- Field Recording
- Reportage
- Atmospheric
Authors: Bowie Rengers and Ema Alic
The Innocence of Fairytales is a site responsive audiowalk centered on the Märchenbrunnen in Volkspark Friedrichshain, Berlin. The research investigates how fairy tales have historically served as instruments for nation-building and ideological teaching, challenging the popular belief that they are harmless, apolitical tales for kids. The audiotour demonstrates how well-known stories can have potent political connotations in a variety of historical settings through sound, narration, and movement.
Ludwig Hoffmann, a city architect, created the Märchenbrunnen, which was opened in 1913 under Kaiser Wilhelm II. Hoffmann intended the fountain to be an enjoyable area for families and children from the working class, but the monument was also closely linked to imperial power systems. At the time, fairy tales and folklore were strongly associated with national identity, and political authority influenced the sculptures' choice, arrangement, and display. The fountain represents a time when the urban populace was educated and ethically shaped by Grimm's fairy tales.
The audiowalk links this spatial history to the work of Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, whose linguistic initiatives and collections of fairy tales helped to create a common German national identity in the nineteenth century. The study emphasizes how ideas of obedience, purity, order, and exclusion are ingrained in these stories by concentrating on Hansel and Gretel. The National Socialist administration later appropriated these same themes, using fairy tales to reinforce concepts of authority, discipline, and belonging while promoting the Grimm collection as a basic cultural document.
The German Democratic Republic's fairy tale afterlife is another topic covered in the audiotour. Fairy stories were later hijacked through DEFA films as an approachable way to promote socialist ideals. The study illustrates how fairy tales have consistently been modified to support various ideological frameworks by tracking these changes. In the end, The Innocence of Fairy Tales challenges listeners to reevaluate the Märchenbrunnen as a multilayered memoryscape where ideology has long been made to seem soft, comfortable, and organic.
