The focus of the so-called Schwankmärchen is the eponymous character, who carries out a series of barter transactions throughout the story.
Designed by the artist Michael Otto from Rodenbach, the motif impresses with the balanced composition of the most important elements of the fairy tale. The special appeal lies in the formal differentiation between foreground and background. Hans in the foreground is worked through in relief, while the exchange objects run through the background as linear drawings. The character of Hans, who never loses his equanimity and contentment through changing material possessions, is portrayed accurately and expressively. A fittingly powerful eagle adorns the value side.
At the end of his seven years of service, Hans receives a gold nugget “as big as Hansen’s head” as his reward. While he travels home to his mother, he exchanges the nugget of gold for a horse, the horse for a cow, the cow for a pig, the pig for a goose and finally the goose for two stones, which he also loses. If these exchanges are objectively disadvantageous, Hans sees them as advantageous in the respective situation and from his perspective. It is described with palpable sympathy how Hans is just as happy at the end without any possessions as he was at the beginning when he carries the nugget of gold with him.
“Hans im Glück” is an example of how, according to Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, something wonderful does not necessarily have to happen in a fairy tale. The story does not contain any scenes that could not occur in reality, no magic, no fantastic places or anything like that. The criteria for inclusion in the “Children's and Household Tales” were that the piece comes from oral tradition and does not specifically refer to a geographical location, a specific person or a historical event.
The Brothers Grimm learned about the fairy tale through the late romantic magazine “Wünschelruthe”, which was published by their circle of friends. Friedrich August Wernicke made it available in 1818, with the addition “from the mouth of the people”. Fairy tales of the “Hans im Glück” type were told throughout Europe, with a focus on German-speaking areas and Scandinavia. The fairy tale is an example of how the Brothers Grimm's “Children's and Household Tales” can be read as a catalog of most types of fairy tales that exist in Europe.
