Heinrich Heine: ‘When, Germany, I think of thee …’

Every so often, you take a familiar classic down from your bookshelf – a beautifully bound volume – and leaf through its pages. As you begin to read, you’re struck with amazement: here is an author from a bygone age who suddenly comes vividly to life, as though he had written these words especially for the present day.
    That was precisely my experience recently with the work of Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), one of the most widely read poets in the German language – though he was far more than a poet. His work encompasses an extraordinary range: from the most delicate poems of nature and love to the sharpest, most biting pamphlets; from lucid analysis and satirical attack to verses filled with a plaintive longing for his homeland; from tersely phrased aphorisms to philosophical treatises.
    In all his works, it is evident that Heine consistently strives for a clear, accessible, almost popular tone, eschewing any semblance of obscure or affected profundity. As both poet and prose writer, he enriched the expressive possibilities of the German language to an extraordinary degree. He writes as a remarkably perceptive and sharp-tongued observer and analyst of his own time, casting a critical eye not only on his era and his contemporaries, but also on himself. And when one returns to his work, one is struck by how many of his observations can be applied to our present circumstances.
    In light of today’s political climate, many contemporary readers may find themselves sharing the sentiments expressed by Heinrich Heine, who wrote in his 1837 poem “Night thoughts”:

  When, Germany, I think of thee
  At night, all slumber flies from me;
  I cannot close mine eyes for yearning,
  And down my cheeks run tears all burning.¹

Tender, yet wryly exposing

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Heine was a “modern” in the truest sense: He composed lyric poetry in an accessible style, closely attuned to the rhythms of spoken language, with the aim of making it widely available. It is no surprise that his poems are among the most frequently set to music.
    In his poetry, he initially remained firmly within the Romantic tradition, which he adopted with a certain irony, even as he wryly exposed, subverted, and ultimately transcended it.

  ’Twas in the beauteous month of May,
  When all the flowers were springing,
  That first within my bosom
  I heard love’s echo ringing.

  ’Twas in the beauteous month of May,
  When all the birds were singing,
  That first I to my sweetheart
  My vows of love was bringing.²

That Heine was, on the one hand, thoroughly familiar with the Romantic intonation, yet also inclined to mock it and to set a sober, enlightened view of the world against sentimental rapture, is clearly expressed in these well-known lines:

  She stood beside the ocean,
  And sighed as one oppressed,
  With such a deep emotion
  The sunset thrilled her breast.

  Dear maiden, look more gayly,
  This trick is old, thou’lt find.
  Before us sinks he daily,
  To rise again behind.³

For a fairer world and against ‘romantic tinkling’

Heinrich Heine, who ironically styled himself the “last Prince of Romanticism,” was at the same time a clear-sighted critic of all “Romantic tinkling” and “nebulous fairy-tale trappings,” for he saw only in the spirit of the Enlightenment the basis for creating a more just world. The demand to improve the concrete living conditions of all people lies at the heart of his writing. As is expressed in the three stanzas of his well-known poem “Germany, a wintertale” (1844):

  Our object is, that here on earth
  We may mount to the realms of heaven.
  On earth we fain would happy be,
  Nor starve for the sake of the stronger;

  The idle stomach shall gorge itself
  With the fruit of hard labour no longer.
  Bread grows on the earth for every one,
  Enough, and e’en in redundance,
  And roses and myrtles, beauty and joy,
  And sugarplums too in abundance.

  Yes, sugarplums for every one,
  As soon as the plums are provided;
  To angels and sparrows we’re quite content
  That heaven should be confided.⁴

This great concern – that dignified living conditions and a sense of joy in life must be made possible for all – runs throughout the entirety of his literary work. At the same time, he repeatedly emphasises that beauty and art have an important place within this happier, more humane way of life.

Elites out of touch with reality – then as now

The young Heinrich Heine wrote not only poetry, but also travel sketches, as was fashionable at the time. In these, he describes landscapes, of course, but above all the social realities of his day, and he does not hesitate – often with a satirical edge – to expose prevailing injustices and abuses.
    When, in 1825, in “Die Nordsee” (The North Sea)⁵, he denounces the arrogance and folly of the nobility in Hanover, describing their absurd pride in considering themselves superior and of higher worth as mere delusion – indeed as “delusions” – and shows how this “better society” is determined to impose its hollow pretensions by force, one cannot help but think of parallels with the arrogance, impudence, and lack of (historical) education among today’s elites. Of course, any resemblance is purely coincidental …
    In truth, Heine addresses the detachment from reality of socially privileged “bubbles” – at the time, young aristocrats (today one might perhaps update this to other privileged groups) – who lack any real connection to the experience of ordinary people.
    Heine is well aware of the susceptibility to corruption and the self-delusion of those who chiefly aspire to influential circles and positions of power, and who pride themselves on belonging to the “better classes.” Thus, he speaks of the young aristocracy and “their early-imprinted delusion concerning the importance of certain drilled forms.” And, of course, he sees through all this empty pretence: “Oh, how often have I laughed when I observed how much pride was taken in these forms; – as though it were exceedingly difficult to learn this manner of representing, of presenting oneself, of smiling without saying anything, of speaking without thinking.” Heine exposes this entire socially imposing façade as an attempt to dazzle through superficially “drilled forms.” All such arrogance is nothing but “delusion.” He also points out that anyone who, out of conformity, seeks to gain advantage is naïve and ignorant in the face of those in power. The conformist fails to consider that, in the end, it is “procurers, flatterers, and similar favourite scoundrels who are favoured with ennobling grace.” (A nod to Epstein, one might say!)
    At the same time, Heine also reveals the other side of the coin: the blindness and naïveté of the trusting, well-behaved citizen, who is all too easily impressed by such appearances and even admires the entire elegant-yet-hollow façade, “all those aristocratic arts at which the good burgher gawps as though at sea wonders.” Without this submissive admiration, the whole illusion would quickly be deprived of its foundation.

Censorship, persecution and exile

It is easy to understand that with such sharp observations and such a critical pen, Heinrich Heine made few friends in the circles that held sway at the time, and he was therefore compelled to go into exile in France in 1831. He would spend the rest of his life there, as a return to Germany was no longer possible for him for political reasons. He also captured his experiences of censorship and persecution in verse:

Warning

  Worthy friend, ’twill be perdition
  Books like this to think of printing!
  Wouldst thou money earn or honour
  Thou must bend in meek submission.

  Never in this manner flighty
  Shouldest thou before the public
  Thus have spoken of the parsons
  And of monarchs high and mighty!

  Friend, thou’lt be by all forsaken!
  Princes have long arms, the parsons
  Have long tongues, and then the public
  Have long ears, or I’m mistaken!⁶

Although Heinrich Heine would gladly have returned to his homeland, Germany – a country he could mock so wittily – he was aware of the danger that awaited him there and remained in France.

Wither now?

  Whither now? my stupid foot
  Fain to Germany would guide me;
  But my reason shakes its head
  Wisely, seeming thus to chide me:

  “Ended is the war indeed,
  “But they still keep up courts-martial,
  “And to writing things esteem’d
  “Shootable, thou’rt far too partial.”⁷

Lessing and Schiller and their great ideas

In truth, Heinrich Heine loved and valued his adopted country, France, as the land in which the promise of “liberty, equality, fraternity” had been proclaimed with the Revolution; whereas he regarded his German homeland as marked above all by a mentality of submissive deference to authority, from which little in the way of human progress or courage for improvement could be expected. However, he did perceive other currents within German intellectual history, particularly in its literature. Poets such as Lessing and Schiller embodied a hopeful, freedom-loving spirit.
    Thus Heine writes of Lessing in his essay “Die Romantische Schule” (1831): “In all his works lives the same great social idea, the same progressive humanity, the same religion of reason, of which he was the herald. […] More than was generally realised, Lessing was also politically engaged – a quality not to be found among his contemporaries.” He also held Friedrich Schiller in high regard as a poet of humanity, who called for greater freedom and a more humane society. “Schiller wrote for the great ideals of the Revolution; he destroyed the intellectual Bastilles, he built upon the temple of freedom – and indeed upon that great temple which is to encompass all nations like a vast brotherhood; he was a cosmopolitan.”⁸
    Yet the Germany of his own time appeared to him merely drowsy and complacent, easily “lulled” by the innocuous promise of a materially comfortable life, so long as one obediently complied with the demands of those in power.

The promise

  You no more shall barefoot crawl so
  Through the dirt, poor German freedom!
  Stockings (as you find you need ’em)
  You shall have, and stout boots also.

  As respects your head, upon it
  To protect your ears from freezin’
  In the chilly winter-season
  You shall have a nice warm bonnet.

  You shall have, too, savoury messes –
  Grand the future that’s before you!
  Let no Satyr, I implore you,
  Lure you onward to excesses!

  Do not haste on fast and faster!
  Render, as becomes inferiors,
  Due respect to your superiors
  And the worthy burgomaster.⁹

A gag on free thought and speech

Another poem, from 1854, reveals Heinrich Heine’s bitter reckoning with the German “decrees of silence,” the Karlsbad Decrees, issued in 1819, which brought all public debate to an end and effectively gagged every critical citizen, as free writing – and, above all, free speech – were prohibited.
    However, Heine’s merciless satire is not directed solely at these specific measures, but more broadly at any form of suppression of free expression and at the compliant deference to authority that such suppression fosters:

Recollections from Krähwinkel’s days of terror

  We, mayor and senate of the town,
  The following orders now lay down
  To all who love their city truly,
  Enjoining them to keep them duly.

  Christian and Jew, at close of day,
  Must shut their shops without delay;
  “Obey your rulers” should be ever
  Both Jew and Christian’s first endeavour.

  No person shall be seen at night
  In any street without a light;
  Where three or more in groups are standing,
  Let them at once begin disbanding.

  Each one must bring his weapons all,
  And lay them down in the guildhall;
  And every kind of ammunition
  Is subject to the same condition.

  He who in any public spot
  Ventures to reason, shall be shot;
  He who by gestures dares to reason
  Shall pay the penalty of treason.

  Confide in the authorities,
  So gracious, but withal so wise,
  Who rule the fortunes of the city,
  And hold your tongues, or more’s the pity.¹⁰

Heinrich Heine thus formulates matters in accordance with the power relations of his own time. In practice, such forms of censorship and the suppression of free thought take on different guises in every historical period. Our own era, too, offers ample evidence that it is not everywhere possible to express and publish one’s views without facing repercussions. One need only think of the sanctions imposed on independent thinkers such as Jacques Baud, Nathalie Yamb, and others …
    Strikingly topical as well are the following verses from his late collection of poems, Romanzero (1851), in which Heine frequently draws on motifs from Greek mythology. Here he clearly identifies the naïve failure of Europe (and of other women …), who allow themselves, in their ignorance, to be seduced by the vast and at once alluring power of a wealthy and cunning ruler.

Mythology

  Yes! Europa must knock under–
  Who could stand against a bull?
  Danäe we’ll forgive; no wonder
  Golden rain made her a fool!

  Sem’le was a victim real,
  For she innocently thought
  That a heavenly cloud ideal
  Could not injure her in aught.

  But poor Leda’s tale notorious
  Really stirs up all our spleen;
  Vanquish’d by a swan inglorious,
  What a goose must she have been!¹¹

(Zeus seduced Danaë, whom he passionately desired, by transforming himself into a shower of gold. Semele asked Zeus to appear to her as he did to his divine consort Hera; however, when Zeus revealed himself in a blaze of lightning, Semele was consumed by the flames. Leda, a queen and the mother of important figures in Greek mythology, allowed herself to be seduced by Zeus when he took the form of a swan.)

On the side of the oppressed

Heine adopts a quite different tone – no longer ironic or satirical at all – in the so-called Weberlied (weavers song), which he composed in response to the brutal suppression of the great Silesian weavers’ uprising of 1844. Here we see the poet firmly on the side of the oppressed, while at the same time giving voice to the outraged will to resist of the victims. They will fight back and will no longer submit indefinitely to the yoke of their oppressors:

The Silesian weavers

  No tears from their gloomy eyes are flowing,
  They sit at the loom, their white teeth showing:
  “Thy shroud, O Germany, now weave we,
  “A threefold curse^* we’re weaving for thee, –
  “We’re weaving, we’re weaving!

  “A curse on the God to whom our petition
  “We vainly address’d when in starving condition;
  “In vain did we hope, and in vain did we wait,
  “He only derided and mock’d our sad fate, –
  “We’re weaving, we’re weaving!

  “A curse on the King of the wealthy, whom often
  “Our misery vainly attempted to soften;
  “Who takes away e’en the last penny we’ve got,
  “And lets us like dogs in the highway be shot, –
  “We’re weaving, we’re weaving!

  “A curse on our fatherland false and contriving,
  “Where shame and disgrace alone are seen thriving,
  “Where flowers are pluck’d before they unfold,
  “Where batten the worms on corruption and mould, –
  “We’re weaving, we’re weaving!

  “The shuttle is flying, the loom creaks away,
  “We’re weaving busily night and day;
  “Thy shroud, Old Germany, now weave we,
  “A threefold curse we’re weaving for thee, –
  “We’re weaving, we’re weaving!”¹²

(^*The targets of the three curses – God, King, Fatherland – echo the Prussian battle cry, “With God for King and Fatherland.” At the time, Silesia was a province of Prussia.)
    Heinrich Heine’s poems arouse a sense of concern; they move the reader, one way or another, quite directly. His language is characterised by vivid, concrete imagery rooted in experience. Beyond that, his entire body of work bears witness to a bold, incisive wit and brims with vitality. It is far from forming a flawless, self-contained whole. Yet, for all the ambivalence and inner contradictions he himself acknowledged with irony, he remained, through his intelligence and his wit, firmly on the side of humanity – a spirit of humaneness that is fully aware of both one’s own and others’ imperfections. With courage and determination, he continued to write and compose poetry without interruption, despite years of severe illness that left him almost completely paralysed and confined to bed. From what he called his “mattress-grave,” he followed public life and continued to take part in it with committed and incisive writing.
    After such an “excursion into reading,” the inspired and delighted reader becomes aware once again: We today would do well to reflect on our cultural roots and to rediscover the treasures to be found in our literature, to recognise their value, and to allow them to inspire our thinking. •

1 Heine, Heinrich. The poems of Heine, complete, translated into the original metres by Edgar Alfred Bowring, C.B. London: George Bell and Sons, 1908. p. 179
2 Heine. 1908, p. 65
3 Heine, Heinrich. The Poems of Heinrich Heine. Emma Lazarus, tr. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1881. p. 144
4 Heine. Germany: A winter tale. 1908, p. 326
5 Heine, Heinrich. Die Nordsee. Zit. nach: https://projekt-gutenberg.org/authors/heinrich-heine/books/heinrich-heine-reisebilder/
6 Heine. 1908. p. 165
7 Heine. 1908. p. 450
8 Heine. Die romantische Schule. cf. https://projekt-gutenberg.org/authors/heinrich-heine/books/die-romantische-schule/
9 Heine. 1908. p. 173
10 Heine. 1908. p. 537
11 Heine. 1908, p. 449
12 Heine. 1908. p. 395