When I was a kid in the early ’70s, my family lived in West Germany for five years while dad was stationed on various U.S. military bases. We saw West German TV and could hear their music on the radio. But when it came to East Germany, we were absolutely clueless about them. Their TV stations didn’t reach us. We once drove near the border with East Germany and took photos of the giant warning scenes to not go any closer. The only time we “saw” East Germans was during the Olympics when they were teamed up with the Soviet Bloc countries. I have no memory of any of my playmates when we lived off base talking about anything cultural from East Germany. They were a mysterious culture to us. DEFA Fairy Tales is a revelation to me. I don’t recall any of these films playing on regular West German TV. Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA) was a film studio set up by the state when the country occupied by the Soviet Union after World War II. Strange to think that a country that seemed so serious was able to produce cinematic fairytales from the Brother Grimm. But amazingly they did a fantastic job with these fantasies without bogging them down with praise for the proletariat and harvesting wheat.
Snow White (1961 – 63 minutes) is the classic tale of how Snow White (Doris Weikow) upsets the evil Queen with her beauty that you remember from the Disney animated film. The royal sends her off to be killed in the forest. Except Snow White ends up living with seven dwarves that are miners. There are a few major changes from Walt’s version includes her meeting the Prince at the start of the film so they aren’t strangers at the end. The dwarves aren’t the same as the animated ones. And the Queen later attempts to kill Snow White with more than just a single poison apple. There’s a few more things that better not spoil so you can truly enjoy this adaptation.
Little Red Riding Hood (1962 – 72 minutes) is the classic tale of how Red Riding Hood (Blanche Kommerell) has to take stuff to her grandmother’s house and runs into the Big Bad Wolf (Werner Dissel) in the woods. People are dressed up in furs to play rabbits, foxes and the Big Bad Wolf. There’s even a squirrel puppet. This once more is fun as she has to deal with the wolf.
Frau Holle (1963 – 60 minutes) is also known as Mother Hulda. This is a Brother’s Grimm story that’s more popular in Central Europe. Frau Holle (Mathilde Danegger) is raising two daughters. Stepdaughter Goldmarie (Karin Ugowski) is forced to be very productive. Pechmarie (Katharina Lind) is Frau Holle’s biological daughter. She gets to sleep late and live a cushy life. She knows how to manipulate her mother. Which Marie will come out on top at the end? Frau Holle has very storybook illustration production design. Everything is properly artificial. This includes the logs that have been cut down.
The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs (1977 – 93 minutes) is a rather slapstick affair about a clumsy kid (Hans-Joachim Frank) who works in a small town’s iron forge as an apprentice to the blacksmith. His fellow iron workers are frustrated how the king keeps taxing them to keep up the military to deal with robbers. Except nobody recalls any issues with robbers. Eventually the kid must flee the town after he takes part in a protest. This leads to him nearly blowing up the King. The king gives the kid a note that originally is orders for his execution, but becomes rewritten by someone else as a demand that the kid marry the princess. Eventually the King discovers the mix up, but his daughter wants to marry the kid. So the king sets up a small quest for the kid so he can marry the princess. All the kid has to do is go to Hell and snatch three hairs off the Devil’s head. That’s a pretty simple task….as far as the kid is concerned. He marches off to Hell so he can find love. Hans-Joachim Frank gives a sincere and comic performance as the kid. He looks appropriately scared while exploring Hell that has the same vibe as a Sid and Marty Krofft’s H.R. Pufnstuf.
Snow White And Rose Red (1979 – 71 minutes) is a totally different tale involving Snow White. This Snow White (Julie Juristova) has nothing to do with the evil Queen and the Dwarves. She is merely a country girl with her sister Rose Red (Katrin Martin). They cross paths with a bear that’s really a prince. Turns out a wicked and enchanted dwarf has cursed this royal. Can they put him back in human form?
DEFA Fairy Tales is a great retrospective of the Brothers Grimm stories as adapted in Eastern Germany. The five movies have different textures and tones so they don’t play like a long anthology film. There is quite a bit of fun on the screen as opposed to the stern looks on the faces of the East German Olympic team. As an army brat who grew up close to the Iron Curtain, it’s nice to finally have a peak at what kids on the other side got to enjoy. It’s good to know we had “once upon a time” in common. I completely recommend DEFA Fairy Tales to fans of the fantastic and Army Brats who grew up in West Germany.
The Video is 1.33:1 full frame for four films. The Devil’s Three Golden Hairs appears to be 1.78:1. The color on all five films is sharp and pops on the screen. They feel like fairytales on the screen. The Audio is DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono in German for all five films. You can hear the soft whimsical scores cleanly. The movies are subtitled in English.
Audio Commentaries are featured on four of the movies. Samm Deighan on Snow White & Snow White and Rose Red. Frau Holle has Michael Brooke. Shelagh Rowan-Legg & Anne Golden team up for Little Red Riding Hood.
Socialist Fantasies, the Bros. Grimm and DEFA Studios Fairytale Filmmaking In East Germany (18:03) allows film historian Evan Chester to review the five films with a historical context. He also compares them to the original stories in the Brothers Grimm collection. He points out the studio used by DEFA has been used to make Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. These films did find distribution outside the Iron curtain.
A Fairy Tale Discussion with Stephen Bisette (94:50) is a conversation with Deaf Crocodile’s Dennis Bartok. Bisette worked on the Swamp Thing comic series.
Deaf Crocodile presents DEFA Fairy Tales. Directed by Egon Schlegel, Gottfried Kolditz, Götz Friedrich, Siegfried Hartmann. Starring Doris Weikow, Blanche Kommerell, Werner Dissel, Karin Ugowski, Dieter Franke, Hans-Joachim Frank, Julie Juristová & Katrin Martin. Boxset Contents: 5 movies on 4 Blu-ray discs. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: July 14, 2026.
