LUDWIG ACHIM

See also:

• ARNIM, ELISABETH (BETTINA) VON (1785-1859)
• ARNIM, HARRY KARL KURT EDUARD VON, COUNT (1824-1881)
• LUDWIG ACHIM ARNIM (JOACHIM) VON (1781-1831)

ARNIM (

See also:

• JOACHIM, JOSEPH (1831—1907)

JOACHIM) VON (1781-1831)  , German poet and novelist, was born at Berlin on the 26th of January 1781 . He studied natural science at Halle and Gottingen, and published one or two essays on scientific subjects; but his bent was from the first towards literature . From the earlier writings of Goethe and Herder he learned to appreciate the beauties of German traditional legends and folk-songs; and, forming a collection of these, published the result (18o6-1808), in collaboration with Klemens Brentano (q.v.) under the title Des Knaben 1Vunderhorn . From 1810 onward he lived with his wife Bettina, Brentano's sister, alternately at Berlin and on his estate at \Viepersdorf, near Dahme in Brandenburg, where he died on the 21st of January 1831 . Arnim was a prolific and versatile writer, gifted with a sense of humour and a refined imagination—qualities shown in the best-known of his works, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, deficient as this is in the philological accuracy and faithfulness to original sources which would now be expected of such a compilation . In general, however, his writings, full as they are of the exaggerated sentiment and affectations of the romantic school, make but little appeal to modern taste . There are possible exceptions, such as the short stories Fiirst Ganzgott and Sanger Halbgott and Der toile Invalids auf dent Fort Ratonneau and the unfinished romance Die Kronen wachter (1817), which promised to develop into one of the finest historical romances of the loth century . Among Arnim's other works may be mentioned Hollins Liebesleben (1802), Der Wintergarten (1809), a collection of tales; Armut, Reichtum Schuld, and Busse der Gratin Dolores (r81o), a novel; Halle and Jerusalem (1811), a dramatic romance; and one or two smaller novels, such as Isabella von Agypten (1812) . Arnim's Sdnttliche Werke were edited by his widow and published in Berlin in 1839–184o; second edition in 22 vols., 1853–1856 . Selections have been edited by J . Dohmke (1892); M . Koch, Arnim, Klemens and Bettina Brentano, Gorres (1893) .

Des Knaben Wunder-

horn has been frequently republished, the best edition being that of A . Birlinger and W . Crecelius (2 vols., 1872–1876) . See R . Steig, Achim von Arnim and Klemens Brentano (1894) . ARNIM-BOYTZENBURG, HANS GEORG VON (1581-1641), German general and diplomatist, was born in 1581 at Boytzenburg in Brandenburg . From 1613 to 16x7 he served in the Swedish army under Gustavus Adolphus, took part in the Russian \Var, and afterwards fought against the Turks in the service of the king of Poland . In 1626, though a Protestant, he was induced by Wallenstein to join the new imperial army, in which he quickly rose to the rank of field marshal, and won the esteem of his soldiers as well as that of his commander, whose close friend and faithful ally he became . This attachment to Wallenstein, and a spirit of religious toleration, were the leading motives of a strange career of military and political inconstancy . Thus the dismissal of Wallenstein and the perilous condition of German Protestantism after the edict of Restitution combined to induce Arnim to quit the imperial service for that of the elector of Saxony . He had served under Gustavus many years before, and later he had defeated him in the field, when in command of a Polish army; the fortune of war now placed Arnim at the head of the Saxon army which fought by the side of the Swedes at Breitenfeld (1631), and indeed the alliance of these two Protestant powers in the cause of their common religion was largely his work . The reappearances of Wallenstein, how-ever, caused him to hesitate and open negotiations, though he did not attempt to conceal his proceedings from the elector and Gustavus .

During the Liitzen

campaign, Arnim was operating with success at the head of an allied army in Silesia . In the following year he was under the hard necessity of opposing his old friend in the field, but little was done by either; the complicated political situation which followed the death of Gustavus at Lutzen led him into a renewal of the private negotiations of the previous year, though he did nothing actually treasonable in his relations with Wallenstein . In 1634 Wallenstein was assassinated, and Arnim began at once more active operations . He won an important victory at Liegnitz in May 1634, but from this time he became more and more estranged from the Swedes . The peace of Prague followed, in which Arnim's part, though considerable, was not all-important (1635) . Soon after this event he refused an offer of high command in the French army and retired from active life . From 1637 to1638 he was imprisoned in Stockholm, having been seized at Boytzenburg by the Swedes on suspicion of being concerned in various intrigues . He made his escape ultimately, and returned to Saxony . Arnim died suddenly at Dresden in 1641, whilst engaged in raising an army to free German soil from foreign armies of all kinds . (See THIRTY YEARS' WAR.) See K . G . Helbig, " Wallenstein and Arnim " (185o) and " Der Prager Friede," in Raumer's Historisches Taschenbuch (1858); also E .

D . M . Kirchner, Das Schloss Boytzenburg, &c . (186o) and Archie

fur die sdchsische Geschichte, vol. viii . (1870) .