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Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) - original name: Harry Heine; in full Christian Johann Heinrich Heine |
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German poet of Jewish origin,
whose lyrics have inspired such composers as Mendelssohn, Schubert, and
Schumann. Heinrich Heine lived at a time of major social and political
changes: the French Revolution (1789-99) and the Napoleonic wars deeply
influenced thinking. Heine died in Paris, where he had lived from 1831
as one of the central figures of the literary scene. The Nazis burned
all the copies of his books that they could lay their hands on. In the dreamy wood I wander, Heinrich Heine was born in Düsseldorf. His father was a
tradesman, who during the French occupation found new prospects opening
up for Jews. When his business failed, Heine was sent to
Hamburg. There his rich banker uncle Salomon tried to encourage him
into a commercial career, without success. Cats were part of Heine's life since his childhood
years. He
spend whole days in the attic of his uncle's house, reading a journal
by his greatuncle. The attic had an feline inhabitant, an old Angora
cat, who did not bother much about cleanliness. This was the place
where his imagination ran wild, where the cat transformed into an
enchanted princess.Later in life, when he was living in France, Heine
addressed his mother as "sweet old cat" in letters to her. (Heinrich Heine: Writing the Revolution by George Prochnik, 2020, p. 225)
Heine's
cat, called Mimi, was featured in a parodic poem about a
concert of cats: "Wild the symphonies they're singing / Like capriccios
of Beethoven, / Or of Berlioz, who's excell'd / By their strains so
interwoven." ('Mimi,' in The Poems of Heine, translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring, 1908, p. 529) Heine studied at the universities of Bonn, Berlin and Göttingen, but was more interested in literature than law, although he eventually took a degree in 1825. Heine's teacher in Berlin, the leading university in Germany, was G.W.F. Hegel, who delivered there his celebrated lectures on the philosophy of history, the philosophy of religion, aesthetics, and the history of philosophy. Though Heine hailed Hegel as "the greatest philosopher Germany has produced since Leibniz," he later satirized his own early enthusiasm by writing that, "In some moments when spasms in the backbone become painfully apparent, I begin to doubt that man is a two-legged god, as the late Professor Hegel assured me in Berlin twenty-five years ago." (Eternal Life?: Life After Death as a Medical, Philosophical, and Theological Problem by Hans Küng, 2003, p. 201) In order to make possible a civil service career, closed to Jews, Heine converted to Protestantism. He also changed his first name from Harry to the more Germanic Heinrich. However, he never practised or held a position in government service. "A flow’ret thou resemblest, Du bist wie eine Blume Gedichte (1821), with
which Heine made his debut as a poet, includes one of his most popular
poems, 'Zwei Grenadiere,' which reflected Heine's passion for Napoleon.
Heine's one-sided infatuation with his cousins Amalie and Therese
inspired him to write some of his loveliest lyrics. Buch der Lieder (1827) was Heine's first comprehensive collection of verse; some two-thirds of its poems had appeared in periodicals and his 1822, 1823 and 1826 anthologies. These early works show the influence of folk poetry, but the ironic touch separates Heine from the Romantic mainstream. His writing is always easy-going, his obvervations are meticulously formulated and ordered. One of Heine's most famous poems is 'Die Lorelei' (1824), set to music by Silcher in 1837. It has become one of the most popular of German songs: "Ich weiß nicht, was soll es bedeuten, / Daß ich so traurig bin; / Ein Märchen ans alten Zeiten, / Das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn." ("I know not what sorrow is o'er me / What spell is upon my heart; / But a tale of old times is before me, — / A legend that will not depart." (Heine's Book of Songs, translated by Charles G. Leland, Philadelphia: Frederick Leypoldt, 1861, p. 110) In 1827 Heine visited England, from where he returned disappointed and horrified by formality of behaviour and bourgeois materialism. Heine's summer trips produced the basis for his four volumes of Reisebilder (1826-31), a combination of autobiography, social criticism, and literary debate. In the third volume Heine satirized the poet August von Platen, who had attacked him on his Jewish origins. This act damaged Heine's reputation, and in 1831 he went to Paris as a journalist, to write newspaper articles about the development of democracy and capitalism in France. In 1834 he fell in love with Crecence Eugénie Mirat ("Mathilde" in his poems), an illiterate salesgirl, whom he married seven years later. Mathilde was a spendthrift but during Heine's eight-year-long illness she nursed him faithfully and tenderly. Heine wrote some poems for Mathilde, but they are not among his most memorable. Besides publishing poetry, Heine reported on French cultural and political affairs, and wrote travel books and works on German literature and philosophy. At that time, Paris was the cradle of new ideas: Victor Hugo had published Notre Dame de Paris, Balzac's and George Sand's first novels had appeared, Delacroix and Delaroche were the centers of art salons. Heine's independent views annoyed the German censors, and he had no chance of becoming a prophet in his own country. At the end of 1835 the Federal German Diet tried to enforce a nationwide ban on all his works. Soon Heine found himself surrounded by police spies, and his voluntary exile became a forced one. The poet once stated: "When the heroes go off the stage, the clowns come on." After a visit to his home country Heine, in defiance of
censors in Germany, published a long verse satire, Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen (1844).
This uncompromising critique of reactionary circles and the political order of the
Metternichtian system, was written during his months of friendship with
the young Karl Marx. Near the end of the poem, the patron goddess of
Hamburg reveals a vision of Germany's future to the poet-narrator in a
chamber pot. By The year when the poem came out, the Silesian weavers protested violently
against intolerable working conditions. Heine sided with them: '"Doomed be the fatherland, false name, / Where nothing thrives
but disgrace and shame, / Where flowers are crushed before they unfold,
/ Where the worm is quickened by rot and mold— / We weave, we weave."' (from 'The Silesian Weavers' (1844), translated by Aaron Kramer, in The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Maynard Mack, General Editor, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987, p. 1758) The Nobel laurate Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946) took the uprising as the subject of his 1892 drama, Die Weber (The Weavers). Friedrich Engels translated Heine's poem into English, which later
guaranteed that the poet became one of the most studied in Communist
countries. Marx also read Heine and corresponded with him.
Heine was a frequent guest at Jenny and Karl Marx's apartment in the
Rue Vanneau. "It is not exaggeration to say that Mohr [Marx's nickname]
not only admired Heine as a poet, but had a sincere affection for him,"
recalled Eleanor Marx. (The Aesthetic Component of Socialism by David Walsh, Bankstown, N.S.W.: Mehring Books, 1998, p. 5)
Heine's political
views were inconsistent; he was not a communist by any means, he called
himself a democrat, but hero-worshipped
Napoleon, whom he saw at the age of thirteen in Düsseldorf riding down
the avenue. Sometimes Heine claimed to be a monarchist, and on the
other hand he made
satirical songs on Mad King Ludwig I of Bavaria. He also criticized
the deceased German dissident Ludwig Börne. Marx's idea of a
proletarian revolution did not appeal to him at all. "You demand simple
costumes, austere manners and cheap unseasoned pleasures, we, on the
contrary demand nectar and ambrosia, purple garments, costly perfumes,
luxury and splendor, dancing and laughing nymphs, music and comedies." (Karl Marx: Prince of Darkness by George Fabian, Xlibris, Corp., 2011, pp. 126-127) Heine's efforts as a novelist mostly failed. Der Rabbi von Bacherach, which he began in 1824, was published in part in 1840. Florentinische Nächte was rejected by his publisher. One of the passages in the satirical novel Aus den Memoiren des Herren von Schnabelewopski (1833, The Memoirs of Herrn von Schnabelewopski ), an imitation of Tristram Shandy, inspired Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman (1843, Der Fliegende Hollander). A young Polish recalls his life in Germany and the Netherlands in this multi-layered fictional memoir. Heine's ironic twist in the folk legend of the Dutchman was "Mrs. Flying Dutchman," who breaks the curse of eternal wandering. Heine's
uncle died in 1844 and left him a small pension; he
also accepted a pension from the French government. After 1844 he
suffered financial reversals and a physical deterioration. According to
some suppositions, he suffered either from congenital neuropathy or
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) – Heine said
that his illness has "seriously undermined not only my nervous system,
but my philosophy as well. At certain times, especially when the pain
moves agonizingly up and down my spinal cord, I am torn by doubts as to
whether man is actually a two-legged God, as the late professor Hegel
assured me in Berlin five and twenty years ago." (quoted in 'Jewish Dionysus': Heinrich Heine and the Politics of Literature by Alex Soros, Berkeley: University of California, dissertation, 2018, p. 123) From 1848 until his death Heine lay paralyzed, partly blind
and heavily sedated on his "mattress grave," but wrote one of his
finest collection of verse, Romanzero (1851).
Heine's closest friend was his publisher, Julius Campe (1792-1867),
whom he both praised and berated. The proposal for the title of Romanzero came from Campe, who promoted the collection with great success. Engels saw Heine in January 1848 and said, “Heine ist am
Kaputtgehen. Vor vierzehn Tagen war ich bei ihm, da lag er im Bett und
hatte einen Nervenanfall gehabt. Gestern war er auf, aber höchst elend.
Er kann keine drei Schritte mehr gehen, er schleicht an den Mauern sich
stützend von Fauteuil bis ans Bett und vice versa. Dazu Lärm in seinem
Hause, der ihn verrückt macht." (Der kranke Heine by Henner Montanus, Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1995, p. 150) During his last years, Heine was interested in combining elements of Christianity and aesthetic paganism. When he earlier had contradicted "sensualism" and "spiritualism," he now dichotomized what he called "Nazarenism" and "Hellenism." Like Marx, he saw that religion is "the opium of the people," especially Christianity is part of the conspiracy, which keeps people in misery and superstitious ignorance. Heine's
last romantic affair was with Camilla Selden, an
Austrian woman, whom he called "Mouche" (Fly). His poems for Camilla are
among his most wonderful love lyrics. Without lapsing into self- pity, he
faced his physical affliction with such poems as
'Morphine,' 'Ich seh im Stundenglase schon,' 'Es kommt der Tod,'
and 'Der Scheidende.' Heinrich Heine died at the age of 58 in Paris, on February 17, 1856. He can
claim several last words, "God will forgive me, that's his job."
"I am done for," (according to his nurse), and "Write—write! Paper—Pencil!" (Last Words of Notable People: Final Words of More Thn 3500 Noteworthy People Throughout History, compiled by William B. Brahms, Haddonfied, NJ: Reference Desk Press, 2010, p. 301) Heine's brother Maximilian burned five or six hundred pages of
autobiography, which possibly contained offensive comments about his
family, most likely about his wealthy Uncle Salomon. Long after his
death,
Heine’s work continued to stirr controversy in Germany, and proposals
to erect his statue led to riots. One statue stands safely in Bronx, New
York. Because of Heine's Jewish background, the Nazis insisted that the
poet's songs should be marked "author unknown" in further publications.
Heine himself was prone to virulent outbursts of anti-Semitism. Heine's poetry ranged from romantic lyrics about frustrated or bittersweet love to sharp political satire, but he didn't have high hopes that his words would change anything: "No help you will find in verbal trick / Of worn political rhetoric; / You cant' catch rats with syllogisms, / They nimbly jump your finest sophisms." ('The Migratory Rats,' Lyric Poems and Ballads by Heinrich Heine, translated by Ernst Feise, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1961, p. 153) The "last king of Romanticism" had a love-hate relationship with German Romanticism but he produced some of its purest examples in poetry. His verse influenced the young Rilke, Wilhelm Busch, and Frank Wedekind, and a number of other aspiring poets. For further reading: Die Poetik des Übergangs: Funktionen unbelebter Frauenfiguren bei Heinrich Heine by Sarah Deubner (2022); Heinrich Heine: Writing the Revolution by George Prochnik (2020); Prosaic Conditions: Heinrich Heine and the Spaces of Zionist Literature by Na'ama Rokem (2013); Reading Heinrich Heine by Anthony Phelan (2007); Heinrich Heine and Giacomo Leopardi by Delia Fabbroni-Giannotti Nisbet (2000); Heinrich Heine's Contested Identities, ed. by Jost Hermand and Robert C. Holub (1999); The Poet As Provocateur by George F. Peters (1999); By the Rivers of Babylon by Roger F. Cook (1998); The Feminine in Heine's Life and Oeuvre by Diana Lynn Justis (1997); The Poet Dying by Ernst Pawel (1995); Heinrich Heine: Poetry & Politics by Nigel Reeves (1994); Mehr Als Ein Liberaler Uber Heinrich Heine by Jost Hermand (1991); Exiles and Ironists: Essays on the Kinship of Heine and Laforgue by Ursula Franklin (1989); Heinrich Heine: Poetry in Context by Michael Perraudin (1989); Der Grosse Heide Nr. 2: Heinrich Heine and the Levels of His Goethe Reception by George F. Peters (1989); Heinrich Heine by Laura Hofrichter (1987); Coal-Smoke and Englishmen by Siegbert Saloman Prawer (1984); Valiant Heart: A Biography of Heinrich Heine by Philip Kossoff (1983); Heinrich Heine: A Modern Biography by Jeffrey L. Sammons (1979); Heinrich Heine by Barker Fairley (1977); Heine the Elusive Poet by Jeffrey L. Sammons (1969); Heine the Tragic Satirist by S.S. Prawer (1961); The Artist in Revolt by Max Brod (1957); Heine: Ein Lesebuch für unsere Zeit by Walther Victor (1955); The Poetry and Prose of Heinrich Heine, ed. by Frederic Ewen (1948); Heine by Louis Untermeyer (1937); Heine: A Life Between Love and Hate by Ludwig Marcuse (1933) Selected works:
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