LESEREI

The Brothers Grimm were readers for their entire lives. After all, their work consisted in writing about the German language and literature. However, it was something they did out of scholarly motivation. ‘Reading as a leisure activity was certainly not their thing – or rather, they simply lacked the time for it,’ says Jan Sauerwald, managing director of the GRIMMWELT. They did not read for pleasure. Thus, the word ‘Leserei’ can also be found in Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s German Dictionary, where it refers to ‘reading, in a derogatory sense: where reading has become an almost indispensable necessity. (...) because the sole intention of this ‘leserei’ (of novels) is to entertain oneself for the moment.’ Reading for entertainment – unthinkable to the Grimms.

What would the Brothers Grimm say if they were to visit the GRIMMWELT today? For there is now a ‘LESEREI’ (Book nook) here, which is intended to let you do just that: discover books, browse through them and read for pleasure.

A retreat at the heart of the exhibition centre

The LESEREI, designed by Jakob Gebert and Hanna Krüger – who also designed the #GRIMMAtelier on the first floor of the building – offers a retreat at the heart of the exhibition centre and is accessible free of charge even if you do not wish to visit the exhibition.

In sociology, the term “third place” describes a social space distinct from the home as the ‘first place’ and the workplace as the ‘second place’. People enjoy spending time in a ‘third place’.

At the entrance to the GRIMMWELT permanent exhibition, just beside the five coloured tree roots by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, visitors can sit in a cosy wooden structure and help themselves to books from the shelves, where there is literature about the Brothers Grimm, classic fairy tales, new releases, and lovingly designed picture books and graphic novels.

The LESEREI as an educational project

On one wall is a special selection of books, curated and recommended by pupils from various primary schools in Kassel. 

This is because the LESEREI is not just a place to spend time, but also an
educational project. Two school classes have already visited the
GRIMMWELT in recent months – one from the Waldorf School and one from
the Herkulesschule – with a third class due to follow in the autumn.

The school classes meet with the GRIMMWELT mediation team for three sessions of three hours each, both at school and at the GRIMMWELT, learning, for example, how books are structured and what a library is. First, the children are introduced to the production of a book in a playful manner, so that they can understand how the book they read before going to bed found its way into their bedroom. As many as 16 people can be involved in producing a book, from the author to the illustrator, the editor, the printer and the reviewer. ‘The children find this particularly interesting,’ says Julia Ronge, Head of Mediation at the GRIMMWELT. She developed the concept for the project in collaboration with the organisation Buchkinder (Book children) in Kassel. Then a book is read to the children aloud, for example “Niemals nie nicht” (Never ever no) – a picture book published by Rotopol in Kassel concerning a bat who doesn’t want to go to kindergarten. The children then work together to fill in a fact sheet on the book, with questions such as: Who is the illustrator? What happened in the story? What took place on which page? In this way, they learn in a playful manner how a book is reviewed. The aim is that the children finish by writing a review of their favourite book which they can take along to be put on display in the LESEREI.

‘We buy a copy of every book they recommend,’ says Jan Sauerwald. For this and for other titles in the LESEREI, GRIMMWELT works in partnership with the Brencher bookshop in Kassel. But the children don’t just write a review; they also write a blurb and decide on the basic principle according to which the books in their library should be organised.

At the end, there’s a presentation for the parents, and some of the children are allowed to read their reviews aloud. In some cases, they already show great professionality. One young reviewer writes, for example: ‘Dear dog lover! I know you usually only read books about dogs. But I think you’d find this book interesting too. It’s about animals, friendship and magic.’ It would be hard to resist reading the book after that. Incidentally, the German book recommended here is “Ein Mädchen namens Willow” (A Girl Named Willow) and, just like “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “The Neverending Story”, it featured on both classes’ recommendation lists. Modern classics, in other words.

Free story-telling sessions

Part of the LESEREI concept is a reading session run by ‘Omas gegen Rechts’ (Grannies Against the Right), which takes place once a month, always on Saturdays, free of charge. From 22 September 2026, LESEREI will also be part of the Storytales Book Festival for Children and Young Adults organised by the Buchkinder organisation in Kassel for three weeks, taking place at the GRIMMWELT.

In future, Julia Ronge would like to expand the educational project for primary school classes, for example by offering a whole project week. ‘This makes particular sense with younger children.’ For instance, with the help of role-play, children could learn how to recommend a book to someone else. The class teacher of Class 3a at the Herkulesschule had worked with her pupils on the question ‘How can I make my book appealing to the owner of my kebab shop?’, so that they found out how to write a book review. ‘We’d love to take that up, because it’s a brilliant tool for understanding what a review is all about,’ says Ronge. 

However, further funding is still being sought for this.

The children at the Herkulesschule are at any rate not only keen readers, but now also want to learn more about the world of the Brothers Grimm. They are determined to come back on their next school outing to visit the permanent exhibition. Afterwards, they will surely drop into the LESEREI to enjoy browsing through the picture books, comics and fairy-tale books. Because even if the Brothers Grimm might have seen things differently, what could be better than relaxing in a “book nook” after an inspiring visit to an exhibition?

The project was made possible thanks to the generous support of the City of Kassel’s charitable foundations, the PwC Foundation and the Rahier Foundation gGmbH.

Autorin: Amira El Ahl