In 1837, King Ernst August of Hanover repealed the liberal constitution of 1833. On 18 November 1837, seven professors of the University of Göttingen lodged a written protest. Among them were the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the historian Friedrich Christoph Dahlmann and the physicist Wilhelm Weber. In December, the king dismissed all seven. Three of them, Dahlmann, Jacob Grimm and Georg Gottfried Gervinus, were also expelled from the kingdom. Citizens collected donations to pay the salaries of the three exiles, and all seven later held academic posts again.