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Friday, February 24, 2017

Born Today February 24: Wilhelm Grimm


1786-1859

Wilhelm Carl (sometimes Karl) Grimm was born on the day in Hanau, Hesse-Kassel, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He is famous for being the younger of "The Brothers Grimm" of fairytale fame.  He and his older brother Jacob had been constantly in each other's company since school days, where they shared a bed and desk in a boarding situation.  Wilhelm entered the University of Marburg in 1803, one year after his brother; where again they shared a room.  There, he studied the law.  From then on, the two always lived under one roof and their library was common property.  Though the two were constantly together, they reportedly had opposite personalities.  Wilhelm had been a vivacious child, but suffered some type of long and severe illness while growing up--an ordeal that he never quite recovered from.  He had a deep love of music, an interest that his brother did not really share.  And while he had no interest in pursuing any wide range of investigations in life, he was a keen literary scholar and a consummate story teller.  He was also familiar with the various German dialects of the time.  He married at the age of 39 and he and his wife went on to have 4 children together. The collection that is so famous today as Grimm's Fairy Tales first appeared in 1812.  It was a book a collected tales from various parts of what is now Germany. The tales appeared very early in film, soon after to notion that actual narratives could be told through moving pictures.  Two films appeared in 1897.  Both were extremely early German films:  Rapunzel and Hänsel und Gretel.  In all 14 films utilizing the Tales as source material were produced in the silent era with formal credit in the films themselves.  The Grimm's tales entered into the world of animation in 1922 with Puss In Boots, an early Disney cartoon.  The first full sound live-action film to feature their work came in 1936 with the German produced Hans im Glück.  The most recent released production to feature their tales was from last year, which came in the form of a made-for-television film in Germany with Das singende, klingende Bäumchen, which aired on Christmas Day.  Two other films have been announced, with no release dates attached.  The first is a musical version of Snow White; and the second is Rose Red, also another take on the Snow White story.  Later in life, both he and his brother Jacob become professors at the University of Göttingen; they were part of the Göttingen Seven.  The group protested Ernst August, King Of Hanover, whom they claimed had violated the constitution.  As a consequence, all seven were fired.  Wilhelm passed away at the age of 73 on December 16 from a infection Berlin.  He preceded his older brother in death. The two are buried together (with other family members) in Alter Sankt-Matthäus-Kirchhof in Berlin.




Brothers Grimm Wikipedia


Leave Virtual Flower @ Find A Grave

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