II.

Early Poetry and Prose

In 1822 Heine's first volume of verse, Gedichte (Poems, 1884), was published. The book attracted attention because of the delicacy and lyrical beauty of the poems. He remained in Berlin until 1823, writing poetry. From 1824 to 1825 he returned to the study of law in Göttingen. Because the profession of law was prohibited to Jews in Germany at that time, Heine, who was born Jewish, converted to Christianity in 1825 in order to obtain a law degree. He received his degree but never practiced law. In 1826 Die Harzreise (The Harz Journey 1887), a prose account of a trip he had taken to the Harz, a mountain range in central Germany, was published. This work, with its wit and grace of style, won success immediately and established Heine's literary reputation. In 1827 his Buch der Lieder (Book of Songs, 1846) was published. Many noted composers, including Franz Schubert of Austria and Robert Schumann of Germany, wrote music to accompany these verses.

From 1827 to 1831 Heine lived in England and Italy as well as in various parts of Germany. During that period he wrote the three volumes of travel stories that, with Die Harzreise, make up the four volumes of his Reisebilder (1826-1831; Travel Pictures, 1887). He also wrote a number of prose works in which he displayed sympathy with the democratic ideas of the French Revolution (1789-1799) and bitterly satirized the feudal regimes of the German kingdoms and duchies (see Feudalism).

In the 1830s Heine became a prominent member of a literary group known as Junges Deutschland (Young Germany), which attacked the German school of Romanticism for having come under the domination of the monarchy and the church. He had hoped to obtain a position as a professor of German literature, but his political ideas brought him into the disfavor of the established German governments. Seeking a more friendly political and literary atmosphere, Heine left for Paris in 1831. Except for two brief visits to his native land, he spent the rest of his life in France.