Wilhelm was born in February 1786 in
Hanau, in
Hesse-Kassel. In 1803, he started studying
law at the
University of Marburg, one year after his brother Jacob started there. The two brothers spent their entire lives close together. In their school days, they had one bed and one table in common; as students, they had two beds and two tables in the same room. They always lived under one roof and had their books and property in common. In 1825, 39-year-old Wilhelm married pharmacist's daughter Henriette Dorothea Wild, also known as Dortchen. Wilhelm's marriage did not change the harmony of the brothers. Wilhelm's character was a complete contrast to that of his brother. As a boy, he was strong and healthy, but while growing up he suffered a long and severe illness which left him weak the rest of his life. He had a less comprehensive and energetic mind than his brother, and he had less of the spirit of investigation, preferring to confine himself to some limited and definitely bounded field of work. He utilized everything that bore directly on his own studies and ignored the rest. These studies were almost always of a literary nature. Wilhelm took great delight in music, for which his brother had but a moderate liking, and he had a remarkable gift of storytelling. Cleasby relates that "Wilhelm read a sort of farce written in the Frankfort dialect, depicting the 'malheurs' of a rich Frankfort tradesman on a holiday jaunt on Sunday. It was very droll, and he read it admirably." Cleasby describes him as "an uncommonly animated, jovial fellow." He was, accordingly, much sought in society, which he frequented much more than his brother. A collection of
fairy tales was first published in 1812 by the Grimm brothers, known in English as
Grimms' Fairy Tales. From 1837 to 1841, the Grimm brothers joined five of their colleague professors at the
University of Göttingen to form a group known as the
Göttinger Sieben (
The Göttingen Seven). They protested against
Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, whom they accused of violating the
constitution. All seven were fired by the
king. Wilhelm Grimm died in
Berlin of an infection at the age of 73 on 16 December 1859. ==Children==