Jacob Grimm

Born in Hanau in 1785, Jacob Grimm became one of Germany’s most influential scholars of folklore, language, and early literature. Alongside his younger brother Wilhelm, he collected and edited traditional stories that were published as Children’s and Household Tales, the famous collection that later became known simply as Grimm’s fairy tales.

His work reached far beyond storytelling. Jacob studied law, then turned to philology and medieval literature, and he became especially important for his research into the history of the German language. His German Grammar and later work on the great German Dictionary, begun with Wilhelm, helped lay the groundwork for modern Germanic linguistics.

He also had a public life as a librarian, professor, and member of the Göttingen Seven, a group of scholars who protested against political repression in the 1830s. Jacob Grimm died in Berlin in 1863, but his influence still lives on in both the fairy tales readers love and the language scholarship that bears his mark.