Editing German folklore

{{Short description|Expressive culture of Germany and German-speaking countries}}{{More citations needed|date=April 2024}}{{Germany culture}}[[File:Hansel-and-gretel-rackham.jpg|thumb|Illustration of ''[[Hansel and Gretel]]'', a well-known German folktale from the [[Brothers Grimm]], by [[Arthur Rackham]], 1909]]

'''German folklore''' is the [[Folklore|folk tradition]] which has developed in [[Germany]] over a number of centuries. Seeing as Germany was [[States of the German Confederation|divided into numerous polities]] for most of its history, this term might both refer to the folklore of Germany proper and of all [[German-speaking countries]], this wider definition including folklore of [[Austria]] and [[Liechtenstein]] as well as the German-speaking parts of [[Swiss folklore|Switzer]][[German-speaking Switzerland|land]], [[Luxembourg]], [[German-speaking Community of Belgium|Belgium]], and [[South Tyrol|Italy]].

== Characteristics ==
It shares many characteristics with [[Nordic folklore]] and [[English folklore]] due to their origins in a common [[Germanic mythology]]. It reflects a similar mix of influences: a pre-Christian [[pantheon (gods)|pantheon]] and other beings equivalent to those of [[Norse mythology]]; magical characters (sometimes recognizably pre-Christian) associated with [[Liturgical year|Christian festivals]], and various regional 'character' stories.

As in Scandinavia, when belief in the old gods disappeared, remnants of the [[mythos]] persisted: There are:
* [[Frau Holle]] or [[Perchta]], a "supernatural" patron of spinning and leader of the [[Wild Hunt]] (in German folklore preceded by an old man, Honest Eckart, who warns others of its approach) or of the [[Heimchen]]
* solitary wild huntsmen such as the [[ewiger Jäger]] or the [[Türst]]
* the [[Lorelei]], a dangerous [[Rhine]] [[Siren (mythology)|siren]] derived from 19th-century literature, among other [[Nixie (folklore)|nixies]] such as the [[Rhinemaidens]]
* the [[Weiße Frauen]] and [[Witte Wiwer]], white female spirits
* the [[Doppelgänger]], supernatural beings said to resemble the exactly similar appearance of determined person
* the giant [[Rübezahl]]
* the mining sprite [[Bergmönch]]
* wood sprites such as the tiny [[Moss people]] and their matriarch [[Buschgroßmutter]], or the man-eating [[Fänggen]]
* nightmare-causing [[Alp (folklore)|Alp]], [[Mare (folklore)|mare]], and [[Drude]]
* the banshee [[Klagmuhme]]
* undead [[Nachzehrer]] and [[Wiedergänger]]
*  ghostly [[Feuermann (ghost)|Feuermann]], [[Hemann]], and [[Uhaml]]
* [[changeling]] legends
and many more generic entities such as the [[elf]], [[dwarf (mythology)|dwarf]], [[Kobold]] (with variants such as [[Bieresel]], [[Gütel]], [[Heinzelmännchen]], [[Jack o' the bowl]], and [[Niß Puk]]), [[Klabautermann]], [[Schrat]], [[Wild man]], [[Drak (mythology)|Drak]], [[Aufhocker]], [[Ork (folklore)|Ork]], [[poltergeist]], [[bogeyman]], [[Will-o'-the-wisp]], various [[Feldgeister]], and [[Erlking]]. Famous individual Kobolds are [[King Goldemar]], [[Hinzelmann]], [[Hödekin]], and [[Petermännchen]].

There further are mythical animals such as [[Bahkauv]], [[Beerwolf]], [[Elwetritsch]], [[Erdhenne]], [[lindworm]], [[Nachtkrapp]], [[Rasselbock]], [[Tatzelwurm]], and [[Wolpertinger]], or mythical plants such as [[Alraune]] and [[Irrwurz]].{{cn|date=June 2019}}

Popular folklore includes [[Krampus]], [[Belsnickel]], and [[Knecht Ruprecht]], a rough companion to [[Santa Claus]]; the [[Lutzelfrau]], a [[Yule]] witch who must be appeased with small presents; the [[Christkind]]; the Osterhase (Easter Hare – the original [[Easter Bunny]]); and [[Walpurgisnacht]], a spring festival derived from pagan customs.

Character folklore includes the stories of the [[Pied Piper of Hamelin]], the [[Godfather Death]], the [[trickster]] hero [[Till Eulenspiegel]], the [[Town Musicians of Bremen]] and [[Faust]].

== History ==
Documentation and preservation of folklore in the states that formally united as [[Germany]] in 1871 was initially fostered in the 18th and 19th centuries. As early as 1851, author [[Bernhard Baader]] published a collection of folklore research obtained by oral history, called ''Volkssagen aus dem Lande Baden und den angrenzenden Gegenden''. The [[Saxon people|Saxon]] author [[Johann Karl August Musäus]] (1735–1787) was another early collector.{{cn|date=May 2025}}

Study was further promoted by the [[Prussia]]n poet and philosopher [[Johann Gottfried von Herder]]. His belief in the role of folklore in ethnic nationalism – a folklore of Germany as a nation rather than of disunited German-speaking peoples – inspired the [[Brothers Grimm]], [[Goethe]] and others. For instance, folklore elements, such as the Rhine Maidens and the Grimms' ''[[The Story of a Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear]]'', formed part of the source material for [[Richard Wagner]]'s opera cycle [[Der Ring des Nibelungen]].

Some of the works of [[Washington Irving]] – notably "[[Rip van Winkle]]" and "[[The Legend of Sleepy Hollow]]" – are based on German folktales.

Within Germany, the nationalistic aspect was further emphasized during the [[Nazism|National Socialist]] era. James R. Dow has written that under National Socialism, "folklore became a propaganda instrument of anti-democratic, anti-socialist, and extremely inhumane terrorist policies".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hart |first=Moriah |date=Spring–Summer 2009 |title=Reviewed Work: German Folklore: A Handbook by James R. Dow |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40600558 |journal=Western Folklore |volume=68 |issue=2/3 |pages=334–335 |jstor=40600558}}</ref> Folklore studies, ''Volkskunde'', were co-opted as a political tool, to seek out traditional customs to support the idea of historical continuity with a [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] culture. [[Anti-Semitism|Anti-Semitic]] folklore such as the [[blood libel]] legend was also emphasized.

== See also ==
*[[Continental Germanic mythology]]
*[[Deutsche Sagen|German Legends]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/autoren/musaeus.htm Johann Karl August Musäus] Projekt Gutenberg DE (in German)
*[http://fairytalez.com/region/german/ German Fairy Tales and Folklore] Collected by Fairytales (in English)

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[[Category:German folklore| ]]