Biography B Grimm

The Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm brothers are German storytellers, linguists, researchers of German folk culture.

Their fairy tales - “Sleeping Beauty”, “Rapunzel”, “Cinderella” - have remained popular throughout the world for many years. A brief biography of the Grimm brothers for children will allow you to understand the secret of the success of German writers, to find out the most interesting facts from their lives and creativity. Childhood and youth Jacob Grimm was born on January 4 of the year, and Wilhelm was born a year later - February 24.

The brothers were from Hanau Landgrave Hesse Cassel. The Grimm family was big at the senior Jacob and Wilhelm there were still seven brothers and sisters and very friendly. Children grew up in an atmosphere of love and understanding. However, the early death of the spouse was a serious test for the widow, who found himself in a very difficult situation. To give the eldest sons the opportunity to get a decent education, in the fall of the year she sent boys to Kassel to her wealthy aunt.

Jacob and Wilhelm entered the Kasselsky Lyceum. The study was given to the brothers easily, and after a while they easily entered the University of Marburg, where they began to study jurisprudence. Noticing the curiosity of the Grimm brothers, one of their teachers allowed them to use their library. So the young men discovered the world of literature: they got acquainted with the work of Schiller and Goethe, studied the development of German literature on the basis of various documents, legends and poetic works.

The literary activity of the Grimm brothers were so passionate about literature that they decided to make it a matter of their whole life. It is interesting that their wonderful fairy tales were only a small part of the impressive volume of work that the brothers did in the field of linguistics and literature. From early childhood, Jacob and Wilhelm were so friendly that they decided together to study ancient German folklore.

Being Germans by nationality, they set a goal to properly study German folk art, systematize it, and thereby contribute to the development of their beloved country. The brothers began to collect, process and record many folk legends and fairy tales that were passed down from generation to generation. In this difficult work, the brothers were helped by many residents of Cassel, who knew the uncountable number of old stories.

In the year, the brothers were waiting for the first success: they published the collection "Children's and Family Tales", which included about a hundred works. Immediately after its release, Grimm began work on the material for the second book, which was published in the year. Among the most popular fairy tales of the brothers Grimm “Bremen musicians”, “Snow White and Seven Dwarfs”, “King of Drozdoborod”, “Wolf and Seven Knights”, “Cinderella” and many others.

It was a very difficult, long, painstaking work, which Thomas Mann called a “philological monument” a hundred years later. The brothers faced a difficult task - from several dozen dialect languages ​​to create one, general and understandable for everyone. The brothers spent years of life, working on their brainchild, but did not manage to complete the dictionary, reaching only the letter “D”.

Their business was continued by subsequent generations of talented philologists. In total, the work on the "Dictionary of the German Language" was spent years. Vilhelm Grimm’s personal life tied his fate with the daughter of pharmacist Wilda, who gave the famous storyteller the son of Herman, who later became an artist. Jacob Grimm remained a bachelor all his life, concentrating all his strength at his favorite work.

Wilhelm, who died on December 16 from the paralysis of the lungs, passed away. Jacob survived his brother for four years, all this time helping his family and without leaving work on the dictionary. He died on September 20 from a stroke, sitting at a desk. Biography test.