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The Documenta Exhibition in Kassel is famous worldwide. The world’s most important exhibition of contemporary art attracts huge crowds of visitors from different countries. Every five years the Documenta puts on an exhibition of contemporary trends in modern art as well as providing a forum for new exhibition concepts. First mounted in 1955, the documenta is now in its 50th year.

The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were outstanding figures whose work had a lasting effect on artistic developments in Germany and Europe. Their fairytale collection became famous worldwide. A large part of their lives was spent in Kassel and there is much evidence of their lives and work along the “German Fairy Tale Route”. The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, world famous fairy tale collectors and linguists, spent the longest and most fruitful period of their lives in Kassel.

It was here that Grimm’s Fairy Tales were compiled, edited and translated into 160 languages. In Kassel the brothers also developed their political opinions and concepts as well as engaging in extensive linguistic and literary research which led to the emergence of a new branch of scholarship; namely, the study of German language and literature.

The life and times of the brothers Grimm are vividly portrayed in the Brothers Grimm Museum in Kassel through various permanent exhibitions as well as exhibitions commemorating special events and occasions. The exhibition rooms are located in the baroque-style Palais Bellevue which was originally designed as an observatory for Hesse’s Landgrave Karl in 1714 by the French architect Paul du Ry.

Virtually every art lover has heard of the collection of old masters in the Wilhelmshoehe Palace Art Gallery. The main part of this unique collection is devoted to Dutch and Flemish painters, including many world-famous pictures by Rembrandt.