Dictionary.net

A German philologist, archaeologist, and folklorist; born in Hanau, Jan. 4, 1785; died at Berlin, Sept. 20, 1863. He studied at Cassel and Marburg; and at 20 became Savigny's assistant at Paris. His abilities becoming renowned, he was sent as secretary to the Hessian ambassador at the Vienna Congress, and then to Paris to reclaim the plundered treasures of German libraries. He continued in similar employments with increasing reputation till his liberalism in 1848 forced him out of public life. Thenceforward till his death he busied himself with antiquarian and philological researches. "The Poetry of the Meistersingers", a "German Grammar", "German Mythology", "Antiquities of German Jurisprudence", "History of the German Language", and many similar works, cover the entire field of their subjects, and are among the chief creators of modern philology and its methods. His popular fame rests upon his collaboration with his brother Wilhelm in the "Fables for Children" ("Grimm's Fairy Tales"), universally known.