1797 Düsseldorf
1856 Paris

The poet and writer Heinrich (Harry) Heine was born in Düsseldorf on December 13, 1797. He was the son of the drapery merchant Samson Heine and his wife Betty. Heine attended the lycée in Düsseldorf but finished his schooling without a diploma. He attended the merchant school in 1814 and began an apprenticeship at a bank in Frankfurt in 1815. Heine went to Hamburg the next year to perform his voluntary service for his uncle Salomon. He studied law in Bonn, Göttingen and Berlin from 1819 to 1825. During his Harzreise, his travels through the Harz Mountains in 1824, Heine met Goethe in Weimar. Heine was baptized in the Protestant church in 1825, when his name changed from Harry to Heinrich. He passed his law exams and worked on his doctorate at Hugo in Göttingen. In 1826 he established his first relationships to publishing houses with Hoffman and Campe. Heine then traveled to England. He published his "Book of Songs" ("Das Buch der Lieder") in 1828 and settled in Munich. For a time he edited Cotta's "The New General Political Annals." Heine's father died while he traveling in Italy, so he returned to Hamburg. Heine moved (unknowingly permanently) to Paris in 1830 and worked on the "Allgemeine Zeitung." In Paris, he met such artists as Balsac, Berlioz, Chopin, Dumas, Victor Hugo, Liszt, Nerval, George Sand. The German Parliament banned the works of "Young Germany" (Junges Deutschland) in 1835; Heine's book were also banned. The French regime provided Heine a pension, and he continued to print his works in Germany. Heine's "Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen" appeared in "Neue Gedichte" in 1844. Heinrich Heine died on February 17, 1856 in Paris, and was buried in the Montmartre cemetery.