Arndt

Arndt, (1) Ernst Moritz, a German patriot, poet, and historian, was born in 1769. He was destined for the Church, but in 1806 was appointed professor of history at Greifswald. He was one of the most earnest opponents of the "Napoleonic idea," and his book, The Spirit of the Time, made it necessary for him to fly after the battle of Jena. He returned in 1810, but on the renewal of war withdrew to Russia. There now flowed from his pen a series of soul-stirring tracts rousing Germany to resistance, and his songs were even more powerful than his prose writings. The most famous of them, Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland? is as popular to-day as it was seventy years ago. After the conclusion of peace Arndt was appointed to the chair of history at Bonn, but his out-spoken liberalism gave offence, and he was forbidden to lecture though he received his salary. In 1840 his lips were unsealed, and in 1848-9 he was sent as a deputy to the National Assembly at Frankfort, but resigned with the rest of the Constitutional party. He continued lecturing and writing till he was past eighty, and died in 1860.

2. Johann, a Lutheran divine, born at Ballenstadt in 1555. He was ordained, and ministered in various places, but his opposition to the lifeless, doctrinal, argumentative Christianity of the day brought him many enemies, and forced him to abandon more than one cure. His book on True Christianity produced, however, a reaction in favour of a religion of the heart, and he seems to have passed his last days in peace as general superintendent at Zell, where he died in 1621. His influence is still felt in Germany.