The combination of the brothers' personalities and education prepared them for success in the literary field. Both brothers were educated at the University of Marburg where they pursued legal studies. However, a professor there convinced the brothers to study cultural history, which propelled them into careers as librarians. Both brothers were quite even-tempered. While Jacob was more interested in research, Wilhelm was more interested in music and literature. This combination was beneficial and allowed the brothers to collaborate to create new methods of hearing and telling stories.
The romantic movement in Germany sparked a national interest in the arts and folktales. Because the brothers had a deep interest in cultural history, they decided to collect stories told by German natives and rework them into a simple written style. Their first collection,
"Kinder-und Hausmärchen" ("Tales of Children and the Home"), was created in 1812. The process they used to collect their stories was pioneering in how future writers would collect and preserve stories of the past that were only passed down orally before.
The brothers did not originally intend for their stories to be strictly for children. Because so many of the oral renditions of past tales were traumatic, there are many violent and disturbing themes within the tales. Oral tales were not strictly used to entertain; they taught lessons to pass on cultural values and wisdom to future generations. But the works of the Grimm brothers greatly influenced children's writers and educators in the West as their versions were and continue to be adapted as nursery tales, rhymes, books and even movies. Disney has adapted many of their tales for animated films including, "Tangled" (Grimm's "Rapunzel"), "Cinderella", "Sleeping Beauty" (Grimm's "Briar Rose") and "Snow White".
Because the Grimms shared a deep passion for the poetry and stories of Germany's past, they were quite diligent in researching and recording the traditional oral stories they were told. Their careful methods were seen as groundbreaking and their studies of tales and legends were specific in the details of the places and time periods of German history. Their processes of collection and classification set a standard in the approaches used today to write and research folklore.