RUGEArnold (1803-1880), German philosophical and political writer, was born at Bergen, in the island of Rügen, on the 13th September 1803. He studied at Halle, Jena, and Heidelberg, and became an enthusiastic adherent of the party which sought to create a free and united Germany. For his zeal in this cause he had to spend five years in the fortress of Kolberg, where he devoted himself to the study of classical writers, especially Plato and the Greek poets. On his release in 1830, he published Schill und die Seinen, a tragedy, and a translation of (Edipus in Colonus. Ruge settled in Halle, where in 1838, in association with his friend Echtermayer, he founded the Hallesche JahrlAjxher für deutsche Eunst und Wissenschaft. In this periodical, which soon took a very high place, he discussed all the great questions which were then agitating the best minds in Europe, dealing with them from the point of view of the Hegelian philosophy, interpreted in the most liberal sense. The Jahrbücher was detested by the orthodox party in Prussia; but, as it was published in Leipsic, the editors fancied that it was beyond the reach of the Prussian Government. In 1840, however, soon after the accession of King Frederick William IV., they were ordered, on account of the name of the periodical, to have it printed in Halle, subject to the censorship there. Thereupon Ruge went to Dresden, and the Jahrbücher (with which Echtermayer was no longer connected) continued to appear in Leipsic, but with the title Deutsche Jahrbücher, and without the names of the editors. It now became more liberal than ever, and in 1843 was suppressed by the Saxon Government. In Paris Ruge tried to act with Karl Marx as co-editor of the Dewtsch-Französische Jahrbücher, but the two friends soon parted, Ruge having ...little sympathy with Marx’s socialist theories. Ruge next associated himself with a publishing firm in Zürich, and when it was put down he attempted to establish a firm of his own in Leipsic, but his scheme - was thwarted by the Saxon Government. In the revolutionary movement of 1848 Ruge played a prominent part. He organized the Extreme Left in the Frankfort parliament, and for some time he lived in Berlin as the editor of the Reform, in which he advocated the opinions of the Left in the Prussian National Assembly. The career of the Reform being cut short by the Prussian Government, Ruge soon afterwards visited Paris, hoping to establish, through his friend Ledru-Rollin, some relations between German and French republicans; but in 1849 both Ledru-Rollin and Ruge had to take refuge in London. Here, in company with Mazzini and other advanced politicians, they formed a “European Democratic Committee.” From this committee Ruge soon withdrew, and in 1850 he went to Brighton, where he supported himself by working both as a teacher in schools and as a writer. He took a passi mate interest in the events of 1866 and 1870, and as a publicist vigorously supported the cause of Prussia against Austria, and that of Germany against France. In his last years he received from the German Government a pension of 3000 marks. He died on the 31st December 1880.
Ruge was a man of generous sympathies and an able writer, but he did not produce any work of enduring importance. In 1846-48 his Gesamnwlte Schriften were published in ten volumes. After this time he wrote, among other books, Unser System, Revolutionsnovellen, Die Loge des Humanismus, and Aus früherer Zeit (bis memoirs). 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.
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