The brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm are absolutely a pair that has shaken the world and thus this dynamic partnership rightfully belongs among the one thousand most influential people of these last one thousand years.
             Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm were simply two close brothers growing up in a small town called Hanau within the country of Germany. Little did they know that they were to change the way society views science and politics, morals and language, and literature and life. Their tireless work would forever leave its mark on the world.
             Jakob Grimm was born on January 4, 1785. His brother Wilhelm was born a short year later on February 24, 1786. They grew up with 9 brothers and sisters. Three of the nine children died young. This left Jakob as the oldest with Wilhelm the second oldest. Their father, Phillip Grimm, a lawyer and court official, died in 1796. This caused his family to move back to their mother's hometown. At the ages of thirteen and fourteen the brothers lived with their aunt as they attended school in Kassel. By 1803 Jakob and Wilhelm were both studying law at the University of Marsburg and in 1806 they had begun to compile folktales out of a sense of patriotism, personal interest, and as a favor for a friend.
             Life was fine until 1808, the year their mother Dorothea Grimm died. This forced the responsible brothers to take up jobs at their alma mater, Kassel, so they could support their younger siblings. At Kassel, Jakob and Wilhelm worked as librarians. In 1812 their first edition of Children's and Household Tales was published. This was the result of years of recording and editing German folklore taken from storytellers. In 1819 the brothers Grimm, now established scholars, received their doctorates from the University of Marsburg. In 1825 Wilhelm married Henriette Wild and by 1830 both Grimm brothers had resigned from their positions at Kassel and had become professors at the University of Gött...