Brothers Grimm

Wilhelm Carl Grimm, third son, was born on February 24, 1786. Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, second son, was born on January 4, 1785. The Grimms were born at Hanau in Hasse-Kassel to Philipp Wilhelm Grimm and Dorothea Zimmer. The family consisted of nine children, eight boys and one girl. In 1791, the family moved to Steinau, Germany to live for seven years ("Grimm" 307-308).

Their first life-altering event occurred in 1796 with the death of their father. Preceded in death by three of his sons, Philipp's status as a lawyer had diminished. His death "declassed his wife and children overnight" forcing the family to poverty ("Jakob" 192). In support of their family the Grimm brothers set out to Kassel to fill requirements necessary for university admission.

Hoping to follow in their father's footsteps the brothers attended law school at the University of Marburg beginning in 1802. In 1806, Wilhelm had received his degree in law while Jacob had dropped out of school moving to Paris to study with Friedrich Karl von Savigny, expert in Roman law. In 1808, the Grimms mother died bringing Jacob home from Paris.

After Jacob's numerous positions as a librarian in Paris and his current position in Wilhelmshöhe, the brothers began collecting their tales. Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano published a few of Wilhelm and Jacob's tales in their journal Zeitung für Einsiedler. After many years of supporting their three brothers and sister, Jacob received a job at the Council of State for the purpose of earning more money (Bottigheimer 102, 109).


Since the beginning of the 1800's the Grimms had been collecting fairy tales from the people of Hesse and surrounding areas including friends and relatives. A local peasant named Marie Muller was a well-known storyteller and one of the Grimms' favorites. In 1812, the Grimm Brothers published their first volume of Kinder-und Hausmärchen. This volume was made up of eighty-six stories and folktales. Two years later in 1814, volume two of Kinder-und Hausmärchen was published. In the second volume there were seventy stories and folktales added to the original eighty-six. In its entirety, Kinder-und Hausmärchen would see eight editions, the final containing 200 stories and folktales and 10 children's legends (Ashliman 2-3).

In 1813, conflicts of belief between the French and the central European countries grew stronger. The European countries gained power and forced Napoleon and the French out of Germany. During this period, Jacob became a legation secretary for Hessian diplomats and Wilhelm an assistant librarian for the library in Kassel. Two years later Jacob joined his brother as a librarian in Kassel.

Between the years 1816 and 1818 the Grimms published Deutsche Sagen in two volumes. Within these volumes there are "585 counted German Legends" (Ashliman 3).
After achieving much success they were recognized for their scholarly work in 1819 with honorary doctorates from Marburg University. In 1825 Wilhelm married Henriette Dorothea Wild, a woman from whom he collected stories. The couple had four children, three sons and a daughter.

Between 1829 and 1830 Wilhelm resigned from Kassel taking a position as librarian and professor at Göttingen University. Jacob soon followed. In 1830 Wilhelm realized that his health and family's finances were not stable. In 1835 he accepted a position as Ordentlicher Professor ensuring financial stability for his family. From the time period 1837-1841, the Grimm brothers take a stand with five colleagues against Ernst August king of Hannover about the conflict of a constitutional right. As a result, the seven lost their jobs and the Grimms accepted jobs at the University of Berlin. They were known as the Göttingen Seven (Ashliman 3)

1838 began the work on the thirty-two volumes of Deutsches Wörterbuch. This German dictionary focuses on history instead of appropriate language (Bottigheimer 104). Within the next ten years the Grimms resigned from their teaching at the university of Berlin to devote their time to the completion of the German dictionary. Wilhelm died on December 16, 1859 and Jacob on September 20, 1863. The two "fairytale brothers" did not live to see the final edition their German dictionary (Ashliman 3).

Works Cited: Ashliman, D. L. Grimm Brothers' Home Page. 1999-2000. University of Pittsburgh. 2 Sept. 2002. http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm.html