Arnold Ruge (; 13 September 1802 – 31 December 1880) was a German

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

writer. He was the older brother of Ludwig Ruge.

Studies in university and prison

Born in

Bergen auf Rügen Bergen auf Rügen is the capital of the former district of Rügen in the middle of the island of Rügen in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. Since 1 January 2005, Bergen has moreover been the administrative seat of the '' Amt'' of Bergen au ...

, he studied at Halle,

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...

and

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. As an advocate of a free and united Germany, he shared in the student agitations of 1821–24 and was jailed from 1824 to 1830 in the fortress of Kolberg, where he studied

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

and the Greek poets. Moving to Halle on his release, he published a number of plays (including ''Schill und die Seinen'', a tragedy) and translations of

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

texts (e.g. ''

Oedipus at Colonus ''Oedipus at Colonus'' (also ''Oedipus Coloneus''; , ''Oidipous epi Kolōnō'') is the second of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian Sophocles. It was written shortly before Sophocles's death in 406 BC and produced by his grandson ...

''). He became a ''

Privatdozent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...

'' at the

University of Halle Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...

in 1832.

Hegelians

He also became associated with the

Young Hegelians The Young Hegelians (), or Left Hegelians (''Linkshegelianer''), or the Hegelian Left (''die Hegelsche Linke''), were a group of German intellectuals who, in the decade or so after the death of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in 1831, reacted to an ...

. In 1837, with

Ernst Theodor Echtermeyer Ernst Theodor Echtermeyer (12 August 1805, Bad Liebenwerda – 6 May 1844, Dresden) was a German writer and philosopher. Together with Arnold Ruge, in 1838, he founded the ''Hallische Jahrbücher für Wissenschaft und Kunst'', an organ of the Young ...

, he founded the ''Hallesche Jahrbücher für deutsche Kunst und Wissenschaft''. In this periodical he discussed the questions of the time from the point of view of the Hegelian philosophy. According to

Frederick Copleston Frederick Charles Copleston (10 April 1907 – 3 February 1994) was a British Catholic priest, philosopher, and historian of philosophy, best known for his influential multi-volume '' A History of Philosophy'' (1946–75). Copleston achieved ...

"Ruge shared Hegel's belief that history is a progressive advance towards the realization of freedom, and that freedom is attained in the State, the creation of the rational General Will. ..At the same time he criticized Hegel for having given an interpretation of history which was closed to the future, in the sense that it left no room for novelty."

The ''Jahrbücher'' was detested by the orthodox party in

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

; and was finally suppressed by the

Saxon The Saxons, sometimes called the Old Saxons or Continental Saxons, were a Germanic people of early medieval "Old" Saxony () which became a Carolingian " stem duchy" in 804, in what is now northern Germany. Many of their neighbours were, like th ...

government in 1843, and Ruge left for Paris. In Paris, Ruge co-edited the ''

Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher The ''Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher'' (''German–French Annals'') was a journal published in Paris by Karl Marx and Arnold Ruge. It was created as a reaction to the censorship of the '' Rheinische Zeitung''. History and profile ''Deu ...

'' with

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

briefly. He had little sympathy with Marx's socialistic theories, and soon left him. He left Paris in 1845 for

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, and then became a bookseller in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

Revolutions of 1848

In the revolutionary movement of 1848, he organized the extreme left in the

Frankfurt Parliament The Frankfurt National Assembly () was the first freely elected parliament for all German Confederation, German states, including the German-populated areas of the Austrian Empire, elected on 1 May 1848 (see German federal election, 1848). The ...

, and for some time he lived in Berlin as the editor of the ''Die Reform''. He supported the Polish demands during the revolution, but based on his belief that failure to meet Polish demands would result in Russia unleashing "the hatred of the entire Slavic element, of this monstrous family of peoples."Brian E. Vick, ''Defining Germany: the 1848 Frankfurt parliamentarians and national identity'', Harvard University Press, 2002, p. 192. The Prussian government intervened and Ruge soon afterwards left again for Paris, hoping, through his friend Alexandre Ledru-Rollin, to establish relations between German and French republicans; but in 1849 both Ledru-Rollin and Ruge had to take refuge in London.

London and Brighton

In London, in company with

Giuseppe Mazzini Giuseppe Mazzini (, ; ; 22 June 1805 – 10 March 1872) was an Italian politician, journalist, and activist for the unification of Italy (Risorgimento) and spearhead of the Italian revolutionary movement. His efforts helped bring about the ...

and other advanced politicians, he formed a "European Democratic Committee." From this Ruge soon withdrew, and in 1850, Ruge moved to

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

to live as a teacher and writer. In 1866, he vigorously supported Prussia against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

in the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War (German: ''Preußisch-Österreichischer Krieg''), also known by many other names,Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Second War of Unification, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), ''Deutsc ...

, and in 1870, he supported Germany against France in the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

. On a smaller scale, while in Brighton, he was chairman of the successful '' Park Crescent Residents' Association''. In his last years, beginning in 1877, he received from the German government a pension of 1000 marks. He died in Brighton in 1880.

Works

In his time, Ruge was a leader in religious and political liberalism. In 1846-48 his ''Gesammelte Schriften'' (Collected writings) were published in ten volumes. After this time he wrote, among other books, ''Manifest an die deutsche Nation'' (1866), ''Geschichte unserer Zeit'' (1881), ''Unser System'', ''Revolutionsnovellen'', ''Die Loge des Humanismus'', and ''Aus früherer Zeit'' (his memoirs; 1863–67). He also wrote many poems, and several dramas and romances, and translated into German various English works, including the ''Letters of Junius'' and Buckle's ''History of Civilization''. His ''Letters and Diary'' (1825–80) were published by Paul Nerrlich (Berlin, 1885–87). See A. W. Bolin's ''L. Feuerbach'', pp. 127–52 (Stuttgart, 1891).

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruge, Arnold 1802 births 1880 deaths People from Bergen auf Rügen 19th-century German people 19th-century German philosophers Continental philosophers Members of the Frankfurt Parliament People from Swedish Pomerania German people of the Revolutions of 1848 Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni University of Jena alumni Heidelberg University alumni 19th-century German writers 19th-century German male writers