Das eigensinnige Kind

"Once upon a time there was a child who was stubborn and did not do what his mother wanted ..." (from "The Fairy Tale of the Headstrong Child" Geb. Grimm)

Stubborn, defiant, stubborn - everyone who has to do with children knows these descriptions and attributions. They indicate the (negative) stubbornness of a child. But why are parents and educators bothered by stubborn children? Is it a German phenomenon that parents fear spoiling their child? Based on the shortest fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, literary scholar Karin Nungeßer, Wolfram Ette and the theatre collective KGI - Büro für nicht übertragbare Angelegenheiten (Office for Non-Transferable Matters) would like to examine in a one-day workshop what obstinacy is in children and what the consequences are of suppressing it. Is there an ideological line from Grimm to the author Johanna Haarer, who wrote widely read educational guidebooks during National Socialism? And how do the educational methods propagated under National Socialism continue to have an effect today? In the joint research and discussion, the aim will be to sharpen our sense of our own, to take our own needs and necessities, doubts, longings, fears and ponderings seriously and to put them into historical and current contexts.

The workshop is aimed at all interested parties, especially parents, educators, teachers and pedagogues. Participation is free of charge. Please register by 21.09.2022 at lisa.pfannenschmidt@ringlokschuppen.de.


Wolfram Ette
is a literary scholar and publicist. In 2019, he published "The Wayward Child. Über unterdrückten Widerstand und die Formen ungelebten Leben - ein gesellpolitischer Essay" (On suppressed resistance and the forms of unlived life - a socio-political essay). His latest publication is "The state of exception is the state of normality, only truer. Texts on Corona" (2021, together with Anne D. Peiter).

Karin Nungeßer
is a literature and theatre scholar and lives as an editor, journalist and freelance editor in Berlin and Brandenburg. Together with Wolfram Ette, she is currently preparing a second volume on the "Stubborn Child", which will be published by Büchner-Verlag in spring 2023.

KGI - Office for Non-Transferable Affairs
is a theatre collective that combines sound theory, socio-political research and solid stage craft. In their last work "Ur-Heidi: Eine Heim-Suchung" they dealt with the transgenerational transmission of emotional legacies of National Socialism. Their preoccupation with the metaphor of the "wayward child" is a continuation of their examination of historical continuities in German history and part of the research for the new play "Spitze des Fleischbergs" (Tip of the Meat Mountain), which will premiere in October at the Ringlokschuppen Ruhr.