Arnim, Ludwig Joachim von (Berlin, 1781-1831, Wiepersdorf), commonly known as Achim von Arnim, came of a well-known, distinguished, and wealthy Prussian noble family. His mother died at his birth, and he was brought up in Berlin by his grandmother. He had his schooling at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium, and then studied natural sciences and law at Halle (1798-9) and Göttingen (1800-1), where he formed a lasting friendship with Clemens Brentano. In 1801 he set out on the grand tour, including in a three-year journey visits to Switzerland, Italy, France, England, and the Netherlands. His first works, the novels Hollins Liebesleben (1802) and Ariels Offenbarungen (1804), were derivative. After his return he settled in Heidelberg with Brentano, and the two friends devoted themselves to the collection of German folk-songs which, when published in 1805-8 under the title Des Knaben Wunderhorn, was to make them acknowledged leaders of the Heidelberg Romantic school (see Romantik). At the outbreak of war in 1806, Arnim published a volume of patriotic poetry entitled Kriegslieder. He also edited in Heidelberg the periodical Zeitung für Einsiedler, which appeared in book form as Tröst-Einsamkeit (1808). He settled in Berlin in 1809, writing a collection of Novellen (Der Wintergarten, 1809), a play, Halle und Jerusalem (1811), and the novel Armut, Reichtum, Schuld und Buße der Gräfin Dolores (1810). It is in this work that he first appears as a truly independent author. Arnim was a Prussian patriot, and Nachtfeier (1810) is a mourning cantata written on the occasion of the death of Queen Luise of Prussia. In 1811 he married Bettina Brentano (see Arnim, Bettina von), the gifted sister of his friend Clemens. When Prussia mobilized against Napoleon after the disastrous Russian campaign, Arnim volunteered for service, but the unit in which he was commissioned as a captain was almost immediately disbanded. Meanwhile he had published Vier Novellen (1812), of which the most important is Isabella von Egypten. In the critical years 1813 and 1814 he supported the war effort with the proceeds of a volume of plays ( Schaubühne, 1813) and with patriotic journalism. Disappointed with the political consequences of the war, he withdrew to his considerable estates at Wiepersdorf south-east of Berlin, and spent the remainder of his life managing them, as well as writing novels and plays. His unfinished novel Die Kronenwächter appeared in 1817, his play Die Gleichen in 1819, and he also wrote the Novellen Der tolle Invalide auf dem Fort Ratonneau (1818) and Die Majoratsherren (1822). Possessing great facility, Arnim remained something of a dilettante all his life. A cultivated and urbane gentleman, he had a wide circle of friends among the men of letters of his day, including J. J. von Görres, F. K. von Savigny, L. Tieck, the brothers Grimm, A. von Chamisso, Adam Müller, and J. Kerner. He died suddenly of a stroke. Arnim's Sämtliche Werke (22 vols.), ed. W. Grimm, appeared 1839-56; Sämtliche Romane und Erzählungen (3 vols.), ed. W. Migge, 1962-5. Achim von Arnim und die ihm nahe standen (3 vols.), ed. R. Steig and H. Grimm, 1894-1904, contains correspondence with Clemens and Bettina Brentano and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm; Achim und Bettina in ihren Briefen (2 vols.), ed. W. Vordtriede, 1961, was followed by Briefe an Savigny 1803-1831, ed. H. Härtl, 1982, Unbekannte Briefe von und an Achim von Arnim, ed. H. F. Weiss, 1986, and Bettine und Achim. Briefe der Freundschaft und Liebe (2 vols.), ed. O. Betz and V. Straub, 1986-7.
