III.

Final Works

In Paris Heine wrote for several German newspapers and became friends with writers such as Honoré de Balzac and George Sand and composers such as Hector Berlioz and Frédéric Chopin. In 1835 the writings of the Junges Deutschland group were banned in most of Germany, and Heine's income was considerably reduced. In 1845 he contracted a spinal disease that confined him to his “mattress grave,” as he called his bed, from 1848 to his death in 1856. Nevertheless, some of his most notable works such as the volume of poetry Romanzero (1851), date from the last years of his life.