Heine, Heinrich, 1797-1856

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (German: [ˈhaɪnʁɪç ˈhaɪnə] (listen); born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder (art songs) by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. 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 banned by German authorities—which, however, only added to his fame.[1] He spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris.
Heine was born on 13 December 1797, in Düsseldorf,[2] in what was then the Duchy of Berg, into a Jewish family.[3] He was called "Harry" in childhood but became known as "Heinrich" after his conversion to Lutheranism in 1825.[4] Heine's father, Samson Heine (1764–1828), was a textile merchant. His mother Peira (known as "Betty"), née van Geldern (1771–1859), was the daughter of a physician.
Heinrich was the eldest of four children. He had a sister, Charlotte (later Charlotte Embden [de]), and two brothers, Gustav (later Baron Heine-Geldern and publisher of the Viennese newspaper Fremden-Blatt [de]), and Maximilian, who became a physician in Saint Petersburg.[5] Heine was also a third cousin once removed of philosopher and economist Karl Marx, also born to a German Jewish family in the Rhineland, with whom he became a frequent correspondent in later life.[6]

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.[36] Heine was also attracted by the prospect of freedom from German censorship and was interested in the new French 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.[37][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 and Hector Berlioz) 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.[39]


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").[40] Heine saw himself as a mediator between Germany and France.