Brothers Grimm

Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm and Wilhelm Carl Grimm, collectively known as the Brothers Grimm (Brüder Grimm), were born in Hanau, in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel within the Holy Roman Empire (in modern-day Germany), Jacob on January 4, 1785, and Wilhelm on February 24, 1786. They were among nine children born to Philipp Wilhelm Grimm, a jurist, and Dorothea Grimm née Zimmer, six of whom survived infancy.

In 1796, their father died suddenly, plunging the family into financial hardship. With support from their aunt, the brothers attended the Friedrichsgymnasium in Kassel and later studied law at the University of Marburg, following in their father's footsteps. At Marburg, they were influenced by their professor, Friedrich Carl von Savigny, who awakened their interest in historical and linguistic research, particularly in folk poetry and the cultural history of the German language.

The brothers began their fairy tale collection almost incidentally while gathering material for their scholarly work on linguistics. Their interest was primarily academic; they wanted to preserve the oral storytelling traditions that they feared were disappearing as urbanization and industrialization changed traditional rural lifestyles.

Their first collection, "Children's and Household Tales" (Kinder- und Hausmärchen), was published in two volumes in 1812 and 1815. Unlike the child-friendly versions commonly known today, these original tales were dark, violent, and included themes considered inappropriate for children. Later editions, edited primarily by Wilhelm, were softened to make them more suitable for children and middle-class households.

The Grimms did not travel the countryside personally collecting stories from peasants, as is often believed. Instead, they gathered tales primarily from educated, middle-class friends and acquaintances who had themselves collected the stories from various sources, including servants, nurses, and family members. Among their most important sources was Dorothea Viehmann, a tailor's wife who contributed more than 40 stories to their collection.

Beyond their fairy tales, the Brothers Grimm made significant scholarly contributions. They worked on the "German Dictionary" (Deutsches Wörterbuch), a massive undertaking that aimed to be the definitive lexicon of the German language. Although they didn't live to see its completion (it was finally completed in 1961, over a century after they began), this work remains a monumental achievement in German linguistics.

The brothers also published "German Legends" (Deutsche Sagen), "Ancient German Law" (Deutsche Rechtsaltertümer), and "German Mythology" (Deutsche Mythologie). Jacob published "German Grammar" (Deutsche Grammatik), which established systematic rules for the development of Germanic languages, a landmark work in the field of historical linguistics.

In 1830, the brothers moved to Göttingen University, where Jacob became a professor and head librarian, with Wilhelm serving as a librarian. In 1837, they joined five other professors (collectively known as the "Göttingen Seven") in protesting the abolition of the liberal constitution of the Kingdom of Hanover by its new ruler, Ernest Augustus. As a consequence, they were dismissed from their positions and banished.

They returned to Kassel before accepting positions at the University of Berlin in 1840, where they continued their scholarly work until their deaths. Wilhelm died in Berlin on December 16, 1859, at the age of 73. Jacob, who never married (Wilhelm had married Henriette Dorothea Wild in 1825), died in Berlin on September 20, 1863, at the age of 78.

The legacy of the Brothers Grimm extends far beyond their most famous work with fairy tales. They were pioneers in the fields of folklore, linguistics, and philology, and their methods of collecting and preserving cultural traditions influenced generations of scholars. Their fairy tales have become an integral part of global culture, continually reinterpreted through literature, film, art, and music, while their broader scholarly contributions continue to inform our understanding of language, law, mythology, and cultural history.