It is considered the seminal work of Western children's literature and is listed by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Registry.

Philipp was a highly regarded district magistrate in Steinau an der Straße, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Hanau.

After downsizing their home because of financial reasons, Henriette sent Jacob and Wilhelm to study at the prestigious high school, Lyzeum, in Kassel.

In school, their grandfather wrote to them saying that because of their current situation, they needed to apply themselves industriously to secure their future welfare.

Throughout their time at university, the brothers became quite close with Savigny and were able to use his personal library as they became interested in German law, history, and folklore.

Once Jacob returned to Kassel in 1806, he adopted his brother's passion and changed his focus from law to German literature.

While Jacob studied literature and took care of their siblings, Wilhelm continued on to receive his degree in law at Marburg.

The Grimms collected many old books and asked friends and acquaintances in Kassel to tell tales and to gather stories from others.

[4] They removed sexual references—such as Rapunzel's innocently asking why her dress was getting tight around her belly, and thus naively revealing to the witch Dame Gothel her pregnancy and the prince's visits—but, in many respects, violence, particularly when punishing villains, became more prevalent.

In 1825, the brothers published their Kleine Ausgabe or "small edition", a selection of 50 tales designed for child readers illustrated by Ludwig Emil Grimm.

Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children and Household Tales) is listed by UNESCO in its Memory of the World Registry.

[6] Among those influenced were the Russian Alexander Afanasyev, the Norwegians Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, the English Joseph Jacobs, and Jeremiah Curtin, an American who collected Irish tales.

[11] Writers who have written about the Holocaust have combined the tales with their memoirs, as Jane Yolen in her Briar Rose.

[12] Three individual works of Wilhelm Grimm include Altdänische Heldenlieder, Balladen und Märchen ('Old Danish Heroic Songs, Ballads, and Folktales') in 1811, Über deutsche Runen ('On German Runes') in 1821, and Die deutsche Heldensage ('The German Heroic Saga') in 1829.

Arthur Rackham, Walter Crane, and Rie Cramer are among the artists who have created illustrations based on the stories.

The next section "Removed from final edition" contains 30 listings including 18 that are numbered in series "1812 KHM ###" and 12 without any label.