Die Harzreise

Last updated
Heine as a student Die Harzreise und Buch Le Grand (1912) (14778593681).jpg
Heine as a student

Die Harzreise ("The Harz Journey") is a travel report by German poet and author Heinrich Heine on a journey to the Harz mountains. Compiled in autumn 1824, it was first published as a serial in January and February 1826 in the magazine Der Gesellschafter by Friedrich Wilhelm Gubitz and ran for 14 instalments. Some censorship changes were made beforehand. Later in 1826 Die Harzreise appeared in the first part of the Reisebilder ("Pictures of travel") collection. For the book, Heine made revisions and changes, and added the famous Göttingen section. Heine himself described his record as a literary fragment. The book was the first of Heine's to be published by Hoffmann & Campe in Hamburg, the publisher who later brought out all Heine's writings.

Contents

Content

In his work, Heinrich Heine describes his journey as a student from Göttingen, where he had attended the Georgia Augusta University in 1820/21, through the Harz range and over its highest mountain, the Brocken summit, to the small town of Ilsenburg. During the trip he meets well known and unknown contemporaries, who he sometimes describes in detail and compares with other people, sometimes historical protagonists.

For example, he meets in Göttingen the physician and (like Heine) Jewish Burschenschaft member, Karl Friedrich Heinrich Marx and recounts their exchange about medicine as well as Marx' treatise, Goettingen in medicinischer, physischer und historischer Hinsicht ("Göttingen From a Medical, Physical and Historic Perspective"). [1] [2]

Nature is also a subject of this travel account:

Heine's route Die Harzreise und Buch Le Grand (1912) (14595086099).jpg
Heine's route

In the work, he mentions all the rest points and overnight stops made by this group of travelling poets:

The route, which took Heinrich Heine about four weeks, [3] has become a trail that tourists can follow in and which, as the Heinrich Heine Way (Heinrich-Heine-Weg) is described in several travel guides. [4]

A duel, which was illegal at the time, between students is also a subject of his writings. Heine himself had to leave Göttingen University due to a duel affair after antisemitic hostilities; the Göttingen chapter reflects his bad experiences.

Appraisal

The work goes far beyond what might be expected from the early works of a budding writer. Romantic longing and disappointment, illusion and irony are already freely woven into the writing:

This is now the Ilse, the lovely, sweet Ilse. She runs through the blessed Ilse valley, on whose twin sides the mountains rise gradually higher, and they are, down to their feet, most often covered in beech, oak and familiar leafy bushes, no longer in firs and other pinewood trees. ... Yes, the legend is true, the Ilse is a princess, who runs down the mountainside, blooming and laughing. How her white bubbling robe glints in the sunshine! How her silver sashes flutter in the wind! How her diamonds sparkle and flash!.

Translations


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich Heine</span> German poet, writer and literary critic (1797–1856)

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Heine's later verse and prose are distinguished by their satirical wit and irony. He is considered a member of the Young Germany movement. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities—which, however, only added to his fame. He spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brocken</span> Highest peak of the Harz

The Brocken, also sometimes referred to as the Blocksberg, is the highest peak in the Harz mountain range and also the highest peak in Northern Germany; it is near Schierke in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt between the rivers Weser and Elbe. Although its elevation of 1,141 metres (3,743 ft) is below alpine dimensions, its microclimate resembles that of mountains of about 2,000 m (6,600 ft). The peak above the tree line tends to have a snow cover from September to May, and mists and fogs shroud it up to 300 days of the year. The mean annual temperature is only 2.9 °C (37.2 °F). It is the easternmost mountain in northern Germany; travelling east in a straight line, the next prominent elevation would be in the Ural Mountains in Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Achim von Arnim</span> German poet and novelist (1781–1831)

Carl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim, better known as Achim von Arnim, was a German poet, novelist, and together with Clemens Brentano and Joseph von Eichendorff, a leading figure of German Romanticism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bode (river)</span> River in Germany

The Bode is a river in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, a left tributary of the Saale. It rises in the Harz mountains and drains them in a northerly direction. After 169 kilometres (105 mi) it discharges into the Saale at Nienburg. The river is named after a legendary giant, the wild, rampaging, Bohemian, Prince Bodo, who, according to the Rosstrappe legend changed into a marauding dog that guarded the crown of Princess Brunhilde in the Kronensumpf in the present-day Bode Gorge. The gorge is the narrow section of the Bode valley between Treseburg and Thale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stefan Aust</span> German journalist

Stefan Aust is a German journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel from 1994 to February 2008 and has been the publisher of the conservative leading Die Welt newspaper since 2014 and the paper's editor until December 2016.

<i>Germany. A Winters Tale</i>

Germany. A Winter's Tale is a satirical epic poem by the German writer Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), describing the thoughts of a journey from Paris to Hamburg the author made in winter 1843. The title refers to Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, similar to his poem Atta Troll: Ein Sommernachtstraum, written 1841–46.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Harz</span>

The Upper Harz refers to the northwestern and higher part of the Harz mountain range in Germany. The exact boundaries of this geographical region may be defined differently depending on the context. In its traditional sense, the term Upper Harz covers the area of the seven historical mining towns (Bergstädte) - Clausthal, Zellerfeld, Andreasberg, Altenau, Lautenthal, Wildemann and Grund - in the present-day German federal state of Lower Saxony. Orographically, it comprises the Harz catchment areas of the Söse, Innerste and Grane, Oker and Abzucht mountain streams, all part of the larger Weser watershed.

Christian Ludolf Wienbarg was a German journalist and literary critic, one of the founders of the Young Germany movement during the Vormärz period.

Marie Luise Auguste Petersen was a German author famous for her fairy tale Princess Ilse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilsestein</span>

The Ilsestein is a prominent granite rock formation near the town of Ilsenburg in the Harz mountains of central Germany. Offering a scenic view over the Ilse valley to the Brocken massif, the highest mountain of the range, it is today a popular tourist destination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eike Christian Hirsch</span> German journalist and author (1937–2022)

Eike Christian Hirsch was a German journalist, author and television presenter. He was host of a talk show and author of a biography about Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. The main themes in his books were religion, humour and German language.

<i>Mooskappe</i> Traditional miners head covering

The Mooskappe is an old, traditional miners head covering. It was intended to protect miners when working underground from the impact of small rockfalls and from hitting their heads against the gallery roof (Firste). The term is German and this type of hat was worn especially in the Harz Mountains of Germany.

<i>The Discovery of America</i>

The Discovery of America is a trilogy written by the German author and educator Joachim Heinrich Campe (1746–1818). It was originally published in 1781/82 as Die Entdekkung von Amerika – ein angenehmes und nützliches Lesebuch für Kinder und junge Leute and deals with the discovery, early exploration and conquest of America by focusing on one explorer in each volume: Christopher Columbus is treated first, followed by Hernán Cortés and finally Francisco Pizarro. The work is counted among the first books of specific children's literature, directly targeting children and adolescents as its main audience, and Campe said to have "set the standard for German children's literature." The trilogy is defined by its author's involvement in the German educational movement of philanthropinism and has been a great success, also being translated into several languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Friedrich Heinrich Marx</span>

Karl Friedrich Heinrich Marx was a German physician and college lecturer. He was not related to Karl Marx, the founder of Marxism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritz J. Raddatz</span> German writer and journalist

Fritz Joachim Raddatz was a German feuilletonist, essayist, biographer, journalist and romancier.

<i>Harzreise im Winter</i> Poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Harzreise im Winter" is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, inspired by his ascent of the Brocken in the Harz mountains during the winter of 1777. He reached the summit in the heat of midday, in deep snow, with the landscape below him shrouded in cloud. The Brocken had always been a place of mystery, connected with witches and devils; where illusions such as the Brocken spectre might confuse an unwary traveller, and where few ventured by choice. This was the inspiration and the setting for his poem.

<i>Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland</i>

Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland is a three-part essay by Heinrich Heine, each part referred to as a "book". He wrote them in exile in Paris in 1833/34. They were initially published in French, titled De l'Allemagne depuis Luther, in the magazine Revue des deux Mondes in 1834. The first publication in German was as part of Der Salon. Zweiter Band the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthias Politycki</span> German novelist and poet (born 1955)

Matthias Politycki is a German novelist and poet. He studied in Munich and Vienna and obtained a PhD in philosophy in 1987. His first novel Aus Fälle/Zerlegung des Regenbogens. Ein Entwickelungsroman. appeared that same year. His breakthrough came in 1997 with Weiberroman and in 2008 with his cruise ship satire In 180 Tagen um die Welt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eduard Vieweg</span>

Hans Heinrich Eduard Vieweg was a German publisher; the owner of Vieweg Verlag.

Friedrich Ludwig Heinrich Waagen also Christian Friedrich Ludwig Heinrich Waagen, Wagen or Wage) was a German portrait, history and landscape painter. Hardly anything is known about his works. However, he had acquired extensive knowledge of art, amassed a collection of paintings in Hamburg and was known to friends with or in-laws of many important personalities of his time. Gustav Friedrich Waagen (1794-1868) and Carl Waagen (1800-1873) are his sons.

References

  1. Die Harzreise in: Reisebilder Vol. 1. Hamburg 1826, p. 117.
  2. Katarzyna Jastal: Körperkonstruktionen in der frühen Prosa Heinrich Heines. Krakau, 2009, p. 76 und pp. 90 ss.
  3. "Göttinger Literarische Gesellschaft - Heinrich Heine, Rekonstruktion seiner Harzreise-Route II".
  4. "Der Heinrich-Heine-Weg - info.erlebnisgruenesband.de". Archived from the original on 2011-12-14. Retrieved 2014-10-23.

Literature