Rumpelstiltskin

A classroom guide for teachers

The Brothers Grimm

Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm and Wilhelm Karl Grimm were born on January 4, 1785, and February 24, 1786, near Frankfurt, Germany. They had six brothers and one sister. As children they grew up in the countryside until their father died when the boys were eleven and ten. Their mother moved the children into town where they lived with their grandfather. When he died two years later, their mother struggled to keep her children fed. Both boys were very bright, so she sent them to live with an aunt and they studied law.

During the 18th century, Germany was just beginning to see itself as a unified country. The region was made up of small kingdoms that all spoke and wrote different dialects of the language now known as German. Jacob and Wilhelm were passionate about tracking the historical development of the German language and how words and concepts were developed in the many different dialects that were used in their country. So, they set out to collect ‘house fairy tales’ which were oral stories that had been handed down through families and communities for generations. They also were interested in collecting the works of poets, who had also captured oral stories and pre-Christian myths. These stories were collected and published as The Grimm Brothers Fairy Tales.

The brothers Grimm used many of the words and concepts they collected in their stories to also create a German dictionary and a German book of grammar. Their research and published works helped develop the official German language.

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