opposition to the common literature for children that tries to "destroy and eradicate everything mystical, wonderful, expectant, sentimental" (272...