The Truth About Hansel and Gretel

The Truth About Hansel and Gretel (German: Die Wahrheit über Hänsel und Gretel) is a book written by German caricaturist Hans Traxler, which was published in 1963. The book is a satire which purports to tell the story of how teacher Georg Ossegg uncovered archeological evidence of the "real" Hansel and Gretel in 1962.

Summary

According to the book, Ossegg determined that the fairytale, Hansel and Gretel, was based on the story of a 17th-century baker named Hans Metzler and his sister Grete. Hans and Grete Metzler lived in a village in the Spessart Forest during the Thirty Years War, and killed a woman named Katharina Schraderin in order to steal her recipe for Nürnberger Lebkuchen (gingerbread).[1][2][3][4]

In reality, Ossegg did not exist and the details of the story were fabricated by Traxler. Vanessa Joosen has called the book a "fictive nonfictional text," which "carries the features of a nonfictional text but consciously misleads the reader."[5]

Despite its fictional nature, the hoax convinced many in Germany at the time,[1][2][5] and continues to have some traction.[6][7] In 1987, a one-hour twenty-two minute movie, Ossegg oder Die Wahrheit über Hänsel und Gretel, loosely based on the novel, was released in Germany.[8]

In Italy, Traxler's book was published in 1981.[9] The story was believed to be true by Giuseppe Sermonti.[10][11]

In the 1980s, in another area neighboring the Spessart Forest, German pharmacist Karlheinz Bartels published a joking theory that Snow White was based on a real person named Maria Sophia Margarethe Catharina, Baroness von und zu Erthal. The theory was primarily inspired by Traxler's book.[12]

In October 2021, Tim Harford released the episode "The Truth About Hansel and Gretel" of his podcast Cautionary Tales about Traxler's satire.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b Haase, Donald (1993). The Reception of Grimms' Fairy Tales. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-2208-5. Retrieved 17 December 2020 – via Google Books.
  2. ^ a b "HÄNSEL UND GRETEL: Mit falschem Bart". DER SPIEGEL (in German). Hamburg. 7 July 1964. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  3. ^ Smith, Jack (19 November 1974). "A Grimm Discovery". The Los Angeles Times. p. F1. Retrieved 24 June 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Zipes, Jack (2002). The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 241. ISBN 0-312-29380-1. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  5. ^ a b Joosen, Vanessa (2011). Critical and Creative Perspectives on Fairy Tales. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-3452-2. Retrieved 17 December 2020 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Ogden, Valerie (6 December 2017) [5 November 2014]. "The True Stories Behind Classic Fairy Tales". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 24 June 2025.
  7. ^ Culver, Anke A. "Wanted for murder: Haensel and Gretel: Behind the classic Christmas-season fairy tale is a gruesome true story of entrepreneurial greed". Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  8. ^ "Ossegg oder die Wahrheit über Hänsel und Gretel" (in German). Retrieved 14 March 2023.
  9. ^ Traxler, Hans (1981). La strega e il panpepato: la vera storia di Hansel e Gretel. L'asino d'oro (in Italian). Translated by Adriana Rossi Stoffel. Preface by Antonio Faeti. With a contribution by Pierre Menard. Milan: Emme. ICCU RAV0204229.
  10. ^ Sermonti, Giuseppe (1989). Fiabe del sottosuolo: analisi chimica delle fiabe di Cappuccetto rosso, Biancaneve, Cenerentola... (in Italian). Milan: Rusconi. pp. 223–233. ISBN 88-18-01047-6.
  11. ^ De Santis, Sergio (2011). Hoax! Storie di imbroglioni, burloni, truffatori e semplici bugiardi. I quaderni del CICAP (in Italian). Vol. 13. Padua: CICAP. pp. 92–95. ISBN 978-88-95276-14-4.
  12. ^ Vorwerk, Wolfgang (2015). "Das 'Lohrer Schneewittchen': Zur Fabulologie eines Märchens". In Grandl, Christian; McKenna, Kevin J. (eds.). Bis dat, qui cito dat Gegengabe in Paremiology, Folklore, Language, and Literature: Honoring Wolfgang Mieder on His Seventieth Birthday (PDF) (in German). Frankfurt am Main, Bern, Brussels, New York, Oxford, Warsaw, Vienna: Peter Lang. pp. 491–503. ISBN 978-3-631-64872-8. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  13. ^ Harford, Tim; Wright, Andrew (22 October 2021). "The Truth About Hansel and Gretel" (podcast). Retrieved 11 February 2022.
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