On the afternoon of April 24, the School of Foreign Languages hosted the 6th Innovation Lecture Series of 2026 in Room X30824 on Xipu Campus. Professor Heidrun Alzheimer, Head of the Department of Folklore and European Ethnology at the University of Bamberg, Germany, was invited to deliver an academic report entitled The Extraordinary Lives and Remarkable Achievements of the Brothers Grimm. Faculty and students from the German Department of the School attended the lecture.
Prior to the presentation, Professor Alzheimer vividly introduced her hometown, the Old Town of Bamberg, a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, and the University of Bamberg, renowned for its rich humanistic traditions. She guided the audience on an academic journey immersed in the rich historical and cultural tapestry of Bavaria.
In her lecture, Professor Alzheimer systematically reviewed the Brothers Grimm’s outstanding contributions to fairy tales, folklore literature, and German language and literature. She particularly noted that Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm remained inseparable for their entire lives, bound by profound fraternal affection and deep mutual reliance. This unique bond, marked by contrasting yet complementary personalities, profoundly shaped their academic collaboration. Professor Alzheimer further revealed that the Brothers Grimm did not merely confine their work to German folk tales. They also systematically collected and adapted French folk fairy tales, illustrating the circulation and reconstruction of cross-cultural narratives.
During the Q&A session, Professor Alzheimer thoroughly responded to every question raised by faculty and students. Regarding the originality of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales, she explained that the brothers mainly collected, sorted out and adapted oral folk tales, and their achievement lay in literary refinement rather than original creation. Regarding concerns about potential impacts of passive female characters in works such as Cinderella and Snow White, on children’s education, she noticed that this topic has long been debated among German educators. The prevailing view today advocates critical reading against their historical context instead of outright dismissal. When talking about the translation and research of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales in China, she highly commended the work of Chinese translators and scholars. She expressed keen interest in cross-cultural adaptation issues, including the Tang-dynasty Chinese version of Cinderella known as Ye Xian and the Chinese translation of the title Rapunzel. She argued that such cases vividly demonstrate the cross-regional and localized nature of fairy tales. The entire lecture was filled with a strong academic atmosphere, and the lively post-lecture discussion proved immensely rewarding for all attendees.
