The Brothers Grimm

As a child

Jacob Grimm was born on January 4 1785, and Whilhelm on February 24 1786 both in Hanau near Frankfurt in Hessen. They were among a family of nine children, only six of whom survived infancy. Their early childhood was spent in the ‘idyllic’ countryside before their father, Philipp Wilhelm, died and they moved with their mother to the city.

As an adult

The two brothers both read law at the University of Marburg, before publishing a collection of 86 German fairy tales in a volume titled Kinder- und Hausmärchen (‘Children and Household Tales’), and writing a definitive dictionary of the German language (1854).

As an artist

The Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, were German academics who were best known for publishing collections of folk tales and fairy tales. The folk tales they published and shared included such tales as Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel.