
Why is Heinrich Heine important to music?
German Poet Heinrich Heine's "Die Lorelei" and Translation. Heine was one of the most influential German poets in the 19th century, and German authorities tried to suppress him because of his radical political views. He was also known for his lyrical prose, which was set to music by classical greats, such as Schumann, Schubert, and Mendelssohn.
When was Heinrich Heine born?
Heine was born on 13 December 1797, in Düsseldorf, in what was then the Duchy of Berg, into a Jewish family. He was called "Harry" in childhood but became known as "Heinrich" after his conversion to Lutheranism in 1825.
What happened to Heinrich Heine during the Third Reich?
Correspondingly, during the rise of the Third Reich, Heine's writings were banned and burned. During the Nazi regime, Heinrich Heine became discredited as author of popular German folksongs (i.e. the lyrics of “Die Lorelei”) in an effort to dismiss and hide Jewish contribution to German art and culture.
What is the Heinrich Heine Memorial in Germany?
While the memorial is known in English as the Lorelei Fountain, Germans refer to it as the Heinrich Heine Memorial. Also, after years of controversy, the University of Düsseldorf was named Heinrich Heine University. Today the city honours its poet with a boulevard (Heinrich-Heine-Allee) and a modern monument.
See more

What is Heinrich Heine famous for?
Heine wrote both poetry and prose. His famous collection Die Buch der Lieder (The Book of Songs) (1827), was written in the wake of disappointed love affairs with two of his younger cousins.
Was Heine a Romantic?
Heine is often labeled the first of the "post-Romantic" poets. His criticisms of Romanticism, which became more and more scathing as the poet matured, would help to precipitate the realist phase of literary history.
Where was Heinrich Heine born?
Düsseldorf, GermanyHeinrich Heine / Place of birthHeinrich Heine, in full Christian Johann Heinrich Heine, original name (until 1825) Harry Heine, (born Dec. 13, 1797, Düsseldorf [now in Germany]—died Feb.
When did Heine write Die Lorelei?
1824Lorelei became the subject of a number of literary works and songs; the poem “Die Loreley” (1824) by Heinrich Heine was set to music by more than 25 composers.
How do you pronounce the name Heine?
Phonetic spelling of Heine. h-AY-n-uh. heine.Meanings for Heine.Examples of in a sentence.Translations of Heine. Chinese : 海涅 Telugu : హైనె Arabic : هيني Russian : Гейне Japanese : ハイネス
What does Heinrich mean?
The name Heinrich is boy's name of German, Dutch origin meaning "estate ruler".
Why did Heinrich Heine leave Germany?
Heine left Germany for France in 1831, settling in Paris for the remainder of his life. His move was prompted by the July Revolution of 1830 that had made Louis-Philippe the "Citizen King" of the French.
Is Lorelei a mermaid?
Heinrich described the Lorelei as an enchantress, known by some as a siren in Greek mythology, and by others as a mermaid. She sits on top of the rock cliff combing her long golden hair while serenading sailors and fishermen.
Is Lorelei a siren?
The Lorelei in German lore is a siren of distracting beauty said to sit atop a particular rock at the edge of the River Rhine, singing to lure sailors to their doom.
Is Lorelei a nymph?
Lorelei was rumored to be a beautiful mermaid, a taunting siren, a nymph and a water spirit. Some debate on her hair color glowing golden or sometimes even being copper red, in general she had bright eye-catching hair.
What is the poem The Lorelei about?
In the ballad, a beautiful woman named Lore Lay convicted of bewitching men and murdering them falls to her death from the cliff, leaving an echo of her name behind her. Heinrich Heine then refined the story in his 1824 poem Die Lorelei. The poem describes a female siren who sits atop the cliff combing her hair.
Who wrote the song Lorelei?
James YoungDennis DeYoungLorelei/Composers
What is the theme of the Lorelei poem?
One major theme of this poem is death. The Lorelei lures sailors to their deaths, and the story of these deaths haunts the speaker. Though the Lorelei is surrounded by death, she is still presented as a beautiful girl.
Who wrote the Lorelei?
George Gershwin"The Lorelei" is a song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics by Ira Gershwin; it was written for their musical Pardon My English (1933). It is about the Lorelei legend.
Who is Heinrich Heine?
13, 1797, Düsseldorf [now in Germany]—died Feb. 17, 1856, Paris, France), German poet whose international literary reputation and influence were established by the Buch der Lieder (1827; The Book of Songs ), frequently set to music, though the more sombre poems of his last years are also highly regarded.
What disease did Heine have?
An apparently venereal disease began to attack one part of his nervous system after another, and from the spring of 1848 he was confined to his “mattress-grave,” paralyzed, tortured with spinal cramps, and partially blind. Heine returned again to “poesy.”.
What was Heine's life like?
Heine’s early years in Paris were his happiest. From an outcast in the society of his own rich uncle, he was transformed into a leading literary personality, and he became acquainted with many of the prominent people of his time. In 1834 he found in an uneducated shopgirl, Crescence Eugénie Mirat, whom for some reason he called “Mathilde,” a loyal if obstreperous mistress. He married her in 1841. But troubles were soon hard upon him. His critical and satirical writings brought him into grave difficulties with the German censorship, and, at the end of 1835, the Federal German Diet tried to enforce a nationwide ban on all his works. He was surrounded by police spies, and his voluntary exile became an imposed one. In 1840 Heine wrote a witty but ill-advised book on the late Ludwig Börne (1786–1837), the leader of the German radicals in Paris, in which Heine attempted to defend his own more subtle stand against what he thought of as the shallowness of political activism; but the arrogance and ruthlessness of the book alienated all camps.
What is the second volume of Heine's poems?
His second volume of poems, Neue Gedichte (1844; New Poems ), illustrates the change. The first group, “Neuer Frühling” (“New Spring,” written mostly in 1830/31), is a more mannered reprise of the love poems of Buch der Lieder, and the volume also contains some ballad poetry, a genre in which Heine worked all his life.
What was the name of the Roman city that Heine wrote about?
In 1840–43 he wrote another series of newspaper articles about French life, culture, and politics, which he reedited and published as Lutezia, the ancient Roman name for Paris , in 1854. During these years, then, Heine’s attention turned from “poesy” to writing of contemporary relevance.
When did Heine become acquainted with Marx?
Heine had become acquainted with the young Marx at the end of 1843, and it was at this time that he produced, after a visit to his family in Germany, a long verse satire, Deutschland, Ein Wintermärchen (1844; Germany, a Winter’s Tale ), a stinging attack on reactionary conditions in Germany.
Where did Heine go to school?
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.
Where was Heinrich Heine born?
Christian Johann Heinrich Heine, the son of middle-class Jewish parents, was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 1797.
Where is Heinrich buried?
Heinrich died in 1856 and was buried in his beloved Paris. Mathilde remarried, inherited the estate, and lived comfortably until her death in 1883.
Who did Heinrich leave his estate to?
Shortly before he died, Heinrich prepared his last will and testament, which left his entire estate to Mathilde. But there was one condition: she was required to remarry.
How long was Heinrich's marriage to Mathilde?
Their marriage of 15 years was often described as rancorous. Mathilde was said to be both dim-witted and vain — an especially disagreeable combination — and Heinrich’s affection for her was mercurial.
Where is Heinrich Heine from?
Ingrid Bauer. Updated April 29, 2019. Heinrich Heine was born in Düsseldorf, Germany. He was known as Harry until he converted to Christianity when he was in his 20s. His father was a successful textile merchant and Heine followed in his father's footsteps by studying business.
Why was Heine suppressed?
Heine was one of the most influential German poets in the 19th century, and German authorities tried to suppress him because of his radical political views. He was also known for his lyrical prose, which was set to music by classical greats, such as Schumann, Schubert, and Mendelssohn.
What is the poem Die Lorelei based on?
One of Heine's famous poems, " Die Lorelei ," is based on a German legend of an enchanting, seducing mermaid who lures seamen to their death. It has been set to music by numerous composers, such as Friedrich Silcher and Franz Liszt. Here is Heine's poem:
Did Heine live in France?
Eventually, Heine left Germany, tired of its harsh censorship, and lived in France for the last 25 years of his life. A decade before he died, Heine became ill and never recovered.
Did Heine ever recover?
A decade before he died, Heine became ill and never recovered. Though he was bedridden for the next 10 years, he still produced a fair amount of work, including work in " Romanzero und Gedichte" and " Lutezia ," a collection of political articles.
When was Heinrich Heine published?
He was promoted to professor in 1969 and named the Leavenworth Professor of German Literature in 1979. No one can think of Jeffrey Sammons without also thinking of Heine, and no one can—or should—think of Heine without thinking of Jeffrey Sammons. Heinrich Heine: The Elusive Poet was published by Yale University Press in 1969, ...
When was Heinrich Heine's Critical Bibliography published?
His entries were succinct and sure in their judgments; in 1982 he augmented and shaped them into a useful and fascinating history of postwar Heine reception that he simply, accurately, and with characteristic understatement called Critical Bibliography of Secondary Literature on Heinrich Heine, 1956-1980 (Garland, 1982).
What is the North American Heine Society?
The North American Heine Society (NAHS) was founded in 1982 as a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and disseminating research on the poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) and the impact of his writings. The North American Heine Society has allied organization status with the Modern Language Association ...
When did Heine announce the transition from Bob Holub to Roger Cook?
In the letter of May 27, 2000, for example, when he announced the transition from Bob Holub to Roger Cook as former and future presidents of the NAHS, he chose a quotation from Heine’s letter to Varnhagen in 1838 about the project of a “Deutsche Zeitung.”. Heine writes that he will “hinfüro dem monarchischen Prinzip huldigen,” and ...
Is the Heine Society an allied organization?
The North American Heine Society has allied organization status with the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the German Studies Association (GSA). The NAHS sponsors sessions at the annual conferences of these organizations. Please see current calls for papers. Please visit our members' recent publications on Heine and consider supporting ...
Background
Named by its first publisher, Tobias Haslinger, who presumably wished to present it as Schubert's last testament, Schwanengesang differs from the earlier Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise song-cycles by including settings of more than one poet.
Composition and publication
The Rellstab and Heine settings were copied in a single sitting on consecutive pages of the manuscript in Schubert's hand, and Seidl's Die Taubenpost is considered to be Schubert's last Lied — thus the basis for Haslinger's sequence, one accepted by posterity together with his conceit that a cycle exists at all.
Another Schwanengesang
Schubert had earlier in his career set to music a single poem titled Schwanengesang, his D 744, by Johann Senn .
Liszt transcriptions
Franz Liszt later transcribed the entire set for solo piano. While staying faithful to Schubert's original, he often changes the piano texture as a way of providing a personal commentary on the text and music. Liszt reordered the songs in the following way: 11, 10, 5, 12, 7, 6, 4, 9, 3, 1, 8, 13, 14 and 2.