Heinrich Heine

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Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (born as Harry [Hebrew: Chaim] Heine December 13, 1797 – February 17, 1856) was one of the most significant German poets.

Life

Heine was born into an acculturated Jewish family in Düsseldorf, Germany. His father was a tradesman, who, during the French occupation, found new prospects opening up for Jews. When his father's business failed, Heine was sent to Hamburg, where his rich banker uncle Salomon encouraged him to undertake a career in commerce. Heine, however, failed miserably as a businessman, and he turned to the study of law at the universities of Göttingen, Bonn and Berlin. Heine quickly discovered that he was more interested in literature than in the law, though he nonetheless earned a law degree in 1825. During this time he had also decided to convert from Judaism to Protestantism. This was necessary because of the severe restrictions on Jews in many of the German states; in many cases, they were forbidden to enter certain professions. These included university lecturing, which was a particular ambition for Heine. As Heine said in self-justification, his conversion was "the ticket of admission into European culture". For much of the rest of his life Heine wrestled over the incompatible elements of his German and his Jewish identities.

Heine is best known for his lyric poetry, much of which (especially from his earlier works) was set to music by composers, most notably by Robert Schumann. Other composers who have set Heine include Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, Fanny Mendelssohn, Brahms, Hugo Wolf, and Richard Wagner.

As a poet Heine made his debut with Gedichte ("Poems") in 1821. Heine's one-sided infatuation with his cousins Amalie and Therese later inspired him to write some of his loveliest lyrics; Buch der Lieder ("Book of Songs", 1827) was Heine's first comprehensive collection of verse.

Heine left Germany for Paris, France in 1831. There he associated with utopian socialists, including the followers of Count Saint-Simon, who preached an egalitarian classless paradise based on meritocracy.

Heine remained in Paris, with the exception of a visit in 1843 to Germany, for the rest of his life. Heine continued, however, to comment on German politics and society from a distance. Heine wrote Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (Germany. A Winter's Tale), an account of his visit to Germany the previous year and the political climate there, in 1844; his friend, Karl Marx, published it in his newspaper Vorwärts ("Forward") in 1844. Heine also satirized the utopian politics of those opponents of the regime still in Germany in Atta Troll: Ein Sommernachtstraum ("Atta Troll: A Midsummer Night's Dream") in 1847.

Heine wrote movingly of the experience of exile in his poem In der Fremde ("Abroad"):

Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland.
Der Eichenbaum
Wuchs dort so hoch, die Veilchen nickten sanft.
Es war ein Traum.
Das küßte mich auf deutsch, und sprach auf deutsch
(Man glaubt es kaum,
Wie gut es klang) das Wort: »Ich liebe dich!«
Es war ein Traum.
Oh, once I had a lovely fatherland.
The oaks grew tall
Up to the sky, the gentle violets swayed.
I dreamt it all.
I felt a German kiss, heard German words
(Hard to recall
How good they rang) - the words "Ich liebe dich!"
I dreamt it all.

(Translation by Hal Draper)

Heine suffered from ailments that kept him bedridden for the last eight years of his life (some have suggested he suffered from multiple sclerosis or syphilis). He died in Paris and is interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre.

Selected works

  • Auf Flügeln des Gesanges
  • Gedichte, 1821
  • Tragödien, nebst einem lyrischen Intermezzo, 1823
  • Reisebilder, 1826-31
  • Die Harzreise, 1826
  • Ideen, das Buch le Grand, 1827
  • Englische Fragmente, 1827
  • Buch der Lieder, 1827
  • Französische Zustände, 1833
  • Zur Geschichte der neueren schönen Literatur in Deutschland, 1833
  • Die romantische Schule, 1836
  • Der Salon, 1836-40
  • Über Ludwig Börne, 1840
  • Neue Gedichte, 1844 - New Poems
  • Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen, 1844 - Germany
  • Atta Troll. Ein Sommernachtstraum, 1847
  • Romanzero, 1851
  • Der Doktor Faust, 1851
  • Les Dieux en Exil, 1853
  • Die Harzreise, 1853
  • Lutezia, 1854
  • Vermischte Schriften, 1854
  • Letzte Gedichte und Gedanken, 1869
  • Sämtliche Werke, 1887-90 (7 Vols.)
  • Sämtliche Werke, 1910-20
  • Sämtliche Werke, 1925-30
  • Werke und Briefe, 1961-64
  • Sämtliche Schriften, 1968

Editions in English

  • The Complete Poems of Heinrich Heine. A Modern English Version by Hal Draper, Suhrkamp/Insel Publishers Boston, 1982. ISBN 3518030485

External links

Credits

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