Once upon a time there were two brothers, united for life by their passion for literature and their study of language: Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm. Their name is mostly connected with their fairy tales, those wonderful stories of ugly witches and brave girls, of young princes and great dangers. But they collected these stories for political reasons. They wanted to preserve the past in order to change the present. This docu-drama tells the unknown story of the famous fairy-tale collectors.
The Grimms have a very clear vision: a unified Germany based on a common German language. Their fairy tales are meant to serve as a framework for unity. But in 1837, Germany is still divided into many principalities. When they started their careers, Napoleon Bonaporte’s brother had just been installed as King of Westphali and French was the national language. In deliberately searching out and promoting old German literature, the brothers were engaging in an academic culture war against French foreign rule. But there was nothing specifically German about their stories. Many of their fairy tales can be found in similar forms throughout Europe. What distinguished them were the details.
Using scenes from plays and interview with the two brothers based on original texts, this docudrama shows how close the relationship between the two brother was.