HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Citizen of the World
again, to an increasing extent, in his native country,
which has been liberated from the Nazi nightmare.
Like all living forces, Heine is subject to change
and transformation in time and space. The midtwentieth
century legend of Heine is far removed
from its pre-Victorian progenitor and the English
legend bears the Anglo-Saxon imprint as surely as
the Russian legend bears the Moscow imprint.
Each age and each people have had an affinity for
some distinct aspect of the complex personality and
have superimposed their new insight upon the insights
of their predecessors. A survey of the English
legend from 1828 to the present day reveals many
varying and often contradictory approaches and interpretations.
And the real Heine?
Was he the blackguard and apostate that the
pre-Victorians saw or the martyr of Montmartre
envisaged by the Early Victorians? Was he the
continuator of Goethe, as proclaimed by the mid-
Victorians, or the Hellenist and cultural pessimist
heralded by the Late Victorians? Was he the Wandering
Jew that his co-religionists perceived or the
bard of democracy that the generation between two
Worid Wars hailed? Finally, was he the Citizen of
the World that the mid-t\\ cntieth century, sur-
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