The Brothers Grimm

Hello! We are the Brothers Grimm. My name is Jacob, and this is my brother, Wilhelm. We were born just a little over a year apart in a town called Hanau, Germany—I, Jacob, on January 4th, 1785, and Wilhelm on February 24th, 1786. We were best friends and did everything together. We loved reading and learning more than anything. Our father was a lawyer, and our house was filled with books. Sadly, our father passed away when we were still young, which made life difficult, but we promised to always look after our family and each other. This love for our family and our home country of Germany would become the most important part of our life's work.

As we grew up and went to university, we became fascinated with the history of the German language and its stories. At that time, many of the old folk tales people told around the fire were starting to be forgotten. We worried these magical stories would disappear forever! So, we decided to go on a quest. We traveled around, but mostly we invited storytellers to our home to share their tales. We listened carefully to friends, family, and neighbors—especially women who remembered the stories from their own grandmothers. We wrote down every word, exactly as they told it. We didn't invent tales like 'Cinderella,' 'Hansel and Gretel,' or 'Snow White'; we collected them like precious treasures. On December 20th, 1812, we published our first collection, called 'Children's and Household Tales.' We hoped it would help German people feel connected to their history and culture.

While our book of fairy tales became very popular, we were also busy with another giant project. We wanted to create a dictionary of the entire German language! It was a huge job that we started in 1838. We wanted to include every single word and explain where it came from. We worked on it for the rest of our lives. For us, language and stories were two sides of the same coin—they both held the heart and soul of a country and its people. Our work was about preserving the culture we loved so much.

Our lives were filled with books, words, and wonderful stories. My dear brother Wilhelm lived to be 73 years old, passing away in 1859, and I, Jacob, lived to be 78, joining him in 1863. Though our dictionary was so big we couldn't finish it ourselves, our collection of fairy tales traveled the world. The stories we saved from being forgotten are still read by children and families everywhere. They remind us of the magic of storytelling and the importance of remembering where we come from. We hope that when you hear our tales, you feel a little of that same wonder we felt listening to them for the very first time.