Heinrich Heine

Lore & Background

As an exile in Paris, Heine became a celebrity avatar reflective of the liberal and cosmopolitan values of the mainstream press. In the Third Reich, Heine's name was invoked as an archetype of an influential Jewish opinion columnist. Heine is remembered for his phrase 'Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also', which ultimately came true in the Holocaust. Heine was born on 13 December 1797, in Düsseldorf, in what was then the Duchy of Berg, into a Jewish family.

Childhood and youth

He was called 'Harry' in childhood but became known as 'Heinrich' after his conversion to Lutheran Christianity in 1825. Heine's father was a textile merchant. His mother Peira, née van Geldern (known as 'Betty'), was daughter of a physician and Sara van Geldern née Bocková. Heinrich was the eldest of four children.

He had a sister, Charlotte, and two brothers, Gustav and Maximilian. Heine was a third cousin once removed of philosopher and economist Karl Marx. Heine's formative years were spent under French influence. He greatly admired Napoleon as the promoter of revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality and loathed the political atmosphere in Germany after Napoleon's defeat.

Heine's parents sent him as a young child to a Jewish school where he learned a smattering of Hebrew, but thereafter he attended Catholic schools. He learned French, which became his second language. He also acquired a lifelong love for Rhenish folklore. In 1814, Heine went to a business school in Düsseldorf, where he learned to read English.

In 1816, Heine moved to Hamburg to become an apprentice at his uncle Salomon Heine's bank, but displayed little aptitude for business. When he was 18, Heine almost certainly had an unrequited love for his cousin Amalie. In 1819, Heine went to the University of Bonn. He was a radical liberal.

Universities

He was more interested in studying history and literature than law. He heard August Wilhelm Schlegel lecture on Romanticism. Heine began to acquire a reputation as a poet at Bonn. He also wrote two tragedies, Almansor and William Ratcliff.

After a year at Bonn, Heine left to continue his law studies at the University of Göttingen. He was expelled from a student fraternity for antisemitism, and he learned that his cousin Amalie had become engaged. He was suspended from the university for six months. His uncle then decided to send him to the University of Berlin.

Reader's Guide

Heine's early lyric poetry was set to music by Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. His later verse and prose are distinguished by their satirical wit and irony.

He is considered a member of the Young Germany movement. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities. He spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris.

Universities

Heine entered the University of Bonn in 1819 to study law, as his uncle Salomon deemed him unsuited for trade. At Bonn, liberal students clashed with conservative authorities; Heine, a radical liberal, participated in a parade violating the Carlsbad Decrees. He preferred history and literature to law, attending lectures by August Wilhelm Schlegel on Romanticism.

Heine began gaining a poetic reputation and wrote two unsuccessful tragedies. After a year, he moved to the University of Göttingen, which he hated for its aristocratic snobbery and the reactionary Historical School of law. He was expelled from a student fraternity for antisemitism, learned of his cousin Amalie's engagement, and was suspended for six months after challenging a student to a duel.

His uncle then sent him to the University of Berlin in 1821. There, he attended lectures by Franz Bopp, F. A. Wolf, and the philosopher Hegel, who likely influenced Heine's view of history as progressive. He made valuable acquaintances, including Karl August Varnhagen and his wife Rahel, and joined the Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden.

Julius Campe and first literary successes

Heine struggled to earn a living as a writer in Germany, where the literary market was small. In January 1826, he met Julius Campe in Hamburg, who became his lifelong publisher. Campe, a liberal, evaded censorship by publishing dissident works in large print to exceed 320 pages, though he was cautious about uncensored books. Campe published the first volume of Reisebilder in May 1826, which included Die Harzreise, a new style of travel-writing blending Romantic nature description with satire.

Heine's Buch der Lieder followed in 1827, a collection of already published poems that eventually became hugely popular as composers like Robert Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn set his verses to music. The poem "Allnächtlich im Traume" exemplifies his ironic disillusionment. From the mid-1820s, Heine distanced himself from Romanticism by incorporating irony, sarcasm, and satire into his poetry.

Foreign correspondent

Heine moved to Paris in 1831, prompted by the July Revolution that made Louis-Philippe the "Citizen King." He shared liberal enthusiasm for the revolution and was attracted by freedom from German censorship and the utopian doctrine of Saint-Simonianism, which advocated meritocracy, female emancipation, and a role for artists. He attended Saint-Simonian meetings but soon lost enthusiasm. In Paris, Heine became a celebrity and made acquaintances including Gérard de Nerval, Victor Hugo, Frederic Chopin, Hector Berlioz, and Franz Liszt, though he remained an outsider. He worked as French correspondent for the Allgemeine Zeitung, covering the Salon of 1831; his articles were collected as Französische Zustände.

He aimed to mediate between Germany and France, publishing De l'Allemagne in French to counter Madame de Staël's reactionary portrayal of Germany. In it, he argued that German pantheism, repressed by Christianity, would prove more explosive than the French Revolution. In 1834, he began a relationship with Crescence Eugénie Mirat, nicknamed "Mathilde," an illiterate shopgirl; they married in 1841.