GRIMM, JAKOD LUDWIG KARL ( 1785-1863). An eminent German philologist and antiquary, born January 4, 1785, at Hanau, in Hesse-Cassel. He was educated in philology and law at Mar burg, and afterwards visited Paris, where he pur sued a variety of studies, and cultivated his taste for mediaeval literature. On his return to Ger many he was employed in the office of the Min ister of War at Cassel, and became successively librarian 1 o the King of Westphalia and auditor to his Council of State. In 1814 he was secretary to the Ambassador of the Elector of Hesse at Paris, and attended in a similar capacity the Congress of Vienna. While in Paris he claimed, by order•of the Prussian Government, the restora tion of valuable manuscripts which had been re moved to Paris by the armies of Napoleon I. In 1829 he, jointly with his brother Wilhelm, re ceived the appointment of professor of German literature and librarian of the University of Gottingen. The brothers were among the seven professors who protested in 1837 against the abo lition of the Constitution by the King of Hanover, for which act they were outlawed and obliged to retire to Cassel. In 1841 both were invited to Berlin, where as members of the Academy they were entitled to give lectures. Jakob was in
1848 elected member of the Frankfort Parlia ment. lie was, however, with all his interest in political affairs, averse to party strife, and his life was devoted to philological and antiquarian stud ies. His German Grammar, in four volumes, the first volume of which was published in 1819, and the last in 1837 (4th ed. 1870- 98), 'is one of the greatest philological works of the age, and may be said to have laid the foundation of the historical investigation of lan guage. His Deutsche Rechtsaltertilmer (1828) and Deutsche Mythologie (1835) are exhaustive works upon the society of the Middle Ages in Central Europe, and the religious traditions and superstitions from the earliest times. His Ge schichte der deutschen Sprache (1848, 4th ed. 1880) and Ueber den Ursprung der Sprache (1851) are also works of great importance. In company with his brother Wilhelm he published numerous works of a more popular character, the best known of which is Kinder and Hausmiirchen. The greatest joint undertaking of the two broth ers (now carried on by other scholars) is the Deutsches Wiirterbitch, begun in 1852. Jakob Grimm died September 20, 1863.