Concept

Heinrich Heine

Overview

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (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 Felix Mendelssohn, 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. 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. In the Third Reich, Heine's name was invoked as an archetype of an influential Jewish opinion columnist. Heine is remembered for his phrase "Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also", which ultimately came true in the Holocaust.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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In Germany, not more than a century ago, a natural instinct for what is called "poetry" was awakened in some young men. Are we to think that the generations who had lived before that time had not spoken of the art, however really strange and unnatural it may have been to them?
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thoughts Out of Season, Part II
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It was by the help of such images and precedents that man eventually kept in his memory five or six "I will nots" with regard to which he had already given his _promise_, so as to be able to enjoy the advantages of society--and verily with the help of this kind of memory man eventually attained "reason"! Alas! reason, seriousness, mastery over the emotions, all these gloomy, dismal things which are called…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals The Complete Works, Volume Thirteen, edited by Dr. Oscar Levy.
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It is precisely here that we have reason to admire the genius of Goethe, when he concentrated his poetic talent on material of this kind in his poem of "Hermann and Dorothea." It is true that he selects from the life of the Present a particular theme of very limited extension, but at the same time he unfolds before us as the background and atmosphere of the picture in which his characters…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Philosophy of Fine Art, volume 1
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Philosophers who discussed Heinrich Heine

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Henri de Saint-Simon

Place in the tradition

Part of German philosophy.

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