- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHarry Heine
- Born in Düsseldorf, Germany in 1797 to a Jewish family, Heine was sent to Hamburg as a young man to work for his rich uncle. He studied at the universities at Bonn, Berlin and Göttingen, and got a law degree in 1825; he also changed his name to Heinrich Heine to ease his integration into German society. In 1821 he published his poem "Gedichte", but after a spat with another poet damaged his reputation, he moved to Paris to be a journalist. There he met an illiterate shopgirl named Crecence Eugénie Mirat, whom he married in 1841. Heine's criticism of Germany won him censorship from his native land, and he retired permanently to France.
He died in Paris on February 17 1856. Heine was controversial in Germany, and because of his Jewish origins, his poems had to be marked as 'author unknown' under the Nazi regime. He influenced many poets and composers, including Rainer Maria Rilke, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Schubert, Karl Marx, and Robert Schumann.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Nichol - Heine grew up in Frankfurt am Main and in Hamburg, where he also attended school. From 1819 onwards he studied law in Bonn, Göttingen and Berlin and received his doctorate in 1825. During this time he created his first literary works, which he published under a pseudonym. With the help of his uncle, he founded a trading company for English cloths in Hamburg, but the company was dissolved after a year. During his time as a student he made the acquaintance of the philosopher of idealism, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, which developed into a close friendship over the years. In October 1824, Heine visited Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Weimar. In 1825 he converted to the Christian Protestant faith and was baptized in Heiligenstadt with the name Christian Johann Heinrich. The reason was that otherwise, as a Jew, he would not have been allowed to pursue a legal profession in Germany.
From 1826 onwards, the majority of his works were published by the Hamburg publisher Julius Campe. In the first year of collaboration, the first part of "Travel Pictures", "Homecoming", "The Harz Journey" and "The North Sea" was published. Without ever working in his chosen profession, he traveled to England and Italy as well as to various German cities from 1827 to 1831, influenced by Hegel. In his literary and journalistic works, Heine criticized the outdated feudal system of the German kingdom and the Dudodez states. Because of this, he often found himself exposed to the arbitrary power of the authorities. His time-critical writings always dealt with the idea of an ideal society oriented towards enjoyment of life, which is why he did not join any party or movement. In 1831 he decided to leave Germany and in May he moved to Paris as a correspondent for the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung. With the exception of two short visits to Germany, he spent the rest of his life here. In 1834 he met his future partner, Crescence Eugénie Mirat, in Paris.
The following year, 1835, the entire writings of all Jews in Germany were banned in Prussia, including Heine's works. In 1836 Heine received emigration protection from the French government. In the same year he became ill with jaundice. In 1837 he was struck by a dramatic eye problem, and Heine's third volume of "Salomon" was published later that year. In 1841 he met the German composer Richard Wagner and in the summer he married Eugénie Mirat, whom he called "Mathilde", in Saint-Sulpice Crescent. In 1844 he caused a considerable stir with his publication of the "New Poems" and the political-satirical poem "Germany, a Winter's Tale". From 1845 onwards his health increasingly deteriorated.
In 1848 he worked as a German reporter on the February Revolution in Paris. After a physical collapse, Heine was diagnosed with spinal cord consumption. In the following years he was confined to bed most of the time. From 1850 he worked on his memoirs.
Heinrich Heine, who worked until old age, died on February 17, 1856 in Paris, where he was buried three days later in the Montmartre cemetery.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth
- SpouseAugustine Crescence Mirat(1841 - February 17, 1856) (his death)
- Heinrich Heine was a cousin of Alice Heine (1858-1925), who by successive marriages became Duchesse de Richelieu and the first American-born Princess of Monaco.
- Wherever books are burned, human beings are destined to be burned too.
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