Arndt, Ernst Moritz [key], 1769–1860, German poet and historian. An ardent nationalist and opponent of Napoleon I, he was forced to flee to Sweden and Russia because of his patriotic and martial verse and his book, Geist der Zeit [spirit of the times] (4 vol., 1806–18), which influenced German feelings against the French. He was (1818–20) a professor of history at the Univ. of Bonn but was dismissed because of his liberal ideas and participation in the Burschenschaften, the nationalist students' movement; he was not reinstated until 1840. In 1848, Arndt was elected to the Frankfurt Parliament, the all-German national assembly that attempted to bring about German unification.
See A. G. Pundt, Arndt and the National Awakening in Germany (1935, repr. 1968).
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