Heine was born into a family of assimilated German Jews in
Düsseldorf, Germany, which was then occupied by France (becoming part of
Prussia in 1815). He was called "Harry" as a child, but after his baptism in 1825 he became "Heinrich."
His father was a merchant, and his mother, the daughter of a physician, was a refined and educated woman. When his father's business failed, Heine was sent to
Hamburg. His wealthy banker uncle, Salomon Heine, encouraged him to go into commerce, but his ventures in this sphere were not successful. Instead, he took up law, studying at the universities of
Göttingen, Bonn and
Berlin, where he heard
Hegel's lectures on the philosophy of history (he later wrote a short satirical poem about Hegel's philosophy, entitled
Doctrine). During his student years he participated in the Verein für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Judentumes ("Society for the Culture and Scientific Study of Judaism"). Heine only stayed in the society for three years and left the group before earning a degree in law in 1825. The same year, he opted to convert from
Judaism to
Protestantism.
Jews were subject to severe restrictions in many of the German states at that time. They were forbidden from entering certain professions, including university lecturing, which was a particular ambition for Heine. As Heine said in self-justification, his conversion was "the ticket of admission into European culture". He wrote, "As Henry IV said, 'Paris is worth a mass'; I say, 'Berlin is worth the sermon.'" For much of the rest of his life Heine wrestled over the incompatible elements of his German and his Jewish identities.
Heine is best known for his
lyric poetry, much of which (especially from his earlier works) was set to music by
lied composers, most notably by
Robert Schumann. Other composers who have set Heine's works to music include
Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn, Fanny Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf, Richard Strauss, and
Richard Wagner; and in the 20th century
Hans Werner Henze and
Lord Berners.
As a poet, Heine made his debut with
Gedichte ("Poems") in 1821. Heine's one-sided infatuation with his cousins Amalie and Therese later inspired him to write some of his loveliest lyrics;
Buch der Lieder ("Book of Songs", 1827) was Heine's first comprehensive collection of verse.
Heine left Germany for
France in 1831. After arriving in
Paris, he associated with
utopian socialists, including the followers of
Count Saint-Simon, who preached an egalitarian classless paradise based on
meritocracy.
German authorities banned his works and those of others who were considered to be associated with the
Young Germany movement in 1835. Heine continued, however, to comment on German politics and society from a distance. He remained in Paris, with the exception of a visit in 1843 to Germany, for the rest of his life. Heine wrote
Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (
Germany. A Winter's Tale), an account of his visit to Germany and the political climate there, in 1844; his friend,
Karl Marx, published it in his newspaper
Vorwärts ("Forward") in 1844. Heine also satirized the utopian politics of those opponents of the regime still in Germany in
Atta Troll: Ein Sommernachtstraum ("Atta Troll: A Midsummer Night's Dream") in 1847. In the preface to
Atta Troll he comments on the risk of arrest that he faced during his clandestine return visit to Germany.
Heine wrote movingly of the experience of exile in his poem
In der Fremde ("Abroad"):
:
Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland.
:
Der Eichenbaum
:
Wuchs dort so hoch, die Veilchen nickten sanft.
:
Es war ein Traum.
:
Das küßte mich auf deutsch, und sprach auf deutsch
:
(Man glaubt es kaum,
:
Wie gut es klang) das Wort: »Ich liebe dich!«
:
Es war ein Traum.
:
I once had a beautiful fatherland.
:
The oak
:
Grew there so high, the violets gently nodded.
:
It was a dream.
:
It kissed me in German, it spoke in German
:
(One can hardly believe it,
:
It sounded so good) the phrase: "I love you!"
:
It was a dream.
Heine suffered from ailments that kept him bedridden for the last eight years of his life (some have suggested he suffered from
multiple sclerosis or
syphilis). He died in Paris and is interred in the
Cimetière de Montmartre. The
Walhalla temple in
Bavaria plans to add Heine's bust to its collection in 2009.
Among thousands of books
burned on
Berlin's Opernplatz in 1933, following the
Nazi raid on the
Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, were the works of Heinrich Heine. To commemorate the terrible event, one of the most famous lines of Heine's 1821 play
Almansor was engraved in the ground at the site: "Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen." ("Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people.") In the original text, Heine had been referring to the burning of the
Quran during the
Spanish Inquisition.
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