The Truth About Hansel and Gretel

The Truth About Hansel and Gretel (German: Die Wahrheit über Hänsel und Gretel) is a 1963 book written by German children's author and humorist Hans Traxler, which described how an amateur archaeologist named Georg Ossegg uncovered evidence that the story about Hansel and Gretel was based on real events, just as Heinrich Schliemann discovered the city of Troy from Ancient Greek legends. The book immediately became a bestseller, but within several months Traxler confessed it was a hoax.

Summary

According to the book, an amateur archaeologist named Georg 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][5]

In reality, Ossegg did not exist and Traxler fabricated the details of the story. Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung called it a mockumentary from a modern perspective.[6] Vanessa Joosen has called the book a "fictive nonfictional text", which "carries the features of a nonfictional text but consciously misleads the reader".[7]

Despite its fictional nature, the hoax convinced many in Germany at the time,[1][2][7] and continues to have some traction.[8][9] 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.[10]

In Italy, Traxler's book was published in 1981,[11] and as late as 1989 Giuseppe Sermonti believed the story to be true.[12][13]

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.[14][15]

In 2010 the museum in Ulm had an exhibition "Studio Archäologie: Die Wahrheit über Hänsel und Gretel. Hans Traxler und die Anfänge der Märchenarchäologie."[16] In 2012 an exhibition named "Wie aus Lüge Wahrheit wird" -How lies become truth was shown in Lahr.[17] In October 2021, Tim Harford released the episode "The Truth About Hansel and Gretel" of his podcast Cautionary Tales about Traxler's satire.[18]

References

  1. 1 2 Haase, Donald (1993). The Reception of Grimms' "Fairy Tales": Responses, Reactions, Revisions. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0814322079.
  2. 1 2 "Hänsel und Gretel: Mit falschem Bart" [Hansel and Gretel: With a fake beard]. Der Spiegel (in German). 7 July 1964. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  3. ↑ Smith, Jack (19 November 1974). "A Grimm Discovery". Los Angeles Times. p. F1. Retrieved 24 June 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Zipes, Jack (2003). The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 241. ISBN 978-0312293802.
  5. ↑ Pieciul-Karmińska, Eliza (18 July 2019). "W poszukiwaniu Baby Jagi" [In Search of Baba Yaga] (in Polish). Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  6. ↑ "Hans Traxler: Zeichner und Karikaturist mit 97 Jahren gestorben". FAZ.NET (in German). 26 August 2026. Retrieved 26 August 2026.
  7. 1 2 Joosen, Vanessa. Critical and Creative Perspectives on Fairy Tales: An Intertextual Dialogue Between Fairy-Tale Scholarship and Postmodern Retellings. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0814334522.
  8. ↑ Ogden, Valerie (6 December 2017) [5 November 2014]. "The True Stories Behind Classic Fairy Tales". Huffington Post. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  9. ↑ Culver, Anke A. "Wanted for murder: Haensel and Gretel: Behind the classic Christmas-season fairy tale is a gruesome true story of entrepreneurial greed". cookiecuttersearch.com. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  10. ↑ "Ossegg oder die Wahrheit über Hänsel und Gretel" [Ossegg or the truth about Hansel and Gretel]. Film Starts (in German). Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  11. ↑ Traxler, Hans (1981). La strega e il panpepato: la vera storia di Hansel e Gretel [The Truth about Hansel and Gretel]. Translated by Stoffel, Adriana Rossi. Milan: Emme. ICCU RAV0204229.
  12. ↑ Sermonti, Giuseppe (1989). Fiabe del sottosuolo: Analisi chimica delle fiabe di Cappuccetto Rosso, Biancaneve, Cenerentola... [Tales of the Underground: Chemical Analysis of the Tales of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Cinderella] (in Italian). Rusconi. pp. 223–233. ISBN 88-18-01047-6.
  13. ↑ De Santis, Sergio (2011). Polidoro, M (ed.). Hoax! Storie di imbroglioni, burloni, truffatori e semplici bugiardi [Hoax! Stories of scammers, pranksters, swindlers, and just plain liars.] (in Italian). Cicap. pp. 92–95. ISBN 978-8895276144.
  14. ↑ Vorwerk, Wolfgang (September 2015). Das 'Lohrer Schneewittchen': Zur Fabulologie eines Märchens [The 'Lohr Snow White': On the Fabulology of a Fairy Tale] (PDF) (in German). Retrieved 11 April 2026.
  15. ↑ 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. Peter Lang. pp. 491–503. ISBN 978-3631648728.
  16. ↑ "Studio Archäologie: Die Wahrheit über Hänsel und Gretel Hans Traxler und die Anfänge der Märchenarchäologie". 2010. Retrieved 26 August 2026.
  17. ↑ Zeitung, Badische (22 March 2012). "Wie aus Lüge Wahrheit wird". Badische Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 26 August 2026.
  18. ↑ Wright, Andrew (22 October 2021). The Truth About Hansel and Gretel (podcast). Interviewed by Harford, Tim. Retrieved 11 April 2026.
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