Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine

1797–1856

Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) was a German poet, essayist and journalist, born into a Jewish family in Düsseldorf. From 1831 he lived in Paris, where he was a sharp critic of German politics and spent his last years confined to his “mattress grave” by illness.

His Buch der Lieder (1827) is one of the most popular poetry collections in German; poems such as “Die Lorelei” and “Du bist wie eine Blume” were set to music by Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn. His later works include Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen (1844) and Romanzero (1851).

Best-known poems

All poems (356)

1820s 208

1830s 1

1840s 64

1850s 69

Undated 6

In English 4

In French 1

In Hungarian 2

In Italian 1

Poets of the same era

Theodor Fontane 1819–1898 Louise Otto-Peters 1819–1895 Peter Cornelius 1824–1874 Hermann Rollett 1819–1904 August Kopisch 1799–1853 Carl Streckfuß 1778–1844 Auguste Kurs 1815–1892 Johann Georg Fischer 1816–1897