Ernst Moritz Arndt (1769-1860) was the son of Ludwig Nikolaus Arndt (1740-1808), who bought himself out of serfdom from Count Malte Friedrich zu Putbus shortly before Arndt's birth, and Friederike Wilhellmine Schumacher Arndt (1747-1804), a farmer's daughter. Arndt had at least one sister, Charlotte Dorothea, who married a Rassow. Arndt was instructed by tutors and at the grammar school associated with Straaslund's St. Catherine's Monastery for his early education. Later he completed his Gymnasium education and then studied at the Universities of Greifswald and Jena.

Arndt qualified for the Lutheran ministry, but at the age of 28 he decided instead to travel throughout Europe. These travels, at the very end of the 18th century, included seeing Rheinish castles destroyed in the French Revolution and previous wars, which helped solidify his dislike of the French and strengthened his German nationalism. He published an account of his travels, Reisen durch einen Theil Deutschlands, Ungarns, Italiens, und Frankreichs in den Jahren 1798/99 (1801-1804), starting his publishing career.

In 1800 Arndt asked for and received a lectureship in history at the University of Greifswald. In 1806, three years after Arndt published Versuch einer Geschichte der Leibeigenschaft in Pommern und Rügen providing a history of and denouncing serfdom in Pomerania, the region between the Oder and Vistula Rivers that has in more recent years been divided between Poland and Germany. The work was so influential that it contributed in 1806 to the Swedish King Gustav IV abolishing serfdom in the region.

Arndt was appointed chair of history at Greifswald in 1806. During these years he worked on his anti-Napoleonic work Geist der Zeit and had to spend some time in Sweden to escape Napoleonic troops. Later, after Prussia allied with Russia against Napoleon, Arndt traveled to St. Petersburg as private secretary to Freiherr vom Stein, another individual interested in raising German national consciousness. Arndt continued publishing patriotic German, anti-French songs, poems, and other writings during this time.

Arndt joined the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn in 1818, where he was appointed a professor of history. However, he was suspended from teaching in 1820 because of his criticism of the Prussian government. Eventually he was reinstated in 1840.

After the outbreak of revolution across the German states in 1848, Arndt served as a representative in the Frankfurt National Assembly. He resigned from the position in 1849 after Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV refused to accept the crown from a democratic parliament. Arndt returned to academic life, continuing to write in a patriotic German vein, as well as religious poems and an autobiography. Arndt has more recently become a controversial figure in German culture due to anti-French, anti-Semitic, and anti-Polish strains in his German nationalism.

Ernst Moritz Arndt married Johanna Maria Charlotte Quistrop. They had one child before her death in 1801, Karl Moritz (1801-1885, known as "Karl Treu"). Ernst later married Nanna Maria Louise Schleiermacher (1786-1869) in 1817, with whom he had several more children: Karl Siegerich (1819-1869), Ludwig Roderich (1821-1862), Gottfried Heinrich Leubold (1822-?), Frederich Hartmuth (1824-1876, known as "Muth"), Gustav Willibald (1825-1834), and Nanna Wilhelmina Dorothea Mathilde (1827-1860). Karl Treu had at least one son, Siegmar Carl (1836-1917), who emigrated to the United States, marrying Dorothea Franck and living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Arndt's youngest daughter Nanna married Ernst Nitzsch.

Hartmuth Arndt emigrated to the United States in 1855. He probably married Emilie (often listed as "Amelia" on U.S. census records) Staege (1835-1915) after arriving in the U.S. They had three children, Anna Hermine Ernestine Arndt (1858-1943), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Maria Anna Dorothea (1860-1897), born in Columbus, Mississippi; and Wilhelmine Katharine, or Minnie, born in 1863 in Florida and died in 1877 in Kansas. By 1870, according to census records, the family were living in Wyandotte County, Kansas. After Hartmuth's death, Emilie remarried J.J. Treat, a machinist, and remained in Wyandotte County until her death.

[Information retrieved from "Ernst Moritz Arndt," britannica.com; Harold Sack, "Ernst Moritz Arndt - Key Figure of the German Nationalism" on the SciHi Blog; and collection materials.]