Dorothea Viehmann was born in Rengershausen

Baunatal

Baunatal is a town in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is a comparatively young town which arose from fusion of the formerly independent municipalities Altenbauna, Altenritte, Großenritte, Guntershausen, Hertingshausen, Kirchbauna and Rengershausen in 1966.-Geographic location:Baunatal...

. She was a farmer and storyteller and one of the most important sources of the fairy tale collection of the Brothers Grimm

Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...

. Most of her fairy tales were published in their second volume.

Dorothea Viehmann was born as Katharina Dorothea Pierson in Rengershausen as the daughter of a tavern owner. Her paternal ancestors were persecuted Huguenot

Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

s who emigrated to the German city of Kassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

 (Hesse

Hesse

Hesse or Hessia is both a cultural region of Germany and the name of an individual German state.* The cultural region of Hesse includes both the State of Hesse and the area known as Rhenish Hesse in the neighbouring Rhineland-Palatinate state...

) after the Edict of Nantes

Edict of Nantes

The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity...

 was revoked. Many of her stories have a French variation based on this French origin. As she grew up Viehmann heard many of the stories, legends, and fairy tales from the guests of her father. Viehmann later transmitted many of these stories to the Brothers Grimm.

In 1777 Dorothea Pierson married the tailor Nikolaus Viehmann who soon died in 1787. After the death of her husband, she had to provide for herself and her seven children by selling products from her garden at the local market.

She became acquainted with the Brothers Grimm in 1813 and told them over forty tales and variations. Wilhelm Grimm

Wilhelm Grimm

Wilhelm Carl Grimm was a German author, the younger of the Brothers Grimm.-Life and work:...

 wrote about her saying that it was out of an amazing chance that he and his brother met this woman. He also recorded that she had probably once been beautiful. The brothers were especially impressed that Dorothea could retell her stories again and again without changing a word. There are, however, several examples her stories which are incomplete or not very well remembered.

Viehmann’s father’s tavern still stands directly by the freeway in Baunatal

Baunatal

Baunatal is a town in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is a comparatively young town which arose from fusion of the formerly independent municipalities Altenbauna, Altenritte, Großenritte, Guntershausen, Hertingshausen, Kirchbauna and Rengershausen in 1966.-Geographic location:Baunatal...

-Rengershausen.