Grimm, Wilhelm

Germanist

Born: 24.02.1786 in Hanau

died: 16.12.1859 in Berlin

Grimm, who had been a professor in Göttingen since 1831, had made a name for himself with his work in various specialist areas - literature, linguistics and law. In 1812-15, he published the "Children's and Household Tales" together with his brother Jacob (1785-1863). In the years 1831-34, he stayed in Wiesbaden for a cure. In messages to his family, he left a veritable spa diary (from July 8 to August 8, 1833).

Naturally, the focus is on his health: the daily routine with drinking cures, baths, walks and meals according to the doctor's instructions is documented in detail - also ironically. He is usually on his way to the drinking halls by six o'clock in the morning. He used to have his coffee and meals at the Hotel Adler; the hotel also served as a bathhouse and post office. Grimm gives the spa facilities an excellent testimonial ("these regions are obviously ahead in this respect"). "You see", he writes to his wife, "it is a veritable land of milk and honey". "In the long run [however], doing nothing becomes quite unbearable". He also visits the local library (in search of an old manuscript, for example), the museum and the theater (including performances of operas by Mozart and Rossini), goes on excursions, e.g. to Sonnenberg Castle, the Platte, Mainz and the Johannisberg and Biebrich palaces ("What a region! The magnificent Rhine in all its glory", an echo of Rhine Romanticism).

But political developments are also discussed, such as the international tactical maneuvers in the run-up to the founding of the German Customs Union ("very artificial politics"). And time and again, anecdotes and aperçus about individual spa guests testify to Grimm's keen powers of observation (a lady "needs five minutes to prepare herself for a smile", a gentleman with articulation problems speaks "as if some notes on a fortepiano were not striking").

Although the cure was a success, Grimm's health remained fragile. Numerous scientific projects awaited him again, the most extensive of which, the "German Dictionary", begun with Jacob Grimm in 1838, was not published until around a century after Wilhelm's death (1960).