Wilhelm Grimm
Search results
Wilhelm Grimm (left) and Jacob Grimm (right), portrayed by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann (1855) The Brothers Grimm (German: die Brüder Grimm or die Gebrüder Grimm), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were German academics who together collected and published folklore.
The Brothers Grimm (2005) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
- Overview
- Beginnings and Kassel period
Brothers Grimm, German folklorists and linguists best known for their Kinder- und Hausmärchen (1812–22; also called Grimm’s Fairy Tales), which led to the birth of the modern study of folklore. Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm (b. January 4, 1785, Hanau, Hesse-Kassel [Germany]—d. September 20, 1863, Berlin) and Wilhelm Carl Grimm (b. February 24, 1786, Hana...
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were the oldest in a family of five brothers and one sister. Their father, Philipp Wilhelm, a lawyer, was town clerk in Hanau and later justiciary in Steinau, another small Hessian town, where his father and grandfather had been ministers of the Calvinistic Reformed Church. The father’s death in 1796 brought social hardships to the family; the death of the mother in 1808 left 23-year-old Jacob with the responsibility of four brothers and one sister. Jacob, a scholarly type, was small and slender with sharply cut features, while Wilhelm was taller, had a softer face, and was sociable and fond of all the arts.
After attending the high school in Kassel, the brothers followed their father’s footsteps and studied law at the University of Marburg (1802–06) with the intention of entering civil service. At Marburg they came under the influence of Clemens Brentano, who awakened in both a love of folk poetry, and Friedrich Karl von Savigny, cofounder of the historical school of jurisprudence, who taught them a method of antiquarian investigation that formed the real basis of all their later work. Others, too, strongly influenced the Grimms, particularly the philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder, with his ideas on folk poetry. Essentially, they remained individuals, creating their work according to their own principles.
In 1805 Jacob accompanied Savigny to Paris to do research on legal manuscripts of the Middle Ages; the following year he became secretary to the war office in Kassel. Because of his health, Wilhelm remained without regular employment until 1814. After the French entered in 1806, Jacob became private librarian to King Jérôme of Westphalia in 1808 and a year later auditeur of the Conseil d’État but returned to Hessian service in 1813 after Napoleon’s defeat. As secretary to the legation, he went twice to Paris (1814–15), to recover precious books and paintings taken by the French from Hesse and Prussia. He also took part in the Congress of Vienna (September 1814–June 1815). Meantime, Wilhelm had become secretary at the Elector’s library in Kassel (1814), and Jacob joined him there in 1816.
Britannica Quiz
Grimm’s Fairy Tales Quiz
By that time the brothers had definitely given up thoughts of a legal career in favour of purely literary research. In the years to follow they lived frugally and worked steadily, laying the foundations for their lifelong interests. Their whole thinking was rooted in the social and political changes of their time and the challenge these changes held. Jacob and Wilhelm had nothing in common with the fashionable “Gothic” Romanticism of the 18th and 19th centuries. Their state of mind made them more Realists than Romantics. They investigated the distant past and saw in antiquity the foundation of all social institutions of their days. But their efforts to preserve these foundations did not mean that they wanted to return to the past. From the beginning, the Grimms sought to include material from beyond their own frontiers—from the literary traditions of Scandinavia, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, England, Serbia, and Finland.
Jun 11, 2020 · Wilhelm Grimm and his older brother Jacob studied German folklore and oral traditions, publishing a collection of stories eventually known as Grimms’ Fairy Tales which includes narratives like...
- Like a lot of the characters in their stories, the brothers Grimm had a bit of a “rags-to-riches” story. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in 1785 and 1786, respectively, in what is now present-day Germany, to Philipp and Dorothea Grimm.
- The Brothers Grimm studied law. Like their father, who had been a civil servant, Jacob and Wilhelm went to university to study law with the intent of becoming civil servants themselves.
- Over 50 of the brothers’ stories were almost lost to history. According to Zipes, the Grimms began “systematically gathering” folktales in 1807—but it wasn’t for their own project.
- The brothers were two members of a group of political activists that would become known as the Göttingen Seven. The brothers spent seven years employed at the University of Göttingen as professors and librarians before they were fired in 1837 for protesting against the new King Ernest Augustus of Hanover.
Ludwig Emil Grimm (brother) Gisela von Arnim (daughter-in-law) Ludwig Hassenpflug (brother-in-law) Wilhelm Carl Grimm (also Karl; [a] 24 February 1786 – 16 December 1859) was a German author and anthropologist. He was the younger brother of Jacob Grimm, of the literary duo the Brothers Grimm.
People also ask
Who were the Brothers Grimm?
What did Wilhelm Grimm learn from his brother Jacob?
Who is Wilhelm Carl Grimm?
Who were Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm?
Who are the Grimm brothers' female descendants?
What are some good books about Grimm?
Early Lives. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born to a rather well-to-do family in a small village in what is now central Germany. Their father was a lawyer, judge, and public servant; however, he...
