Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859), German author and cultural researcher, was one half of the Grimm Brothers; authors of some of the most popular and best-known European fairy tales. He was born in the town of Hanau, in what was at the time the Holy Roman Empire. He was a graduate of the University of Marburg.

When Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm set out to collect stories in the early 1800s, their goal was not to entertain children but to preserve Germanic folklore and the hard life of European peasants was reflected in the tales they discovered.

However, once the brothers saw how the stories entranced young readers, they began softening some of the harsher aspects to make them more suitable for children.