The Brothers Grimm are Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859), born in Hanau as the oldest of six siblings. Both brothers were such outstanding students that they were able to skip several grades and attend the University of Marburg in 1802 and 1803, respectively, where they studied law, following family tradition. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm believed that the oral tradition of fairy tales from the Middle Ages represented a genre of popular literature worthy of being collected and written down. Therefore, they gathered countless fairy tales, which they published in three volumes in 1812, 1815, and 1822, and which they continually revised and expanded until their deaths. The seventh edition of the fairy tales—the last one edited by the brothers themselves—was published in 1857. Wilhelm Grimm died in Berlin in 1859, followed by his brother Jacob Grimm in 1863, also in Berlin.

Silvio Neuendorf was born in 1967 in Düren. After graduating from high school, he moved to Aachen and studied graphic design at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences. Following his civil service in a children's and youth home, he married his long-time girlfriend. Since 1995, Silvio Neuendorf has been a freelance illustrator and has been a father to a son since 1998. He lives on a farm in the south of Aachen. His favorite illustrations are of animals, with his favorite animal and trademark being the rhinoceros, which is hidden in almost every one of his books. Additionally, he is a passionate father and collector of children's and picture books as well as DVDs, and he enjoys surfing the internet. He loves Paris and tries to visit the City of Love with his wife at least once a year.