Editing Heinrich Heine (section)

==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.bh.org.il/luminary/heine-heinrich-112966|title=Heroes – Trailblazers of the Jewish People|website=Beit Hatfutsot}}</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}}

Heinrich was the eldest of four children. He had a sister, Charlotte (later {{ill|Charlotte Embden|de}}) (1800–1899), who was 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 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]] due to [[anti-Semitism]], and he heard the news 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 Cultur 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 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|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}}.