Heinrich Heine

📷 Wikimedia Commons — domaine public — Moritz Daniel Oppenheim — 1831

1797 — 1856

France, royaume de Prusse

LiteratureMusicJournaliste19th CenturyRomanticism and Vormärz, first half of the 19th century

Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) is one of the greatest German Romantic poets. Exiled to Paris in 1831, he became a bridge between French and German cultures. His work blends lyricism, irony, and political engagement.

Famous Quotes

« Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also. »

« God will pardon me, it is His trade. »

Key Facts

Born in Düsseldorf in 1797 into a Jewish family
Publication of the Book of Songs (Buch der Lieder) in 1827, a landmark poetry collection of German Romanticism
Voluntary exile to Paris in 1831, fleeing Prussian censorship
His works were banned in Germany as early as 1835 by the Frankfurt Diet
He died in Paris in 1856 after eight years bedridden, a period he called his 'Matratzengruft' (mattress tomb)

Works & Achievements

Buch der Lieder (Book of Songs) (1827)

Heine's first major poetry collection, blending romantic lyricism with sharp irony. It was set to music by Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms, becoming one of the founding texts of the German Lied.

Reisebilder (Pictures of Travel) (1826–1831)

A series of prose travel narratives mixing humor, social criticism, and political observation. This new hybrid genre, somewhere between essay and poetry, was an immediate success in Germany.

Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland (1834)

A major essay introducing French readers to German philosophy, from Luther to Hegel. In it, Heine anticipates with remarkable clarity the dangers of German nationalism.

Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (Germany: A Winter's Tale) (1844)

A long satirical poem recounting an imaginary yet real journey through Germany. A masterpiece of political poetry, it denounces reactionary politics and nationalism with wit and depth.

Atta Troll. Ein Sommernachtstraum (1847)

A satirical poem following the adventures of a dancing bear. Heine uses it to mock the excesses of romantic nationalism and the mediocrity of the political poetry of his day.

Romanzero (1851)

A collection of poems written from his sickbed, blending tragedy with irony. It represents the peak of his poetic maturity and his meditation on death, illness, and exile.

Lutetia — Parisian Chronicles (1854)

A collection of his journalistic dispatches from Paris, published in the German press. An exceptional record of the political, social, and cultural life of the July Monarchy.

Anecdotes

Heinrich Heine suffered throughout his life from a mysterious illness that gradually paralyzed him from 1848 onward. He called his Parisian bed his 'mattress grave' (Matratzengruft), yet from it he continued to write poems of remarkable lucidity and biting irony until his death in 1856.

In 1817, Heine published his first poems under a pseudonym. Later, he wrote in his poem 'Almansor' (1821) the prophetic line: 'Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also.' More than a century later, the Nazis burned his works during the book burnings of 1933, tragically illustrating this premonition.

Heine had a turbulent relationship with his cousin Karl Marx in Paris. The two men spent time together and debated politics and philosophy, but their temperaments clashed: Heine, an ironic poet, was wary of Marx's revolutionary dogmatism. He once told him: 'I pity you, gentlemen the future revolutionaries — you will never know the joy of doubt.'

Having converted to Protestantism in 1825 in order to gain the right to practice law in Prussia, Heine himself described the baptism as a 'ticket of admission into European civilization.' He never concealed the purely opportunistic nature of this conversion and continued to regard himself as deeply Jewish in his cultural and intellectual identity.

In Paris, Heine became a close friend of Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, and Hector Berlioz. He attended the premieres of numerous operas and wrote brilliant musical chronicles for German newspapers, helping to bring Parisian artistic life to audiences across the Rhine.

Primary Sources

Buch der Lieder (Book of Songs) (1827)

Du bist wie eine Blume, so hold und schön und rein; ich schau dich an, und Wehmut schleicht mir ins Herz hinein. (You are just like a flower, so lovely, pure, and fair; I look at you and sadness steals into my heart.)

On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany (1834)

Christianity — and this is its greatest merit — has somewhat softened the brutal Germanic spirit, but it could not destroy it; one day, when the restraining cross collapses, the old savage violence will break loose again.

Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (Germany: A Winter's Tale) (1844)

I want to sing a new song, a better song. Right here on earth we mean to build the kingdom of heaven. We want to be happy here below, and no longer hunger.

Geständnisse (Confessions) (1854)

My soul is musical; often a sound, a melody awakens in me poetic images that might seem to come from another world, yet belong deeply to the most intimate reality.

Letter to Moses Moser (1825)

I am now — God help me — a good Christian. Last evening I dined with Gans; he too has been baptized. I am sorry he did it. I would much rather he had stolen the Christians' silver than begged for their baptism.

Key Places

Düsseldorf, Germany

Heine's birthplace, then under Napoleonic rule. He grew up in the Jewish quarter and was deeply shaped by the passage of French troops and the influence of the ideals of the Revolution.

Göttingen and Berlin — German Universities

Heine studied law there with little enthusiasm, but discovered Hegel's philosophy in Berlin. These university years forged his critical thinking and literary friendships.

Paris — Passage Choiseul, then Avenue Matignon

Heine settled in Paris in 1831 and lived there until his death. He resided at several addresses in the central districts, at the heart of the French capital's artistic and intellectual life.

Montmartre Cemetery, Paris

Heine's burial place since 1856. His tomb, adorned with a bust, remains to this day a site of literary pilgrimage for admirers of the German poet.

Hamburg, Germany

The city where his uncle and patron Salomon Heine, a very wealthy banker, resided. Heine visited regularly, in a relationship marked by both gratitude and humiliation over his financial dependence.

Weimar, Germany

Heine visited Goethe in Weimar in 1824, hoping for the great master's blessing. The meeting was brief and disappointing, yet it nonetheless enriched his thinking on German literature.