Exploring Germany's Enchanting Fairy Tale Towns

September 29, 2023 by Karen Bartlett

I emerge from my wanderings in a dark medieval forest, into a clearing where stands an old stone tower. The late afternoon sun casts an eerie glow upon its ancient walls. Being hungry from my journey, I step through a heavy wooden door where a caretaker of sorts - who appears quite harmless - temps me with a creamy cake from a small glass case. “You’ve come to climb my tower, yes?” He points to a small alcove. “Enter there, but beware: The tower must be locked before dark.”

My own magnified shadow pursues me up the winding stone staircase. I’m feeling sleepy after the pastry. But once atop the tower, I’m Rapunzel, gazing back across my forest at the magnificent silhouette of the thousand-year-old Marburg Castle. Still, I don’t linger. I know I must descend before the lock turns in the tower door.

This really happened last summer, in the heart of Germany’s enchanting fairy tale region. Full disclosure: I did have a strong and fearless companion on my forest trek, and because we’ve embarked on a six-day journey along the Fairy Tale Route, I confess to this retelling in Grimms’ fairy tale style. The Kaiser-Wilhelm lookout tower, with its tiny café, isn’t the actual tower from which Rapunzel let down her long golden hair. That one’s said to be nearby in Trendelburg. But both coincide with the time an early illustrator of Grimms Brothers’ fairy tales used his own 12th century town of Marburg for reference. In this university town where Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm studied law, 21st century students still gather at cafes to study philosophy or quantum physics beneath the watchful eye of a bronze Frog Prince. The faces of The Wolf and Seven Young Goats erupt from a lichen-covered stone wall, a giant red shoe (a predecessor of Cinderella’s glass slipper) rests forlornly atop the castle wall, and seven giant dragonflies adorn a wall on the market square honoring The Brave Little Tailor’s amazing feat of “seven at one blow.”

Marburg is one of the 50 official fairy tale towns along the serpentine 370-mile route between Frankfurt and Hamburg, most exuding fairy tale charm with half-timber houses, cathedral spires, narrow cobblestone alleys and town squares. Each has unique themed tours, festivals, and performances. All have twinkling Christmas markets, and each lays claim to at least one fairy tale character.

There’s Little Red Riding Hood’s town of Alsfeld. A statue of the Little Goose Girl graces the Göttingen fountain. In Hameln, the Pied Piper strides through town playing his magical flute that famously rid the town of its rats nd its children. Bremen celebrates its Four Musicians (a rooster, a dog, a cat, and a donkey) and Buxtehude is the site of the hare and the hedgehog race. In Hofgeismar, travelers may meet Sleeping Beauty and her prince among the ruins of Sababurg Castle in the enchanted forest where they shared love’s first kiss.

And Puss in Boots can take you on a personal tour of Steinau.

Some say you can do the whole route in two or three days. But my wish, in this land of wishes-come-true, is to choose a few towns and sink into the ambience of each. For ambience to the max, we get first class Eurail passes, offering cushy seats, a table, legroom fit for a princess, and unbroken views of the Hessen countryside. Our train to Marburg leaves straight from Frankfurt International Airport. Skimming through dense forests and lush farmland sprinkled about with red-roof villages and random castles feels like a real-time National Geographic travelogue. There also are family cars, and kids younger than 12 ride free. Eurail’s seven-day pass is perfect for the fairy tale experience.

From Marburg, we take the high-speed ICE train to Kassel, headquarters of Deutsche Mäerchenstrasse, preserver of the Fairy Tale Route. It’s also home to Grimmwelt-Kassel Museum with its exquisitely curated Brothers Grimm memorabilia, paired with interactive fairy tale themed exhibits. Who knew that their greatest work was the creation of Germany’s first dictionary? They got through the letter F in their lifetime. Ironically, Jacob’s final word was froteufel (demon). Kids love the Insult Machine, where every modern-day expletive shouted into the funnel is answered by a swear word from that era. Other favorites are the mirror on the wall (ask and it answers!) and the theater showing snippets from a century of fairy tale movies.

And so to Hameln

Alas, the Pied Piper’s job is never done. Though he accomplished his first mission to eliminate Hameln’s rats, they’re still very much present, and the Piper still lures children of all ages by the thousands with his magical pipe, to tell how 130 young people mysteriously vanished on Sunday, June 26, 1284, never to be seen again. Look down and you’ll see bronze rats embedded among the cobblestones, glinting in the sun, their tails pointing to significant sites and markers. Look up to find them leering down at you in bas relief from a medieval mansion. Discover them in the shapes of pastries in bakery windows. But there are even more tributes to the Piper himself, as he’s quick to point out. You’ll see them all— Rattenfänger, enormous red-eyed rats, and their evil Rattenkönig (Rat King) — in hilarious conflict at twice-weekly summertime outdoor plays. After the Wednesday performance of RATS the Musical, the Rat King leads a walking tour to tell his side of the story.

What really happened that Sunday morning while the grownups were in church? In a private or group tour with the town’s official Rattenfänger von Hameln, Michael Boyer recounts historical evidence suggesting several theories. Were the children kidnapped for the Children’s Crusades? Did they succumb to bubonic plague? Or more credibly, were they lured with promises of a better life to colonize East Germany and Transylvania?

When he reaches a certain street, the Piper respectfully lowers his flute. The people of Hameln take this tragic history so seriously that it’s illegal to play a flute or any music along Bungelosenstrasse (street without drums), where the children were last seen seven hundred and thirty-nine years ago.

And so, the battle rages on:

“This is my town, you patchwork clown. We don’t need any musicians around.”

“Be you rat or newt or viper, no one resists the call of the Piper.”

…The End