The Brothers Grimm in Kassel
»THE HAPPIEST YEARS ...«"The Kassel years were the happiest years in our life," wrote Jacob Grimm in 1860, and his brother Wilhelm agreed with him. Between 1798 and 1841 the two brothers spent over 30 years in the city. Their aunt brought them here from Steinau to attend the Gymnasium upper school. After studying in Marburg, the brothers both worked in Kassel as court librarians in the Fridericianum museum, studying law as well as pursuing and publishing linguistic and philological studies, while at the same time collecting and publishing German folktales, fairy tales, songs, and legends. The now immortal volume entitled »Tales of Children and the 
Home« appeared from 1812 to 1815 and has in the meantime been declared a UNESCO Memory of the World document. The city boasts much which recalls the famous brothers, including the painter brother Ludwig Emil: their externally well preserved home (1814-22) on the Brüder-Grimm-Platz and the Brothers Grimm-Museum with letters, manuscripts and books, including Grimm fairytale collections from all over the world and personal objects belonging to the Grimms. The Brothers Grimm were among the German Romantics who met in Kassel, along with Bettine and Clemens Brentano, Friedrich Carl von Savigny, and Achim von Arnim. This is also where the second and third volumes of the folk poem collection »Des Knaben Wunderhorn« (The Youth's Magic Horn) were published.
The handwritten treasures which served the Brothers Grimm in their research work have been preserved and are partially exhibited in the building of the Murhardschen Bibliothek. These exhibits include the Hildebrandslied, the oldest German legend and heroic poem, which the Brothers Grimm critically edited for the first time.
Other points of interest
The mountain park Wilhelmshöhe with Hercules monument, Löwenburg and castle (museum, painting gallery, antique collection), Baroque park Karlsaue with marble baths, Hessian State Museum, Museum for Sepulchral Culture, and much more.
