Grimm

Grimms are several families of special people, who possess incredible powers, such as being able to see the true form of Wesen, even when they don't want them to. For centuries they have placed it upon themselves to police and hunt the Wesen population, to protect normal humans from the unknown threat around them.

Biography
During the Fourth Crusade, knights in service to the Seven Houses participated in the sack of Constantinople. These knights, exact number not specified, brought back from Constantinople a treasure so powerful that they feared its coming into the possession of their masters. They hid the treasure and created a map in seven parts.

The knights are the earliest known Grimms, and the ancestors of all modern Grimms. The Brothers Grimm, who have no surviving descendents today, were descended from these knights. These knights were needed to keep in line the Wesen that made up the brunt of the Royals Army.

Grimms are tasked with policing the creature world, making sure that those who harm humans are stopped. For this reason many Wesen mistrust or fear them, even having their own set of Wesen fairy tales warning Wesen children about the Grimms. Grimms possess superior fighting skills, and good heads for observation and uncanny instincts for people and their personalities, even besides their ability to sense the supernatural. So police work seems a rather good fit, as is law. In Cat and Mouse, it is revealed that the Grimms occasionally work for the Seven Royal Houses and with the Verrat, helping to enforce order among the Wesen. This may be why even a sole Grimm can inspire so much fear from Wesen who realizes this fact, fearing the prospect of bringing the wrath of a Royal Family upon themselves if they do anything to an enforcer.

Not all members of a Grimm's family become Grimms, why it occurs it is not known, even to them, however females become aware at an earlier age than males.

Interestingly, it has been hinted that there are branches of the family elsewhere in the world, as the episode "Tarantella" involves a Grimm meeting an Asian (Japanese) doctor on a train in Singapore, who with his family, had the same ability as the Eurocentric Grimms. Grimms also seem to have preference for decapitation and there are many references to them cutting off their victim's head. The current number of Grimms is unknown. The family includes:


 * Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm (January 4, 1785 – September 20, 1863), German philologist, lawyer, and capturer of folklore.
 * Wilhelm Carl Grimm (February 24, 1786 – December 16, 1859), German philologist, lawyer, and capturer of folklore.
 * Robert McCormick (22 July 1800 – 25 October 1890), British naturalist. Hired by Captain Fitzroy as chief naturalist during a visit to the Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin surprisingly became a source of discouragement and proved a more useful naturalist. However, McCormick discovered, documented, and dispatched a creature he named Genio innocuo.
 * Eduardo Grimm (? - after 1936), a Spanish Grimm who escaped to Madrid during an invasion by the Verrat
 * Marie Kessler (1958 - 2011), who did not have contact with other members of Nick's immediate family but was aware Kelly was still alive. She was instructed not to inform Nick.
 * Nick Burkhardt (1982 - ), a Portland, Oregon homicide detective, who only recently learned about his background.
 * Crawford Grimm (? - ?), who executed a Lausenschlange in Vienna, possibly during the reign of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
 * Kelly Burkhardt (? - ), Nick's Mother, who was the guardian of the Coins of Zakynthos, whom, until recently, Nick believed had been killed with Reed Burkhardt (? - 1994), his father, in an accident when Nick was twelve. Marie told Nick that his parents had been murdered. In the episode Woman in Black it is revealed that Kelly Burkhardt is in fact alive somehow and that Kelly is a Grimm descendant.
 * Kelly Burkhardt's unnamed father (possible last name of Kessler), who became ill and bequeathed seventeen trunks of Grimm memorabilia to his daughters, Kelly and Marie. He taught Kelly and Marie about Wesen from the age of ten to prepare them for what might come, and took them hunting at 18.
 * Kelly Burkhardt's father's mother.
 * Hilda, Kelly Burkhardt's father's mother's mother.
 * An unnamed probable Grimm who was beheaded, probably by a Hässlich, in Belgium.
 * Jose Maria Lopez Diego y Grimm (? - ?), who encountered a Murciélago in the upper Amazon and defended himself using a Murciélago matraca.
 * Hasegawa (? - ?), a Japanese doctor and possible Grimm - it is known he "shared...abilities" with a Grimm whom he traveled with on a steamer from Singapore. He passed along a scroll written in Japanese describing his encounters with a Spinnetod.
 * Unnamed Seven Knights (Sometime in the Thirteenth Century,) - Originally worked for the seven Royal Families, to help them keep Wesen in check, were also on the Fourth Crusade when they sacked Constantinople, and hid the treasure, along with another mysterious artifact of great power.

Endezeichen Grimms
Endezeichen Grimms are the worst type of Grimms there is; they are ruthless, racist and sadistic Grimms, who savagely torture and murder Wesen, not caring if the Wesen in question are good or bad.

Powers
Grimms possess many powers, the most used one is their ability to see Wesen for what they really are, but only if the Wesen is startled, scared, angered, stressed or something else happens that disrupts the Wesen's concentration.

Assumedly, Wesen are able to recognize Grimms because a Grimm responds to the morphing, since the only times when they never noticed Nick witnessing them shift before him were when they were distracted, preoccupied, or not in any way giving Nick their full attention. However, there may be another means of identification that we have not seen yet as even when Nick keeps his face passive upon seeing a Hässlich - as he did in - the Hässlich still knew who he was. If this recognition of him is because Nick is well known in Portland's Wesen community or not is still up for debate. It is possible that Wesen identify Grimms not by the way they react to when they Woge, but by being able to see their image being reflected off the Grimm's eyes. Nick mentions that none of his ancestors wrote about this trait, and hypothesizes that they can naturally sense when he recognizes them.

Grimms also possess superhuman physical traits, such as strength, durability, agility, reflexes, and speed. This allows them to go toe to toe with any Wesen, except Siegbarste, and survive things that would kill a normal person. Nick was able take on a Skalenzahne (one of the strongest known Wesen) and defeat it. His aunt, despite dying of cancer, and weakened by the drugs, was still able to kill her human attacker, and showed no fear to Monroe. Grimms' strength can also be measured in the fact they can casually take down Wesen who possess superhuman strength, such Jagerbar's or Klaustreich, and can easily overpower humans. Grimms' durability is particularly notable; several times Nick has shrugged off blows from creatures with incredible strength. For example, when facing a Schakal, the creature smashed a toaster around his head, but he recovered in seconds. He was even able to escape from a beating with a Siegbarste, with simply a few bruised ribs.



It has also been shown that the blood of a Grimm can destroy the animal part of a Hexenbiest. In essence, the Hexenbiest becomes human after this and is no longer a part of the Wesen world. It is currently unknown if this will work on other members of the Wesen world.

Grimm also possesses greater resistance to temptation than humans, and are the only beings able to resist the temptation of the Coins of Zakynthos.

As well as this, Grimms seem to have a natural aptitude for fighting, particularly against Wesen, and with ancient and medieval weapons. As well as possessing incredible observation abilities and keen instincts. There also seems to be some natural aptitude in the Grimm lines of artistic talent as there are many detailed pictures in Aunt Marie's books from the other Grimms and Nick shows an aptitude for drawing as well.