Heinrich Heine

H. Heine

Heinrich Heine, (1797-1856) was a German poet, born at Düsseldorf, of Jewish parents; studied in Bonn, Gottingen, and Berlin. His first important work, Reisebilder, appeared in 1826, and his greatest, the Buch der Lieder, was published in the next year. Heine traveled widely in Europe, and finally settled in Paris, where he became intimate with the Romantics, including Víctor Hugo, De Musset, and Chopin. He wrote of them in Die Romantische Schule, 1836. His works were now banned in Germany, and in reply to this he wrote German Philosophy and Literature, an essay, and Deutschland, 1844, a satire. In his best work, his lyrics, he wavered between sentimentality and cynicism, but he had a keen appreciation of emotion and a perfect style for the expression of it. The lyrics have been frequently translated, and set to music by Schumann, Brahms, and Grieg, among other composers.