Germany, A Winter’s Tale

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine; born Harry Heine (1797 –1856) was a leading poet, author, and literary critic, of the German Romantic Movement. Known for his early lyric poems, frequently set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Schumann and Schubert, his later verse and prose were notable for their satirical wit and irony. Regarded as a member of the ‘Young Germany’ movement, his radical political views led to the banning of many of his works, and he spent the last twenty-five years of his life in Paris.

‘Germany: A Winter’s Tale’ (Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen, 1844) his satirical verse ‘epic’ describes a journey from Paris to Hamburg in the winter of 1843. The title ‘A Winter’s Tale’ refers to Shakespeare’s late play, and the work forms a counterpart to Heine’s earlier verse epic ‘Atta Troll: A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

Heine had emigrated to France, in 1831, due to the political conditions in Germany during the post-Napoleonic German Restoration period and, in 1835, his works were banned with those of the other poets of ‘Young Germany’. On the return journey from a brief visit to Germany in 1843, he wrote the first draft of ‘Germany: A Winter’s Tale,’ later turning it into satirical travel epic with political overtones. In October 1844, the book was banned in Prussia, while, in December, a royal arrest warrant was issued against Heine. Subsequently, the work was repeatedly banned by the censor. Though available in other parts of Germany in a separate edition, Heine was forced to shorten and rewrite it.

This enhanced edition has been designed to offer maximum compatibility with current search engines. Among other modifications, the proper names of people and places, and the titles given to works of art, have been fully researched, modernised, and expanded; comments in parentheses have been added here and there to provide a reference, or clarify meaning; and minor typographic or factual errors, for example incorrect attributions and dates, in the original text, have been eliminated from this new translation.