Heinrich Hart

Hart, Heinrich (Wesel, 1855-1906, Tecklenburg), was at school in Münster and studied at Halle, Munich, and Münster universities. From schooldays onwards he was in close association with his younger brother Julius (below). He settled in Berlin in 1877, whither his brother followed him, and the two men devoted themselves to critical journalism. They began with Deutsche Monatsblätter (1878-9), edited the Deutscher Literaturkalender (1879-82), and then produced in Kritische Waffengänge (1882-4) a work of urgent propaganda for a new realism in literature.

Both brothers belonged to the literary club Durch. Their fame rests upon their pioneering work for the new Naturalism (see Naturalismus) of the late 1880s. In his later life Heinrich Hart was best known as a dramatic critic. His poetic production was unimportant, and scarcely conformed to his strongly held critical views. His poems (Weltpfingsten) appeared in 1872, a tragedy (Sedan) in 1882; an ambitious epic, planned for 24 vols. (Das Lied der Menschheit), got no further than the third (1888-96). Gesammelte Werke (4 vols.) appeared 1907-8.