The Brothers Grimm biography

The Brothers Grimm were philologists and folklorists. Born in Hanau, Berlin, Germany. Jacob Grimm was the eldest (1785 – 1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786 – 1859). His father shared his time as a lawyer and pastor of a Calvinist Church. Under the influence of his father studied Law and Medieval Literature at the University of Marburg. With the death of his father, the brothers Grimm had to face complex situations to continue their studies and had to ask for assistance from a maternal aunt.

In this place, both met the poet and folklorist Clemens Brentano, soon built a close relationship. He inwards them into the world of poetry, especially popular poetry. In some special meeting, they met the jurist and law historian Friedrich Karl von Savigny, thanks to him they learned a method to conduct research from written sources. This event was key because that is where the work carried out by the Grimm brothers would come off, work that will give them popularity. Jacob traveled to Paris in 1805 as an assistant to Professor Von Savigny. After graduating, both worked as librarians and university professors at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin.

The brothers felt great exaltation for the traditional anonymous literature of the philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, on the other hand, the philosopher took some of his ideas on poetry and popular narrative; the latter was studied by the brothers because they felt that their value was greater than that of literary literature as it was a genuine representation of the feeling of the people. They undertook research on the traditions of their people; their beliefs, cults, festivities, myths, and legends, among others. Certainly, the step by the university to study law had served them to know these great and influential personages.

Between 1812 and 1822, the brothers Grimm wrote in the writing of his first publication: Children’s stories and of the home, a collection of stories in which they expressed different popular traditions of Germany. Subsequently, they were known as the fairy tales of the Grimm brothers. This publication was very popular and sold because people could remember forgotten traditions or simply entertain themselves with those that lived in their mind. The Brothers Grimm tried not to make literary reinterpretations to maintain the original character of the stories, to preserve their liveliness and popular freshness. Simultaneously, they worked on German Legends, another meeting of texts about the historical legends of the German people.

The brothers began to have uncommon interests: Wilhelm Grimm focused on the medieval tradition, while Jacob Grimm was oriented in philology, specifically studied the history of the language. As a result, he worked on the book The German Grammar from 1819 to 1837. Text that later became fundamental in the contemporary studies of historical and comparative linguistics. In 1829 the Grimm brothers went as guests to the University of Göttingen, and then to that of Berlin, representing the Royal Academy of Sciences. From this center began the creation of the German Dictionary, a rich and complex work that started from the first volume. Although, this remained in the hands of several generations of scholars.

Returning, Tales of children and the home were published in three volumes. The desire of the Grimms was that this work was a tribute to popular literature, a document that could faithfully express the national oral tradition that supposed loss. Their main sources were their childhood memories, and the testimonies of the people of the villages: children, youth, adults and the elderly. For example, in the city of Kassel, pharmacist Wild’s daughter shared stories heard about “old Mary”.

In the transcription of the stories, they tried to preserve faithfully the plot, the tone and the expressions that they used. Although, sometimes there were confusions the narration and its oral style were respected to the maximum, beginning with it to the modern ethnographic methods. Many scholars began to use folk tales as a basic structure to carry out a stylistic and literary reworking and learn about a community. The Brothers Grimm decided to innovate on the basis of literary sources, from authors such as Luther, Hans Sachs, Johann Michael Moscherosch or Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling. They focused on finding the naivety of the plot, analyzing proverbs or sayings.

The truth is that they knew how to give them so much freshness that few books immediately revive the mysterious and profound intimacy of Germanic nature, allowing them to feel it with the spirit with which the German people come to it. These collections include such famous stories as Snow White, Cinderella, Tom Thumb, Juan with luck, Legend of the Pixies, The daughter of the miller, Little Red Riding Hood, Rabanita, In search of fear, The musicians of Bremen or Blue Beard. Actually, the work was not intended to be a children’s book, but in the early nineteenth century in Germany became the favorite book of infants, with which generations and generations let their imagination fly.

The success of these works was such that they undertook their translations, which ended up making it a universal success. It is affirmed that 200 years after its publication, one thousand million copies had been published in one hundred and seventy languages, dissemination superior to the work of another great exponent of the classic age of children’s literature, the Danish Hans Christian Andersen.

In the end, Clemens Brentano ended up demeaning the work of the Brothers Grimm, because he found her disheveled and poor in writing. This work has been made a huge amount of reissues, acquiring new titles such as The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm or Tales of the Brothers Grimm, creating some distortion, since many readers came to believe that these works were creations of the brothers. Relegating the character of oral tradition and popular culture.

Wilhelm died in Berlin at 73 years of age, on December 16, 1859. Four years later, on September 20, 1863, Jacob died in the same city. At 78 years old Both were buried in the Alter Sankt-Matthäus-Kirchhof, Berlin cemetery. His legacy was so important that his work has been taken to the big and small screen; also to the theater.

Undoubtedly, the stories that the Grimm brothers compiled and published are known worldwide and have marked the childhood of several generations.