ARNIM, LUDWIG ACHIM VON

ARNIM, LUDWIG ACHIM von. - German writer born in Berlin on 26 Jan. 1781, died at Wiepersdorf on 21 Jan. 1831. He was one of the most prominent figures of the Heidelberg Romantic group and collaborated with his future brother-in-law Brentano on the collection of German folk songs: *Des Knaben Wunderhorn* (*Il corno meraviglioso del fanciullo*). A novelist and short story writer rather than a lyric or dramatic poet, he portrayed vividly in *Die Kronenächter* (*I custodi della corona*) and in *Isabella von Ägypten* German life at the time of the Reformation. His drama *Halle und Jerusalem* is also noteworthy. A Prussian nobleman, and thus a strict and uncompromising Protestant, though he was 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 along the path to Catholicism. In 1810, he founded the Christian-German Society (*Christlich-deutsche Tischgesellschaft*).