The Brothers Grimm

The Grimm Brothers

   The Grimm Brothers, famous Fairy Tales and Folk story writers 

   Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm known as The Grimm Brothers. They were born in Ganau, Germany. Jacob Grimm was the second son of their parents, was born on 4th January, 1785 and Wilhelm Grimm was the third son, was born on 24th of February, 1786. From their early youth, the brothers were very close friends until their death. They were always complementing each other.

   The Brothers Grimm were a large family of nine children, eight boys and one girl. Their father, Philipp Wilhelm Grimm was a lawyer. After his death, the Grimms were able to finish their education only thanks to the kindness of their aunt and they set out to Kassel to attend law school and to follow in their father’s footsteps. 

   The Brothers Grimm showed their luminous abilities while they were still young. After a graduation at the Kassel School, the Grimms were continued their education at Marburg University with the firm intention to become lawyers. They listened to lectures at the Law School and studied legal science, but their natural tendencies led them in a fully different direction to the study of German and foreign literature.

   The Brothers Grimm had been collecting fairy tales from the people of Kassel since the early 1800’s. Generally, they had collected this from a favorite local storyteller named Marie Muller. After their graduation, the Grimms  decided to inspect the manuscripts with ancient German literature and continued their research in this area until the end of their life.

   Between (1805–1809), Jacob Grimm was a librarian to Jerome Bonaparte in Vilhelmsheg. After the war with France, Jacob Grimm received a task from the Elector of Kassel - to go to Paris and return to Kassel Library manuscripts which were stolen from the French.

   The Grimm Brothers published their first volume of eighty-six stories and tales in 1812. In 1814 the second volume contained seventy stories. The stories got a huge success and the brothers were recognized for their work in 1819 with honorary doctorates from Marburg University. 

    In 1815, together with a representative of Kassel, Jacob Grimm was sent to the Congress of Vienna. He looked down upon a successful political career but he could not make it. Jacob Grimm left the service in 1816, refusing a proposed professorship in Bonn, along with a high salary and became librarian in Kassel, where his brother worked since 1814. The Grimm Brothers kept their position, devoting themselves to their research and work. In 1825 Wilhelm Grimm married, but the Grimm Brothers still continued to live and work together.

The Grimms

   In 1829 there was an opening for the director's position at the Library of Kassel. The position should have been awarded by Jacob Grimm because he was the appropriate for that position. But the authorities selected another person, who was not qualified for that position. The Brothers Grimm felt so dishonored by this injustice and they that left that job. Of course, they did not stay without a job and their research works were already too well-known. In 1830 Jacob Grimm was invited to Göttingen, became a professor of German literature and a senior librarian in the Göttingen University. Wilhelm Grimm received a junior librarian position in 1831 and later in 1835, he became a full-time professor in Göttingen University. There the brothers worked with a group of progressive scholars, especially the personalities of German literature.

   In 1838 they began to work on the thirty-two volumes of a German dictionary, which focuses on history. Within the next ten years the Grimms resigned from their teaching at the University of Berlin and devoted their time to the completion of the dictionary. In 1840 the Crown Prince Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia came to the throne, the Brothers Grimm were called in Berlin immediately. They were elected to the Berlin Academy of Sciences and they started to read lectures at Berlin University and continued their research work. 

   The Brothers Grimm did not live to see the final edition of their German dictionary. William Grimm was died on the 16th of December, 1859 and Jacob Grimm followed him on the 20th of September, 1863. 



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