Portrait of Ernst Moritz Arndt (1817)

The writer and journalist Ernst Moritz Arndt (1769-1860) had studied history and theology before being appointed as a professor in Greifswald. A bitter opponent of Napoleon, he had been forced to flee the French in 1806, taking refuge in Sweden. There, he became one of the leading figures of the German national movement. His pamphlets and patriotic songs were particularly influential. Remarks critical of the German princes during the period of restoration prompted his suspension in 1820 from the post of professor in Bonn; only rehabilitated in 1840, he became a member of the the Frankfurt National Assembly in 1848/49. Arndt called for the development of German territories into a nation-state according to cultural, not dynastic principles. Engraving, 1817.

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