Heinrich Heine

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The German author Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) is best known for his lyric poems, a number of which are considered among the best in German literature. His essays on German literary, political, and philosophical thought contain remarkable and frequently prophetic insights.

The career of Heinrich Heine spans the later years of the German romantic movement and the era of the socially and politically conscious literary movement called Young Germany. His work reflects the influence of both schools, but an ingrained satirical sense and a sharp wit prevent his complete subscription to the tenets of either. He hoped to secularize romanticism in a "new (pagan) Hellenism," but his liberal political philosophy rejected contemporary reactionary German regimes as well as revolutionary "mob rule." His self-imposed exile from Germany after 1831 demonstrates his independence and isolation in a lifelong search for personal and national identity.

Heine was born on Dec. 13, 1797, in Düsseldorf. The son of middle-class Jewish parents, he was named Harry after an English friend of the family. His early education included training in both Hebrew and Jesuit schools, and at the insistence of his ambitious mother he was sent to Frankfurt and then to Hamburg to learn banking and business. But the dreamy youth proved unsuited to a life in trade, even with the support of his wealthy uncle Solomon in Hamburg. The principal legacy of Heine's Hamburg years was his unrequited love for his cousin Amalie (and later for her younger sister Therese); his double disappointment was the theme of many of his early lyrics.

University Years

With the financial support of his uncle, Heine entered the University of Bonn in 1819, planning to study law. Here A. W. von Schlegel, professor of literature and a cofounder of German romanticism, encouraged his literary bent. Heine was delighted by such attention but was alienated by the political conservatism of the university administration and by the anti-Semitism he encountered. In 1820 he removed to the University of Göttingen. Conditions there were even less appealing; his inevitable opposition to them soon led to his suspension, and he moved on to the University of Berlin. He attended the lectures of G. W. F. Hegel, and literary sponsors helped him to publish Gedichte (Poems) in 1822. These poems followed romantic conventions but were also marked by a novel use of language and imagery. Lyrisches Intermezzo (1823) and the lyric cycle Heimkehr (1826; Homecoming) show improved command of lyric form and frequently project the simplicity and directness of the folk song and the folk ballad. The dominant theme remains his unhappy love for Amalie and then, in the latter work, for Therese.

After an interlude at home, Heine, at the insistence of his uncle, returned to Göttingen. Upon Christian baptism (a necessary step for Jews who would handle Christian legal clients) he took the name Heinrich and received his law degree in July 1825.

His Travels

A journey on foot through the Harz Mountains and a vacation on the North Sea coast inspired the first volume of Heine's Reisebilder (1826; Travel Pictures), containing the Heimkehrcycle, Die Nordsee (lyrics which introduced sea themes into German literature and which are frequently considered Heine's finest achievement in the form), and Die Harzreise, an account of the Harz journey after the manner of the 18th-century English novelist Laurence Sterne. The freedom of form, which combined prose and poetry and was marked by many fanciful and philosophical digressions, proved congenial to the poet and popular with the public. Heine produced three further volumes in this vein, mirroring his reactions to subsequent travels and experiences in Germany, England (1827), and Italy (1828).

In 1827 Heine gathered together his best lyrics, publishing them as Buch der Lieder (Book of Songs), a collection that enjoyed immense popularity. No previous work had revealed so clearly his lyric range and versatility, wit, and unique mixture of sentiment and satire. The singing quality of his verse appealed to a number of 19th-century composers, including Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, and Robert Schumann; many poems were given musical settings and remain staples of the concert stage.

Between 1828 and 1831 Heine sought in vain for a secure position. His attempt at political journalism in Munich failed in a few months; by attempting to avoid censurable writing, he succeeded only in stifling his unique gifts. Thereafter the prospects for a university professorship dissolved in the face of conservative opposition and intrigue, and by 1831 he was delighted to be able to emigrate to Paris, hoping for a more congenial atmosphere in the wake of the July Revolution of 1830.

Parisian Exile

Heine's "romantic" period was now virtually at an end, and he determined to devote his energies henceforth to the "realistic" demands of the times. His announced purpose as self-appointed German cultural ambassador was to interpret German thought to the French. The essays in De l'Allemagne (1835) exhibit his own free-wheeling analysis of current German religious, philosophical, and literary theory. The three principal essays are entitled Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland, Die Romantische Schule, and Elementargeister. A second edition included Heine's Geständnisse (Confessions).

In these essays Heine advocated a species of pantheism influenced by Saint-Simonianism. He urged the reestablishment of the fundamental German values that he professed to find in German folklore and the political realization of the revolutionary potential of contemporary German philosophy. In discussing German romanticism, Heine found its otherworldly "spiritualism" exaggerated and outmoded, and he advocated a renewed recognition of sensualistic claims and the joys of the here and now. (His last major blow against an outmoded romanticism, including its tendentious and patriotic wing, was delivered in 1843 in the delightful mock epic poem Atta Troll. ) The great variety of pieces published in several volumes under the title Der Salon (1834 and later) brought to the German public much of Heine's thought, including his reactions to his French experiences.

Later Years

Heine's middle and later poetry - Zeitgedichte (1832-1844; Poems of the Times), Romanzen (1839), Romanzero (1851), and Letzte Gedichte (1853; Last Poems) - reinforce the theme of secularization sounded so strongly in the essays. These works often reflect his pessimism and disillusionment at witnessing the rising tide of 19th-century materialism. In this period there is also a withdrawal from the paganism advocated in his earlier work, induced in some part by the sufferings of Heine's last 8 years, when a spinal affliction and progressive paralysis confined him to his bed. Near the end, it was necessary for him to prop an eyelid open with one hand while writing with the other and, eventually, to dictate his work. To the last he was faithfully cared for by his "Mathilde" (Crescencia Eugenie Mirat), a simple French girl whom he had married in 1841.

In this reduced state Heine acknowledged, but without a trace of self-pity, that he had become convinced of the existence of "one religion for the healthy, and an entirely different one for the sick" and that he no longer regarded himself "the freest German since Goethe."

Heine died on Feb. 17, 1856, and was buried, in accord with his wishes, in the cemetery of Montmartre in Paris.

Further Reading

An extensive selection of Heine's work and a biographical essay are in Frederic Ewen, ed., The Poetry and Prose of Heinrich Heine (1948). Although no single work is generally accepted as definitive, a selection of studies can provide a cross section of the varying treatments of Heine. Eliza M. Butler, Heinrich Heine: A Biography (1956), is a sensitive and enthusiastic appreciation of the manifold and frequently incompatible facets of Heine's personality and work. Max Brod, Heinrich Heine: The Artist in Revolt (1934; trans. 1956), stresses Heine's antiestablishment orientation and re-creates the 19th-century milieu through extensive quotations from Heine and his contemporaries. Heine's political attitudes and his relation to his Jewish heritage are examined in William Rose, Heinrich Heine: Two Studies of His Thought and Feeling (1956). Still useful is Ludwig Marcuse, Heinrich Heine: A Life between Past and Future (1932; trans. 1934).

The critical study by Barker Fairley, Heinrich Heine: An Interpretation (1954), deals with recurrent images and motifs in Heine's poetry and prose and postulates a theory of the unity in Heine's work. A recent study is Jeffrey L. Sammons, Heinrich Heine: The Elusive Poet (1969). Solomon Liptzin, The English Legend of Heinrich Heine (1954), attempts to elucidate the mystery of Heine's international appeal through the context of English criticism from pre-Victorian times to the present. Surveys which discuss Heine are August Closs, The Genius of the German Lyric (1938), and Hermann Boeschenstein, German Literature of the Nineteenth Century (1969). For historical background see Hajo Holborn, A History of Modern Germany (2 vols., 1959-1964).

Additional Sources

Arnold, Matthew, Essays in criticis, London, Cambridge, Macmillan and co., 1865.

Brod, Max, Heinrich Heine: the artist in revolt, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1976, 1957.

Butler, E. M. (Eliza Marian), Heinrich Heine, a biography, Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press 1970, 1956.

Fairley, Barker, Heinrich Heine: an interpretation, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1977.

Heine, Heinrich, Confessions, Malibu, Calif.: J. Simon, 1981.

Heine, Heinrich, Memoirs, from his works, letters, and conversations, New York, Arno Press, 1973.

Hofrichter, Laura, Heinrich Heine, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1987, 1963.

Kossoff, Philip, Valiant heart: a biography of Heinrich Heine, New York: Cornwall Books, 1983.

Pawel, Ernst, The poet dying: Heinrich Heine's last years in Paris, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995.

Robertson, Ritchie, Heine, New York: Grove Press, 1988.

Sammons, Jeffrey L., Heinrich Heine, Stuttgart: J.B. Metzler, 1991.

Sammons, Jeffrey L., Heinrich Heine: a modern biography, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1979.

Spencer, Hanna, Heinrich Heine, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1982.

Heine, Heinrich (b Düsseldorf, 13 Dec. 1797, d Paris, 17 Feb. 1856). German poet and writer, whose story of the Wilis (contained in Geschichte der neuren schönen Literatur in Deutschland, 1833, French version De l'Allemagne, Paris, 1835) provided Gautier with the inspiration for his Giselle libretto (1841). Heine also wrote two of his own ballet librettos. Die Göttin Diana (1846) was offered to Lumley at Her Majesty's Theatre, while Der Doctor Faust (1847) was actually commissioned by Lumley. Neither project was realized, though some later Faust ballets made use of his libretto.

Heine, Heinrich (1797–1856), German poet and author, many of whose poems have been set to music by Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms, among others. He received a doctorate of law from Göttingen, at which time he converted from Judaism to Christianity to improve his prospects for a post in government or at a university. Unsuccessful in these efforts, he lived from his pen, with subsidies from a wealthy uncle and other sources. Literary fame came rather early, with the publication of his first volume of Reisebilder (Travel Sketches), Die Harzeise (Journey through the Harz Mountains, 1826), and with the volume of collected poems Buch der Lieder (Book of Songs, 1827). In 1831 he went to Paris to report on events in the wake of the July Revolution and remained there permanently. His interest in myth, legend, and folk tale is evident in much of his work, most prominently in two fanciful renditions that became sources for operas by Richard Wagner: the story of the Flying Dutchman, in ‘Aus den Memoiren des Herren Schnabelewopski’ (‘From the Memoirs of Herr Schnabelewopski’, 1834, in Der Salon I) and the legend of Tannhäuser, in ‘Elementargeister’ (‘Elemental Spirits’, 1837, in Der Salon III). The folk song, especially in the literary form pioneered by his contemporary Wilhelm Müller (1794–1827), exerted a considerable influence on Heine's lyric poetry.

Bibliography

• Reeves, Nigel, Heinrich Heine: Poetry and Politics (1974).
• Sammons, Jeffrey L., Heinrich Heine: The Elusive Poet (1969).Heinrich Heine: A Modern Biography (1979).

— James M. McGlathery

Heine, Heinrich (Düsseldorf, 1797-1856, Paris), originally Harry and of Jewish family, was educated at the Lyzeum of Düsseldorf (1807-14), and then sent to learn business at Frankfurt. In 1816 he went to Hamburg to work in the office of his banker uncle, Salomon Heine. In 1818 the uncle launched him into business on his own account (Harry Heine u. Co.), a venture which ended in bankruptcy (1819).

The uncle, convinced that Heine's gifts were not for commerce, agreed to finance him at a university, and in 1819. Heine matriculated at Bonn and a year later migrated to Göttingen, studying law. He nevertheless attended literary lectures, particularly those of A. W. Schlegel at Bonn. In January 1821, because of his involvement in an intended duel, he was rusticated for six months. Instead of biding his time and returning to Göttingen, he moved on to study for two years (1821-3) in Berlin, where he frequented the salon of Rahel Varnhagen von Ense, the rendezvous of the most distinguished intellectual figures, including Alexander von Humboldt, Bettina von Arnim, L. Ranke, A. von Chamisso, and F. de la Motte Fouqué.

In Heine's early 20s some of his poems had appeared in magazines, and a collection was published in December 1821 (Gedichte, 1822). Tragödien, nebst einem lyrischen Intermezzo appeared in 1823, containing ‘Almansor’ and ‘William Ratcliff’, separated by the ‘Intermezzo’. At this time Heine became an ardent supporter of the Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden. In 1824 he visited North Germany (Lüneburg, Cuxhaven, Heligoland, Hamburg), and then went on a walking tour in the Harz, which formed the basis for his satirical-idyllic prose book Die Harzreise (in vol. 1 of Reisebilder, 4 vols., 1826-31). He completed his studies in Göttingen in 1825, taking his doctorate, and at the same time was baptized, a step intended to smooth his career in the civil service, the law, or the academic profession, three spheres of employment which he essayed unsuccessfully or failed to enter. After a further visit to the north (including this time Norderney, 1825) he made an English tour in 1827, and on his return was for a short time a journalist in Munich. The Buch der Lieder (1827) laid the foundation of his reputation as a poet, though the common belief that it reflects a supposed love for his cousins Amalie and Therese Heine rests on tenuous evidence. Disappointed in his hope of a professorship in Munich in 1828, he passed a few months in Italy, spent the spring of 1829 in Berlin, and then moved to Hamburg where he remained for two years, interposing visits to the North Sea coast and to Heligoland.

The July Revolution roused visions of a new world, and in May 1831 Heine made Paris his home for the rest of his life. He lived by his pen, writing at first especially for the Allgemeine Zeitung of Augsburg, and for various French journals. In 1836 he was granted a small pension by the French government. During his first decade in Paris Heine's writing was mainly concerned with politics, social questions, and the history of literature. Französische Zustände (first published in the Allgemeine Zeitung) appeared in collected form in 1833 and Die Romantische Schule (an expansion of the earlier Geschichte der neueren schönen Literatur in Deutschland, 1833) in 1836. Larger collections of his journalistic work were published in 4 vols. as Der Salon (1834-40), including Französische Maler, Aus den Memoiren des Herrn von Schnabelewopski, Florentinische Nächte, Elementargeister, Der Rabbi von Bacherach, and, in vol. 2, Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland. In 1844 a further volume of partly previously published poems appeared as Neue Gedichte.

From 1834 Heine lived with Eugénie Mathilde Mirat, a Frenchwoman without education, whom he married in 1841. In December 1835 his works were officially branded as subversive in a federal declaration, which was principally directed against Young Germany (see Junges Deutschland). In 1843 and 1844 he made his last visits to Germany, and in the same years he published his two masterpieces of verse satire on German affairs, Atta Troll (1843, revised 1847) and Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (1844, separately and in Neue Gedichte). In December 1843 Heine first met Karl Marx.

Symptoms of illness manifested themselves in the mid-thirties, and in 1848 he was found to be suffering from a spinal tuberculosis (tabes dorsalis) of syphilitic origin. He rapidly became paralysed, and spent the last eight years of his life bedridden; he himself called his sick-bed ‘die Matratzengruft’. In these last years he wrote some of his finest poetry, contained in the Romanzero (1851) and Gedichte 1853 und 1854 (in Ver-mischte Schriften of 1854), poems in which he faces the moral and physical suffering of his slow death with courageous irony. Lutetia. Berichte über Politik, Kunst und Volksleben also appeared in Vermischte Schriften. The last months of his life were lightened by the spiritual love he felt for Elise Krinitz, who appears in his poetry as ‘die Mouche’.

Though Heine's output of critical and expository prose was considerable, only the early Die Harzreise has attracted lasting attention. The prose of his middle period, together with such poetic works as Atta Troll and Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen, reflects a complex conflict between revolution and tradition which remained unresolved. It is Heine's poetry, and primarily the lyric part of it, which has ensured him a European reputation. Heine has long and deservedly been valued for the Buch der Lieder, with its poetry of dreams, and the Romantic gesture of self-conscious and studied melancholy. Gradually the worth of later poems has become more apparent, with their terse and direct formulations of real suffering (in Romanzero and Gedichte 1853 und 1854, which were later augmented and posthumously entitled Letzte Gedichte, in Letzte Gedichte und Gedanken, 1869).

The first edition of Heines Werke (22 vols.) was published in 1861-6. The Säkularausgabe. Werke. Briefwechsel. Lebenszeugnisse (planned in c.45 vols.) began to appear in 1970 Sämtliche Werke (Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe, 16 vols.) appeared as the Düsseldorfer Ausgabe, ed. M. Windfuhr et al., 1973 ff., Sämtliche Schriften (6 vols. in 7) ed. K. Briegleb et al., in 1968-76.

Quotes:

"Experience is a good school, but the fees are high."

"Of course God will forgive me; that's His job."

"God will forgive me, that's his business."

"Great genius takes shape by contact with another great genius, but, less by assimilation than by fiction."

"Oh what lies lurk in kisses!"

"If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin they would never have found time to conquer the world."

See more famous quotes by Heinrich Heine

Biography

Born in 1797, the same year as Franz Schubert, Heine, a poet, prose writer, critic, and journalist, is a towering figure of nineteenth-century German literature, a versatile and brilliant man of letters who significantly influenced European culture. After a failed attempt to launch a career in the family business, Heine went to Göttingen, in 1820, to study law. The following year, he was in Berlin, where he attended the lectures of Hegel and participated in the brilliant intellectual life of the Prussian capital. After receiving his law degree, in 1825, Heine, who was Jewish, converted to Christianity, hoping that this would increase his chances of finding employment. In 1827, Heine published his Buch der Lieder (Book of Songs), to great acclaim. Restless and unable to settle into a traditional career, Heine, excited by the July Revolution in France, in 1830, moved to Paris in 1831. A true cosmopolitan, this German poet and exile, chose Paris, the cultural capital of Europe in the nineteenth century, as his permanent home. In his essays on many subjects, including music, politics, literature, and the arts, for French and German periodicals. Heine wrote with authority on many subjects pertaining to culture, but he was particularly perceptive as a music critic, realizing, for example the importance of Berlioz and understanding Chopin's genius as a composer. Suffering from spinal tuberculosis, which was diagnosed in the late 1840s, Heine became incapacitated by paralysis and consequently spent the rest of his life on what he called his "mattress grave." He died in 1856, the same year as Robert Schumann.

Regarded as a great lyrical poet, Heine is also an ironist, a Romantic poet who consciously distances himself from the kind of metaphysical rapture that poets such as Novalis craved. In fact, as Albert Béguin asserted, Heine's poetry reverses Romanticism's tendency to progress from purely psychological to metaphysical concerns. Perhaps due to its psychological complexity, Heine's poetry attracted many composers, including Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Wolf, and Richard Strauss. Interestingly, one of the greatest achievements of nineteenth-century music is Schumann's cycle Dichterliebe (The Poet's Love), based on poems from the Lyrisches Intermezzo section of the Buch der Lieder. What makes Dichterliebe a fascinating work is the fact that Schumann, who understood Heine's ironic, even cynical view of love, manages to incorporate Heine's poems, which seemingly emulate but also parody the Romantic spirit, into a musical composition which encompasses, but perhaps also transcends, Heine's world view. ~ Zoran Minderovic, All Music Guide

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