Editing Ernst Moritz Arndt (section)

==Opposition to serfdom and Napoleonic rule==
[[File:Roeting-Arndt.jpg|thumb|upright|Arndt in his elder years; portrait by [[Julius Roeting]]]]
Originally a supporter of the ideas of the French revolution, Arndt dissociated himself from them when the [[Reign of Terror]] of the [[Jacobin Club|Jacobins]] became apparent. When Napoleon began to conquer Europe, this renunciation was transformed into visceral dislike.<ref name=Staas>{{Cite journal|title=Einheit durch Reinheit |first=Christian |last=Staas |language=de |journal=Zeit Geschichte |issue=3/2010 |pages=38–42}}</ref>

In 1800 he taught at the [[University of Greifswald]] as an independent lecturer (''privatdocent'') in history, and the same year published ''Über die Freiheit der alten Republiken''. ''Germanien und Europa'' appeared in 1803, a "fragmentary outburst," as he himself called it, on his views on French aggression. This was followed by one of his most influential 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 serfdom.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Arndt had meanwhile risen from ''privatdocent'' 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'', in which he flung down the gauntlet to [[Napoleon]] and called on countrymen to rise and shake off the French yoke. So great was 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 heart. In pamphlets, poems and songs, he communicated his enthusiasm for German independence to his countrymen. [[Ferdinand Baptista von Schill|Schill]]'s heroic death at Stralsund prompted him to return to Germany, and in disguise he reached [[Berlin]] in December.<ref name="EB1911"/>

[[File:Ernst Moritz Arndt 1848.jpg|left|thumb|Arndt in 1848]]
In 1810 he returned to Greifswald, but only for a few months. He again set out on his adventurous travels, lived in close contact, with notable men of his time, such as [[Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher]], [[August von Gneisenau]] and [[Heinrich Friedrich Karl Stein]], and in 1812 was summoned by the last named to [[St Petersburg]] to assist in the organization of the final struggle against France. Meanwhile, pamphlet after pamphlet, and his stirring patriotic songs, such as ''[[Des Deutschen Vaterland|Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland?]]'', ''Der Gott, der Eisen wachsen ließ,'' and ''Was blasen Trompeten?'' became widely popular.<ref name="EB1911"/> Composers such as [[Pauline Volkstein|Pauliine Volkstein]] also set his texts to music.

When, after the peace, the [[University of Bonn]] was founded in 1818, Arndt was appointed to teach from his ''Geist der Zeit'', in which he criticized the particularist policies of the German principalities. The boldness of his demands for reform offended the Prussian government, and in the summer in 1819 he was arrested and his papers confiscated. Although speedily liberated, he was in the following year, at the behest of the Central Commission of Investigation at [[Mainz]] – established in accordance with the reactionary [[Carlsbad Decrees]] – arraigned before a special tribunal. Although not found guilty, he was forbidden to exercise the functions of his professorship, although he was allowed to retain the [[stipend]]. The next 20 years he passed in retirement and literary activity.<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1840 he was reinstated in his professorship, and in 1841 was chosen rector of the university. The revolutionary outbreak of 1848 rekindled in the venerable patriot his old hopes and energies, and he took seat as one of the deputies to the National Assembly at Frankfurt. He participated in the deputation that offered the Imperial crown to [[Frederick William IV]], and was indignant at the king's refusal to accept it, so he retired from public life. He continued to lecture and to write with freshness and vigor, and on his 90th birthday received from all parts of Germany good wishes and tokens of affection. He died at [[Bonn]] in January 1860, and was buried in Bonn's ''Alter Friedhof''. There are monuments to his memory at Schoritz on Rügen, at the University of Greifswald, and in Bonn.<ref name="EB1911"/>

Arndt was married twice, first in 1800, his wife dying in the following year; a second time in 1817.<ref name="EB1911"/> His youngest son drowned in the Rhine in 1834.