Ernst Moritz Arndt

Born on December 26, 1769, on the island of Rügen, Ernst Moritz Arndt grew up as the son of a former serf and went on to become a prominent German writer, historian, and public intellectual. He studied at Stralsund, Greifswald, and Jena, and early in his career he wrote passionately against serfdom, a cause that reflected his family background as well as his reforming spirit.

Arndt became widely known during the wars against Napoleon. Through patriotic poems, songs, and essays, he urged resistance to French domination and helped shape the national mood of the time. He also taught at the University of Greifswald and later at the University of Bonn, where he remained an important public figure.

Today, Arndt is remembered as an influential and complicated figure. He played a major role in the political and literary culture of 19th-century Germany, but modern readers also revisit his work critically because some of his nationalist writing is deeply exclusionary. That mix of historical importance and controversy has kept his legacy alive long after his death in Bonn on January 29, 1860.