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{{Short description|German poet, writer, and literary critic (1797–1856)}}
{{About|the German writer and poet|the German train route|Heinrich Heine (train)|the German mathematician|Heinrich Eduard Heine}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox writer
| name         = Heinrich Heine
| image        = Heinrich Heine-Oppenheim.jpg
| alt          =
| pseudonym    =
| birth_name    = Harry Heine
| birth_date   = {{Birth date|1797|12|13|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Düsseldorf]], [[Duchy of Berg]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|1856|2|17|1797|12|13|df=y}}
| death_place   = Paris, [[Second French Empire]]
| occupation   = Poet, essayist, journalist, literary critic
| nationality  = German
| alma_mater   = [[University of Bonn|Bonn]], [[Humboldt University of Berlin|Berlin]], [[University of Göttingen|Göttingen]] ([[Doctor of Law#Germany|PhD]])
| movement     = [[Romanticism]]
| notableworks = {{plainlist|
*''[[:de:Buch der Lieder (Heine)|Buch der Lieder]]''
*''Reisebilder''
*''[[Die Harzreise|The Harz Journey]]''
*''[[Germany. A Winter's Tale]]''
*''Atta Troll''
*''Romanzero''
*''Geständnisse''}}
| spouse       = {{Marriage|Mathilde Heine|1841}}
| partner      =
| children     =
| relatives    = {{plainlist|
*[[Salomon Heine]] (uncle)
*[[Gustav Heine von Geldern|Gustav Heine]] (brother)
*[[Karl Marx]] (3rd cousin)}}
| awards       =
| signature    = Heinrich Heine signature.svg
| website      =
| portaldisp   =
| imagesize    = 
}}

'''Christian Johann Heinrich Heine'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|aɪ|n|ə}}; {{IPA|de|ˈhaɪnʁɪç ˈhaɪnə|lang|De-Heinrich Heine.ogg}}}} (born '''Harry Heine'''; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and [[literary criticism|literary critic]]. He is best known outside Germany for his early [[lyric poetry]], which was set to music in the form of ''[[Lied]]er'' (art songs) by composers such as [[Felix Mendelssohn]], [[Robert Schumann]] and [[Franz Schubert]]. Today, Heine is perhaps best remembered for coining the phrase “Where books burn, so do people.”<ref>{{Cite web |last=Heine |first=Heinrich |date=1821 |title=Almansor |url=https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Seite:Tragoedien_nebst_einem_lyrischen_Intermezzo_148.jpg |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=de.wikisource.org |language=de}}</ref>

Heine's later verse and prose are distinguished by their satirical wit and irony. He is considered a member of the [[Young Germany]] movement. His radical political views led to many of his works being [[Censorship in Germany|banned by German authorities]]—which, however, only added to his fame.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VnIjAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Heine+became+famous+because+of+censorship,+%22 |title=Censorship: Gabler, Mel, and Norma Gabler-President's Commission on Obscenity and Pornography |last=Amey |first=L.J. |date=1 January 1997 |publisher=Salem Press |isbn=9780893564469 |page=350 |language=en |quote=Ironically, Heine became famous because of censorship, particularly after he wrote a political cycle of poems entitled ''[[Germany. A Winter's Tale]]'' in 1844 that was immediately banned throughout the confederation}}</ref> He spent the last 25 years of his life as an [[expatriate]] in Paris.

As an exile in Paris, Heine became a celebrity avatar reflective of the liberal and cosmopolitan values of the mainstream press.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Franzen |first=Jonathan |url=http://archive.org/details/krausprojectessa0000fran |title=The Kraus project : essays by Karl Kraus |date=2014 |publisher=New York, NY : Picador USA |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-1-250-05603-0 |pages=15, 16 |translator-last=Franzen |translator-first=Jonathan}}</ref><ref name="Kruse 2016">{{Cite book |last=Kruse |first=Joseph Anton |title=Heine und die Folgen |date=2016 |publisher=J.B. Metzler Verlag |isbn=978-3-476-02652-1 |location=Stuttgart}}</ref> To make “an appeal to Heine” was to make an appeal to these values.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kruse |first=Joseph A. |date=1989 |title=Heine und die Französische Revolution |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23899076 |journal=Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=325–339 |doi=10.1163/157007389X00280 |jstor=23899076 |issn=0044-3441}}</ref><ref name=":0">[[Karl Kraus (writer)|Karl Kraus]] (1910-it went through many editions in the following years). “Heine and the Consequences.” ''The Kraus project : essays by Karl Kraus''. Translated by Franzen, Jonathan. Internet Archive. New York, NY : Picador USA. pp.&nbsp;1-135 {{ISBN|978-1-250-05603-0}}.</ref>

In particular, Heine is accused by [[Karl Kraus (writer)|Karl Kraus]] of being the vector by which the ''[[feuilleton]]'' spread from France to Germany.<ref name=":1" /> In the [[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]] Heine’s name was invoked as an archetype of the extraordinarily influential Jewish opinion columnist and uber-literati.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/the-third-reich-sourcebook-anson-rabinbach-sander-l.-gilman-z-library |title=The Third Reich Sourcebook |publisher=University of California |editor-last=Ed. Anton Rabinbach & Sander Gilman |pages=196, 222, 447, 474–75, 630}}</ref> [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler’s]] propaganda minister [[Joseph Goebbels|Goebbels]] wanted to purge the German language of Heinrich Heine’s influence but, according to a 1937 article in the [[The New York Times|New York Times]], found that doing so proved impossible in practice.<ref>{{Cite news |last=TIMES |first=Wireless to THE NEW YORK |date=1937-05-02 |title=GOEBBELS OPPOSES REWRITING HISTORY; Differs With Nazis Who Would Revaluate German Past in Light of Their Ideas; NATIONAL PRIZES AWARDED; Jannings Gets Film Honor and Elite Guard Official That for the Best Book |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1937/05/02/archives/goebbels-opposes-rewriting-history-differs-with-nazis-who-would.html |access-date=2025-07-03 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="joest082">{{cite journal |author=Erhard Jöst |author-link=:de:Erhard Jöst |date=December 2008 |title=Eine spannungsgeladene Wirkungsgeschichte |url=https://literaturkritik.de/id/12520 |journal=Literaturkritik |pages=520 |quote=Schließlich wurde als Ziel der NS-Kulturpolitik ausgegeben, den Dichter totzuschweigen. Dabei waren Heines Werke anfangs von dem generellen Verbot nicht betroffen, erst ab dem April 1940 fielen sie ebenfalls unter die pauschale Indizierung jüdischen Schrifttums. |trans-quote=Ultimately, it was formulated as the goal of National Socialist cultural policy to silence the poet. However, his works were initially not covered by a general ban, only in April 1940 did they fall under the blanket indexing of Jewish literature. |number=12 |language=de}}</ref>

But even before that, these associations accrued to Heine and his name became a symbol of the values and manners—both good and bad—of the liberal press.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Scholem |first1=Gershom Gerhard |url=http://archive.org/details/lifeinletters19100gers |title=A life in letters, 1914-1982 |last2=Skinner |first2=Anthony David |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-674-00642-3 |pages=8, 312 |quote=Re: the belief in the messianic potentials of technological progress, anti-philosophical values in favor of commodities and commodified metaphors}}</ref><ref>Willi Goetschel, "Heine's Aesthetics of Dissonance," The Germanic Review 90 (2015), p. 304 ff. See also Willi Goetschel, "German Studies in a Post-National Age," Rutgers German Studies Occasional Papers 9 (2009), pp. 13-17.</ref><ref>“תקצירי המאמרים באנגלית / English Abstracts of Hebrew Articles.” ''Kesher / קשר'', no. 22, 1997, pp. 9e–22e. ''JSTOR'', <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/23913696</nowiki>. Accessed 3 July 2025.</ref>

==Heine’s contribution==
Heine was largely beloved as a popular poet, but he is often recalled by his most relentless critics as a champion of the ''[[feuilleton]]'' and thus of the way that culture was promoted by the newspaper in the 19th and early 20th century overall.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stefan Zweig |url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.176552 |title=The World Of Yesterday |date=1943 |pages=86–93 |quote=Zweig’s characterization of the feuilleton gives a well-disposed and generous reading of the form as a whole in terms of the influence it attains by the turn of the century}}</ref> In this sense, he has a continuing influence despite many changes to the format and style of newspapers over the years. Both aspects of his career were important to his fame.

The ''[[feuilleton]]'' had been invented in France as an esoteric means by which criticism of Napoleon’s regime could pass under the radar of censors while remaining on the front page of the newspaper:<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |date=1900-11-03 |title=The Feuilleton: Its Effect Upon Journalism in France |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-buffalo-commercial-the-feuilleton-i/82910143/ |access-date=2025-07-03 |work=The Buffalo Commercial |pages=7}}</ref> by concealing their political polemics against the Napoleonic dictatorship as art criticism, early journalists found they were able to avoid censure and continue publishing their views.<ref name=":3" /> In this sense, the ''feuilleton'' is an ancestor to the Art & Culture section of the newspaper and the talk of the town, but it is also ancestral to the notion that the arts should critique and resist oppressive [[Hegemony|political hegemony]].<ref>“Introduction by Michael Jennings” to [[Walter Benjamin|Walter Benjamin’s]] ''One Way St.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2016 pp. i-xxx</ref> In the literature establishing and recalling his legacy, Heine is often held responsible for scaling the effects of this form across Europe.<ref name=":1"/><ref name="Kruse 2016"/>

By the pinnacle of his career, Heine was friends with both [[Karl Marx]] and [[James Mayer de Rothschild|Baron de Rothschild]],<ref name=":4" /> and Heine’s 1841 article on [[James Mayer de Rothschild|Rothschild]] provides an example of Heine’s maintenance of a stance of ambiguity on political questions.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Letter XXXI by Heine 1841 |url=https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/heine/lutece/ch31.htm |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> Almost every statement in Heine's characterization of Rothschild, a powerful banker, could be read either as a denunciation or a bracingly back-handed compliment—a paean that apotheosizes the power and influence of bankers with cheerful good humor of a spectator who stands in awe of this icon of the same.<ref name=":5" /> Whereas Marx never ceased to foment revolution, Heine’s work became more palliative, increasingly popular, and gradually more representative of liberal values as these values became established norms over the course of the 19th century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Thomas |first=Gutmann |date=2006-01-13 |title=Heine nach 1945 |url=https://www.bpb.de/shop/zeitschriften/apuz/29977/heine-nach-1945/ |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=bpb.de |language=de}}</ref><ref name="jewishcurrents.org">{{Cite web |title=Heinrich Heine and His Cousin, Karl Marx |url=https://jewishcurrents.org/heinrich-heine-and-his-cousin-karl-marx |access-date=2025-07-03 |website=Jewish Currents |language=en}}</ref><ref>“Heine the Dreamer” in Hannah Arendt’s ''The Jewish Writings''  pp. 277-283</ref>

“Heine always remained closer to the [[Henri de Saint-Simon|Saint Simonean’s]] than to Marx,” writes a reviewer from ''[[Jewish Currents]].'' <ref name="jewishcurrents.org"/> As has been noted by [[Walter Benjamin]] and others, individuals (and their consortiums backed by the French [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]]) associated with [[Henri de Saint-Simon|Saint Simone’s]] flavor of socialism invented the public stock-offering as a preferred form of liberation over the more direct forms of armed revolution preferred by the communists along with various other financial instruments.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Benjamin |first=Walter |url=http://archive.org/details/arcadesproject1999benj |title=The arcades project |date=1999 |publisher=Cambridge, MA. : Belknap Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-674-04326-8 |pages=572, 581, 585, 732}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Morton |first=Frederic |url=http://archive.org/details/rothschildsfamil0000mort |title=The Rothschilds : a family portrait |date=1962 |publisher=New York : Atheneum |others=Internet Archive |pages=126–141}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Arendt |first=Hannah |title=The Jewish writings |date=2007 |publisher=Schocken Books |isbn=978-0-8052-4238-6 |editor-last= |editor-first= |edition= |location=New York |pages=120–121 |chapter=Antisemitism & The Enlightenment |quote=Contains detailed notes of Heine’s relationship to this subject}}</ref> The [[Henri de Saint-Simon|Saint Simoneans]] generally did not object to financial instruments or the accumulation of wealth—they were more opposed to laziness and inactivity, than they were inclined towards the leveling of social classes.

[[Walter Benjamin]] elaborates that,”Journalism [in relation to Heine’s contribution] is clearly seen as the expression of the changed function of language in the world of high capitalism. The empty phrase […] is the label that makes a thought marketable.”<ref>[[Walter Benjamin]]. “Karl Kraus”(1931) collected in ''One Way Street & Other Writings'' Verso Books, p. 260</ref>

Heine is at once denounced<ref name=":7">[[Walter Benjamin]]. “Karl Kraus”(1931) collected in [https://ia601408.us.archive.org/29/items/walter-benjamin-one-way-street-and-other-writings/walter-benjamin-one-way-street-and-other-writings.pdf One Way Street & Other Writings] Verso Books, p. 260.</ref> and, by virtue of his massive popularity and influence,<ref name=":4">{{Cite news |last=Hofmann |first=Michael |date=2021-07-22 |title=Heine's Heartmobile |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/07/22/heinrich-heine-heartmobile/ |access-date=2025-07-03 |work=The New York Review of Books |language=en |volume=68 |issue=12 |issn=0028-7504}}</ref> praised as the inventor of the style characteristic of the ''[[feuilleton]]''.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Karl Kraus |url=http://archive.org/details/heineunddiefolg00kraugoog |title=Heine und die Folgen: Schriften zur Literatur |date=1910 |publisher=A. Langen |location=Munich |pages=10, 11 |language=German}}</ref>  He is pilloried as the poet of the “empty phrase.”<ref name=":7" /> Heine is further accused of being the vector by which the feuilleton spread to [[Central Europe]], and thus throughout much of Western Europe.<ref name=":1"/> For [[Karl Kraus (writer)|Kraus]] the model of composition native to the feuilleton of whom Heine serves as his prototype for the form,”is the betrayal of the literary life…Idle chatter is its true substance, and every ''[[feuilleton]]'' poses anew the insoluble question of the relationship between the forces of stupidity and malice, whose expression is gossip.”<ref>[[Walter Benjamin]]. “Karl Kraus”(1931) collected in ''One Way Street & Other Writings'' Verso Books, p. 275</ref>

For [[Karl Kraus (writer)|Karl Kraus]], Heine is the master poet of the empty phrase, by which journalism sets up the dominion of ‘topicality’ as the perfectly ambiguous, value-neutral framework for the interpretation of the world and everything in it.<ref>Walter Benjamin. “Karl Kraus”(1931) collected in One Way Street & Other Writings Verso Books, p. 259</ref><ref name=":1"/> Many, including (strangely enough) [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], appear to find this characterization of Heine to be among his virtues and to be associated with his unparalleled greatness as an author of German prose and poetry.<ref>Nietzsche. [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/52190/52190-h/52190-h.htm Ecce Homo]. page 40</ref>

Praise for Heine from Betty Scholem (mother of [[Kabbalah]] scholar, [[Gershom Scholem]], and [[Bolsheviks|Leninist]] Reichsminister, [[Werner Scholem]]) whose correspondence sent to Jerusalem is often mined by historians for revealing details on a wide variety of subjects<ref>Perhaps most notably the [[Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic|German hyperinflation]] and the appearance of the streets in Berlin [[January 1933|the night]] that Hitler was appointed Chancellor, re: eg by [[Volker Ullrich|Vollker Ullrich]]’s ''Germany, 1923'' 120-121, 235, 237, 338 Werner Scholem p. 333 Arthur 120-121</ref> reflects an exemplary appraisal of Heinrich Heine by a devoted, completist reader of his work.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last1=Scholem |first1=Gershom Gerhard |url=http://archive.org/details/lifeinletters19100gers |title=A life in letters, 1914-1982 |last2=Skinner |first2=Anthony David |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-674-00642-3 |pages=312}}</ref> On [[September 1941|27 September 1941]],<ref>Betty Scholem’s son, [[Werner Scholem]] had been murdered a little over a year before she wrote this letter to her youngest son, [[Gershom Scholem]]. The month that she writes this letter the [https://www.auschwitz.org/en/museum/news/70th-anniversary-of-the-first-mass-gas-killing,848.html first mass-executions by gassing that utilize zyklon-b] as the agent of death are carried out at Auschwitz, killing hundreds of Soviet prisoners. On the day after she posted this letter, Reinhard Heydrich was given executive control of Bohemia as Deputy Reichsminister. Mail took about six to eight days to reach Jerusalem during most of her correspondence with her son, collected in their Briefweschel. By the time this letter reaches Jerusalem several major massacres of Jews in the east have occurred, and the long massacre at [[Babi Yar]] has begun.</ref> she insinuates to her scholarly son that Heine’s writings might be more relevant than an inventory of the mystical documents of [[Judaism]] written in the middle-ages,<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Scholem |first1=Gershom Gerhard |title=Mutter und Sohn im Briefwechsel 1917-1946 |last2=Scholem |first2=Betty |last3=Shedletzky |first3=Itta |date=1989 |publisher=C. H. Beck |isbn=978-3-406-33795-6 |location=München}}</ref> telling him:

<blockquote>“I'm still reading Heine's prose works. One of these days, you really must put together a literary anthology of everything Heine ever said about the Bible, Jews, and Judaism. This would be a most interesting compilation, and of the greatest relevance! The philosophers, he said, do a lot of work for nothing. The world is one large cattle pen, though one that's not as easy to clean as the [[Augean stables]] because, during the shoveling, the oxen remain inside and the dung continues to pile up! What do you say about that! Well put, don't you think?”<ref name=":6" /></blockquote>

==Early life==

===Childhood and youth===
[[File:Betty Heine (Isidor Popper).jpg|thumb|Heine's mother, "Betty"]]
Heine was born on 13 December 1797, in [[Düsseldorf]],<ref>{{NDB|8|286|291|Heine, Heinrich|Galley, Eberhard|118548018}}</ref> in what was then the [[Duchy of Berg]], into a [[Jewish]] family.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dbs.anumuseum.org.il/skn/en/c6/e261377/Personalities/Heinrich_Heine |title=Heroes – Trailblazers of the Jewish People |website=Anu - Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv |access-date=2025-10-05}}</ref> He was called "Harry" in childhood but became known as "Heinrich" after his [[Conversion to Christianity|conversion]] to [[Lutheranism|Lutheran Christianity]] in 1825.<ref>"There was an old rumor, propagated particularly by [[anti-Semites]], that Heine's Jewish name was Chaim, but there is no evidence for it." ''Ludwig Börne: A Memorial'', ed. {{ill|Jeffrey L. Sammons|de}}, Camden House, 2006, p. 13 n. 42.</ref> Heine's father, {{ill|Samson Heine|de}} (1764–1828), was a textile merchant. His mother Peira, [[née]] van Geldern (known as "Betty" or {{ill|Betty Heine|de}}) (1771–1859) was daughter of physician {{ill|Gottschalk van Geldern|de}} (1726–1795) {{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=30–35}} and Sara van Geldern [[née]] Bocková (?-1779).<ref>https://beliana.sav.sk/heslo/heine-heinrich</ref>

Heinrich was the eldest of four children. He had a sister, Charlotte (later {{ill|Charlotte Embden|de}}) (1800–1899), who married merchant {{ill|Moritz Embden|de}} (1790–1866), and two brothers, [[Gustav Heine von Geldern|Gustav]] (1812–1886), later Baron Heine-Geldern and publisher of the Viennese newspaper ''{{ill|Fremden-Blatt|de}}'', and [[Maximilian Meyer Heine|Maximilian]] (1807–1879), who became a physician in [[Saint Petersburg]]. Heine was a third cousin once removed of philosopher and economist [[Karl Marx]] (1818–1883), also born to a German Jewish family in the [[Rhineland]], with whom he became a frequent correspondent in later life.

Düsseldorf at the time was a town with a population of around 16,000. The [[French Revolution]] and subsequent Revolutionary and [[Napoleonic Wars]] involving Germany complicated Düsseldorf's political history during Heine's childhood. It had been the capital of the [[Duchy of Jülich|Duchy of Jülich-Berg]], but was under French occupation at the time of his birth. It then passed to the [[Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria|Elector of Bavaria]] before being ceded to [[Napoleon]] in 1806, who turned it into the capital of the [[Grand Duchy of Berg]], one of three French states he established in Germany. It was first ruled by [[Joachim Murat]], then by Napoleon himself. Upon Napoleon's downfall in 1815, it became part of [[Prussia]].

Thus Heine's formative years were spent under French influence. The adult Heine would always be devoted to the French for introducing the [[Napoleonic Code]] and trial by jury. He glossed over the negative aspects of French rule in Berg: heavy taxation, conscription, and economic depression brought about by the [[Continental Blockade]], which may have contributed to his father's bankruptcy. Heine greatly admired Napoleon as the promoter of revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality and loathed the political atmosphere in Germany after Napoleon's defeat, marked by the conservative policies of the Austrian chancellor [[Klemens von Metternich]], who attempted to reverse the effects of the French Revolution.

Heine's parents were not particularly devout. They sent him as a young child to a Jewish school where he learned a smattering of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], but thereafter he attended Catholic schools. Here he learned French, which became his second language – although he always spoke it with a German accent. He also acquired a lifelong love for Rhenish folklore.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=35–42}}

In 1814, Heine went to a business school in Düsseldorf, where he learned to read English, the commercial language of the time.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|p=47}} The most successful member of the Heine family was his uncle [[Salomon Heine]], a millionaire banker in [[Hamburg]]. In 1816, Heine moved to Hamburg to become an apprentice at Heckscher & Co, his uncle's bank, but displayed little aptitude for business. He learned to hate Hamburg, with its commercial ethos, but it would become one of the poles of his life alongside Paris.

When he was 18, Heine almost certainly had an unrequited love for his cousin Amalie, Salomon's daughter. Whether he then transferred his affections, equally unsuccessfully to her sister Therese is unknown. {{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=42–46}} This period in Heine's life is not clear but it seems that his father's business deteriorated, making Samson Heine effectively the ward of his brother Salomon. {{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=47–51}}

===Universities===
Salomon realised that his nephew had no talent for trade, and it was decided that Heine should enter law. So, in 1819, Heine went to the [[University of Bonn]], then in Prussia. Political life in Germany was divided between conservatives and liberals. The conservatives, who were in power, wanted to restore things to the way they were before the [[French Revolution]]. They were against German unification because they felt a united Germany might fall victim to revolutionary ideas. Most German states were [[absolute monarchy|absolutist monarchies]] with a censored press. The opponents of the conservatives, the liberals, wanted to replace absolutism with representative, constitutional government, equality before the law, and a free press.

At the [[University of Bonn]], liberal students were at war with the conservative authorities. Heine was a radical liberal and one of the first things he did after his arrival was to take part in a parade which violated the [[Carlsbad Decrees]], a series of measures introduced by Metternich to suppress liberal political activity.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|pages=14–15}}

Heine was more interested in studying history and literature than law. The university had engaged the famous literary critic and thinker [[August Wilhelm Schlegel]] as a lecturer, and Heine heard him talk about the {{Lang|de|[[Nibelungenlied]]}} and [[Romanticism]]. Though he would later mock Schlegel, Heine found in him a sympathetic critic for his early verses. Heine began to acquire a reputation as a poet at Bonn. He also wrote two tragedies, ''Almansor'' and ''William Ratcliff'', but they had little success in the theatre.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=55–70}}

After a year at Bonn, Heine left to continue his law studies at the [[University of Göttingen]]. Heine hated the town. It was part of [[Kingdom of Hanover|Hanover]], then also rulers of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the power Heine blamed for bringing Napoleon down.

Here, the poet experienced an aristocratic snobbery absent elsewhere. He hated law as the [[German Historical School|Historical School of law]] he had to study was used to bolster the reactionary form of government he opposed. Other events conspired to make Heine loathe this period of his life: he was expelled from a [[Burschenschaft|student fraternity]] for [[anti-Semitism]], and he learned that his cousin Amalie had become engaged. When Heine challenged another student, Wiebel, to a duel, the first of ten known incidents throughout his life, the authorities stepped in, and he was suspended from the university for six months. His uncle then decided to send him to the [[University of Berlin]].{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=70–74}}

[[File:Friedrich Hegel mit Studenten Lithographie F Kugler.jpg|thumb|Hegel with his Berlin students, by [[Franz Theodor Kugler|Franz Kugler]]]]
Heine arrived in Berlin in March 1821. It was the biggest, most cosmopolitan city he had ever visited, with its population of about 200,000. The university gave Heine access to notable cultural figures as lecturers: the Sanskritist [[Franz Bopp]] and the Homer critic [[Friedrich August Wolf|F. A. Wolf]], who inspired Heine's lifelong love of [[Aristophanes]]. Most important was the philosopher [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegel]], whose influence on Heine is hard to gauge. He probably gave Heine and other young students the idea that history had a meaning which could be seen as progressive.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=74–81}} Heine also made valuable acquaintances in Berlin, notably the liberal [[Karl August Varnhagen von Ense|Karl August Varnhagen]] and his Jewish wife [[Rahel Varnhagen|Rahel]], who held a leading salon.

Another friend was the satirist [[Karl Immermann]], who had praised Heine's first verse collection, ''Gedichte'', when it appeared in December 1821.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=81–85}} During his time in Berlin, Heine also joined the ''Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft der Juden'', a society which attempted to achieve a balance between the Jewish faith and modernity. Since Heine was not very religious in outlook, he soon lost interest, but he also began to investigate [[Jewish history]]. He was particularly drawn to the [[Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain|Spanish Jews of the Middle Ages]]. In 1824, Heine began a historical novel, ''Der Rabbi von [[Bacherach]]'', which he never finished.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=89–96}}<ref>[[:s:The Works of Heinrich Heine/Vol. 1/The Rabbi of Bacharach|The Rabbi of Bacharach]] on Wikisource.</ref>

In May 1823, Heine left Berlin for good and joined his family at their new home in [[Lüneburg]]. Here he began to write the poems of the cycle ''Die Heimkehr'' ("The Homecoming"). He returned to Göttingen where he was again bored by the law. In September 1824, he decided to take a break and set off on a trip through the [[Harz]] mountains. On his return, he started writing an account of it, ''[[Die Harzreise]]''.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=96–107}}

On 28 June 1825, after obtaining his [[Doctor of Law#Germany|PhD]] and to heighten his chances of employment, Heine was baptized as an Evangelical Lutheran [[Christian]] in [[Heilbad Heiligenstadt|Heiligenstadt]]. The Prussian government had been gradually restoring discrimination against Jews. In 1822, it introduced a law excluding Jews from academic posts, and Heine had ambitions for a university career.  As Heine said in self-justification, his conversion was "the ticket of admission into European culture". In any event, Heine's conversion, which was reluctant, never brought him any benefits in his career.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=107–110}}{{sfn|Robertson|1988|pages=84–85}} A quarter of a century later, he declared: "I make no secret of my Judaism, to which I have not returned, because I never left it."<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Historical Atlas of the Jewish People |publisher=Hutchinson |year=1992 |isbn=0-09-177593-0 |editor-last=Barnavi |editor-first=Eli |pages=172–173 |chapter=German Jewry}}</ref>

===Julius Campe and first literary successes===
Heine now had to search for a job. He was only really suited to writing but it was extremely difficult to be a professional writer in Germany. The market for literary works was small and it was only possible to make a living by writing virtually non-stop. Heine was incapable of doing this so he never had enough money to cover his expenses. Before finding work, Heine visited the North Sea resort of [[Norderney]] which inspired the [[free verse]] poems of his cycle ''Die Nordsee''.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=113–118}}

[[File:Heine Buch der Lieder 1827.jpg|thumb|First page of first edition of Heine's ''Buch der Lieder'', 1827]]
In Hamburg one evening in January 1826 Heine met {{ill|Julius Campe|de}}, who would be his chief publisher for the rest of his life. Their stormy relationship has been compared to a marriage. Campe was a liberal who published as many dissident authors as he could. He had developed various techniques for evading the authorities. The laws of the time stated that any book under 320 pages had to be submitted to censorship. The authorities thought long books would cause little trouble as they were unpopular. One way around censorship was to publish dissident works in large print to increase the number of pages beyond 320.

The censorship in Hamburg was relatively lax but Campe had to worry about Prussia, the largest German state and largest market for books. It was estimated that one-third of the German readership was Prussian. Initially, any book which had passed the censor in a German state was able to be sold in any of the other states, but in 1834 this loophole was closed. Campe was reluctant to publish uncensored books as he had bad experiences with print runs being confiscated. Heine resisted all censorship; this issue became a bone of contention between the two.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=118–124}}

However, the relationship between author and publisher started well: Campe published the first volume of ''Reisebilder'' ("Travel Pictures") in May 1826. This volume included ''[[Die Harzreise]]'', which marked a new style of German travel-writing, mixing Romantic descriptions of nature with satire. Heine's ''{{ill|Buch der Lieder|de|Buch der Lieder (Heine)}}'' followed in 1827. This was a collection of already published poems. No one expected it to become one of the most popular books of German verse ever published, and sales were slow to start with, picking up when composers began setting Heine's poems as [[Lieder]].{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=124–126}} For example, the poem "Allnächtlich im Traume" was set to music by [[Robert Schumann]] and [[Felix Mendelssohn]]. It contains the ironic disillusionment typical of Heine:

[[File:Heinrich Heine.jpg|thumb|Heine, 1829]]
<poem lang="de" style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">
Allnächtlich im Traume seh ich dich,
Und sehe dich freundlich grüßen,
Und laut aufweinend stürz ich mich
Zu deinen süßen Füßen.

Du siehst mich an wehmütiglich,
Und schüttelst das blonde Köpfchen;
Aus deinen Augen schleichen sich
Die Perlentränentröpfchen.

Du sagst mir heimlich ein leises Wort,
Und gibst mir den Strauß von Zypressen.
Ich wache auf, und der Strauß ist fort,
Und das Wort hab ich vergessen.</poem>

<poem style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">
Nightly I see you in dreams – you speak,
With kindliness sincerest,
I throw myself, weeping aloud and weak
At your sweet feet, my dearest.

You look at me with wistful woe,
And shake your golden curls;
And stealing from your eyes there flow
The teardrops like to pearls.

You breathe in my ear a secret word,
A garland of cypress for token.
I wake; it is gone; the dream is blurred,
And forgotten the word that was spoken.
(Poetic translation by [[Hal Draper]])</poem>
{{clear|left}}

Starting from the mid-1820s, Heine distanced himself from [[Romanticism]] by adding irony, sarcasm, and satire into his poetry, and making fun of the sentimental-romantic awe of nature and of [[figures of speech]] in contemporary poetry and literature.<ref>''Neue Gedichte'' (New Poems), citing: DHA, Vol. 2, p. 15</ref> An example are these lines:

<poem lang="de" style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">
Das Fräulein stand am Meere
Und seufzte lang und bang.
Es rührte sie so sehre
der Sonnenuntergang.

Mein Fräulein! Sein sie munter,
Das ist ein altes Stück;
Hier vorne geht sie unter
Und kehrt von hinten zurück.</poem>

<poem style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">
A mistress stood by the sea
sighing long and anxiously.
She was so deeply stirred
By the setting sun

My Fräulein!, be gay,
This is an old play;
ahead of you it sets
And from behind it returns.</poem>
{{clear|left}}

The [[blue flower]] of [[Novalis]], "symbol for the [[Romantic movement]]", also received withering treatment from Heine during this period, as illustrated by the following quatrains from ''Lyrisches Intermezzo'':<ref>Perry, Beate Julia, ''Schumann's Dichterliebe and Early Romantic Poetics: Fragmentation of Desire'', Cambridge University Press; 2002, p. 87-88</ref>

<poem lang="de" style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">Am Kreuzweg wird begraben
Wer selber brachte sich um;
dort wächst eine blaue Blume,
Die Armesünderblum'.

Am Kreuzweg stand ich und seufzte;
Die Nacht war kalt und stumm.
Im Mondschein bewegte sich langsam
Die Armesünderblum'.</poem>
<poem style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">At the cross-road will be buried
He who killed himself;
There grows a blue flower,
Suicide’s flower.

I stood at the cross-road and sighed
The night was cold and mute.
By the light of the moon moved slowly
Suicide’s flower.</poem>
{{clear|left}}

Heine became increasingly critical of [[despotism]] and reactionary [[chauvinism]]  in Germany, of nobility and clerics but also what he viewed as “narrow mindedness” of ordinary people and of the rising German form of [[nationalism]], especially in contrast to the French and the [[French Revolution|revolution]]. Nevertheless, he made a point of stressing his love for his [[Fatherland]]:
<blockquote>
Plant the [[Flag of Germany|black, red, gold banner]] at the summit of the German idea, make it the standard of free mankind, and I will shed my dear heart's blood for it. Rest assured, I love the Fatherland just as much as you do.
</blockquote>

===Travel and the Platen affair===
[[File:Platen-Hallermünde, August Graf von.jpg|thumb|Count von Platen, target of Heine's satire in ''Die Bäder von Lucca'']]
The first volume of travel writings was such a success that Campe pressed Heine for another. ''Reisebilder II'' appeared in April 1827. It contains the second cycle of North Sea poems, a prose essay on the North Sea as well as a new work, ''Ideen: Das Buch Le Grand'', which contains the following satire on German censorship:{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=127–129}}<ref>Heine, ''Ideen. Das Buch Le Grand'', Chapter 12</ref>
<poem style="margin-left:2em;">
The German Censors&nbsp; —— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;——
—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;——
—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;——
—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;——
—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;——
—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;——
—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;&nbsp;   idiots  &nbsp;&nbsp; —— &nbsp;——
—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;——
—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;——
—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;——
—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;—— &nbsp;——</poem>

Heine went to England to avoid what he predicted would be controversy over the publication of this work. In [[London]] he cashed a cheque from his uncle for [[pound sterling|£]]200 (equal to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|200|1827}}}} today), much to Salomon's chagrin. Heine was unimpressed by the English: he found them commercial and prosaic, and still blamed them for the defeat of Napoleon.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=129–132}}

On his return to Germany, [[Johann Friedrich Cotta (publisher)|Cotta]], the liberal publisher of [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] and [[Friedrich Schiller|Schiller]], offered Heine a job co-editing a magazine, ''Politische Annalen'', in [[Munich]]. Heine did not find work on the newspaper congenial, and instead tried to obtain a professorship at Munich University, with no success.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=132–138}} After a few months he took a trip to northern Italy, visiting [[Lucca]], Florence and Venice, but was forced to return when he received news that his father had died. This Italian journey resulted in a series of new works: ''Die Reise von München nach Genua'' (''Journey from Munich to Genoa''), ''Die Bäder von Lucca'' (''The Baths of Lucca'') and ''Die Stadt Lucca'' (''The Town of Lucca'').{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=138–141}}

''Die Bäder von Lucca'' embroiled Heine in controversy. The aristocratic poet [[August von Platen-Hallermünde|August von Platen]] had been annoyed by some [[epigram]]s by [[Karl Immermann|Immermann]] which Heine had included in the second volume of ''Reisebilder''. He counter-attacked by writing a play, ''Der romantische Ödipus'', which included anti-Semitic jibes about Heine. Heine was stung and responded by mocking Platen's homosexuality in ''Die Bäder von Lucca''.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=141–147}} This back-and-forth ad hominem literary polemic has become known as the {{Interlanguage link|Platen affair|de|Platen-Affäre}}.

==Paris years==
[[File:La Liberté guidant le peuple - Eugène Delacroix - Musée du Louvre Peintures RF 129 - après restauration 2024.jpg|thumb|[[Eugène Delacroix|Delacroix]]'s ''Liberty Leading the People'', celebrating France's [[1830 revolution]]]]

===Foreign correspondent===

Heine left Germany for France in 1831, settling in Paris for the remainder of his life. His move was prompted by the [[July Revolution]] of 1830 that had made [[Louis-Philippe]] the  "Citizen King" of the French. Heine shared liberal enthusiasm for the revolution, which he felt had the potential to overturn the conservative political order in Europe.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=150–155}} Heine was also attracted by the prospect of freedom from German censorship and was interested in the new French [[Utopianism|utopian]] political doctrine of [[Saint-Simonianism]]. Saint-Simonianism preached a new social order in which [[meritocracy]] would replace hereditary distinctions in rank and wealth. There would also be female emancipation and an important role for artists and scientists. Heine frequented some Saint-Simonian meetings after his arrival in Paris but within a few years his enthusiasm for the ideology – and other forms of utopianism – had waned.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=159–168}}{{sfn|Robertson|1988|pages=36–38}}

Heine soon became a celebrity in France. Paris offered him a cultural richness unavailable in the smaller cities of Germany. He made many famous acquaintances (the closest were [[Gérard de Nerval]], [[Victor Hugo]], [[Frederic Chopin]], [[Hector Berlioz]] and [[Franz Liszt]]) but he always remained something of an outsider. He had little interest in French literature and wrote everything in German, subsequently translating it into French with the help of a collaborator.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=168–171}}
[[File:Heinrich Heine 1837.jpg|thumb|Heine, 1837]]
In Paris, Heine earned money working as the French correspondent for one of Cotta's newspapers, the ''[[Allgemeine Zeitung]]''. The first event he covered was the [[Salon of 1831]]. His articles were eventually collected in a volume entitled ''Französische Zustände'' ("Conditions in France").{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=172–183}} Heine saw himself as a mediator between Germany and France. If the two countries understood one another there would be progress. To further this aim he published ''De l'Allemagne'' ("On Germany") in French (begun 1833). In its later German version, the book is divided into two: ''[[Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland]]'' ("On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany") and ''Die romantische Schule'' ("The Romantic School").{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=188–197}}

Heine was deliberately attacking [[Germaine de Staël|Madame de Staël]]'s book ''[[On Germany|De l'Allemagne]]'' (1813) which he viewed as reactionary, Romantic and obscurantist. He felt de Staël had portrayed a Germany of "poets and thinkers", dreamy, religious, introverted and cut off from the revolutionary currents of the modern world. Heine thought that such an image suited the oppressive German authorities. He also had an [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] view of the past, seeing it as mired in superstition and atrocities. "Religion and Philosophy in Germany" describes the replacement of traditional "spiritualist" religion by a [[pantheism]] that pays attention to human material needs. According to Heine, pantheism had been repressed by Christianity and had survived in German folklore. He predicted that German thought would prove a more explosive force than the French Revolution.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=188–197}}

[[File:Mathilde Heine photography.jpg|thumb|Heine's wife "Mathilde" (Crescence Eugénie Mirat)]]
Heine had had few serious love affairs, but in late 1834, he made the acquaintance of a 19-year-old Paris shopgirl, Crescence Eugénie Mirat, whom he nicknamed "Mathilde". Heine began a relationship with her. She was illiterate, knew no German, and had no interest in cultural or intellectual matters. Nevertheless, she moved in with Heine in 1836 and lived with him for the rest of his life. They were married in 1841.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=197–205}} Condescension typifies the ways in which 'Mathilde' has been presented. For example, Heine's niece, Maria Embden-Heine Rocca, accused her of often disturbing the poet's work in the heat of creativity.<ref>Maria Embden-Heine Rocca, ''Erinnerungen an Heinrich Heine'' (Berlin, 1881)</ref> However, Käthe Freiligrath-Kroecker's memoir of Heine includes the observation that the poet was "positively proud of the fact that his wife was unable to understand what he was to the world."<ref>Käthe Freiligrath-Kroeker, ''Poems Selected from Heinrich Heine'' (London, 1887)</ref> As Keston Sutherland has remarked, "What if she could never understand? What loss was that, to her, or him, or anyone else? Is their love not manifest in the many passages of his poetry that she would never read that luxuriate in the emptiness of understanding...?"<ref>Keston Sutherland, ''Meditations'' (Amsterdam, 2024)</ref>

===Young Germany and Ludwig Börne===
{{more citations needed section|date=August 2022}}
Heine and his fellow radical exile in Paris, [[Ludwig Börne]], had become the role models for a younger generation of writers who were given the name "[[Young Germany]]". They included [[Karl Gutzkow]], [[Heinrich Laube]], [[Theodor Mundt]] and [[Ludolf Wienbarg]]. They were liberal, but not actively political. Nevertheless, they still fell foul of the authorities.

In 1835, Gutzkow published a novel, ''Wally die Zweiflerin'' ("Wally the Sceptic"), which contained criticism of the institution of marriage and some mildly erotic passages. In November of that year, the German Diet consequently banned publication of works by the Young Germans in Germany and – on Metternich's insistence – Heine's name was added to their number. Heine, however, continued to comment on German politics and society from a distance. His publisher was able to find some ways of getting around the censors and he was still free to publish in France.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=205–218}}{{sfn|Robertson|1988|p=20}}

Heine's relationship with his fellow dissident Ludwig Börne was troubled. Since Börne did not attack religion or traditional morality like Heine, the German authorities hounded him less, although they still banned his books as soon as they appeared.

Börne was the idol of German immigrant workers in Paris. He was a republican, while Heine was not. Heine regarded Börne, with his admiration for [[Robespierre]], as a puritanical neo-Jacobin and remained aloof from him in Paris, which upset Börne, who began to criticise him, mostly semi-privately. In February 1837, Börne died. When Heine heard that Gutzkow was writing a biography of Börne, he began work on his own, severely critical "memorial" of the man.

When the book was published in 1840, it was universally disliked by the radicals and served to alienate Heine from his public. Even his enemies admitted that Börne was a man of integrity, so Heine's ''ad hominem'' attacks on him were viewed as being in poor taste. Heine had made personal attacks on Börne's closest friend [[Jeanette Wohl]], so Jeannette's husband challenged Heine to a duel. It was the last Heine ever fought – he received a flesh wound in the hip. Before fighting, he decided to safeguard Mathilde's future in the event of his death by marrying her.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=233–242}}

[[File:Max Liebermann Illustration Der Rabbi von Bacherach.jpg|thumb|An illustration by [[Max Liebermann]] for a 1920s edition of Heine's historical novel ''Der Rabbi von Bacherach'']]
Heine continued to write reports for Cotta's ''Allgemeine Zeitung'', and, when Cotta died, for his son and successor. One event which really galvanised him was the 1840 [[Damascus Affair]] in which Jews in Damascus had been subject to [[blood libel]] and accused of murdering an old Catholic monk. This led to a wave of anti-Semitic persecution.

The French government, aiming at imperialism in the Middle East and not wanting to offend the Catholic party, had failed to condemn the outrage. In contrast, the Austrian consul in Damascus had assiduously exposed the blood libel as a fraud. For Heine, this was a reversal of values: reactionary Austria standing up for the Jews while France temporised. Heine responded by dusting off and publishing his unfinished novel about the persecution of Jews in the Middle Ages, ''Der Rabbi von Bacherach''.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=243–244}}

===Political poetry and Karl Marx===
German poetry took a more directly political turn when the new [[Frederick William IV of Prussia|Frederick William IV]] ascended the Prussian throne in 1840. Initially it was thought he might be a "popular monarch" and during this honeymoon period of his early reign (1840–42) censorship was relaxed. This led to the emergence of popular political poets (so-called ''Tendenzdichter''), including [[Hoffmann von Fallersleben]] (author of ''[[Deutschlandlied]]'', the German anthem), [[Ferdinand Freiligrath]] and [[Georg Herwegh]]. Heine looked down on these writers on aesthetic grounds – they were bad poets in his opinion – but his verse of the 1840s became more political too. Heine's mode was satirical attack: against the Kings of Bavaria and Prussia (he never for one moment shared the belief that Frederick William IV might be more liberal); against the political torpor of the German people; and against the greed and cruelty of the ruling class. The most popular of Heine's political poems was his least typical, ''[[Die schlesischen Weber]]'' ("The Silesian Weavers"), based on the uprising of weavers in [[Peterswaldau]] in 1844.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=253–260}}{{sfn|Robertson|1988|pp=22–23}}

[[File:D02S0150 01JIIz.jpg|thumb|The front page of [[Karl Marx|Marx]]'s ''Vorwärts'', featuring Heine's poem "''Die schlesischen Weber''"]]
In October 1843, Heine's distant relative and German revolutionary, [[Karl Marx]], and his wife [[Jenny von Westphalen]] arrived in Paris after the Prussian government had suppressed Marx's radical newspaper. The Marx family settled in Rue Vaneau. Marx was an admirer of Heine and his early writings show Heine's influence. In December Heine met the Marxes and got on well with them. He published several poems, including ''Die schlesischen Weber'', in Marx's new journal ''Vorwärts'' ("Forwards"). Ultimately Heine's ideas of revolution through sensual emancipation and Marx's [[scientific socialism]] were incompatible, but both writers shared the same negativity and lack of faith in the bourgeoisie.{{Citation needed|date=November 2018|reason=The claim that Heine's ideas of revolution through sensual emancipation and Marx's scientific socialism were incompatible warrants further explanation and a source.}}

In the isolation he felt after the Börne debacle, Marx's friendship came as a relief to Heine, since he did not really like the other radicals. On the other hand, he did not share Marx's faith in the industrial proletariat and remained on the fringes of socialist circles. The Prussian government, angry at the publication of ''Vorwärts'', put pressure on France to deal with its authors, and Marx was deported to Belgium in January 1845. Heine could not be expelled from the country because he had the right of residence in France, having been born under French occupation.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|p=285}} Thereafter, Heine and Marx maintained a sporadic correspondence, but in time their admiration for each other faded.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=260–265}}{{sfn|Robertson|1988|pages=68–70}} Heine always had mixed feelings about [[communism]]. He believed its radicalism and materialism would destroy much of the European culture that he loved and admired.

In the French edition of "Lutetia" Heine wrote, one year before he died: "This confession, that the future belongs to the Communists, I made with an undertone of the greatest fear and sorrow and, oh!, this undertone by no means is a mask! Indeed, with fear and terror I imagine the time, when those dark [[iconoclasm|iconoclasts]] come to power: with their raw fists they will batter all marble images of my beloved world of art, they will ruin all those fantastic anecdotes that the poets loved so much, they will chop down my [[Lauraceae|Laurel]] forests and plant potatoes and, oh!, the herbs chandler will use my Book of Songs to make bags for coffee and snuff for the old women of the future – oh!, I can foresee all this and I feel deeply sorry thinking of this decline threatening my poetry and the old world order – And yet, I freely confess, the same thoughts have a magical appeal upon my soul which I cannot resist .... In my chest there are two voices in their favour which cannot be silenced .... because the first one is that of logic ... and as I cannot object to the premise "that all people have the right to eat", I must defer to all the conclusions....The second of the two compelling voices, of which I am talking, is even more powerful than the first, because it is the voice of hatred, the hatred I dedicate to this common enemy that constitutes the most distinctive contrast to communism and that will oppose the angry giant already at the first instance – I am talking about the party of the so-called advocates of nationality in Germany, about those false patriots whose love for the fatherland only exists in the shape of imbecile distaste of foreign countries and neighbouring peoples and who daily pour their bile especially on France".<ref>Heine's draft for ''Préface'' in the French edition of ''Lutezia'' (1855), DHA, Vol. 13/1, p. 294.</ref>

In October–December 1843, Heine made a journey to Hamburg to see his aged mother, and to patch things up with Campe with whom he had had a quarrel. He was reconciled with the publisher who agreed to provide Mathilde with an annuity for the rest of her life after Heine's death. Heine repeated the trip with his wife in July–October 1844 to see Uncle Salomon, but this time things did not go so well. It was the last time Heine left France.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=265–268}} At the time, Heine was working on two linked but antithetical poems with Shakespearean titles: ''Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen'' (''[[Germany. A Winter's Tale]]'') and ''Atta Troll: Ein Sommernachtstraum'' (''Atta Troll: A Midsummer Night's Dream''). The former is based on his journey to Germany in late 1843 and outdoes the radical poets in its satirical attacks on the political situation in the country.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=268–275}}

''Atta Troll'', begun in 1841 after a trip to the [[Pyrenees]], mocks the literary failings Heine saw in the radical poets, particularly Freiligrath. It tells the story of the hunt for a runaway bear, Atta Troll, who symbolises many of the attitudes Heine despised, including a simple-minded egalitarianism and a religious view which makes God in the believer's image. Atta Troll conceives God as an enormous, heavenly polar bear. Atta Troll's cubs embody the nationalistic views Heine loathed.{{sfn|Robertson|1988|pages=24–26}}

''Atta Troll'' was published in 1847. ''Deutschland'' appeared in 1844 as part of a collection ''Neue Gedichte'' ("New Poems"), which gathered all the verse Heine had written since 1831.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=275–278}} In the same year Uncle Salomon died. This put a stop to Heine's annual subsidy of 4,800 francs. Salomon left Heine and his brothers 8,000 francs each in his will. Heine's cousin Carl, the inheritor of Salomon's business, offered to pay him 2,000 francs a year at his discretion. Heine was furious; he had expected much more from the will and his campaign to make Carl revise its terms occupied him for the next two years.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=278–285}}

In 1844, Heine wrote series of musical [[feuilleton]]s over several different music seasons discussing the music of the day. His review of the musical season of 1844, written in Paris on 25 April 1844, is his first reference to [[Lisztomania (phenomenon)|Lisztomania]], the intense fan frenzy directed toward [[Franz Liszt]] during his performances. Heine was not always honorable in his musical criticism. That same month, he wrote to Liszt suggesting that he might like to look at a newspaper review he had written of Liszt's performance ''before'' his concert; he indicated that it contained comments Liszt would not like.<ref name="Walker, Alan 1997, p. 164">Walker, Alan, ''Franz Liszt: The virtuoso years, 1811–1847'', Cornell University Press; Rev. ed edition, 1997, p. 164</ref>

Liszt took this as an attempt to extort money for a positive review and did not meet Heine. Heine's review subsequently appeared on 25 April in ''Musikalische Berichte aus Paris'' and attributed Liszt's success to lavish expenditures on bouquets and to the wild behaviour of his hysterical female "fans". Liszt then broke relations with Heine. Liszt was not the only musician to be blackmailed by Heine for the nonpayment of "appreciation money". Meyerbeer had both lent and given money to Heine, but after refusing to hand over a further 500 francs was repaid by being dubbed "a music corrupter" in Heine's poem ''Die Menge tut es''.<ref name="Walker, Alan 1997, p. 164"/>

===Last years: the "mattress-grave"===
[[File:Heinrich Heine, teckning av Charles Gleyre.jpg|right|thumb|Heine on his sickbed, 1851]]

In May 1848, Heine, who had not been well, suddenly fell paralyzed and had to be confined to bed. He would not leave what he called his "mattress-grave" (''Matratzengruft'') until his death eight years later. He also experienced difficulties with his eyes.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=295–297}} It had been suggested that he suffered from [[multiple sclerosis]] or [[syphilis]], although in 1997 it was confirmed through an analysis of the poet's hair that he had suffered from chronic [[lead poisoning]].<ref>''{{ill|Bundesgesundheitsblatt|de}}'' (in German). '''48''' (2): 246–250. 2005.</ref>

He bore his sufferings stoically and he won much public sympathy for his plight.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|p=297}} His illness meant he paid less attention than he might otherwise have done to the [[1848 revolutions|revolutions which broke out in France and Germany]] in 1848. He was sceptical about the [[Frankfurt Parliament|Frankfurt Assembly]] and continued to attack the King of Prussia.

When the revolution collapsed, Heine resumed his oppositional stance. At first he had some hope [[Napoleon III|Louis Napoleon]] might be a good leader in France, but he soon began to share the opinion of Marx towards him as the new emperor began to crack down on liberalism and socialism.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=298–302}} In 1848 Heine also returned to religious faith. In fact, he had never claimed to be an atheist. Although Heine was a [[Cultural Christian|Cultural Lutheran Christian]] and believed in [[God]], Heine was [[Skepticism|skeptical]] of organized religion.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=305–310}}

He continued to work from his sickbed: on the collections of poems ''Romanzero'' and ''Gedichte (1853 und 1854)'', on the journalism collected in ''Lutezia'', and on his unfinished memoirs.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=310–338}} During these final years Heine had a love affair with the young [[Camille Selden]], who visited him regularly.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=341–343}} He died on 17 February 1856 and was interred in the Paris [[Cimetière de Montmartre]].

His tomb was designed by Danish sculptor [[Louis Hasselriis]]. It includes Heine's poem ''Where?'' ({{langx|de|Wo?}}) engraved on three sides of the tombstone.

[[File:Das Grab Heines.JPG|thumb|upright|Heine's grave in Paris]]
<poem lang="de" style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">
Wo wird einst des Wandermüden
Letzte Ruhestätte sein?
Unter Palmen in dem Süden?
Unter Linden an dem Rhein?

Werd' ich wo in einer Wüste
Eingescharrt von fremder Hand?
Oder ruh' ich an der Küste
Eines Meeres in dem Sand?

Immerhin! Mich wird umgeben
Gottes Himmel, dort wie hier,
Und als Totenlampen schweben
Nachts die Sterne über mir.</poem>

<poem lang="de" style="margin-left:1em; float:left;">
Where shall I, the wander-wearied,
Find my haven and my shrine? 
Under palms will I be buried?
Under lindens on the Rhine?

Shall I lie in desert reaches,
Buried by a stranger's hand? 
Or upon the well-loved beaches,
Covered by the friendly sand?

Well, what matter! God has given
Wider spaces there than here.
And the stars that swing in heaven
Shall be lamps above my bier.
(translation in verse by L.U.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/poemsofheinrichh00heinuoft/poemsofheinrichh00heinuoft_djvu.txt |title=Poems of Heinrich Heine |access-date=27 February 2019}}</ref>)</poem>
{{clear|left}}

His wife Mathilde died in 1883. The couple had no children.{{sfn|Sammons|1979|pp=343–344}}

==Legacy==
{{Quote box|width=20%|quote=The highest conception of the lyric poet was given to me by Heinrich Heine. I seek in vain in all the realms of millennia for an equally sweet and passionate music. He possessed that divine malice without which I cannot imagine perfection... And how he employs German! It will one day be said that Heine and I have been by far the first artists of the German language.|author=[[Friedrich Nietzsche]]|source=''[[Ecce Homo (book)|Ecce Homo]]''<ref>[[Friedrich Nietzsche]], ''A Nietzsche Reader'', Translated by [[R. J. Hollingdale]], Penguin 1977, p. 147</ref>}}

Among the thousands of books [[book burning|burned]] on Berlin's [[Bebelplatz|Opernplatz]] in 1933, following the [[Nazi]] raid on the [[Institut für Sexualwissenschaft]], were works by Heinrich Heine. To memorialize the event, one of the most famous lines of Heine's 1821 play ''Almansor'', spoken by the Muslim Hassan upon hearing that Christian conquerors burned the [[Quran]] at the marketplace of Granada, was engraved in the ground at the site: {{lang|de|"Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen."}} ("That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people as well.")<ref>Heinrich Heine, [http://hhp.uni-trier.de/Projekte/HHP/Projekte/HHP/searchengine/werke/baende/D05/enterdha?pageid=D05S0016&bookid=D05&lineref=Z34&mode=2&textpattern=koran&firsttid=0&widthgiven=30|Historisch-kritische Gesamtausgabe der Werke]; Hrsg. Manfred Windfuhr (Hamburg 1973-1997), Bd. 5, page 16</ref>

In 1835, 98 years before [[Adolf Hitler]] and the [[Nazi Party]] seized power in Germany, Heine wrote in his essay "The History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany":{{sfn|Reid Busk|2014}}
<blockquote>Christianity – and that is its greatest merit – has somewhat mitigated that brutal Germanic love of war, but it could not destroy it. Should that subduing talisman, the cross, be shattered, the frenzied madness of the ancient warriors, that insane Berserk rage of which Nordic bards have spoken and sung so often, will once more burst into flame. This talisman is fragile, and the day will come when it will collapse miserably. Then the ancient stony gods will rise from the forgotten debris and rub the dust of a thousand years from their eyes, and finally [[Thor]] with his giant hammer will jump up and smash the Gothic cathedrals. ...

Do not smile at my advice – the advice of a dreamer who warns you against Kantians, Fichteans, and philosophers of nature. Do not smile at the visionary who anticipates the same revolution in the realm of the visible as has taken place in the spiritual. Thought precedes action as lightning precedes thunder. German thunder is of true Germanic character; it is not very nimble, but rumbles along ponderously. Yet, it will come and when you hear a crashing such as never before has been heard in the world's history, then you know that the German thunderbolt has fallen at last. At that uproar the eagles of the air will drop dead, and lions in the remotest deserts of Africa will hide in their royal dens. A play will be performed in Germany which will make the French Revolution look like an innocent idyll.{{sfn|Kossoff|1983|pages=125–126}}</blockquote>

The North American Heine Society was formed in 1982.<ref>[https://heine.research.uconn.edu North American Heine Society], [[University of Connecticut]]</ref>

=== Heine in Nazi Germany ===
Heine's writings were abhorred by the Nazis and one of their political mouthpieces, the ''[[Völkischer Beobachter]]'', made noteworthy efforts to attack him. Within the pantheon of the "Jewish cultural intelligentsia" chosen for anti-Semitic demonization, perhaps nobody was the recipient of more National Socialist vitriol than Heinrich Heine.{{sfn|Dennis|2012|pp=110–123}} When a memorial to Heine was completed in 1926, the paper lamented that Hamburg had erected a "Jewish Monument to Heine and Damascus...one in which ''[[Glossary of Nazi Germany#Alljuda|Alljuda]]'' ruled!".<ref>"Ein Heinrich Heine-Denkmal in Hamburg", ''[[Völkischer Beobachter]]'', October 1926; as found in ''Heinrich Heine im Dritten Reich und im Exil'' by [[Hartmut Steinecke]] (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2008), pp. 10-12.</ref>

Editors for the ''Völkischer Beobachter'' referred to Heine's writing as [[Degenerate art|degenerate]] on multiple occasions, as did [[Alfred Rosenberg]].<ref>[[Alfred Rosenberg]], ''[[The Myth of the 20th Century]]''. ([https://archive.org/details/TheMythOfTheTwentiethCentury_400 Text])</ref> Correspondingly, as part of the effort to dismiss and hide Jewish contribution to German art and culture, all Heine monuments were removed or destroyed during [[Nazi Germany]] and Heine's books were suppressed and, from 1940 on, banned.<ref name="joest082"/>

The popularity of many songs to Heine's lyrics represented a problem for the policy of silencing and proposals such as bans or rewriting the lyrics were discussed.<ref name="joest082"/> However, in contrast to an often-made claim,<ref>First in 1935 by [[Walter A. Berendsohn]] (''Der lebendige Heine im germanischen Norden'') and often repeated, e.g., in {{cite journal|journal=Jewish Social Studies|first=Hannah|last=Arendt|author-link=Hannah Arendt|title=The Jew as Pariah: A Hidden Tradition|volume=6|issue=2|year=1944|page=103|quote=Though they dub its author 'unknown', the Nazis cannot eliminate the Lorelei from the repertoire of German song.}}</ref> there is no evidence that poems such as "{{ill|Die Lorelei (song)|de|Die Lore-Ley|lt=Die Lorelei}}" were included in anthologies as written by an "unknown author".<ref>{{cite book |author=Anja Oesterheld |chapter='Verfasser unbekannt'? Der Mythos der Anonymität und Heinrich Heines Loreley |editor=Stephan Pabst |title=Anonymität und Autorschaft. Zur Literatur und Rechtsgeschichte der Namenlosigkeit |publisher=de Gruyter |location=Berlin |date=2011 |pages=325–358 |language=de}}</ref>

===Music===
Many composers have set Heine's works to music. They include [[Robert Schumann]] (especially his Lieder cycle ''[[Dichterliebe]]''), [[Friedrich Silcher]] (who wrote a popular setting of "Die Lorelei", one of Heine's best known poems), [[Franz Schubert]], [[Franz Liszt]], [[Felix Mendelssohn]], [[Fanny Mendelssohn]], [[Johannes Brahms]], [[Hugo Wolf]], [[Richard Strauss]], [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]], [[Edward MacDowell]], [[Clara Ross]], [[Elise Schlick]], [[Elise Schmezer]], [[Sophie Seipt]], [[Charlotte Sporleder]], [[Maria Anna Stubenberg]], [[Pauline Volkstein]], [[Clara Schumann]] and [[Richard Wagner]]; and in the 20th century [[Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners|Lord Berners]], [[Yehezkel Braun]], [[Hans Werner Henze]], [[Paul Lincke]], [[Nikolai Medtner]], [[Carl Orff]], [[Harriet P. Sawyer]], [[Marcel Tyberg]]<ref>[https://buffalonews.com/news/performers-revel-in-premiere-of-tyberg-songs/article_af469c63-9f8d-57bd-9466-bc102ba693ae.html Buffalo News. Performers revel in premiere of Tyberg songs]</ref> and [[Lola Carrier Worrell]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Office|first=Library of Congress Copyright|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDshAQAAIAAJ|title=Musical Compositions: Part 3|date=1908|publisher=Library of Congress.|language=en}}</ref>

Heine's play ''William Ratcliff'' was used for the libretti of operas by [[César Cui]] (''[[William Ratcliff (Cui)|William Ratcliff]]'') and [[Pietro Mascagni]] (''[[Guglielmo Ratcliff]]''). [[Frank Van der Stucken]] composed a "symphonic prologue" to the same play.

In 1964, [[Gert Westphal]] and the [[Attila Zoller|Attila-Zoller]] Quartet released the vinyl "Heinrich Heine Lyrik und Jazz". In 2006 Philips/Universal launched a republication on CD.

[[Wilhelm Killmayer]] set 37 of his poems in [[Song cycles (Killmayer)|his song book]] ''{{lang|de|Heine-Lieder}}'', subtitled ''Ein Liederbuch nach Gedichten von Heinrich Heine'', in 1994.<ref name="Heine">{{cite web
| url = https://www.schott-music.com/en/heine-songs-noc39275.html
| title = Heine Songs
| publisher = [[Schott Music|Schott]]
| access-date = 2025-10-05
}}</ref>

[[Morton Feldman]]'s ''I Met Heine on the Rue Fürstemberg'' was inspired by a vision he had of the dead Heine as he walked through Heine's old neighborhood in Paris: "One early morning in Paris I was walking along the small street on the [[Rive Gauche|Left Bank]] where [[Eugène Delacroix|Delacroix]]'s studio is, just as it was more than a century ago. I'd read his journals, where he tells of [[Chopin]], going for a drive, the poet Heine dropping in, a refugee from Germany. Nothing had changed in the street. And I saw Heine up at the corner, walking toward me. He almost reached me. I had this intense feeling for him, you know, the Jewish exile. I saw him. Then I went back to my place and wrote my work, ''I Met Heine on the Rue Fürstemberg''."<ref>{{cite book|last=Feldman|first=Morton|author-link=Morton Feldman|editor-last=Friedman|editor-first=B. H.|editor-link=B. H. Friedman|title=Give My Regards to Eighth Street|date=2000|publisher=Exact Change|location=Cambridge|isbn=1-878972-31-6|pages=120–121}}</ref>

===Controversy===
[[File:Heine Bronx 1.jpg|thumb|A statue of [[Lorelei]], the [[Lorelei Fountain]] – Heine Memorial – is located in the Bronx, New York City.]]
In the 1890s, amidst a flowering of affection for Heine leading up to the centennial of his birth, plans were made to honor Heine with a memorial. These were strongly supported by one of Heine's greatest admirers, [[Elisabeth of Bavaria]], Empress of Austria. The empress commissioned a statue from the sculptor [[Louis Hasselriis]].<ref name="Levy (2005)" /> This statue, originally located at [[Achilleion (Corfu)|Achilleion]], Empress Elisabeth's palace in Corfu, was later removed by [[Kaiser Wilhelm II]] after he acquired Achilleion in 1907,<ref name="Shanks (1996)">{{cite book |last1=Shanks |first1=Michael |title=Classical Archaeology of Greece: Experiences of the Discipline |date=1996 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=9780415085212 |page=169 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q8DoQ8SQPP8C&pg=PA169 |language=en}}</ref> but it eventually found a home in [[Toulon]].<ref name="Levy (2005)">Richard S. Levy, Heine Monument Controversy, in ''Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution'', ABC-CLIO, 2005, p.295</ref>  This became the inspiration for [[Tony Harrison]]'s 1992 [[film-poem]], ''[[The Gaze of the Gorgon]]''.<ref name="Shanks (1996)" />

Another memorial, a sculpted fountain, was commissioned for [[Düsseldorf]]. While at first the plan met with enthusiasm, the concept was gradually bogged down in [[anti-Semitic]], [[nationalism|nationalist]], and religious criticism; by the time the fountain was finished, there was no place to put it. Through the intervention of [[German American]] activists, the memorial was ultimately transplanted into [[the Bronx]], New York City (in Philadelphia already in 1855 was printed the complete edition of Heine's works in German language).<ref>Rolf Hosfeld, ''Heinrich Heine: Die Erfindung des europäischen Intellektuellen – Biographie'' (Munich 2014), p. 153</ref> While the memorial is known in English as the [[Lorelei Fountain]], Germans refer to it as the Heinrich Heine Memorial.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/realestate/27scap.html "Sturm und Drang Over a Memorial to Heinrich Heine"] by [[Christopher Gray (architectural historian)|Christopher Gray]], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 27 May 2007.</ref> After years of controversy,<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/31/world/west-gemran-universities-what-to-call-them.html "West German Universities: What to Call Them?"] by [[John Vinocur]], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 31 March 1982</ref> the University of Düsseldorf was named [[Heinrich Heine University]]. Today the city honours its poet with a boulevard (Heinrich-Heine-Allee) and a modern monument.{{citation needed|date=October 2025}}

In Israel, the attitude to Heine has long been the subject of debate between [[secular]]ists, who number him among the most prominent figures of [[Jewish history]], and the religious who consider his conversion to Christianity to be an unforgivable act of betrayal. ''Ha-‘Ir'' (''העיר'' – ''The City'', a [[Left-wing politics|left]]-leaning Tel Aviv magazine) sarcastically suggested that "The Exiling of Heine Street" symbolically re-enacted the course of Heine's own life. Since then, a street in the Yemin Moshe neighborhood of Jerusalem<ref>[http://www.HaGalil.com/postcards/jerusalem.htm Jewish Postcards from... haGalil onLine.] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20140804212936/http://www.hagalil.com/postcards/jerusalem.htm |date=4 August 2014 }}</ref> and, in Haifa, a street with a beautiful square and a community center have been named after Heine.{{citation needed|date=October 2025}}

A Heine Appreciation Society is active in Israel, led by prominent political figures from both the left and [[political right|right]] camps. His quote about burning books is prominently displayed in the [[Yad Vashem]] [[Holocaust]] museum in Jerusalem. It is also displayed in the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] and in the pavement in Frankfurt am Main.{{citation needed|date=October 2025}}

<gallery>
File:HeineMonument.jpg|Heine monument in Düsseldorf
File:Heine-Denkmal Frankfurt.JPG|Heine monument in Frankfurt, the only pre-1945 one in Germany
File:Heinrich Heine Brocken 2017.jpg|Monument on Mount [[Brocken]], Germany
File:Waldemar Grzimek - Heinrich-Heine-Denkmal IIb 01.jpg|Heine monument in Berlin
File:Heinrich Heine grave.JPG|Heine's bust on his grave in Montmartre, Paris
File:Heines grab, Gedicht, fot I Nowicka.jpg|The poem ''Where?'' (Wo?) on Heine's grave
File:Heine, der Wandermüde2.jpg|Grave and poem "Wo?"
File:DBP 1956 229 Heinrich Heine.jpg|A 1956 German stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of Heine's death
File:Stamp of USSR 1947.jpg|A 1956 Soviet stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of Heine's death
File:Plaque at Bebelplatz.jpg|Plaque at the Nazi book burning memorial on Bebelplatz in Berlin, Germany, with a quote from Heine's play ''Almansor''
File:Goarshausen Heinrich Heine bust2.jpg|Bust of Heinrich Heine, [[Sankt Goarshausen]] at the foot of the Lorelei rock
File:HeineHeinrich.jpg|Heine statue in [[Toulon]]; commissioned by [[Elisabeth of Bavaria]] for [[Achilleion (Corfu)|Achilleion]], it was removed by [[Wilhelm II]]
</gallery>

==Works==
A list of Heine's major publications in German. All dates are taken from {{harvnb|Sammons|1979}}.

* 1820 (August): ''Die Romantik'' ("Romanticism", short critical essay)
* 1821 (20 December<ref>The title page says "1822"</ref>): ''Gedichte'' ("Poems")
* 1822 (February to July): ''Briefe aus Berlin'' ("Letters from Berlin")
* 1823 (January): ''Über Polen'' ("On Poland", prose essay)
* 1823 (April): ''Tragödien nebst einem lyrischen Intermezzo'' ("Tragedies with a Lyrical Intermezzo") includes:
[[File:Plaque at Bebelplatz.jpg|thumb|Plaque at the Nazi book burning memorial on Bebelplatz in Berlin, Germany. The plaque has a quote from Heinrich Heine's play Almansor (written 1821–1822). "Where they burn books, in the end they will also burn human beings" (Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen) about burning of Quran in Granada that was expected to be followed by burning humans (Muslims then Jewish) in 1500s.]]
**''Almansor'' (play, written 1821–1822)
**''William Ratcliff'' (play, written January 1822)
**''Lyrisches Intermezzo'' (cycle of poems)
* 1826 (May): ''Reisebilder. Erster Teil'' ("Travel Pictures I"), contains:
**''[[Die Harzreise]]'' ("The Harz Journey", prose travel work)
**''Die Heimkehr'' ("The Homecoming", poems)
**''Die Nordsee. Erste Abteilung'' ("North Sea I", cycle of poems)
* 1827 (April): ''Reisebilder. Zweiter Teil'' ("Travel Pictures II"), contains:
** ''Die Nordsee. Zweite Abteilung'' ("The North Sea II", cycle of poems)
** ''Die Nordsee. Dritte Abteilung'' ("The North Sea III", prose essay)
** ''Ideen: das Buch le Grand'' ("Ideas: The Book of Le Grand")
** ''Briefe aus Berlin'' ("Letters from Berlin", a much shortened and revised version of the 1822 work)
* 1827 (October): ''{{ill|Buch der Lieder|de|Buch der Lieder (Heine)}}'' ("Book of Songs"); collection of poems containing the following sections:
**''Junge Leiden'' ("Youthful Sorrows")
**''Die Heimkehr'' ("The Homecoming", originally published 1826)
**''Lyrisches Intermezzo'' ("Lyrical Intermezzo", originally published 1823)
**"Aus der ''Harzreise''" (poems from ''Die Harzreise'', originally published 1826)
**''Die Nordsee'' ("The North Sea: Cycles I and II", originally published 1826/1827)
* 1829 (December): ''Reisebilder. Dritter Teil'' ("Travel Pictures III"), contains:
**''Die Reise von München nach Genua'' ("Journey from Munich to Genoa", prose travel work)
**''Die Bäder von Lucca'' ("The Baths of Lucca", prose travel work)
**''Anno 1829''
* 1831 (January): ''Nachträge zu den Reisebildern'' ("Supplements to the Travel Pictures"), the second edition of 1833 was retitled as ''Reisebilder. Vierter Teil'' ("Travel Pictures IV"), contains: [[File:Reisebilder.tif|thumb|''Reisebilder'', 1831]]
**''Die Stadt Lucca'' ("The Town of Lucca", prose travel work)
**''Englische Fragmente'' ("English Fragments", travel writings)
* 1831 (April): ''Zu "Kahldorf über den Adel"'' (introduction to the book "Kahldorf on the Nobility", uncensored version not published until 1890)
* 1833: ''Französische Zustände'' ("Conditions in France", collected journalism)
* 1833 (December): ''Der Salon. Erster Teil'' ("The Salon I"), contains:
** ''Französische Maler'' ("French Painters", criticism)
** ''Aus den Memoiren des Herren von Schnabelewopski'' ("From the Memoirs of Herr Schnabelewopski", unfinished novel)
* 1835 (January): ''Der Salon. Zweiter Teil'' ("The Salon II"), contains:
** ''[[Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland]]'' ("On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany")
** ''Neuer Frühling'' ("New Spring", cycle of poems)
* 1835 (November): ''Die romantische Schule'' ("The Romantic School", criticism)
* 1837 (July): ''Der Salon. Dritter Teil'' ("The Salon III"), contains:
** ''Florentinische Nächte'' ("Florentine Nights", unfinished novel)
** ''Elementargeister'' ("Elemental Spirits", essay on folklore)
* 1837 (July): ''Über den Denunzianten. Eine Vorrede zum dritten Teil des Salons.'' ("On the Denouncer. A Preface to Salon III", pamphlet)
* 1837 (November): ''Einleitung zum "Don Quixote"'' ("Introduction to ''Don Quixote''", preface to a new German translation of ''[[Don Quixote]]'')
* 1838 (November): ''Der Schwabenspiegel'' ("The Mirror of Swabia", prose work attacking poets of the Swabian School)
* 1838 (October): ''Shakespeares Mädchen und Frauen'' ("Shakespeare's Girls and Women", essays on the female characters in Shakespeare's tragedies and histories)
*1839: ''Anno 1839''
* 1840 (August): ''Ludwig Börne. Eine Denkschrift'' ("Ludwig Börne: A Memorial", long prose work about the writer [[Ludwig Börne]])
* 1840 (November): ''Der Salon. Vierter Teil'' ("The Salon IV"), contains:
** ''Der Rabbi von Bacherach'' ("The Rabbi of Bacharach", unfinished historical novel)
** ''Über die französische Bühne'' ("On the French Stage", prose criticism)
* 1844 (September): ''Neue Gedichte'' ("New Poems"); contains the following sections:
**''Neuer Frühling'' ("New Spring", originally published in 1834)
**''Verschiedene'' ("Sundry Women")
**''Romanzen'' ("Ballads")
**''Zur Ollea'' ("Olio")
**''Zeitgedichte'' ("Poems for the Times")
** it also includes ''Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen'' (''[[Germany. A Winter's Tale]]'', long poem)
*1847 (January): ''Atta Troll: Ein Sommernachtstraum'' (''Atta Troll: A Midsummer Night's Dream'', long poem, written 1841–46)
* 1851 (September): ''Romanzero''; collection of poems divided into three books:
**''Erstes Buch: Historien'' ("First Book: Histories")
**''Zweites Buch: Lamentationen'' ("Second Book: Lamentations")
**''Drittes Buch: Hebräische Melodien'' ("Third Book: Hebrew Melodies")
* 1851 (October): ''Der Doktor Faust. Tanzpoem'' ("Doctor Faust. Dance Poem", ballet libretto, written 1846)
* 1854 (October): ''Vermischte Schriften'' ("Miscellaneous Writings") in three volumes, contains:
**Volume One:
***''Geständnisse'' ("Confessions", autobiographical work)
***''Die Götter im Exil'' ("The Gods in Exile", prose essay)
***''Die Göttin Diana'' ("The Goddess Diana", ballet scenario, written 1846)
***''Ludwig Marcus: Denkworte'' ("Ludwig Marcus: Recollections", prose essay)
***''Gedichte. 1853 und 1854'' ("Poems. 1854 and 1854")
**Volume Two:
***''Lutezia. Erster Teil'' ("Lutetia I", collected journalism about France)
**Volume Three:
***''Lutezia. Zweiter Teil'' ("Lutetia II", collected journalism about France)

===Posthumous publications===
* ''Memoiren'' ("Memoirs", first published in 1884 in the magazine ''Die Gartenlaube''). Published as a book in English as ''The Memoirs of Heinrich Heine and Some Newly-Discovered Fragments of His Writings with an Introductory Essay by Thomas W. Evans, M.D.'' (1884). London: George Bell & Sons.

==Editions in English==
* ''Poems of Heinrich Heine, Three hundred and Twenty-five Poems'', Translated by [[Louis Untermeyer]], Henry Holt, New York, 1917.
* ''The Complete Poems of Heinrich Heine: A Modern English Version'' by [[Hal Draper]], Suhrkamp/Insel Publishers Boston, 1982. {{ISBN|3-518-03048-5}}
* ''Religion and Philosophy in Germany, a fragment'', Tr. James Snodgrass, 1959. Boston, MA (Beacon Press). {{LCCN|59-6391}} [https://archive.org/details/religionandphilo011616mbp Available online].
* ''On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany and Other Writings'', Ed. Terry Pinkard, Tr. Howard Pollack-Milgate. New York (Cambridge University Press), 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-521-86129-8}}

==See also==
{{portal|Poetry}}
* [[Die Lotosblume]]
* [[Heinrich Heine University of Düsseldorf]]
* [[Heinrich Heine Prize]]
* ''[[The Gaze of the Gorgon]]''

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
* {{cite book|last=Dennis|first=David B.|title=Inhumanities: Nazi Interpretations of Western Culture|location=Cambridge and New York|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2012}}
* {{cite book|last=Kossoff|first=Philip|year=1983|title=Valiant Heart: A Biography of Heinrich Heine|pages=125–126|publisher=Associated University Presses|isbn=9780845347621}}
* {{cite journal|last=Reid Busk|first=Michael|title=Rag-and-Bone Angel: The Angelus Novus in Charles Bernstein's ''Shadowtime''|journal=[[Journal of Modern Literature]]|pages=1–15 [14]|volume=37|number=4|date=Summer 2014|doi=10.2979/jmodelite.37.4.1|jstor=0.2979/jmodelite.37.4.1|s2cid=171072437}}
* {{cite book|last=Robertson|first=Ritchie|author-link=Ritchie Robertson|title=Heine|series=Jewish Thinkers|location=London|publisher=Halban|year=1988|isbn=9781870015929}} Also published in New York by Grove Press, 1988.
* {{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Sammons|1979}}|reference={{ill|Jeffrey L. Sammons|de|lt=Sammons, Jeffrey L.}} (1979). ''Heinrich Heine: A Modern Biography''. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.}}
* {{cite book|last=Sammons|first=Jeffrey L.|year=2006|title=Heinrich Heine: Alternative Perspectives 1985–2005|publisher=Königshausen & Neumann|isbn=9783826032127}}

==Further reading==
* [[Gabriele Annan|Annan, Gabriele]]. [https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/08/10/end-of-the-line/ "End of the Line"] (review of Ernst Pawel, ''The Poet Dying: Heinrich Heine's Last Years in Paris'', ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', August 10, 1995).
* [[Max Brod|Brod, Max]] (1957). ''Heinrich Heine: The Artist in Revolt''. New York: [[New York University Press]].
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Heine, Heinrich | volume= 13 |last1= Ferrier |first1= James Walter |author1-link= |last2= Robertson |first2= John George |author2-link= John George Robertson | pages = 213&ndash;215 |short=1}}
* [[Michael Hofmann|Hofmann, Michael]], [https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/07/22/heinrich-heine-heartmobile/ "Heine's Heartmobile"] (review of George Prochnik, ''Heinrich Heine: Writing the Revolution'', ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'', July 22, 2021).
* [[Alfred Meissner|Meissner, Alfred]]. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433088436757&view=1up&seq=525 "The Last Years of Heinrich Heine", ''Putnam's Monthly'', November 1856, pp. 517-526].
* Müller, Ingo: Maskenspiel und Seelensprache. Zur Ästhetik von Heinrich Heines Buch der Lieder und Robert Schumanns Heine-Vertonungen (= Rombach Wissenschaft), 2 Volumes, Baden-Baden 2020. Volume 1: Heinrich Heines Dichtungsästhetik und Robert Schumanns Liedästhetik, ISBN 978-3-96821-006-3. Volume 2: Heinrich Heines Buch der Lieder und Robert Schumanns Heine-Vertonungen, Baden-Baden 2020, ISBN 978-3-96821-009-4.
* Müller, Ingo: “Aber was ist daran gelegen, wer unter der Maske steckt?” – Zum Topos der Ununterscheidbarkeit von Antlitz und Maske im Kontext von Heinrich Heines Dichtungsästhetik des Rollenspiels. In: Jahrbuch der Deutschen Schillergesellschaft, ed. by Alexander Honold, Christine Lubkoll, Steffen Martus and Sandra Richter, Vol. 68 (2024), Göttingen 2025, pp.&nbsp;155–179.
* [[Ernst Pawel|Pawel, Ernst]] (1995). ''The Poet Dying: Heinrich Heine's Last Years in Paris''. New York: [[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]].
* Prochnik, George (2020). ''Heinrich Heine: Writing the Revolution''. New Haven, Connecticut: [[Yale University Press]].
* Selden, Camille (1884). ''The Last Days of Heinrich Heine'' (translated into English by Clare Brune). London: Remington & Co.
* {{cite book|last=Skolnik|first=Jonathan|title=Jewish Pasts, German Fictions: History, Memory, and Minority Culture in Germany, 1824–1955|location=Stanford, California|publisher=[[Stanford University Press]]|year=2014|ref=none}}
* Stigand, William (1880). ''The Life, Work, and Opinions of Heinrich Heine'' (two volumes). New York: J. W. Bouton.
* Weissberg, Liliane (2007). "Heinrich Heine Writes About His Life", ''MLN'', Vol. 122, No. 3, German Issue (April 2007), pp.&nbsp;563–572.

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|works=both}}
{{Commons}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=1049 | name=Heinrich Heine}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Heine, Heinrich|name=Heinrich Heine|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Heinrich Heine}}
* {{Librivox author |id=69}}
* The German classics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: masterpieces of German literature translated into English" 1913–1914 {{cite web|title=''Heinrich Heine'' |url=https://archive.org/stream/germanclassicsof06franuoft#page/n13/mode/2up|access-date=24 September 2010}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090915185556/http://web.mac.com/nickriddle/iWeb/Outremer/heine.html Parallel German/English text] of Heine's poem Geoffroy Rudel and Melisande of Tripoli
* [http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1904846,00.html Deutsche Welle's] review of Heinrich Heine in 2006, 150 years after his death
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060206091702/http://artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=313 Art of the States: The Resounding Lyre] – musical setting of Heine's poem "Halleluja"
*{{ChoralWiki|prep=of texts by}}
* [http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2009/08/loving-herodias Loving Herodias] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418075809/http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2009/08/loving-herodias |date=18 April 2012 }} by David P. Goldman, ''First Things''
* [https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/259683/Heinrich-Heine Heinrich Heine (German author)], Britannica Online Encyclopedia

{{Heinrich Heine}}
{{Romanticism}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Heine, Heinrich}}
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