Brüder Grimm
Der süße Brei
Free
1857
The Sweet Porridge
222 words · complete story free
The bookshelfGerman · Language through Literature
The German reading room
The German Room
Read the Brothers Grimm and Johann Peter Hebel in the original German, with word meanings and English translations beside you. Choose a tale below, or begin with a complete free story in the interactive room. A subscription opens the wider library and guided courses across all four languages.
The eight, shortest first
Brüder Grimm
Die Sterntaler
1857
The Star Money
298 words · library
Johann Peter Hebel
Kannitverstan
1811
Kannitverstan
848 words · library
Brüder Grimm
Rumpelstilzchen
1857
Rumpelstiltskin
1004 words · library
Brüder Grimm
Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten
1857
The Bremen Town Musicians
1189 words · library
Brüder Grimm
Rotkäppchen
1857
Little Red Cap
1264 words · library
Brüder Grimm
Der Froschkönig
1857
The Frog King
1291 words · library
Brüder Grimm
Hänsel und Gretel
1857
Hansel and Gretel
2678 words · library
Compare lengths and sentence counts
| Tale | In English | Words | Sentences |
|---|---|---|---|
| Der süße Brei free | The Sweet Porridge | 222 | 6 |
| Die Sterntaler library | The Star Money | 298 | 11 |
| Kannitverstan library | Kannitverstan | 848 | 32 |
| Rumpelstilzchen library | Rumpelstiltskin | 1004 | 38 |
| Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten library | The Bremen Town Musicians | 1189 | 45 |
| Rotkäppchen library | Little Red Cap | 1264 | 59 |
| Der Froschkönig library | The Frog King | 1291 | 54 |
| Hänsel und Gretel library | Hansel and Gretel | 2678 | 123 |
«Der süße Brei» is free to read in full, without an account, in the interactive room and on its editorial reading page. Tap a word for its dictionary form and meaning; tap a sentence for the translation. Free beginner lesson samples are available too.
Shortest first, because that is the order a learner should meet them in. Der süße Brei is a few hundred words and can be read in a sitting; Hänsel und Gretel is ten times that. What each tale asks of a reader — lemmas, hapax share, words per sentence — is counted at Grimm, counted.
The other four rooms
This is one of five rooms in the same house, built on the same reader. One holds the Russian classics — Chekhov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky — with seven of them free. Another holds Quiroga's «Cuentos de la selva», eight Spanish jungle tales of 1918, and the fourth Perrault's fairy tales and Daudet's stories in French, and the fifth Collodi, Capuana, De Amicis and Pirandello in Italian. One subscription opens all five. Auf Deutsch über den russischen Raum lesen