HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Heinrich Heine
man, and every man's hand is against him. Yet we
believe him to be possessed of many noble and
generous qualities — we are told that he is now
eagerly striving to work himself pure — and nourish
a strong hope that he will come round, ere long,
to a due sense of the evil of his ways." ®
This hope was abandoned, however, when the
second article appeared a year later. The same reviewer
then confessed himself at a loss to explain
how an able writer such as Heine could indulge in
the blasphemous audacities to which he gave vent
in De VAllemagne, a volume that was meant to
supersede Madame de Stael's book on the same subject.
Perhaps his heredity offered a partial excuse.
Jewish blood mingled with Prussian blood in
Heine's veins. The reviewer conjured up a legend,
which had no basis in reality but which was nevertheless
brought to the fore repeatedly throughout
later decades. This was the legend that Heine was
only half-Jewish. In the hands of his admirers, this
legend could serve to weaken unpleasant thoughtassociations
that EngHshmen might have in connection
with the Jewish people. In the essays of his
opponents, on the other hand, this legend could be
useful as an explanation of Heine's many contradictory
traits and opinions. As the offspring of a Prus-
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