Petersburg to assist in the organization of the final struggle against
France. Meanwhile, pamphlet after pamphlet, full of bitter hatred of the
French oppressor, came from his pen, and his stirring patriotic songs,
such as _Was ist das deutsche Vaterland? Der Gott, der Eisen wachsen
liess_, and _Was blasen die Trompeten?_ were on all lips. When, after
the peace, the university of Bonn was founded in 1818, Arndt was
appointed to the chair of modern history. In this year appeared the
fourth part of his _Geist der Zeit_, in which he criticized the
reactionary policy of the German powers. The boldness of his demands for
reform offended the Prussian government, and in the summer of 1819 he
was arrested and his papers confiscated. Although speedily liberated, he
was in the following year, at the instance of the Central Commission of
Investigation at Mainz, established in accordance with the Carlsbad
Decrees, arraigned before a specially constituted tribunal. Although not
found guilty, he was forbidden to exercise the functions of his
professorship, but was allowed to retain the stipend. The next twenty
years he passed in retirement and literary activity. In 1840 he was
reinstated in his professorship, and in 1841 was chosen rector of the
university. The revolutionary outbreak of 1848 rekindled in the
venerable patriot his old hopes and energies, and he took his seat as
one of the deputies to the National Assembly at Frankfort. He formed one
of the deputation that offered the imperial crown to Frederick William
IV., and indignant at the king's refusal to accept it, he retired with
the majority of von Gagern's adherents from public life. He continued to
lecture and to write with freshness and vigour, and on his 90th birthday
received from all parts of Germany good wishes and tokens of affection.
He died at Bonn on the 29th of January 1860. Arndt was twice married,
first in 1800, his wife dying in the following year; a second time in
1817.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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