Heinrich Heine

Born Harry Heine on 13 December 1797, he wrote early lyric poetry that composers seized on, turning his words into art songs that outlasted the page. His later work sharpened into satire and irony, aligning him with the Young Germany movement and earning him censorship at home — a ban that only widened his readership. He spent the last 25 years of his life in Paris, an expatriate and a celebrity avatar of liberal cosmopolitan values in the mainstream press. The Third Reich later invoked his name as the archetype of the influential Jewish opinion columnist. He died 17 February 1856, remembered…