Landscape, Fairies and Identity: Experience on the Backstage of the Fairy Tale Route

Abstract

Although rarely considered a touristic phenomenon, themed touristic routes are a growing. Since 1975, numerous cities and villages between Hanau and Bremen have joined the working group ‘Deutsche Märchenstrasse.’ Unlike other themed auto routes in Germany, the Fairy Tale Route focuses not on architectural or agricultural aspects of the cultural landscape, but rather invites travellers to ‘the homeland of fairies and princes’ and to a romantic landscape experience on the traces of the Brothers Grimm. Based on a summary of the extant literature on the history of touristic longings for landscapes, this study explores the practices and experiences of individuals engaged in creating the ‘aura’ of the Fairy Tale Route. By analysing the landscape performance and biographical background of ‘Dietrich the Knight’, this article characterises the conditions for a successful, socio-culturally sustainable form of the cultural marketing of regions. The article concludes with one of the current conflicts played out between the extant fairy tale tourism imaginary and a new touristic foil that is being promoted by a new, supraregional tourism director in order to point to the frailness of the Fairy Tale Route's potential sustainability model.