By: AVA WOFFORD
Staff Writer
Autobiography of Henrich Heine
Heine was born to Jewish parents. His father was a somewhat ineffectual merchant; his mother was fairly well educated for her time and sharply ambitious for her son. Much of Heine’s early life however was influenced by the financial power of his uncle Salomon Heine, a millionaire Hamburg banker who endeavored to trade generosity for obedience and with whom Heine remained on an awkward and shifting footing for many years. After he had been educated in the Düsseldorf Lyceum, an unsuccessful attempt was undertaken to make a businessman of him, first in banking, then in retail. Eventually, his uncle was prevailed upon to finance a university education, and Heine attended the universities of Bonn, Göttingen, Berlin, and Göttingen again, where he finally took a degree in law with absolutely minimal achievement in 1825. In that same year, in order to open up the possibility of a civil service career, closed to Jews at that time, he converted to Protestantism with little enthusiasm and some resentment. He never practiced law, however, nor held a position in government service; and his student years had been primarily devoted not to the studies for which his uncle had been paying but to poetry, literature, and history.
Why Was The Lorelei made?
Romanticism is a long-discredited term, but still, there is no other short designation for the very complex and contradictory movement that prevailed in German literature from 1789 to 1830 and had a tremendous impact on German culture in general. Romanticism is the romanticizing of nature and often depicts the beauty of nature and the feelings that come along with it. Heinrich Heine saw romanticism as missing the true purpose of nature. He believed that while nature was beautiful and had much to offer, it was also deadly and its beauty drew in victims. Because of these ideals, he created poetry that specifically went against the romantic and nurturing of romanticism and leaned more in the way of cynicism. The Lorelei was considered one of Heine’s best poems. The Rhine in Germany was used for multiple classic German myths, with a very famous one being about the Lorelei, a siren who causes men to crash their ships. The original Lorelei was made in 1843 by George Gershin. Gershin first told the story through music but was soon spread around by mouth and eventually through literature. The myth came from a bumpy, rocky hill, known as the Lorelie, that is just around a bend in the Rhine near the city of Sankt Goar. Because of this sailors were constantly ramming their boats on the hidden hill which led to many casualties over the years.
Where Is Heine Now
After the July Revolution of 1830, Heine went to Paris, where he remained until his death. Though ultimately skeptical of utopian philosophies, Heine was attracted by the French utopian philosopher Saint-Simon. Heine wrote many penetrating newspaper articles about the cultural and political situation in France, which he collected in Französische Zustände (French Affairs) (1832). He also wrote two books of social criticism aimed at Germany: Die Romantische Schule (The Romantic School) (1833-35) und Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland (On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany) (1834-35). Heine’s last years were unhappy. By 1835, his works had been banned by the German government. His uncle died in 1844, leaving Heine destitute. And in 1848, Heine was bed-ridden with the disease that would claim his life ten years later. Before his death, he returned to writing lyric poetry. The lyrics, collected in Romanzero (1851) and Gedichte 1853 and 1854 (Poems: 1853 and 1854), are considered to be the finest poems he ever wrote. Heine is buried in the cemetery at Montmartre in Paris.