Brothers Grimm

The Grimms were a duo of German brothers famous for writing folklores. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm enriched traditional folk tales and made them popular throughout the world. Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was the elder brother, born in 1785. Wilhelm Carl Grimm was born a year later. They were raised in Hanau, Germany by their mother dorothea Grimm and their father, Philipp Wilhelm Grimm, a lawyer who worked as the town clerk. The Grimms spent most of their time together as small children. As they grew up, their common interests in history and philology made them pursue medieval German literature. The family faced financial difficulties when their father passed away in 1796 and it was up to the two brothers to support the family. The two brothers were in their early twenties when they began the mythological research that would eventually result in the immensely popular Grimms’ Fairy Tales. These fairy tales each have a simple spiritual truth in the form of a universal moral lesson. Wilhelm died in 1859 and Jacob in 1863. They are buried in the St. Matthäus Kirchhof Cemetery in Schöneberg, Berlin. The Brothers Grimm left behind a rich legacy of folk stories, novellas and legends.