Sophie Bennett
How does German poetry from the first half of the 19th century address social and
political issues?
The turbulent situation in continental Europe in the first half of the 19th century following
the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars, and the subsequent shifting of the
borders of what is now considered Germany led to a proliferation of political poetry as
one would expect. If a metric by which we can assume a profound engagement with
social and political issues and a challenging of dominant ideas is censorship, itself a
contentious contemporary issue in Germany, then the heavily censored political poetry
of Heinrich Heine is a useful lens to explore how social and political issues were
addressed at this time. In particular, his 1844 epic Deutschland: ein Wintermärchen
exists as a work on an autobiographical level as both a product of his exile from
Germany but also as a means of expressing and critically engaging with the social and
political forces that led to this exile.
The political works of Heine are largely epitomised by ironic references and scathing
critiques and Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen is ultimately exemplary of this. It must
also be noted, however, that the entire pretext of the poem and Caput I serve to
sublimate this critical engagement with the social and political issues in Germany with
expressions of love for the country. of the poem. As the title implies, Deutschland: ein
Wintermärchen is a homage to the poet’s homeland, and is steeped in traditional
images of the various cities and descriptions of the traditional food there. Heine
establishes a genuine love for Germany on the part of the poet, and this pretext of a
return to his homeland underscores the entire poem, serving to remind the reader
amidst the scathing critiques of Prussian militarism and chauvinism that these criticisms
are based on a fundamental love for the country he has chosen to visit again. This is
epitomised by Heine’s descriptions of the physical effects of love for Germany on the
poet in Caput I, or perhaps a combination of this love and the complex emotions he
feels after having been away from his homeland for so long.
Und als ich an die Grenze kam,
Da fühlt ich ein stärkeres Klopfen
In meiner Brust, ich glaube sogar
Die Augen begunnen zu tropfen.
Und als ich die deutsche Sprache vernahm,
Da ward mir seltsam zumute;
Ich meinte nicht anders, als ob das Herz
Recht angenehm verblute1
The intensity and complexity of these emotions is highlighted through the juxtaposition
of “angenehm” and “verblute”, as if the ideas of joy and pain are inseparable from one
another, and inseparable from the poet’s experiences of Germany. This description also
serves to emphasise the power of the German language itself as a vehicle for the
realisation of such joy and grief. At this point in the poem, the language itself is
disconnected from any political ideas that are often associated with it and is instead
presented as having its own inherent value, and power to induce such strong emotions
and profound physical reactions on the poet. The combination of satire and sincerity,
then, serves to create a sublimated critique of nationalism, which is founded on hope for
the future.
The engagement with political and social issues within Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen
is strongly associated with the act of poetry. Heine’s first-person narrator, who is closely
1
Heine, H., & Fairley, H. (1966). Atta Troll, ein Sommernachtstraum ; Deutschland, ein Wintermärchen
(Clarendon German series). Oxford University Press: London p.125
aligned with Heine himself, is presented as a poet, and throughout the poem alludes to
the power this grants him. In Caput I, the poet juxtaposes his own art with that of a girl
singing the Catholic “Entsagungslied”.
“Ich kenne die Weise, ich kenne den Text,
Ich kenn auch die Herren Verfasser;
Ich weiß, sie tranken heimlich Wein
Und predigten öffentlich Wasser.”2
The repetition of the verbs “kennen” and “wissen” here reflect the poet’s wisdom in
contrast to the singing girl and her audience’s naivety. This girl’s song then, represents
the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church and their deceit of the common people with their
comforting lie of eternal salvation in death in return for poverty on Earth, but the girl
herself is presented as an innocent representation of those with power, referred to only
as “sie”. This religious utopianism is contrasted with the poet’s own appeals to
materialism: “Ja, Zuckererbsen für jedermann”3. These realist tendencies, however, are
not fully realised over the course of the poem, and instead serve to juxtapose the
utopianism of the Catholic singer, or on a broader level all poets or artists who offer a
utopian worldview. The emphasis in Caput II, then, is on the speaker’s role as a poet,
which as an exiled citizen poetry is the only means by which he can exert influence, yet
this is presented as being uniquely powerful, as it is elevated to the level of a religious
song. In this way, then, Heine’s engagement with the political issues of his time, in this
instance, the complicity of the church with human suffering, is self-referential, and on
many levels presents the act of poetry and art as a rebellion against such societal
forces.
The employment of and engagement with symbols is also a key aspect of Heine’s
critical confrontation with contemporary political issues, frequently to comedic effect. In
Caput III, Heine utilises the symbol of the Prussian eagle as a representative of
2
3
Ibid. p. 126
ibid
Prussian militarism in general. Heine describes how his speaker sees a bird on a sign,
and, although he doesn’t name it directly, he is referring to the Prussian eagle:
Zu Aachen, auf dem Posthausschild,
Sah ich den Vogel wieder,
Der mir so tief verhaßt! Voll Gift
Schaute er auf mich nieder.
Du häßlicher Vogel, wirst du einst
Mir in die Hände fallen,
So rupfe ich dir die Federn aus
Und hacke dir ab die Krallen.4
The extended description of the violence the speaker wishes to enact on the bird is
hyperbolic, and is a product of self-censorship, whereby the bird is merely a proxy for
his disgust at Prussian militarism, and the poet does not have to explicitly call for
violence against the Prussian rulers. This symbol, however, is described as being
ever-present; the speaker describes how he saw it “wieder”, and the symbol of the bird
reoccurs in Caput XXI:
Doch hütet euch vor der Tücke
Des Vogels, der sein Ei gelegt
In des Bürgermeisters Perücke. --
Wer dieser fatale Vogel ist,
Ich brauch es euch nicht zu sagen Denk ich an ihn, so dreht sich herum
4
ibid. p. 132
Das Essen in meinem Magen.«5
In this instance, the effect of the speaker is even stronger, as he states that he does not
need to even see the bird, just think of it, for his body to react physically at the repulsion
he feels at Prussian militarism. The speaker’s wrath at the bird, then, could therefore be
interpreted as anger at the appropriation of symbols by Prussia, which become
ever-present reminders of its military dominance. The use of symbols in imparting the
speaker’s political message, then, is complex, and functions as a critique of institutions
on multiple levels.
The speaker plays with the idea of symbols and German mythology in more detail in
Caput XV and XVI, in which he narrates his encounter in a dream with Kaiser Rotbart, a
emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from the 12th century, who has been sleeping in a
mountain for hundreds of years. The idea of an ancient king who will return to his
people in their time of need is ubiquitous in mythologies of many countries, the myth of
Kaiser Rotbart was particularly powerful in the first half of the 19th century, following the
dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. The myth of Kaiser Rotbart was explored
in literature, notably by the brothers Grimm in the 1830s, but also was firmly rooted in
the national consciousness. Heine satirises the idea of Rotbart by presenting him as a
ridiculous old man, who is unwise to the ways of the world. This is epitomised by his
questions as to the whereabouts of figures from the Old Testament, to which the
speaker responds:
»O Kaiser«, rief ich, »wie bist du zurück!
Der Moses ist längst gestorben,
Nebst seiner Rebekka, auch Abraham,
Der Sohn, ist gestorben, verdorben.6
The emperor is not only presented as ignorant, but willfully so:
5
6
ibid p. 180
Ibid p.166
“Schweig still, von deiner Maschine
Will ich nichts wissen, Gott bewahr',
Daß ich mich ihrer bediene!7
In this stanza, he is referring to the guillotine, a symbol of revolutionary egalitarianism in
the present day, and Heine presents the emperor as pointedly misunderstanding its
significance in contemporary Europe, and thus presents the idea of him returning as a
ruler in the present day as preposterous:
Das beste wäre, du bliebest zu Haus,
Hier in dem alten Kyffhäuser Bedenk ich die Sache ganz genau,
So brauchen wir gar keinen Kaiser.«8
This is somewhat undercut in Caput XVI as the speaker wakes up from his dream and
describes his reconciliation with Rotbart. His grovelling, however, is presented as ironic,
and serves to emphasise the ridiculousness of the idea of compromising with such a
man or rather with those who worship him as a symbol of German national unity. The
function of the dream, however, allows the speaker freedom to make his boldest
declaration of all: “ So brauchen wir gar keinen Kaiser”. The act of dreaming itself,
however, is problematised by Heine:
“Im Traum, im traum”9
Nur träumend, im idealen Traum,
Wagt ihnen der Deutsche zu sagen
Die deutsche Meinung, die er so tief
Im treuen Herzen getragen.10
7
Ibid p. 168
ibid
9
Ibid p.169
10
Ibid
8
The repetition of the idea of dreaming in these stanzas is satirical on a double level; it
emphasises the degree to which a person is repressed from expressing such thoughts
in the current political landscape of Germany, but also reflects the idealistic dreaming
which the speaker perceives as being detrimental to progress, of which Kaiser Rotbart
is unambiguously a symbol. Heine’s use of dreams, therefore, allows him to create an
effective twofold satirisation of nationalists and those who place their hope in empty
symbols of the past, while also lamenting the fact that these criticisms must be
hypothetical, which has parallels to the idealism of the nationalists.
While critical, it could be argued that Heine’s engagements with the dominant
socio-political forces in Germany throughout the majority of the poem are passive and
indirect, reflecting the tenuous position of the speaker-poet as an outsider in Germany.
In the final Caput, however, the speaker-poet directly threatens the king and offers him
a warning, as the speaker aligns himself with all poets:
Beleid'ge lebendige Dichter nicht,
Sie haben Flammen und Waffen,
Die furchtbarer sind als Jovis Blitz,
Den ja der Poet erschaffen.11
This could be interpreted as the manifestation of his unvoiced taunts to the Prussian
customs in Caput II:
Ihr Toren, die ihr im Koffer sucht!
Hier werdet ihr nichts entdecken!
Die Konterbande, die mit mir reist,
Die hab ich im Kopfe stecken.
The speaker ridicules the Customs’ attempts to investigate and censor him, as his ideas
and his poetry are immutable parts of himself, which undermines the institutions of
11
ibid
censorship and control. In this final Caput, the strength of this previous statement is
heightened by his association with the poets of antiquity, and the weapons invented by
poets, establishing himself as part of a long and powerful tradition of innovative and
controversial poets, which serves to undermine the Prussian Customs’ fruitless attempts
to control its people. In particular, he praises the Greek comedic playwright
Aristophanes, and with that alludes to the classical idea of the power of laughter and
ridicule as a weapon. He uses the symbol of the celebrated genius Aristophanes as a
vehicle to demonstrate the ridiculousness of the curtailment of artistic freedom and the
hypocrisy demonstrated by the censors, as he describes how Aristophanes would be
treated contemporaneously:
Dem wirklichen Aristophanes,
Dem ginge es schlecht, dem Armen;
Wir würden ihn bald begleitet sehn
Mit Chören von Gendarmen.12
The use of the pronoun “wir”, however, functions as a reminder that the speaker is
criticising the institutions of German society as a man with an intimate connection to it.
The dual-identity taken on by the speaker in the final Caput of the poem, then, as both a
poet whose power is enhanced by his association with a timeless literary tradition, and
as a man who retains affection for his homeland renders his critiques persuasive, and
for the first time in the poem, direct and threatening.
Thus, Heine addresses social and political issues through sincerity, irony and symbolism
in Deutschland: Ein Wintermärchen. Throughout the poem he constructs his critiques of
Germany in a way that ultimately serves to champion the act of poetry, which itself is a
form of rebellion against the censorship imposed on Heine himself. While the speaker
looks forward to a promise to write a “besseres Lied” for a more enlightened Germany,
but ultimately the poet presents himself as a mediator rather than an instigator of such
12
Ibid. p 200
political changes as a result of his tenuous position as a censored outsider, like Heine
himself.
Bibliography
Heine, H., & Fairley, H. (1966). Atta Troll, ein Sommernachtstraum ; Deutschland, ein
Wintermärchen (Clarendon German series). Oxford University Press: London.
Heine, H., & Reed, T. (1986). Deutschland : A winter's tale. London.
Kaufmann, H. (1958). Politisches Gedicht und klassische Dichtung : Heinrich Heine,
Deutschland, ein Wintermärchen. Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag.