Creator Bio
Heinrich Heine
1797–1856
A German romantic poet and essayist, Heinrich Heine was born in Düsseldorf. Unsuccessful in his early business career, he studied law, and settled in Berlin in 1821. There he met with success as a poet and was influenced by the founders of Wissenschaft des Judentums; he became acquainted with Rahel Varnhagen, Moses Mendelssohn, and Leopold Zunz. In 1825, Heine converted to Christianity, apparently for the career opportunities that such a conversion might have afforded. Heine’s life was dominated by enthusiasm for the French Revolutionary ideals and Napoleon in their liberal treatment of Jews; he spent the last twenty-five years of his life in Paris. (Several of Heine’s poetry and prose works appear in this volume.)
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
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A Seder Night
A medieval rabbi barely escapes from a blood libel accusation at his own Seder table in this prescient nineteenth-century story by the famous German Romantic poet Heinrich Heine.
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Donna Clara
In the evening through her garden
Wanders the Alcalde’s daughter;
Festal sounds of drum and trumpet
Ring out hither from the castle.
“I am weary of the dances,
Honeyed words of adulation
From the…
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Farewell, You Cheerful Folk of France
Farewell, you cheerful folk of France,
My brethren’s merry throng,
A foolish nostalgia drives me hence,
I’ll be back, though, before long.
Imagine—I yearn beyond belief
For the smell of heather and…