ARNIM, LUDWIG ACHIM VON

ARNIM, LUDWIG ACHIM von. - German writer, born in Berlin on 26 Jan. 1781, died in Wiepersdorf on 21 Jan. 1831. He was one of the most prominent figures of the Heidelberg Romantic group and collaborated with Brentano, his future brother-in-law, on the collection of German folk songs: Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn). A novelist and writer of short tales rather than a lyric or dramatic poet, he gave, in Die Kronenssächter (The Guardians of the Crown) and in Isabella von Ägypten, a vivid picture of German life at the time of the Reformation. His drama Halle und Jerusalem is of interest. A Prussian nobleman, and therefore a strict and uncompromising Protestant, although he allowed himself to be tempted by the mysteries of nature and the unconscious, he reacted against the mysticism then in vogue and did not follow his close friend Brentano on the path to Catholicism. In 1810 he founded the Christian-German Society (Christlich-deutsche Tischgesellschaft).