Jacob Grimm was more a realist than a Romantic

Jacob Grimm and his brother strongly disobeyed the norms of the period. Romanticism, which involved romanticizing objects and engaging in great fantasy, was fashionable during their lifetimes. For a period, Jacob Grimm and his brother shared a home. They were both steady workers who led modest lives without making large amounts of money. They might be better categorized as Realists. Their time's social and political upheavals, as well as the challenges they brought, had a big impact on them. The Grimm brothers developed a passion for researching the past to understand why things were the way they were by reading works from many different nations.

In addition to their teaching and academic study, Jacob Grimm and his brothers were dedicated to building German national identity and supporting liberal democratic reforms in government. They were expelled from the University of Gottingen in 1837 for joining a select group of academics known as the "Gottingen Seven" who opposed King Ernest Augustus's political agenda.

The Grimms had to leave the city and returned to Kassel. The brothers were appointed by Friedrich Wilhelm IV, the king of Prussia, to the Academy of Sciences at the University of Berlin in 1841. There, they gave lectures and published works on lexicography, linguistics, philology, translation, literature, jurisprudence, and other topics.