More about the Grimm Brothers

Once upon a time, in thickly forested central Germany, there lived two brothers by the name of Grimm. The elder, Jacob Ludwig Carl, was always serious beyond his years; the younger, Wilhelm Carl, although sickly, was personable and friendly.

From early childhood, they both loved tales of enchantment about generous kings and good-hearted queens, golden-haired princesses saved from disaster by princes, castles and cozy cottages, wicked witches and cruel stepmothers.

Jacob was born in 1785, a year before Wilhelm, in Hanau, now a traffic-congested suburb east of Frankfurt.

Their birthplace was destroyed during World War II, but in Neustädter Marktplatz there stands a larger-than-life bronze statue of the dour-faced workaholic brothers--appropriately pondering a large book. This marks the beginning of the Deutsche Märchenstrasse, the German Fairy-Tale Road.

Studying the Grimm Brothers

 The Grimm brothers for the most part didn’t invent the stories of Grimms’ Fairy Tales, they listened to the local legends of fairies and dwarfs, princesses and witches and wrote them down in the stories we know today, set in the real villages along their travels. This region of German is probably much less traveled by those from outside the country than more familiar touring destinations.   We hope to soak in the legend and lore of the countryside and bring back the inspiration to support our students in writing down their own family tales.  It is exciting to continue our preparations as we get closer to actually exploring the Grimm brothers' lives!