HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Blackguard and Apostate
sian lady of good quality and of a Jewish father,
who had thrown off Judaism without adopting any
other creed, Heine found himself in an anomalous
position. Because he was half-Jewish and half-German,
more than that, because he had ceased to be a
Jew and was not accepted as a German, he had to
devote himself, according to the English interpreter,
to the cause of a great social revolution
which would improve his personal position. Furthermore,
there was something in his blood which
prevented him from surveying religious systems in
general with the cold indifference of a "right German
rationalist." Since he was devoid of all genuine
convictions, he had to display the bitter and sneering
malignity of a crucifying Sadducee:
"The two great obstacles to a radical revolution
in Germany (as elsewhere) are the prevalence of
Christian principles among the mass of the population
— and the remains of respect for the civil institutions
of their ancestry. Heine, having attacked
both religion of the Bible and the monarchical and
aristocratic institutions of the German states with
unparalleled virulence, and having moreover distinguished
himself most offensively by the style of
his personal vituperation — carrying his warfare
with the most reckless malice into the domestic
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