Ernst Moritz Arndt - Early life and studies, Opposition of serfdom and Napoleonic rule, Biographies

Poet and German patriot, born on the island of Rügen (then Swedish). He studied at Stralsund, Greifswald, and Jena, and in 1805 became professor of history at Greifswald. In his Geist der Zeit (1806, Spirit of the Times) he attacked Napoleon with such boldness that he had to take refuge in Stockholm (1806–9). In 1818 he became professor of history in the new University of Bonn; but, aiming steadily at constitutional reforms, he was suspended in 1819 and not restored till 1840. His other works include political addresses, reminiscences, letters, and poems.

Ernst Moritz Arndt (December 26, 1769 - January 29, 1860), was a German patriotic author and poet. Early in his life, he fought for the abolition of serfdom, later against Napoleonic dominance over Germany, and had to flee to Sweden for some time due to his anti-French positions.

Arndt played an important role for the early national and liberal Burschenschaft movement and for the unification movement, and his song "Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland?"

Long after his death, his anti-French war propaganda was used again by nationalists in both World Wars. This together with some strongly antisemitic statements has led to a rather ambivalent view of Arndt today.

Early life and studies

Arndt was born at Schoritz on the island of Rügen, which at that time belonged to Sweden, as the son of a prosperous farmer, and emancipated serf of the lord of the district, Count Putbus; In 1787 the family removed to the neighbourhood of Stralsund, where Arndt was enabled attend the academy.

On the completion of his university course he returned home, was for two years a private tutor in the family of Ludwig Koscgarten (1758-1818), pastor of Wittow, and having qualified for the ministry as a candidate of theology, assisted in the church services.

Opposition of serfdom and Napoleonic rule

In 1800 he settled in Greifswald as privat-docent in history, and the same year published Über die Freiheit der alten Republiken. This was followed by one of the most remarkable of his books, Geschichte der Leibeigenschaft in Pommern und Rügen (Berlin, 1803), a history of serfdom in Pomerania and on Rügen, which was so convincing an indictment that King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden in 1806 abolished the evil.

Arndt had meanwhile risen from privat-docent to extraordinary professor, and in 1806 was appointed to the chair of history at the university. In this year he published the first part of his Geist der Zeit, which, he flung down the gauntlet to Napoleon and called on countrymen to rise and shake off the French yoke. So great is the excitement it produced that Arndt was compelled to take refuge in Sweden to escape the vengeance of Napoleon.

Settling in Stockholm, he obtained government employment, and devoted himself to the great cause which was nearest his art, and in pamphlets, poems and songs communicated his enthusiasm to his countrymen.

In 1810 he returned to Greifswald, but only for a few months. "Der Gott, der Eisen wachsen ließ," and "Was blasen Trompeten?"

When, after the peace, the University of Bonn was founded in 1818, Arndt was appointed to impart of his Geist der Zeit, in which he criticized the reactionary policy of the German powers.

Although speedily liberated, he was in the following year, at the instance of the Central Commission of Investigation at Mainz, established in accordance with the Carlsbad Decrees, arraigned before a specially constituted tribunal.

In 1840 he was reinstated in his professorship, and in 1841 was chosen rector of the university.

He continued to lecture and to write with freshness and vigour, and on his 90th birthday received from all parts of Germany good wishes and tokens of affection. Arndt was twice married, first in 1800, his wife dying in the following year;

Arndts untiring labour for his country rightly won for him the title of the most German of all Germans. Nebenstunden, Beschreibung und Geschichte der Shetländischen Inseln und Orkaden (1820); Erinnerungen aus dem äusseren Leben (an autobiography, and the most valuable source of information for Arndt's life, 1840); Rhein und Ahrwanderungen (1846), Wanderungen and Wandlungen auf dem Reichsfreiherrn von Stein (1858), and Pro populo germanico (1854), which was originally intended to form the fifth part of the "Geist der Zeit".

There are monuments to his memory at Schoritz, his birthplace, and in Bonn, where he is buried.

Biographies

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