Editing Ernst Moritz Arndt (section)

==Early life and studies==
Arndt was born at Gross Schoritz (now a part of [[Garz (Rügen)|Garz]] on the island of [[Rügen]]),<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Pohlsander |first=Hans A. |title=National Monuments and Nationalism in 19th Century Germany |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2008 |isbn=978-3-03911-352-1 |location=Oxford |pages=43 |language=en}}</ref> then in [[Swedish Pomerania]]. He was the son of a prosperous farmer and emancipated [[serf]] of the lord of the district, Count [[House of Putbus|Putbus]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hudson |first=Elizabeth Harriot |title=The Life and Times of Louisa, Queen of Prussia: With an Introductory Sketch of Prussian History, Vol. 1 |publisher=W. Isbister & Company |year=1878 |location=London |pages=213 |language=en}}</ref> His mother came of well-to-do German yeoman stock. In 1787 the family moved to [[Stralsund]], where Arndt was able to attend the academy. After an interval of private study he went in 1791 to the [[University of Greifswald]] as a student of theology and history, and in 1793 moved to [[university of Jena|Jena]], where he came under the influence of the German idealist philosopher [[Gottlieb Fichte]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Arndt, Ernst Moritz|volume=2|pages=627–628}}</ref>

After the completion of his university studies he returned home, and for two years was a private tutor in the family of Ludwig Koscgarten (1758–1818), pastor of [[Wittow]] on Rügen, and having qualified for the ministry as a candidate of theology, he assisted in church services. In 1800, he started teaching history at Greifswald.<ref name=":0" />

At the age of 28 he renounced the ministry, and for 18 months led a life of traveling, visiting [[Austria]], [[Hungary]], Italy, France and [[Belgium]]. Turning homewards up the river [[Rhine]], he was moved by the sight of the ruined castles along its banks to intense bitterness against France. The impressions of this journey he later described in ''Travels in parts of Germany, Hungary, Italy and France in 1798 and 1799''.<ref name="EB1911" />