The first volume of the Brothers Grimm’s Kinder- und Hausmärchen was published in 1812.
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm issued the first volume in Berlin during the Christmas season of 1812. The collection contained tales gathered from oral storytelling and from earlier printed and manuscript sources. A second volume followed in 1815, completing the first edition’s two-volume structure.
The English title “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” can make the work seem like a single book published at one time. In fact, the German collection changed substantially across later editions. The brothers revised wording, combined variants, and added stories, so details in familiar modern translations may not match the earliest printing.
The first edition was titled Kinder- und Hausmärchen, meaning “Children’s and Household Tales.” Its publication helped establish the Grimms as important figures in German folklore and influenced later children’s literature worldwide.