The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Heine, Heinrich
HEINE, hī'nĕ, Heinrich, German poet: b.
Düsseldorf, 13 Dec. 1797 (according to others,
1799); d. Paris, France, 17 Feb. 1856. His
father, Samson Heine, of Hanover, was a
merchant of honorable family which sprang
from Bückeburg. He was good-natured but
without marked intellectual gifts and of little
business ability. The mother, Peira (Betty)
van Geldern, came from one of the oldest and
most prominent Jewish families on the Rhine.
Her father, Gottschalk, was one of the first
Jewish physicians who graduated as Med.D.
from a German university; her brother, Joseph,
was also a graduate. Her uncle, Simon van
Geldern, was a strange, adventurous, enthusiastic
man. He journeyed all through Europe,
went to Jerusalem and returned from there to
Germany after a varied and checkered experience.
His diary of travel and other writings
are still preserved. The fate of this strange
relative made a deep impression on the mind
of the mature and gifted boy, who first was
sent to a private school and then to a lyceum
in charge of priests until the year 1814. The
greatest influence on his education was
exercised by his intellectually gifted mother, who
read Rousseau and Goethe and was an
enthusiastic German patriot while his father was
just as enthusiastic for Napoleon. Between
these contrasts Heine in his youth, swayed
constantly in both directions. The whole life of the
poet can be described in one sentence: He was
a German who was born of Jewish parents in a
Roman Catholic city on the Rhine in the period
of Napoleon's supremacy on the one hand and
of flourishing romanticism on the other. In
these words lies the entire biography of Heine,
everything which uplifted and hampered, all his
defects and excellences, and all the deep
contrasts and dissonances with which his life was
filled.

When he left the gymnasium, he was ready
with his companions to volunteer in the struggle
against Napoleon. His first poems glorify German
custom and loyalty, German patriotism.
But this spirit soon changed, and soon, like so
many eminent Germans of the time, he became
one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the
emperor's heroic figure, whose fame then filled
the entire world. His most ardent wish at that
time was to study. But his parents, whose business
was already in decline, could not gratify
this desire; and even his rich uncle, the
celebrated banker, Solomon Heine, in Hamburg, on
whose bounty the whole family in reality lived,
preferred to have the youth become a clever
merchant. So his father in 1815 took him to the

Frankfort Fair (Messe) and placed him there
with the banking firm of M. G. Rindskopf. But
the position was not long to Harry's taste nor
was a grocery more endurable. After a short
time he returned to Düsseldorf. The attempt
was now made to have him settle in Hamburg
first in his uncle's counting-house and then in
an independent concern of his own, which was
a branch of his father's business. But he
showed little talent as a merchant and in 1815
his firm failed.

In the three gloomy years at Hamburg,
however, Heine became a poet. Under the pseudonym
“Sy Freudhold Riesenharf” appeared in
those days in a Hamburg magazine his first
‘Traumbilder’ and poems. A luckless love for
his rich uncle's fair daughter Amelia filled his
heart and aroused those lamentations of deep
sorrow which formed the basis of his poetry.
The well known poem, “A youth loves a
maiden, who chose another” contained almost
literally his entire heart's romance. After it
was shown that Heine had absolutely no
mercantile ability, his uncle finally consented that
he might study law.

In October 1819 he entered the University
of Bonn, which had just been reopened. A
fresh and stimulating spirit prevailed at this
university both among teachers and pupils.
Men like Angust Wilhelm v. Schlegel, who
interested himself very much in the young poet;
E. A. Arndt and others, belonged to the teaching
staff. Among the students we find names
like Wolfgang Menzel, Hoffmann v. Fallersleben,
Hengstenberg, etc. His special friends
were Friedrich Steinmann, J. B. Rousseau and
Josef Neunzig. In the vacation, after the first
year of study, Heine resided in the little town
Beuel, near Bonn, and there he worked on his
first tragedy, ‘Almansor,’ the plot of which
was placed in the period of Moorish decline in
Spain. In the poem, however, Heine wished to
present a picture of the battles which Judaism
in Germany had to endure. ‘Almansor’ is a
lamentation of crushed and persecuted Judaism.
From Bonn Heine went to Göttingen, whose
faculty of law was quite famous at that time.
But he did not enjoy its instruction very long,
for he had to leave the university on account of
a duel, and in February 1821 came to Berlin.

His choice of Berlin was fortunate for the
young poet. A vigorous intellectual
atmosphere prevailed in that era in the Prussian
capital. Before everything else he was attracted
by the best salon in which Rahel Varnhagen
von Ense had her special circle, with a coterie
of brilliant spirits. Both she and her husband
quickly recognized the poetical power in Heine
and admitted him to close intimacy. Her
brother, Leopold Robert, who was also a poet,
was exceedingly friendly to him, and his wife
Friedricka aroused Heine's enthusiastic adoration
in sonnets and songs. The second coterie
which fascinated Heine was a round table of
young poets who gathered in Lutter and
Wegener's restaurant, made famous by Ludwig
Devrient and E. T. A. Hoffman, which was to
become the scene of more than one carouse.
These men were Christian Dietrich Grabbe,
Friedrich v. Uechtritz, Karl Köchy, L.
Gustorf and others. A third circle formed the
greatest possible contrast to the others and in
this, perhaps, Heine felt more at home. It was

a small body of young men who in a time of
general apostasy from Judaism, assumed as
their task the reform and development of Judaism
which then was regarded as in its decline.
At the head of these resolute workers stood
Eduard Gans, the celebrated jurist; Moses
Moser, a merchant, whom his friend Heine
called a living epilogue to Lessing's ‘Nathan,’
and Leopold Zunt (q.v.), the immortal founder
of that branch of critical research called the
science of Judaism. Heine took the deepest
interest in the labors, hopes and disappointments
of this society. A monument of his love for
the general cause which was abandoned by
them, is embodied in his romance ‘The Rabbi
of Bacharach,’ which was then begun but
unfortunately remains a torso. In Berlin, too, the
university fairly fascinated bim. In particular
the philosopher Hegel (q.v.) made a deep
impression on the young poet, whose first poems
were issued by a Berlin firm in 1823 and
aroused general interest, and he was termed a
successor of Byron, the first poet of
“Weltschmerz” in Germany. Varnhagen v. Ense and
Karl Immermann, both famous writers of the
time, showed special ardor in directing the
public's attention to the young poet, the new
star on the literary horizon, who was already
arousing general comment by his ‘Tragedie’
(Almansor and Ratcliffe) as well as by his
‘Lyrical Intermezzo’ which appeared in a volume
at the same publishers'. When Heine in
1824 went for a second time to Göttingen, in
order to undergo his doctor's examination, he
was already a well-known personality in literary
circles. During this period of his second
stay in Göttingen occurred an act on his part
which is wholly unintelligible, judged by his
previous labors, his writings and letters and
which can only be explained by the sad
conditions of the time — on 28 June 1825 at
Heligenstadt, near Göttingen, he embraced the
Protestant religion. Clearly this act was done only
to promote his professional career, for his
sympathies in increased degree remained on
the side of his coreligionists. Heine regretted
the step his entire life.

HEINRICH HEINE

After his graduation as doctor of law he
returned to Hamburg. But all his efforts to maintain
his hold there or in Berlin were unavailing
despite his baptism. The failure was due either
to the prejudices of the time or to other
drawbacks. So Heine devoted himself wholly to
literature. Two years earlier he made a journey
from Göttingen to the Harz Mountains, in
the course of which he visited Goethe at
Weimar, but met a rather cool reception. This
journey he now described in his ‘Harzreise,’
which had many readers who were delighted
with the new and fresh tone in which the varied
and picturesque experiences were narrated. In
the years 1826-31 Heine's rank as poet was
firmly established. That period forms the
crown of his life and activity — his high-water
mark of achievement. The four volumes,
‘Reisebilder’ (‘Pictures of Travel’), published
1820-31, showed him from an entirely different
point of view. His ‘Buch der Lieder’ (‘Book
of Songs’) gave on the other hand a faithful
picture of his lyrical skill, which also struck
entirely new paths. Heine had emerged from
romanticism. He knew its mysteries and magic
spells. Close thereby, or rather far above it,

stood the well of German popular poetry, out
of whose depths he drew such wealth as no
other German poet had accomplished. Goethe
and Uhland, Brentano and Wilhelm Miller
were not without their influence on the matter
as well as the metrical form of his poems; yet
he was original and his songs aroused a
practical revolution in the world of German poesy.

The secret of his originality and of the
marvelous influence which he exercised not only
on his contemporaries, but also on every age,
lies in the peculiar charm which characterizes
these songs, as they sound the tenderest tones
of the heart, and then in cutting dissonances
shatter the sentimental quality which is at their
basis, thus producing a humorous-poetical
effect incomparable in its way. The subjectivity
with which Heine wove his sorrows,
whether trivial or serious, in the warp and
woof of his verse, was something unheard of
in the history of German poetry. There was as
little hypocrisy in his feeling of sorrow
(Weltschmerz) as in that of Lord Byron, but it was
truer and deeper, because it was blended with
the Jews' sorrow from gray antiquity. His
pictures and thoughts, his Oriental sensuousness
and his German sensitiveness, all this in its
combination formed a poetical ensemble which
was to destroy romanticism, with its fairyland
of legends and to construct the poetry of a
new age and a new generation. The verse
included a mass of new poetical material; for
instance, the description of the sea in the
splendid-colored North Sea pictures. In marked
contrast was the wonderful effect produced by
the form of the poems, which, apparently somewhat
careless, was really intentional and just
adapted to elevate the mood. With his ‘Book
of Songs’ Heine became at once the first German
poet of his time. His prose writings
exercised in those days a similar influence. Heine
loosened the tongue of the modern man of
culture; he taught him what and why he suffers.
In an age which was gloomy, depressed and
poor in deeds, he unfurled the banner of freedom
and announced to the young generation
the dawn of new days which had to come.
While much in his ‘Pictures of Travel’ was of
transient worth and importance for the
history of civilization, of permanent value was the
blending of humor and sentiment, wit, and
earnest reflection, wherein following his great
predecessors, men like Laurence Sterne, Jean
Paul and others he created an entirely new
genre. The modern Feuilleton rest wholly on
Heine's prose. The “Young Germany” school
which gave the death-stroke to romanticism
in the 30's of the past century followed in his
steps. His travel picture and sketch remained
for decades a model for young German writers
after which to pattern their prose.

Despite his popularity, however, Heine could
never attain a life of entire self-reliance in the
conditions of his age. His steady dependence
on his rich uncle, who let his nephew feel his
power, embittered his stay in Hamburg.
Accordingly in 1827 he accepted the offer of
Cotta, the publisher, to assume the editorship
of the Munich Political Annals. But he
continued at this work only one winter; then he
undertook a journey to Italy, which he
described in his incomparable fashion in his
‘Pictures of Travel.’ He expected to receive
on his return a professorship at the Munich

University, which the Bavarian Minister Eduard
v. Schenck desired to secure for him from
the king; but owing to the intrigues of the
clericals all efforts in Heine's behalf were
unavailing. In 1828 he was recalled from his
Italian trip by the news of his father's death
— a man whom Heine had most tenderly loved.
The following years were occupied in violent
attacks on the poet August v. Platen and his
followers, whom Heine regarded as his worst
foes, besides literary labors and traveling. When
the intelligence of the July Revolution in Paris
reached him, the poet could no longer endure
the home atmosphere, while the powerful
Austrian Chancellor, Metternich, who found
refreshing youth “in the melancholy waters of his
lyric,” warned him that he was not entirely
secure from persecution. It was on a May day
in 1831 when Heine forsook his fatherland, of
course of his own accord, but in the firm
conviction that sooner or later he would suffer the
fate of all those who were leaders of freedom
in Germany.

In Paris Heine labored from the very start
at the great task of his life — to promote an
understanding between the French and the
Germans. His correspondence in the Augsburger
Allgemeine Zeitung, his book on ‘The
Romantic School,’ his contributions to ‘The
History of Religion and Philosophy in German,’
are devoted to this great purpose. The first
appeared in 1832 as ‘French Conditions’; the
others — with literary sketches, reflections on
the drama and art, poems, etc., as ‘Salon’ (4
vols., 1832-36). The persecution which the
German Diet set in motion against the “Young
Germany” school of writers, leading to the ban
against their works, was an act of mediævalism
which affected the poet deeply. His only
compensation was his recognition in his fatherland,
the esteem in which he was held in France
and the love of a beautiful young Frenchwoman,
Mathilde Creszentia Mirat, whom he
married in 1841, after having lived with her
many years. Despite many storms and although
his wife had no idea of her husband's eminence,
the marriage was a happy one. The heavy
material burden which she obliged Heine to
assume forced him in 1836 to receive from the
French government, when Guizot was head of
the Ministry, a pension of 4,800 francs — a
charity which France at that time bestowed on
all prominent fugitives. It is to be understood,
however, that Heine incurred thereby no obligation
to praise or defend the political administration.
Nevertheless, later he was violently
attacked for this step.

The death of his rich uncle from whom he
received an annual sum of 4,000 francs threw
him into a terrible state. He was not mentioned
in the will, and anxiety was added lest his
cousin Carl Heine would refuse the further
payment of his stipend unless he would submit his
writings to a rigid censure by the family.
Violent conflicts followed that cost the poet his rest
and his health, which last had long been undermined.
A severe nervous trouble had tortured
him from his youth, and now as added illness
came paralysis of the eye. In 1843-44 Heine
visited his old mother in Hamburg. The poetical
description of his journey in the winter tale
‘Germany,’ which appeared in 1846 with his
‘New Poems,’ and the epic poem ‘Atta Troll,’
which was issued in 1837, showed an entirely

new line of poetical genius; for both these
satirical epics are pearls of poesy.  Since 1848
Heine was practically chained to his bed of
illness — his famous “mattress grave.” He bore
his sufferings, however, with true heroism; his
intellectual power was not weakened. But a
great religious change took place which led
him back through the Bible to belief in God
and to the memories of his race. The two great
works of the last period of his life, ‘Romancero’
(1851) and ‘Confessions’ (in ‘Lutetia,’ 3 vols.,
1854), are proofs of this great change, both in
poetry and prose. Once more did the poet
reveal himself to his admirers in agonizing strains
of sorrow, in classical ballads, in Hebrew
melodies, in profound lamentations of vivid
effectiveness. Once more steps the great writer
before us, and in prose of the loftiest beauty
and strength he seeks to answer the most vital
questions of our human existence.

On 17 Feb. 1856 he died after much suffering.
He rests at Montmartre, next lo his wife.
His grave is adorned with a monument, the
work of the sculptor Hasselriis. An artistic
memorial was erected by an enthusiastic
admirer, the late Empress Elizabeth of Austria,
at her country palace Achilleion, near Corfu
in the Ionian Sea, with its classic memories.
The continued efforts, however, made to place
a memorial to the poet in his home on the
Rhine have so far been fruitless, and have
but led to bitterest conflicts between clericals
and anti-Semites on the one side and the large
body of his admirers on the other. It is not
without significance that the Lorelei fountain,
which could find no lodgment in Germany, has
been placed in New York, the metropolis of
the United States, a country where Charles G.
Leland's translation of the ‘Pictures of Travel’
appeared in 1855, and where the poet's works
have appeared in numerous editions and
translations. The poet's body of admirers grows
from day to day, and with this vast congregation
of thoughtful men and women in every
land the history of literature, judging without
prejudice, gladly recognizes Heine as the
greatest German lyric poet, after Goethe, and
as one who is and will remain among the most
illustrious poets in the world's literature

Bibliography. — Although the first collected
edition of Heine's works by A. Strodtmann (22
vols., Hamburg 1861-66) was not brought out
until some time after his death, there have been
published very many other editions since then.
Of these the most important are by G. Karpeles
(Hamburg 1885 and Berlin 1893) and by E.
Elster (Leipzig 1887-90). There have been
almost innumerable editions of his separate works.
A very large number of his poems have been
set to music, not only by German composers,
but also by composers in many other countries.
Almost equally as numerous are the translations
of his works into different languages, especially
into English and French. Of his collected
works the most important translations are
‘Oeuvres Complètes’ (14 vols., Paris 1852-68)
and ‘The Works of Heinrich Heine’ (13 vols.,
New York 1892-1905). There are also a number
of English translations of his poems, the
most recent and in many respects the best and
most careful being that by Louis Untermeyer
(New York 1917). Both books and magazine
articles on Heine's work and life have been

written in vast numbers in many languages. A
very careful and exhaustive bibliography of
these is to be found in Goedeke, K., ‘Grundriss
der Deutschen Dichtung’ (Vol. VIII, Dresden
1908) which also contains a very complete list
of editions and translations. Consult Amiot,
C. G., ‘Henri Heine et la Guerre Actuelle’ (in
Revue Hebdomodaire, Vol, VI, p. 214, Paris
1916); Arnold, Matthew, ‘Essays in Criticism’
(1st series, New York 1883); Bartels, A.,
‘Heinrich Heine’ (Dresden 1906); Bienenstock,
M., ‘Das Judische Element in Heines Werken’
(Leipzig 1910); Brandes, G., ‘Main Currents
in 19th Century Literature’ (6 vols., New York
1906); Brauweiler, E., ‘Heines Prosa’ (in
Litterarhistorische Gesellschaft Bonn, Schriften
N. F., Vol IX, Berlin 1915); Dowden, E.,
‘Essays, Modern and Elizabethan’ (New York
1910); Eliot, George, ‘Essays’ (London 1884);
Embden, L. van, ‘Heinrich Heines Familienleben’
(Hamburg 1892); Frank, M. M., ‘When
Heine was Twenty-one’ (in ‘Short Plays about
Famous Authors,’ New York 19l5); Fürst, R.,
‘Heinrich Heines Leben, Werke und Briefe’
(Leipzig 1910); Howells. W. D., ‘My Literary
Passions’ (New York 1895); Karpeles, G.,
‘Heinrich Heine’ (Leipzig 1899); Keiter, H.,
‘Heinrich Heine’ (Köln 1906); Lichtenberger,
H., ‘Henri Heine Penseur’ (Paris 1905);
Plotke, G. J., ‘Heinrich Heine als Dichter des
Judentums’ (Dresden 1913); Reu, H., ‘Heine
und die Biebel’ (Munich 1908); Sachs, H. B.,
‘Heine in America’ (in Americana Germanica,
No. XXIII, Philadelphia 1916); Samuel, H. B.,
‘Modernities’ (New York 1914); Selden, C.,
‘Les derniers jours de Henri Heine’ (Paris
1884); Stigand, W., ‘Life, Work and Opinions of
Heinrich Heine’ (2 vols., London 1875); Stork,
C. W., ‘Heine and Tennyson’ (in Haverford
Essays, p. 153, Haverford 1909); Treitschke,
H. von, ‘History of Germany in the 19th
Century’ (4 vols., New York 1915-18); Vacano,
S., ‘Heine und Sterne’ (Berlin 1907); Walter,
H., ‘Heine, the Political Refugee’ (in McGill
University Magazine, Vol. XVI, p. 484, Montreal
1917).