Achim von Arnim facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Achim von Arnim
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![]() Portrait by Peter Edward Stroehling, 1803
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Born | Carl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim 26 January 1781 Berlin, Margraviate of Brandenburg |
Died | 21 January 1831 Wiepersdorf, Brandenburg, Kingdom of Prussia |
(aged 49)
Nationality | German |
Alma mater | University of Halle University of Göttingen |
Literary movement | Heidelberg Romanticism |
Notable works | Des Knaben Wunderhorn |
Spouse | Bettina von Arnim |
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Carl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim (born January 26, 1781 – died January 21, 1831), known as Achim von Arnim, was an important German writer. He was a poet and novelist. Achim von Arnim was a main leader of the German Romanticism movement. He worked with other famous writers like Clemens Brentano and Joseph von Eichendorff.
Contents
Achim von Arnim's Life Story
Achim von Arnim was born in Berlin, Germany. His family was a noble family from Brandenburg. They were first mentioned in history in the year 1204.
His Family and Early Years
Achim's father was Joachim Erdmann von Arnim. He was a Kammerherr, which was a royal official in Prussia. His father also worked as a director for the Berlin Court Opera. Achim's mother, Amalia Caroline von Labes, sadly died just three weeks after he was born.
Achim and his older brother, Carl Otto, grew up with their grandmother. She lived in Zernikow and Berlin. Achim went to the Joachimsthalsches Gymnasium school in Berlin.
His Education and Early Writings
In 1798, Achim started studying at the University of Halle. He studied law, natural science, and mathematics. He wrote many articles for science magazines early on. His first big work was called Theorie der elektrischen Erscheinungen. This book showed his interest in the supernatural, which was common for Romantic writers.
While in Halle, he met the composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt. Through him, Achim also met the Romantic poet Ludwig Tieck. In 1800, he continued his studies at the University of Göttingen. There, he met famous writers like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Clemens Brentano. These meetings made him focus more on literature instead of science. Achim earned a degree as a Doctor of Medicine in 1801, but he never worked as a doctor.
Travels and New Ideas
From 1801 to 1804, Achim traveled around Europe with his brother. He met his future wife, Bettina, in Frankfurt. He traveled along the Rhine River with Clemens Brentano. He also visited other important writers in Coppet, Paris, London, and Scotland.
Achim was inspired by the writings of Goethe and Herder. They taught him to love German traditional stories and folk songs. When he returned to Germany, he started collecting these songs. In 1805, he published the first part of his collection. He worked with Clemens Brentano on this project. The collection was called Des Knaben Wunderhorn. He even visited Goethe in Weimar to work on the book.
The Romantic Circle in Heidelberg
The Napoleonic Wars affected Arnim's work. After Prussia lost a battle in 1806, he went to Königsberg. There, he joined a group of Prussian reformers. In 1807, he moved to Weimar and Kassel, where he met the Brothers Grimm. Finally, he settled in Heidelberg.
He and Brentano finished the second and third volumes of their folk song collection. In 1808, they started a romantic newspaper called Zeitung für Einsiedler (Newspaper for Hermits). This was an important newspaper for the Romantic movement. The Heidelberg Romantic group included other famous writers like Tieck, Friedrich Schlegel, Jean Paul, Justinus Kerner, and Ludwig Uhland.
Marriage and Later Life
From 1809, Achim lived in Berlin again. In 1810, he became engaged to Bettina, who was Clemens Brentano's sister. Bettina also became a very famous writer. They got married on March 11, 1811. They had seven children, and one of their daughters, Gisela, also became a writer.
Achim worked on the writings of Heinrich von Kleist after Kleist's death. He also started a patriotic group for Christian men called Deutsche Tischgesellschaft. He stayed involved with Prussian patriots and even led a local army group during the German Campaign of 1813. From October 1813, he worked as a publisher for a Berlin newspaper.
In 1814, Achim moved to his family home, Künstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf. He lived there until he died in 1831 from a stroke. He wrote many novels, plays, stories, poems, and newspaper articles. After he died, his large collection of books went to the Weimar court library.
Achim von Arnim's Works
Achim von Arnim is seen as one of the most important writers of German Romanticism. His collected works were published in twenty volumes after his death. The famous writer Heinrich Heine wrote a tribute to Arnim.
Here are some of his important works:
- Hollin's Liebeleben (1802)
- Ariel's Offenbarungen (1804)
- Des Knaben Wunderhorn (A collection of folk tales and songs, 3 volumes, with Clemens Brentano, 1806 and 1808)
- Tröst Einsamkeit (A book collection of his newspaper articles, 1808)
- Der Wintergarten (1809)
- Mistris Lee (1809)
- Armut, Reichthum, Schuld und Buße der Gräfin Dolores (1810)
- Halle und Jerusalem (a play, 1811)
- Isabella von Ägypten. Kaiser Karl des Fünften erste Jugendliebe (a novella, 1812)
- Schaubühne (a play, 1813)
- "Frau von Saverne" (a story, 1817)
- Die Kronenwächter. Bd. 1: Bertholds erstes und zweites Leben (an unfinished novel, 1817)
- Der tolle Invalide auf dem Fort Ratonneau (a novella, 1818)
- "Fürst Ganzgott und Sänger Halbgott" (a story, 1818)
- Die Gleichen (a play, 1819)
- "Die Majoratsherren" (a story, 1820)
- "Owen Tudor" (a story, 1820)
- "Landhausleben" (a story, 1826)
- Die Päpstin Johanna (published after his death by Bettina von Arnim, 1846)
See also
In Spanish: Achim von Arnim para niños