Achim von Arnim
byname of Karl Joachim Friedrich
Ludwig von Arnim
born Jan. 26, 1781, Berlin, Prussia
[Germany]
died Jan. 21, 1831, Wiepersdorf,
Brandenburg
folklorist, dramatist, poet, and story
writer whose collection of folk poetry
was a major contribution to German
Romanticism.
Arnim was descended from a Prussian
noble family. His father was Joachim
Erdmann von Arnim (1741-1804),
associated with the Prussian court and,
among other roles, active as the
Director of the Berlin theater. His
mother, Amalia Carlonia Labes
(1761-1781), died immediately after
Arnim's birth.
Arnim spent his childhood with a
grandmother in Berlin. He went on to
study law and natural science at Halle
and Göttingen, though he inclined from
the first towards literature. His early
writings included numerous articles for
scientific magazines. He went on to
travel through Europe with his brother,
Carl Otto Ludwig, from 1801 to 1804. He
published the important romantic Zeitung
für Einsiedler (Newspaper for Hermits)
in Heidelberg in 1808.
Arnim was influenced by the earlier
writings of Goethe and Herder, from
which he learned to appreciate the
beauties of German traditional legends
and folk songs. Forming a collection of
these, published the result (1806-1808),
in collaboration with Clemens Brentano
under the title Des Knaben Wunderhorn.
He married Brentano's sister Bettina in
1811, who won wide recognition as a
writer in her own right, and his
daughter Gisela (one of five children)
became a writer as well.
He lived in Berlin from 1809, worked
on Heinrich von Kleist's paper there and
founded the political union "Deutsche
Tischgesellschaft" . From October 1813
to February 1814 he was publisher of the
Berlin paper "The Prussian
Correspondent." He remained connected
with the Prussian patriots (Adam
Heinrich Müller, Friedrich de la Motte
Fouqué, Heinrich von Kleist.) He moved
in 1814 to his family home, Schloss
Wiepersdorf, where he remained until his
death by heart attack in 1831. His
output, published in newspapers,
magazines and almanacs as well as
self-contained books, included novels,
dramas, stories, poems and journalistic
works. Following his death, his library
was taken over by the Weimar court
library. He is considered one of the
most important representatives of German
Romanticism.
