Hansel and Gretel are the children of a poor woodcutter who lives with them and his wife in the forest. When their hardship becomes too great, she persuades her husband to abandon the two children in the forest. Although it is difficult for him, the woodcutter takes the children into the forest the next day and leaves them alone under a pretext. But Hansel has overheard the parents and on the way into the forest he has laid a trail of small white stones that the children can use to find their way back. This is how the mother's plan fails. But the second attempt to abandon the children is successful: this time Hansel and Gretel only have a slice of bread with them, which Hansel crumbles to leave a trail. However, it is picked up by birds. As a result, the children cannot find their way home and get lost. On the third day, the two come across a little house made entirely of bread, cake and sugar. First, they tear down parts of the house to satisfy their hunger. However, in this house lives a witch who is a cannibal. In both the original version of the fairy tale from 1812 and in the later editions up to the "final edition" from 1857, she calls out in a kind of onomatopoeia: "Knuper, knuper, kneischen, who is nibbling at my little house?"
In Ludwig Bechstein's German Fairy Tale Book from 1856, the text differs from the Brothers Grimm: "Knusper, knusper, kneischen! Who is nibbling at my little house?" The children's answer, however, is identical in Bechstein and in the extended version of the Brothers Grimm from 1819: "The wind, the wind, the heavenly child."
The witch is not fooled, catches the two, turns Gretel into a maid and fattens Hansel in a cage to eat him later. However, Hansel uses a trick: to check whether the boy is fat enough, the half-blind witch feels his finger every day. But Hansel holds out a small bone to her every time. When she sees that the boy doesn't seem to be getting fat, she loses patience and wants to roast him immediately. The witch orders Gretel to look in the oven to see if it is hot. But Gretel claims that she is too small for it, so the witch has to look herself. When she opens the oven, Gretel pushes the evil witch in. The children take treasures from the witch's house and find their way back to their father. Their mother has since died. Now they live happily and no longer suffer from hunger.
Source: Wikipedia