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THE PERSONAL AND LITERARY RELATIONS OF 
 HEINRICH HEINE TO KARL IMMERMANN. 
 
 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Depart- 
 ment OF Literature, Science, and the Arts of the 
 University of Michigan for the Degree of Doctor 
 OF Philosophy. 
 
 BY 
 
 GRACE MABEL BACON, A. M., 
 
 instructor in GERMAN 
 
 Mount Holyoke College. 
 1910. 
 
THE PERSONAL AND LITERARY RELATIONS OF 
 HEINRICH HEINE TO KARL IMMERMANN. 
 
 K U 
 
 A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Depart- 
 ment OF Literature, Science, and the Arts of the 
 University of Michigan for the Degree of Doctor 
 OF Philosophy. 
 
 BY 
 
 Of 
 
 GRACE MABEL BACON, A. M., 
 
 instructor in GERMAN 
 
 Mount Holyoke College. 
 1910. 
 
To 
 
 PROFESSOR ELLEN C. HINSDALE. 
 
 As AN Expression of Gratitude for the Constant Help, 
 Encouragement and Inspiration Received prom Her 
 Throughout my Study of the German Language and 
 Literatures. 
 
 9.11033 
 
OF THt 
 
 UNfVERSITV 
 
 Of 
 
 THE PERSONAL AND LITERARY RELATIONS OF HEIN- 
 RIOH HEINE TO KARL IMMERMANN. 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 The subject of the relations between the two poets, Heinrich 
 Heine and Karl Immermann, has been either ignored entirely or 
 treated with less seriousness than it deserves. Only recently 
 have critics realized that there were problems here to be solved, 
 and yet no one has thus far attempted their solution. Friends of 
 Immermann have been unfair in their statements of the situation, 
 variously affirming that the relation was an unnatural one, to be 
 deplored by all who sympathized with Immermann, that it was a 
 one-sided friendship, that Immermann found Heine's attentions 
 oppressive and regretted the bonds that held them together. 
 Prejudiced against Heine, they have been loath to admit the 
 existence of any positive friendship between them and have neg- 
 lected incontrovertible evidence. On the other hand, Heine's 
 friends have passed lightly over the subject, overlooking the 
 significance of the correspondence and assuming that Heine could 
 not possibly have entertained any real affection for a man of 
 Immermann's type. It shall be my object to prove these ideas 
 erroneous by establishing the exact biographical relations between 
 the two poets, after which I shall address myself to the psychologi- 
 cal problems opened up by the former considerations. 
 
 Karl Leberecht Immermann was born in Magdeburg, April 
 24th, 1796, and died in Diisseldorf, August 25th, 1840. A glance 
 at these dates reveals the historical and literary background of 
 his life, which is seen to lie between two great world movements — 
 the French Revolution of 1789 and the Revolution of 1848 — and 
 to coincide almost perfectly with the reign of Frederick William 
 III, while the Wars of Liberation in Germany and the July Revolu- 
 tion of 1830 fall within the poet's experience. The roots of his 
 being were firmly fixed in North German soil — a fact that will be- 
 come of increasing interest to us as we contrast his traditions with 
 those of Heine. His ancestors from the time of the Thirty Years 
 War had been advancing by the customary stage — from peasant, 
 through artisan, teacher, and preacher, until in Immermann's 
 
father we have one of those characteristic Prussian officials, con- 
 scious of the importance of his position, trained in the school of 
 severest discipline, a man of few words, of unlimited power over 
 his household, of unyielding adherence to duty, capable of in- 
 spiring in those nearest him a feeling of deepest respect and awe. 
 He directed conscientiously the education of his sons. Historical 
 works rather than fairy tales were put into their hands to read 
 and the deeds of real German heroes stimulated their imagination. 
 In his " Memorabilien" Immermann has described most refresh- 
 ingly his boyhood reminiscences; how the first book that he read — 
 Rothmann's "History of Magdeburg" — made him hate Tilly no 
 less than the Devil and revere the memory of Gustavus Adolphus^ 
 whom his father never mentioned by any other name than Ger- 
 many's Savior. The first ancestor, in fact, had come from Sweden 
 as sergeant in Gustavus Adolphus's army, while Immermann's 
 own father had served under Frederick the Great in the Seven 
 Years' War and has afterwards spent years as an auditeur in his 
 army. Prussian to the core, the son grew up to reverence the 
 traditions of his fatherland, which his father was careful to instill 
 into him; the latter's whole personality was that of a being of a 
 higher order and had the effect of inspiring in the sons a worship 
 of all great historical figures, such as the times of Frederick had 
 called forth. The boy's early conception of the fatherland was 
 embodied in the person of Frederick the Great and later in the 
 figures of Frederick William and Louise, whom he had seen in 
 Magdeburg when he was nine years old and who on that occasion, 
 called forth all his enthusiastic affection. Such, in truth, was the 
 deep sense of reverence for great Germans which the father im- 
 pressed upon his children, that hero-worship became with them a 
 sort of religion, and Immermann wonders whether such surrender 
 to great personalities is not after all a thorough preparation for 
 religious feeling in children. In 1839 he confesses in a letter to 
 Marianne Niemeyer, his future wife: "It is a mistake to suppose 
 "that any remarkable effect is produced upon young, immature 
 " minds through religious instruction. In that way they learn to 
 " know the Divine only theoretically, as it were. All piety is based 
 "on reverence and begins with reverence for man * * * I was 
 " brought up quite irreligiously and in spite of it, I became in my 
 "own way godly, because the awe-inspiring figure of my father 
 "shone forth as an example in my earliest days.' ' 
 
 In his boyhood Immermann lived through the dark days of 
 Prussia's downfall. He saw the flood of defeated soldiers pour into 
 Magdeburg after the Battle of Jena and the disgraceful surrender 
 
 6 
 
of his native town, which was separated from Prussia and joined 
 to the newly founded kingdom of Westphalia. The sense of ruin 
 and destruction and treason brought about by the influx of Ney's 
 soldiers left an indelible impression upon him. 
 
 In his " Memorabilien' ' Immermann nowhere mentions his 
 mother; his silence speaks louder than words the proof that her 
 influence upon his early life was unimportant. From this fact, 
 Stahr explains the preponderating masculine element in his 
 nature, the rugged austerity, the harshness, and in his lyrics the 
 lack of tenderness and delicacy — something which he never over- 
 came but which was in some measure atoned for by a singular 
 charm of strength, of virility. In the above-mentioned letter to 
 Marianne, April 24, 1839, Immermann does give us some idea of 
 his mother's personality and its general effect upon him. He con- 
 "fesses, " The strangest contradictions are united in me. I am cold 
 "and warm, just and unjust, self-sacrificing and selfish, frank even 
 *'to excess and mysteriously reserved, hard and yielding, very 
 "clever and very stupid. Where lies the unity? Artists com- 
 "plain that they cannot catch my expression, because no single 
 "instant in it is like the next; the soul could present no smaller 
 "difficulties * * * you get nearer the likeness of a person, if 
 " you observe the stars under which he came into being. Strange 
 "circumstances concurred at my conception. My father, forty- 
 -'five years old, my mother eighteen, first youth and approaching 
 " old age mingled their elements in my being. My father severe, 
 "firm as iron, rough, hard; my mother gentle, immeasurably yield- 
 "ing. That explains many things in me. The contrast between 
 " frost and fire, between rigid and pliant was indeed the law under 
 "which the hour of my conception fell. In me appears now this 
 "contrast as stern, cold, incorruptible reason beside dreamy 
 "imagination, and feeling is somewhat obscured by this contra- 
 " diction * * * " 
 
 The contrast between Immermann's early life and Heine's 
 could hardly be greater, although both spent the most impres- 
 sionable years of their lives during the same dark period of Ger- 
 many's history. But Heine was a Jewish lad, born at Diisseldorf 
 in the little duchy of Berg in 1797, and Diisseldorf experienced all 
 the vicissitudes endured by the border towns in those troubled 
 years. From 1795 to 1801 it was garrisoned by French Revolution- 
 ary troops and the spirit of the place was wholly French. Then 
 from 1806 again it was held for years by the French so that Heine's 
 boyhood was spent entirely under democratic French influence. 
 We can imagine him in play hours making friends with the French 
 
soldiers, listening rapturously to the stories of hardship and thrill- 
 ing adventures told by Napoleon's veterans, following the old 
 French drummer, Le Grand, through the streets and learning 
 from him French language, politics, and history, or climbing up 
 on the back of the old Elector's horse to look down upon the citi- 
 zens as they paid homage to their new Duke, Joachim Murat. 
 The soldiers were attracted to the wayward, precocious boy and 
 loaned him French books to read; but he conceived a prejudice 
 against all French literature, and this dislike, he tells us, was in- 
 creased by his French teacher at the Lyceum, who required that 
 his students write French verse and even translate a part of the 
 " Messias' ' into Alexandrines. This, however, was more than the 
 boy could stand : he could have died for France, but never would 
 he write French verse! Heine first attended a Jewish school, 
 but later entered the Lyceum, one of those French government 
 schools, organized by Napoleon and placed under the control of 
 the Minister of Public Instruction. As it was designed to further 
 his political schemes, French was made the medium of instruction 
 in all subjects, one-third of the time, besides, being devoted to 
 French Grammar and Literature. The rector was a Roman 
 Catholic priest and the teachers were nearly all Catholic. This 
 same Rector Schallmeyer, so the poet tells us in the '' Gestandnisse' ' 
 suggested often to Heine's mother that she allow him to be edu- 
 cated by the Catholic priesthood, but his mother, besides being 
 more ambitious for a successful practical career for her eldest son, 
 could not, as a strict deist, make the garb of a priest seem becom- 
 ing to him. With much glee Heine pictures himself in the role of 
 Roman Catholic priest, cardinal, even pope, and declares that 
 his mother regretted deeply not having followed the advice of 
 her liberal old friend, who, she concluded, so early understood the 
 physical and spiritual atmosphere that would be most salutary 
 for him. 
 
 While in the case of Immermann's education we have seen 
 that the father played the chief r61e, directing the boy's reading 
 with the purpose of fostering hero-worship and setting before his 
 sons ideals of manliness as embodied in great German personalities, 
 with Heine the reverse was the rule. His father was an easy- 
 going business man, taking no marked interest in his son's educa- 
 tion; but his mother directed his school work from the beginning. 
 She was a woman of exceptional mental culture, a disciple of Vol- 
 taire and Rousseau, and her hobby, as her son tells us m his " Mem- 
 oiren" was the science of education. Thus we are told that she 
 made out his program of studies and decided what career he should 
 
 8 
 
follow, choosing one after another, which were all equally distaste- 
 ful to him and equally foreign to his whole nature. Utterly 
 lacking in appreciation of his poetic temperament, she opposed 
 his following the profession of poet. In her opinion it was not 
 respectable; a poet was a poor, ragged devil who made "occasional 
 poems' ' for a few dollars and finally died in the infirmary .^ Not 
 from his mother did he inherit his taste for the fantastic and 
 romantic. " She had a fear of poetry, took away every romance 
 "that she found in my hands, did not allow me to visit^the theatre, 
 " denied me all participation in popular amusements, kept watch 
 "of my associates, scolded the maids if they told ghost stories in 
 "my presence, — ^in short, she did everything possible to keep 
 "superstition and poetry away from me.' ' Her opposition caused 
 Heine to look back later with deepest regret on the fruitlessness 
 of those unsettled years, in which he dutifully followed his mother's 
 wishes. From his father he doubtless inherited his personal fastidi- 
 ousness, his lack of business ability and of all sense of money value. 
 But in spite of this rather negative influence, Heine worshipped 
 the memory of his father as the one human being of all others 
 whom he most loved. In his " Memoiren' ' he says that even after 
 a lapse of more than twenty-five years, he could hardly realize 
 that he had actually lost his father. The chief characteristic of 
 Samson Heine, according to his son's testimony, was his bound- 
 less enthusiasm for life; "his voice penetrated directly to the 
 heart- as if it did not need the way through the ear at all." ^ Nor 
 was he a strict Israelite, but indifferent in his religious views, 
 and while the son was expected to observe the Jewish customs, he 
 was not burdened with religious instruction from his parents. 
 As the family occupied a position of prominence in Diisseldorf 
 and their house was so located as to enjoy the distinction of having 
 a street-altar erected before it during the solemn Catholic proces- 
 sions, the boy must have been greatly impressed by the pomp and 
 ceremonial of those festivals, which the light-hearted, easy-going 
 inhabitants enjoyed no less than their carnivals. As for the 
 Mosaic law, the wayward boy easily found means of observing or 
 evading it, as it suited his convenience. He would not help pass 
 the water-buckets during a conflagration, for example, because 
 it was the Jewish Sabbath, but he found a way of evading the law 
 forbidding the picking of grapes on the Sabbath by biting them off 
 the vines with his teeth. 
 
 If we look further at those happy, romantic days in Diissel- 
 dorf, we shall better understand the difference in the temperament 
 of the two poets that we are to study. The first book that Heine 
 
 9 
 
read was "Don Quixote," while "Gulliver's Travels" was also a 
 great favorite. We can see him stealing away on beautiful May 
 mornings to some secluded nook in the old castle gardens and 
 reading through long, dreamy days the thrilling adventures of 
 his heroes, with only the birds and flowers and breezes and water- 
 fall for company. A more charming picture would be hard to find 
 than that which Heine gives us in Chapter XVI of "Die Stadt 
 Lucca.' ' Or we may imagine him wandering dreamily among the 
 ruins of the Castle on the Rhine or reciting the most beautiful of 
 all Uhland's songs, when he was sure to hear the nixies in the 
 Rhine mimic his words and repeat with sighs and groans and comic 
 pathos: 
 
 Ein Geisterlaut herunterschall 
 Ade, du Schafer mein! 
 Their mockery, however, he did not mind, but only recited the 
 louder, in order to overcome the awe inspired in him by the old 
 ruins, for they were haunted by a lady without a head, and his 
 heart beat faster as he imagined that he heard the rustle of her 
 long silk train. 
 
 In such a romantic region, with its medieval superstitions, its 
 myths and legends about the castle, and its Catholic cult, Heine's 
 childhood was one of great happiness. Everything stimulated 
 his imagination romantically; all Nature sympathized with him 
 in his joyous and pensive moods and he was "the darling of 
 water-nymphs and fairies." 
 
 These few paragraphs will perhaps be sufficient to bring out 
 the contrasts in the boyhood influences of our two poets. While 
 Immermann's early surroundings fettered him more and more 
 closely to the traditions of Germany and were responsible for his 
 enthusiasm for German nationality, his feeling of duty first of all 
 to Prussia, and his genuine and sound monarchical principles, 
 Heine's Jewish descent, his home training, his schooling, and his 
 constant association with the French tended to make him a cos- 
 mopolite. To emphasize still further the contrast between the 
 two poets, let us consider their exact place in literary history, the 
 literary inheritance to which they fell heir, and the use that each 
 made of his legacy. 
 
 The wealth consisted, first, of the new ethical and esthetic 
 ideas and ideals that made the great days of Weimar, and, secondly, 
 of the vast material opened up by the Romantic School — ^the 
 literatures of the South, the Orient, and England, of the whole 
 Middle Age and Germany's past. Now Immermann consciously 
 projected himself into the world of Goethe and Schiller, Shake- 
 
 10 
 
speare, Calderon and Tieck, and since his ambition was always to 
 exert his influence on the public from the stage, he began his 
 dramatic career by taking them as his models. Goethe he later 
 lost sympathy for, when, in accordance with the theory developed 
 in his " Ajax'' essay, he had to conclude that the author of "Iphi- 
 genie'^ and ''Tasso" was not contributing to the creation of a 
 national drama. When, however, Immermann found out the real 
 direction of his genius and wrote his novel "Die Epigonen" and 
 his " Memorabilien," he again paid homage to his master Goethe, 
 as also in his drama "Merlin." Schiller's influence also waxed 
 and waned and waxed again: Immermann's "Andreas Hofer,'' 
 an historical drama written in 1827 and bearing at first the title 
 "Das Trauerspiel in Tirol" was in conscious imitation of the 
 material and style of "Wilhelm Tell." Tieck was one of his 
 earliest and latest models and powerfully influenced his more 
 romantic productions. For the greater part of his life Immer- 
 mann was led astray by his romantic sympathies and was long 
 in discovering his proper field. In fact, he was never able to free 
 himself completely from romantic influences, not even in his 
 realistic treatment of a popular historical material or in his humor- 
 ous mock epic, " Tulifantchen,' ' although in both works he satir- 
 izes the movement; his subjects generally remained romantic: an 
 old English legend, a Charlemagne story, a southern tale, in every 
 instance some tragic or fantastic material treated with romantic 
 extravagance and symbolism. 
 
 While Heine was also a pupil of the Romanticists, his genius 
 exalted him far above them and placed him in a class by himself. 
 He confesses that he was highly delighted over the malicious title 
 of "romantique defroque" bestowed upon him by a Frenchman, 
 for, in spite of his exterminating campaigns against Romanticism, 
 he always remained a Romanticist, even in a higher degree than 
 he realized. After he had wielded the deadliest blows against the 
 Romantic poets in Germany, an infinite longing for the blue- 
 flower in the Dreamland of Romanticism overcame him, and he 
 seized the enchanted lyre and sang a song in which he surrendered 
 himself with all the blissful extravagances, all the moonlight 
 intoxication, all the sweet delirium of nightingale music to the 
 once so beloved melody. "I know," he continues, "it was the 
 " 4ast, free woodland song of Romanticism,' and I am its last 
 "poet; with me ended the old lyric school of the Germans, while 
 "by me at the same time was opened the new school, the modern 
 " German lyric. This double significance will be accorded to me 
 "by the German literary historians. It does not become me to 
 
 11 
 
"express my opinion at length on this subject, but I may say with 
 "good right, that in the history of German Romanticism I deserve 
 "prominent mention * * * '? (" Gestandnisse' And 
 Romantic elements he had and retained: his intense subjectivity, 
 which he never overcame; the enthusiasm with which he opposed 
 Rationalism; the readiness with which he adopted the simple 
 form and sincere tone of the folk poetry, together with his apprecia- 
 tion of the world's poetry and popular traditions; his faith in the 
 supremacy of genius and in the immeasurable value of art and form, 
 in his Weltschmerz; his nature-sense; his fondness for the mysteri- 
 ous, blood-curdling, and uncanny. Through his conscious imita- 
 tion of the tone and rhythm of the folksong and the skill with 
 which he worked over old material like that of the "Lorelei" 
 into genuine folk poetry, he brought new life into German litera- 
 ture at a time of stagnation. 
 
 But what distinguishes Heine from the other Romanticists 
 and lifts him far above them is the purely human note of love 
 and pain, which cannot but live forever. He has revealed him- 
 self with freshness and originality, matchless realism and artistic 
 freedom, with few strokes or rich coloring, in harmony with his 
 mood, as no one before him had ever written. Furthermore, he 
 is set apart from the Romantic School by his remarkable form 
 sense and the clear outline of his poems, in contrast to the vague- 
 ness and wavering outlines of the Romanticists; by his epigram- 
 matic brevity — his impressionistic style; by his neglect of the 
 Middle Ages, except in so far as they help him to express experi- 
 ences of personal, real life, and by his scorn of the intricate metrical 
 forms taken from the Romantic and Oriental poetry : he adhered 
 to the simple, free rhythm of the folksong and its consequent 
 clear thought. 
 
 At the age of seventeen, having completed the course in the 
 gymnasium in Magdeburg, Immermann entered the University 
 of Halle for the study of law. The story of his first year's experi- 
 ence is well known : how Napoleon, passing through Halle in the 
 late summer, suspended the University with the remark that he 
 needed soldiers, not students; how the lad, believing himself now 
 free from the stern command of his father that he remain there a 
 year without coming home, traveled on foot to Magdeburg, and 
 was promptly sent back to Halle again to study under private 
 instruction. After the Battle of Leipzig, he gained his father's 
 
 12 
 
permission to join the army, but sickness prevented his fighting 
 until the last campaign. Then he was drafted into the first de- 
 tachment of riflemen in the Regiment of the Guards and fought 
 at Leipzig and Belle- Alliance, after which he returned to the 
 little town of Halle and resumed his interrupted studies, which 
 he completed two years later. 
 
 Up to his seventeenth year, Immermann, who from his 
 earUest youth had felt an irresistible propensity for the dramatic, 
 had been almost completely cut off from the theatre through the 
 severity of his home training. Now, soon after entering the 
 University, before he had been misled by any false taste, he had 
 the good fortune to see two performances — " Don Carlos' ' and " Die 
 Braut von Messina'' — by Goethe's famous Weimar Company, 
 when it was at the height of its excellence. " It was not a question 
 "of pleasure," he says, "I was enchanted — enraptured; the old 
 "church in which the stage had been erected was for me a con- 
 "secrated hall." The experience awakened all his slumbering 
 talent as a dramaturgist and bore fruit later in his so-called 
 " Diisseldorfer Anfange." Immermann was greatly favored also 
 in an old uncle, one of whose hobbies was the theatre, and as a 
 student in Halle, the nephew went often to the great farmhouse 
 of '' Oheim Yorick' ' a few miles outside Halle and there, with 
 members of the family and with fellow-students, he found oppor- 
 tunity for many gay, theatrical performances. The uncle had a 
 particular - fondness for pastoral plays and was accustomed to 
 celebrate all festivals in the family by an open-air performance 
 of plays " that came into existence like the poetry of remote anti- 
 quity: seldom were they to be identified with any definite com- 
 poser : the unconscious poetic sense of the people produced them." 
 In the " Memorabilien' ' Immermann has given us an incomparable 
 picture of this Uncle Yorick, who sought thus to make up for a 
 youth of privation by amusing himself with all the diversions that 
 others enjoy when they are young. 
 
 Immermann's university career had an unfortunate close, in 
 that he came into conflict with the powerful Burschenschaft 
 "Teutonia," which had assumed a sort of moral oversight of the 
 whole student body and tyrannically punished offences, which 
 its own members were all too prone to commit. Finally a case 
 of ill-treatment that came to Immermann's notice aroused his 
 indignation to such an extent that he protested openly and 
 appealed then first to the Minister of the Interior and afterwards 
 to the King himself, with the result that his act was commended, 
 the association dissolved, and the academic authorities entrusted 
 
 13 
 
with full power to punish all disturbances. To defend himself 
 against the furtive attacks of the offended students, Immermann 
 wrote a little pamphlet entitled "Ein Wort zur Beherzigung" 
 and in the same year a second one bearing the title: "Letztes 
 Wort iiber die Streitigkeiten der Studierenden zu Halle." This 
 was his first appearance in literature, and significant for the reason 
 that it was not an effusion of his poetic talent, but a testimony 
 of his character. It has been pointed out how easily Immerman 
 could have left Halle and gone to some other university, thus avoid- 
 ing all unpleasantness; but probably such a step never occurred to 
 him. He had just shown his physical courage at Waterloo, here 
 was a display of moral courage in the face of serious personal 
 danger. The first pamphlet is not extant, but we know that 
 copies of both were burned at the Wartburg festival in 1817 — a 
 fact that shows with what feelings his act was looked upon by a 
 large part of his contemporaries and fellow-students. 
 
 In 1818 Immermann began attending the courts at Oschersle- 
 ben and Magdeburg as a young barrister and in the fall of 1819 
 he settled in Miinster. 
 
 At the same time, Heine, after his failure in mercantile life, 
 entered the University of Bonn. His life here and in the Univer- 
 sities of Berlin and Gottingen consumed the next five years, when 
 in 1825 he passed his legal examination and nominally changed 
 his religion. Meanwhile, in December 1821, while he was in Ber- 
 lin, he published his first collection of poems, and the following 
 May there appeared in the " Rheinisch-Westfalischer Anzeiger" 
 a review of them by Immermann. This was the first impulse to 
 the establishment of friendly relations between the two poets. 
 
 14 
 
II. 
 
 Personal and Literary Relations. 
 
 At this time Immermann was in Miinster, serving as auditeur 
 for the Westphalian army-corps, which was stationed at that 
 prosaic little town. Like Goethe, who longed so many years for 
 peace; Uhland, whose law practice and political career, much to 
 Heine's regret, usurped the time that might have been devoted to 
 poetry; like Heine himself, who bitterly complained of the years 
 wasted over his law studies; and Kke many another of our German 
 poets, Immermann was doomed for the sake of his material exist- 
 ence to a career wholly foreign to his taste and temperament. 
 Unlike some others, however, he performed his irksome duties 
 conscientiously, gradually winning for himself advancement in 
 office and a name for uprightness, integrity, and justness. But 
 the society of the officers and soldiers was uncongenial to him, 
 and the isolated location of Miinster, its Catholicism and philistin- 
 ism, fostered in him an innate tendency to solitude — a tendency 
 that had already been heightened by his unfortunate conflict with 
 the " Teutonia' ' and by an unhappy passion for Luise von Strasser, 
 the most intimate friend of his sister Lottchen. She became his 
 muse and was the Coles tine of the " Papierfenster eines Eremiten,' ' 
 his first novel. 
 
 His disappointments and Weltschmerz made his heart very 
 receptive to the friendly advances of the Countess Elise von 
 Ahlefeldt, the beautiful wife of the famous General von Liitzow, 
 in whose home he was a most welcome guest. Elise must have 
 been greatly attracted by his fresh vigor, his wholesome views, 
 and his intelligence, by his talent, and his enthusiasm for the great 
 and the beautiful, and the animation with which he endowed 
 everything; and in turn, his creations all show her enlivening in- 
 fluence on the development of his rich talent. In her salon the 
 best poetry of the world's literature was read and discussed, and 
 to Immermann soon fell the r61e of reading aloud the works of 
 Goethe, Shakespeare, and Calderon, besides an occasional poem of 
 his own, which was sure to meet with the approval of Frau von Liit- 
 zow's friends. Had it not been for this stimulating intercourse, 
 the four years of humdrum existence in Miinster would have seemed 
 to Immermann almost unendurable. The leisure hours not spent 
 
 15 
 
in the intellectual circle gathered about Elise, Immermann devoted 
 to writing and the study of Tieck, Hoffmann, Fouqu6, Shakespeare, 
 Goethe, and Schiller, all of whom were to have a marked influence 
 upon his own productions. 
 
 In the midst of his struggle with content and form and his 
 attempt to clothe his lofty thoughts aright, there now appeared 
 in 1822 a volume of poems of a new order : both the personal con- 
 tent and the form of Heine's poems drew attention to them from 
 all sides, and it is a compliment to Immermann's genius that he 
 was the first to recognize the quality of his work and to herald it 
 with a dignified and appreciative review, thereby giving the signal 
 for Heine's fame as a poet and setting the example to other critics. 
 We can imagine with what joy he read the dream-pictures, 
 romances, love-songs, sonnets, the miscellaneous poems, and 
 the translations from Lord Byron contained in this collection, 
 and how he compared in his mind Heine's poems with Byron's, 
 finding, however, only a superficial similarity; for, as he said, 
 Heine's possessed a vigor and buoyancy that Byron's lacked. That 
 boldness of outline in the " Traumbilder' ' was something new, as 
 well as the audacity, the almost dramatic vividness, with which 
 Heine set forth his youthful sorrows, his lack of harmony with the 
 world, his half-humorous, half-tragic view of life. Immermann 
 had likewise suffered through his unfortunate love-affair, and his 
 poems, published shortly afterwards, reveal an equal richness of 
 content, but what can be said of their form? labored, unnatural, 
 inorganic. Here he found objectivity of presentation, a popular 
 tone, spontaneity, individuality, a surprising originality and inde- 
 pendence, an abhorrence of weak sentimentality, all of which must 
 have deeply impressed him, realizing, as he did, his own com- 
 plete dependence on models. 
 
 But if his poems failed to awaken any response in the hearts 
 of their readers, with the exception of the dilettante circle of Frau 
 von Liitzow, the soul history that he himself had to tell enabled 
 him to read Heine's aright, to discover the prevailing mood, and, 
 what is more, the source of it; for in this review he made one asser- 
 tion that particularly attracted Heine's notice : namely, that the 
 joylessness of his poems was due not entirely to the sad love-affair 
 of the poet, but to the hostility of genius toward an unfeeling age. 
 He even considered it a burden of Fate to be born with poetic 
 talent at that time, because of the unfitness of the soil to nourish 
 the tender plant of poetry. Immermann knew what it meant to 
 experience the isolation of a poet and to do without all recognition 
 from the outside world; yet the less recognition he found without, 
 
 16 
 
the more he convinced himself of his worth and abiUty, allowing 
 himself to put all too much faith in the judgment of his tactful but 
 perhaps not overwise friends, whose very sympathy and goodwill 
 may have hindered his progress in the right direction. 
 
 That he was thus able to appreciate the sentiment of Heine's 
 poems, that he was the first to remark tersely the bold outline, 
 the remarkable individuality of the poet, the deep discord in his 
 soul, the difficulty of a poet's position in the world, and much 
 besides, affected the author deeply and excited his keenest interest 
 in the reviewer. In December of that year, 1822, he therefore 
 wrote to Immermann, giving expression to his gratitude for the 
 warm words and assuring him of his highest esteem and most sin- 
 cere love. Thus began a friendship that continued through Immer- 
 mann's lifetime, a friendship which had to be maintained by cor- 
 respondence, since the two poets met personally but once, and 
 which manifested itself, among many other ways, in mutual 
 suggestions and criticisms, in words of encouragement and help- 
 fuhiess in all matters of publication, and in an honest admiration 
 of each other's aims and endeavors. 
 
 More significant reviews followed Immermann's, and the 
 young poet found himself received into a large and influential 
 literary circle of Berlin, the circle that included Varnhagen von 
 Ense and his talented wife Rahel, — ^the most intellectual woman, 
 Heine tells Immermann, that he has ever known. In her salon he 
 became a welcome guest, as well as in that of the charming poetess, 
 Elise von Hohenhausen, who had translated extensively from the 
 English and had been the first to remark upon the similarity of 
 Byron and Heine. From Rahel, Heine learned to know and appre- 
 ciate the genius of Goethe — "that constellation which Rahel's 
 clear vision had been the first to discern' ' ; in her salon he became 
 acquainted with Ludwig and Friederike Robert, with Chamisso, 
 Eduard Hitzig, Hehnine von Chezy, Willibald Alexis, Michael 
 Beer, who afterwards became Immermann's most intimate friend, 
 Schleiermacher, Franz Bopp — in short, with all cultured Berlin. 
 At first inclined to diffidence, he soon gained ease and assurance, 
 and found in this company the stimulus, the friendly recognition, 
 and the mature judgment that every young poet needs. 
 
 Nevertheless, in spite of his elation over the immediate recog- 
 nition of his poetic ability and the tributes paid to his genius by 
 critics of renown, in spite of the social dissipations of the metropolis 
 and the inspiring academic life under a superior staff of professors, 
 the poet was lonely and disheartened and Immermann's ready 
 sympathy and intelligent appreciation attracted Heine to him. It 
 
 17 
 
is touching to see from this first letter with what zeal he made him- 
 self acquainted with all of Immermann's work up to that time. 
 First there were his poems and tragedies. The latter had followed 
 close upon some insignificant youthful comedies in three successive 
 years, 1819 to 1821, and were finally published together in 1822, 
 effecting the author's d^but into literary life. Goethe, to whom 
 the volume was dedicated, shrank back from all relations with 
 Immermann, confessing that, while he thought well of him, he 
 was himself too old a man now to wait for talents to mature. (To 
 Staatsrat Schulz, May 18, 1822.) Then there was his novel, the 
 " Papierfenster," and the pamphlets on his student troubles in 
 Halle and these concerning Pustkuchen. This Pustkuchen — 
 whose name Heine considerately explains to us in the "Roman- 
 tische Schule" means omelette soufflee and suits his character — 
 was an Evangelical pastor, who had published anonymously a 
 continuation of "Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre" under the title 
 of "Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre" (1821) — a work that mysti- 
 fied the public all the more as the first volume of Goethe's own 
 " Wanderjahre" appeared at the same time. The so-called 
 ''Falsche Wanderjahre" created great excitement in the en- 
 thusiastic circle of Goethe adorers, and Immermann was not long 
 in joining forces with the defenders of Goethe's fame through the 
 publication of two pamphlets : " Ein ganz frisch schon Trauerspiel 
 von Pater Brey, dem falschen Propheten in der zweiten Potenz" 
 and "Der Brief an einen Freund iiber die falschen Wanderjahre 
 Wilhelm Meisters." 
 
 Nor did Heine lose any time in making his new friend known 
 to his Berlin acquaintances. He interested them to enter into 
 discussions of Immermann's "Tragodien" in the journals; we have 
 a picture of him surrounded by his literary friends, telling them, 
 "half mad with joy" about the new tragedies, reproaching Varn- 
 hagen for his merely lukewarm praise of them in the " Gesellschaf- 
 ter' ' and finally presenting a copy in Immermann's name to Frau 
 von Hohenhausen, who, through her articles in the Leipzig '' Kon- 
 versationsblatt" and other periodicals, helped to advertise his 
 fame. We can see him persuading his friend Kochy to write some- 
 thing better for the first-named journal and through him securing 
 the promise of Klingmann, the director of the Braunschweig stage, 
 to produce there the " Petrarca.' ' 
 
 " My letter would become too long if I wished to tell you in 
 "detail how very much your tragedies have pleased here, how 
 " much they have been praised, criticized, and found fault with — 
 " by poetasters. The latter are the natural enemies of good poets, 
 
 18 
 
" and this vermin will not fail to feed on your beautiful laurels. 
 "Up to this time you have had this particularly good fortune, 
 "that in obscure Miinster your personality has been concealed 
 "from most people. But wherever the true poet is, he is hated and 
 "maligned; the penny-poets cannot forgive him for wishing to be 
 "more than they, and the highest he can attain, to after all, is 
 "only martyrdom." 
 
 Heine reserves the discussion of Immermann's lyrics until 
 later, as they have not satisfied him; but he devotes much space 
 to the tragedies and not until toward the end of the letter 
 does he mention his own poems. Then he expresses his gratitude 
 for the review in the following sentences : 
 
 "The significant words in the 'Anzeiger' which you spoke 
 " concerning my poems have affected me deeply; I confess you are 
 *' the only one so far who has divined the source of my deep sorrows. 
 "I hope, however, soon to be known perfectly by you; perhaps I 
 " have succeeded in my second poetic work in giving up the pass- 
 "key to my soul's lazaret. I shall soon give this book to the 
 " press, and it will be one of my greatest joys to make you acquaint- 
 " ed with it. Really there are only a few people after all for whom 
 " one writes, especially if one has withdrawn more into one's self, 
 "as I have done. This book will contain my little malicious- 
 " sentimental lyrics, a southern Romance-drama abounding in 
 "metaphorical language, and a very short, gloomy northern 
 '^tragedy." 
 
 In many ways Heine expresses his admiration of the man; 
 he thinks that Nature must have given him, besides the gift of 
 poetry, that of good health, else he could not accomplish so much; 
 he tells him also that Professor Gubitz had long before desired him 
 to ask Immermann for contributions to the "Gesellschafter," but 
 he advises him not to dissipate his energy on journal articles. 
 Finally he concludes his letter with the well-known words which 
 I shall comment upon later. "I found the other day a little 
 * 'student publication : 'Ein Wort zu seiner Zeit von Immermann.' 
 ^'I think it is by you, and I was glad to see from it that even earlier 
 ' 'a, strong inclination for the good and right possessed you. War 
 " on time-worn injustice, on prevailing folly and evil! If you wish 
 "me as a confederate ( Waff enb ruder) in this holy struggle, I joy- 
 " fully extend to you my hand. Poetry is in the end, after all, 
 ^'only a beautiful side-issue." 
 
 What Immermann replied we can only conjecture from 
 references in Heine's letters, as Immermann's were destroyed in 
 the Hamburg fire of 1833. Heine often spoke with sorrow of the 
 
 19 
 
loss and said once to Adolph Stahr : " That was a correspondence 
 "which we two as 'Strebende' put much into, for we exerted at 
 ''that time an essential influence upon each other. Strange to 
 "say, our relations in the biographies of Immermann have been 
 "almost entirely ignored." In all we have fifteen letters of 
 Heine and two of Immermann, and if we judge from Immermann's 
 nature and his correspondence with Michael Beer, we can think 
 of his replies as dignified and stately in language, having a certain 
 note of distmction, less enthusiastic but no less sincere in tone than 
 those of his impulsive, whimsical friend. This particular letter 
 we know that Immermann answered a week later, December 31, 
 1822, and that he sought advice concerning the publication of his 
 "Periander'' and of a prospective periodical, the " Polyhymnia,' ' 
 to which he hoped Heine would contribute. The latter could 
 promise no contributions, however, on account of his uncertain 
 health, and though mention was often made of the project after- 
 wards, it was at last abandoned. 
 
 In the next letter, written on the 14th of January, 1823, 
 Heine again shows an unselfish desire to further Immermann's 
 interests. He offers to see personally the Berlin publishers and 
 advises Immermann to consult on the subject of publication Varn- 
 hagen von Ense, to whom he pays a high tribute, in that he de- 
 clares him to be a man whose standing, character, loyalty, and 
 critical ability merit the highest confidence, and whose co-opera- 
 tion would be more valuable to Immermann than anything else 
 he might be able to effect for him. Heine was very eager to make 
 Immermann known in Germany and to acquaint him also with his 
 friends. Between him and Christian Sethe, one of his very ear- 
 liest and at this time his closest friend, he tried to bring about a 
 meeting, as Sethe was then practicing in the Miinster Court. To 
 each of the men he writes appreciative words of the other and 
 promises to visit them both; then, failing to see his plan carried 
 out, he is disturbed and fears that either their diversity of views 
 concerning university life, or Immermann's feeling that Sethe holds 
 first place in Heine's affections may be keeping them apart. 
 
 Moreover, to encourage Immermann not to hope for too great 
 a fee for his new work, he tells him that he has been awarded by 
 Maurer for his " Tragodien und Lyrisches Intermezzo' ' forty copies 
 of the volume — " and ten of those have not yet been paid!" — and 
 not a penny more! In the matter of publication, Heine found 
 that he could be of some service to his friend, and a week later he 
 reports again to Immermann that he has been able to interest his 
 own particular advisor. Professor Gubitz, in him, and that Varn- 
 
 20 
 
hagen has also recommended him to Brockhaus of Leipzig, and 
 pointed out the advantages to be gained by publishing his works. 
 
 And so the correspondence progresses. Heine writes that he 
 is comforted, strengthened, and inspired by it, and his letters show 
 every evidence of deep interest in Immermann and sincere affection. 
 As we should expect, the subjects were largely of a literary charac- 
 ter. The poets were accustomed to send each other their works 
 as soon as they were published, to criticize them freely, and to dis- 
 cuss their plans for future literary work. The freedom with which 
 Heine gave suggestions and advice without fear of offending in- 
 dicates an equal degree of frankness on the part of Immermann, 
 whose letters must have displayed the openness and sincerity 
 characteristic of their author. 
 
 On the appearance of the "Tragodien und Lyrisches Inter- 
 mezzo," Heine forwarded a copy to Immermann with a letter 
 dated April 10, 1823, in response to one received February 3. In 
 this, the longest and most confidential of them all, Heine expresses 
 his joy at having some one to act as his father-confessor, and he 
 assures Immermann that he is one of very few who will be able to 
 understand the confession in "Ratcliffe." More fully than to 
 any one else, he confides to Immermann his pride in that drama, 
 as well as his fears concerning '^Almansor," which has already 
 been seized upon and, much to Heine's disgust, branded as a 
 Tendenzgedicht. The unfriendly attitude of the critics and the 
 eagerness with which they made this accusation, rather than the 
 accusation itself, is what caused the author's indignation, for in 
 many places he acknowledges the polemical nature of the work 
 and the fact that it was intended to serve the interests of the time. 
 On the same day he writes Steinmann: '^Do you know Karl 
 "Immermann? We must both take off our hats to him, and you 
 " first. He is a forceful, luminous poet-personality.' ' 
 
 From now on, we begin to hear of Heine's plans to leave Ger- 
 many and go to Paris, where he will study for a time and work 
 himself into the diplomatic service. He has long cherished the 
 hope, and quite agrees with all that Immermann writes on the sub- 
 ject. On his way thither in the fall, he will stop off at Miinster 
 and discuss the plans further with his friend. It is apparent that 
 Immermann was also meditating such a step and Heine advises 
 him to write at some favorable time an article that will attract 
 the attention of diplomats, as he himself intends to do; he has great 
 confidence in Immermann's fitness for this profession. A few 
 months later, in May, Heine was so ill that he feared the frustra- 
 tion of his plans for Miinster and Paris, and he writes his friend 
 
 21 
 
 Of THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
from Liineburg, whither his family had moved during his absence 
 in Berlin, that it may be a long while before he can visit the 
 " Knipperdollingstadt" and shake the hand of the poet "with 
 whom he hopes to grow old": he has been deeply moved by 
 Immermann's spontaneous use of a similar expression in one of his 
 letters. 
 
 In the next sentence, Heine avows that, in the very first hour 
 in which he read Immermann's tragedies, he recognized him for 
 what he was; and he asserts just as emphatically that he is equally 
 sure of the correctness of his judgment concerning himself. " That 
 "assurance springs not from dreamy self-delusion, but rather from a 
 "clear consciousness, an exact knowledge of the poetic and its 
 ''natural opposite, the common-place. All things indeed are recog- 
 "nizable to us only through their opposites: there would be no 
 "poetry for us at all, if we were not able to see everywhere the 
 " common and trivial also; we ourselves recognize our own charac- 
 " ter only from the fact that the strange character of another per- 
 "son is perceptible and serves us as comparison." 
 
 In the letter preceding this one, Heine had asked, at Varn- 
 hagen's suggestion, that Immermann review his tragedies for the 
 " Anzeiger,' ' if he could do so without its being too great a burden. 
 This Immermann has consented to do, and now Heine assures him 
 that he may write the harshest criticisms without hesitation or fear 
 of giving offence: he must be unprejudiced! He knows that the 
 chief fault of his poems lies in their one-sidedness, in that they are 
 all variations of the same little theme — a shortcoming that will be 
 perfectly apparent to Immermann, whose poetry has for its 
 theme the whole great world with its infinite multifariousness. 
 "You have this in common with Shakespeare," he writes, "that 
 "you have comprehended within yourself the whole world, and if 
 "your poems have a fault, it consists in the fact that you do not 
 "know how to concentrate your vast wealth; " ' Shakespeare under- 
 "stands that better and therefore he is Shakespeare.' ' ' In thus 
 distinguishing the vital qualities of Immermann's poetry, Heine 
 showed remarkable penetration. 
 
 This is the reason, he continues, why Immermann is so pro- 
 ductive. Overwhelmed by the mass of impressions, he has to 
 take refuge in reflections, instead of creating characters, as Shake- 
 speare does; and this is why the penny-poets and critics accuse 
 him of imitating now Shakespeare, now Goethe. He really has 
 more in common with the latter, because Shakespeare could ex- 
 press his view of life artistically in only one form — the dramatic — 
 while Goethe employed all possible forms — drama, novel, lyric, 
 
 22 
 
and epic. For himself, Heine confesses, the art of concentration 
 is easy, because he has only a tiny bit of the world — one single 
 theme to reproduce; it remains to be seen whether he will be as 
 successful in a prolonged tragedy. He believes, however, that 
 Immermann will master the art and that each drama will be better 
 than the preceding. Meanwhile he realizes how much in his own 
 poems will not stand the test of true critics; he thinks that his ill- 
 health may be reflected in his poetry; it will not pain him, even, 
 to have other faults indicated, but only this one distresses him be- 
 yond endurance : when people try to interpret a poet's utterances 
 by reference to his views of life, his politics, his religion, his private 
 hatreds, and his prejudices. There is so often no agreement at all 
 betvv^een the outer and the true inner history, and in his case never! 
 
 By this time, Goethe had also recognized Immermann's 
 talent, and praised his originality, trusting that his taste would 
 purify itself. A few months later, in June 1824, he said to 
 Kanzler Miiller, "I am letting Immermann alone, for I cannot 
 rightly construe him. How can one pass judgment on something 
 that is still growing, problematical?' ' 
 
 In September 1823, Immermann was appointed Kriminal- 
 richter in Magdeburg and in January of the following year he re- 
 turned to the place of his birth, to make his home with his mother 
 and brother. At first he felt himself a stranger in the city so much 
 changed and beautified since his youth, and his duties were most 
 onerous; but he gradually made for himself a place in the life of 
 the city and distinguished himself in his office. We have but to 
 consult the article that he published in Hitzig's "Zeitschrift fiir 
 Kriminalrechtspflege" to learn how interested he finally became in 
 everything connected with his profession. He still found oppor- 
 tunity to indulge his literary tastes, and throughout the year he 
 was working up some old material of Gryphius into his " Cardenio 
 und Celinde,' ' a work that did not receive its final form until the 
 winter of 1824-1825; projects for a great cycle of nine Hohenstaufen 
 tragedies were occupying his mind, he was revising Elise's trans- 
 lation of "Ivanhoe" and planning a Magdalene tragedy — an 
 enormous amount of energy expended, when we reflect that he 
 had only his leisure hours to devote to literary pursuits, or, as 
 Platen said in ridicule of Miillner: "Morgens zur Kanzlei mit 
 Akten, abends auf den Helikon!' ' (" Die Verhangnisvolle Gabel.' ') 
 This tremendous force and intellectual activity is what greatly 
 impressed Heine when he was finally able to visit Immermann 
 and converse with him face to face. 
 
 23 
 
This happened the first of April, 1824. In March, Heine had 
 given to the world through the " Gesellschafter" thirty-three 
 poems belonging to the cycle "Heimkehr," and now, while on his 
 way from Gottingen to Berlin for a much needed change and rest, 
 he stopped at Magdeburg and spent four delightful days with his 
 friend. The only record of this visit is contained in a letter from 
 Heine to Christiani, written the following month, but he mentions 
 it to Moses Moser, April 4, 1824 : " I should know of nothing to 
 tell you about Magdeburg, except that it encloses within its walls 
 a splendid cathedral and at the present moment two very dis- 
 tinguished poets.' ' On his return trip, he intended to see Immer- 
 mann again, but the diligence stopped there for too short a time. 
 
 Probably the most absorbing topic of conversation was that 
 of their literary aims and ideals and the mysteries of the poetic 
 art. The very thought of all that Immermann had done and was 
 then contemplating doing overwhelmed Heine, and he felt that 
 his own activity amounted almost to nothing in comparison. He 
 enumerates for Christiani's benefit the works that were engaging 
 Immermann's attention: we know, however, that the program 
 was too full for even an Immermann. Only one of the Hohen- 
 staufen dramas "Friedrich II" (1828) appeared; the Magdalene 
 tragedy was destined never to see the light of day, and the same 
 fate befell the review of Heine's own tragedies, which he caught a 
 glimpse of among some other critical writings of Immermann's. 
 
 Furthermore, we learn from the letter to Christiani that the 
 two poets talked much of Goethe, as Heine greatly admired the 
 stand that Immermann had taken toward the " Falsche Wander- 
 jahre," and the Pustkuchen pamphlets find frequent mention in 
 his correspondence both before and after this visit. He only 
 regretted that his health prevented his taking part in the cam- 
 paign against such presumption, but "sooner or later," he says, 
 (April 10, 1823) "you will nevertheless hear my voice, and in 
 Paris, where now there is beginning to appear a love for German 
 literature, especially for Goethe, I intend to do my part.' ' In fact 
 it was the effectiveness of these pamphlets that led Heine to think 
 there were great opportunities for Immermann as a political 
 writer: "The knife that has so prettily cut up a Pustkuchen can 
 also carve a diplomatic hare." No doubt Heine discussed most 
 enthusiastically the details of his Paris plans, as he tells Christiani 
 right after this visit that he " lobbied' ' a good deal in Berlin; but it 
 is evident that with Immermann the whole idea was but a passing 
 fancy, which grew out of his desire to give Elise, whom he hoped 
 eventually to marry, something worthy of her title. The step 
 
 24 
 
would have proved fatal, however, because Immermann's simple, 
 abrupt, and uncompromising nature, his uprightness, and his 
 determination to bring truth to light regardless of consequences, 
 would have hindered success in this field. He could have become 
 a champion of patriotic ideas for his beloved fatherland, but never 
 could he have fought the complicated battles of cabinet politics. 
 
 Altogether, the letter to Christiani is a testimony to the deep 
 respect and admiration that Heine felt for his new friend. " Im- 
 mermann pays profound homage to my Muse," Heine tells him, 
 and, in turn, he betrays a touching humility before Immermann's 
 genius and confesses that he found him greater than he had antici- 
 pated. He is impressed with the feeling that Immermann lacks 
 youth, but, as a compensation, he stands there a colossus of 
 strength and repose. A bit of characteristic wit escapes Heine 
 when in commenting upon Immermann's outward appearance, 
 he says, "Ich sehe weit besser aus." 
 
 Whether we agree with this statement or not, we can hardly 
 imagine a greater contrast in personal appearance than existed 
 between the two men. Immermann was of medium height, 
 square-shouldered and broad-chested and compactly built, like 
 the ancient Romans, giving an impression of f orcefulness, of ster- 
 ling qualities, and intrinsic worth; his countenance was likewise 
 decidedly imposing: massive face, high, broad forehead, dark 
 hair, deep-set gray eyes with their penetrating glance, and 
 tightly closed lips betraying an habitual expression of deep serious- 
 ness, firm determination, dignity, and calmness. Heine, on the 
 other hand, was small and slender, narrow chested, yet- distinguished 
 in his bearing and appearance; his face was pale, with a high, 
 beautifully chiselled forehead shadowed by short, light-brown 
 hair; his small blue eyes were thoughtful and dreamy, and are 
 said to have looked near-sighted and fatigued; his nose was almost 
 Grecian, but a slight curve in the middle, together with rather 
 high cheek-bones, gave the least suggestion of his Jewish descent. 
 In him one instinctively recognized the poet, in Immermann the 
 practical man of business — independent, imperious even — ^with 
 other absorbing interests besides his literary profession. 
 
 After this visit, the letters between the two friends became 
 less and less frequent, but Heine never ceased to speak of Immer- 
 mann with affection, to enter into his plans, and to consider him 
 a great force as man and dramatist. In 1830 he brought about a 
 meeting between his beloved sister Charlotte and Immermann, as 
 she passed through Dlisseldorf on her way to Ems, assuring him at 
 
 25 
 
that time by letter that any favor he might show to her would be 
 more deeply felt than if it were shown him. 
 
 At the very time when Pleine was pouring forth his admiration 
 of the "Koloss von Kraft und Ruhe/' Immermann was writing 
 most impassioned letters to the Countess Elise, who had removed 
 to Dresden, pending the separation from General Liitzow, be- 
 seeching her to take pity on his hermit-like existence and come to 
 Magdeburg. The material for his "Cardenio und Celinde" was 
 also being turned to account and the work was assuming the form 
 of a biographical confession; the words of Celinde can awaken 
 interest and understanding only as the utterance of the Countess, 
 yet Immermann had apparently betrayed nothing of his emotions 
 to Heine. Not until a year later (April 22, 1825) was the divorce 
 finally granted and EHse enabled to join her lover. That autumn 
 they journeyed through the Harz Mountains together and then 
 settled down in his mother's home; in the winter "Cardenio und 
 Celinde" was finished and the poet gained some relief through 
 verbal expression. Touching, indeed, is the attempt of Immer- 
 mann, in the character of his hero, to induce Elise — ^the Celinde — 
 to marry him; her refusal brought despair to the poet, who through 
 the early training under the severe discipUne of his father and 
 through the convictions of his maturer years, had been led to base 
 the welfare of the whole nation on a healthy family life. It is no 
 wonder that the consciousness of his guilt overpowered him. He 
 longed for nothing so much as to find peace in a wholesome, natural 
 marriage relation, and this wish, which seemed a very modest one 
 to him, could not be fulfilled. 
 
 Once more in Gottingen, Heme seems to have taken his law 
 studies a little more seriously, though at the same time he was 
 laboring strenuously on material for his novel, '^Der Rabbi von 
 Bacharach. " In September he relieved the monotony by his 
 tour in the Upper and Lower Harz and Thuringia, made his much- 
 famed call on Goethe in Weimar, and by the end of November 
 had already put the result of his experiences on paper. His con- 
 tract with Campe detained him for a long while in Hamburg, 
 but having finally seen the first volume of the" Reisebilder' ' 
 through the press, he went home to Liineburg, whence he sent 
 Immermann a copy and on October 14, 1826, a letter describing 
 his dissapointment at finding nothing to do in Hamburg — nothing 
 there but enmity, slander, and vexation. In his extreme bitter- 
 ness over his lot, he has determined to leave Germany forever: 
 his strength will not permit him to remain and encounter the 
 hostility any longer. But first he will see the second volume of 
 
 26 
 
his " Reisebilder' ' in print, and to this he begs Immermann to con- 
 tribute, saying that he is reserving the best place for him and adding 
 that the "Reisebilder" are at present the place where he is to 
 bring before the public whatever he wishes and that the first 
 volume has found such an enormous sale that it will soon go through 
 a second edition. 
 
 Meanwhile, on April 29, 1826, Immermann writes to Varn- 
 hagen : " There appeared recently in the ^Gesellschafter' a Harz- 
 "reise by Heine, which I liked very much. It has a sweet, fan- 
 ' 'tastic charm, which would have been still greater, if Heine had 
 " known how to guard himself against certain rough-shod ex- 
 " pressions.' ' Nevertheless, it was welcomed by a most intelligent 
 critique from Immermann's pen, written for the " Jahrbiicher fiir 
 wissenschaftliche Kritik" in 1827. Writing entirely from the 
 standpoint of artistic appreciation, he emphasizes the purely 
 lyric quality of all Heine's writings, the poetic descriptions in the 
 "Harzreise" no less than the "Buch der Lieder," and admirably 
 sets forth that unconscious wisdom of a poet, which leads him to 
 restrict himself to a small field ; for the narrower the field the more 
 intense the poetic feeling, and the more intense the feeling, the 
 nearer the possibility of success. Hence it is even to Heine's 
 advantage that he recur again and again to an apparently ex- 
 hausted subject, for only by the way in which a lyrist understands 
 how to modulate and vary his theme is the poet recognized. For 
 this faculty one must truly admire Heine. Immermann praises 
 likewise the inner unity of his poems, the harmony of tones and 
 colors, the irresistible directness and freshness and vigor of lan- 
 guage, the brevity, which results sometimes in a too epigrammatic 
 ending, and the wit. But he does not praise blindly; there are 
 times when the form is not poetic and that happens whenever the 
 poet is not calm enough to compose. He must never allow him- 
 self to be controlled by his material or carried away by passion; 
 but the particular event with all its joys and sorrows must be held 
 together by the free action of the imagination. This is what dis- 
 tinguishes a poem from a dull cry of pain or the shout of anger or 
 derision, so that the latter within finite bounds becomes a symbol 
 of the universal and infinite. It is noteworthy that Immermann 
 fails entirely to grasp the significance of Heine as a German humor- 
 ist and the value of the " Reisebilder' ' for the culture of the time. 
 
 In June 1826, while Heine was still in Hamburg, Immermann 
 journeyed to Berlin for the last of his higher state examinations, 
 and there he was received into Rahel's circle and learned to know 
 Heine's friends. Having creditably passed the examination, he 
 
 27 
 
was shortly afterwards appointed councillor of the provincial 
 court in Diisseldorf; but before he left Magdeburg, he completed 
 his " Trauerspiel in Tirol,' ' which was revised as " Andreas Hofer,' ' 
 and worked out his esthetic treatise "Ueber den rasendenAjax 
 des Sophokles' ' — so important for his own development. Of this 
 study, Heine wrote and had printed a review, but it has not been 
 found. Twenty-five years later, in a conversation with Adolf 
 Stahr, he says : " As Immermann wrote me, I was the only one to 
 * * call attention to the significance of this excellent work, while the 
 "classical scholars and the antiquarian professionals scornfully 
 "passed it by.' ' As for the former work, Goethe, in a few benevolent 
 words to Holty, expressed his pleasure that Immermann had 
 "found himself," for he recognized the talent and the forceful 
 individuality behind the work. 
 
 This tragedy was the first germination of the seeds sown in 
 his four years of activity in Miinster, while he was unconsciously 
 observing the sturdy Westphalian peasant class, little thinking that 
 the fruit was to be his richest creations — the portrayal of living 
 people and contemporary history, which we find in " Andreas 
 Hofer," the "Epigonen," the satire of " Miinchhausen" and the 
 Heimatskunst of the "Oberhof." Heine's praise in the third 
 volume of the " Reisebilder' ' is among the finest tributes paid to a 
 German poet : 
 
 "There is an eagle in the German fatherland, whose song of 
 "life and light resounds so powerfully that it is also heard down 
 " here, and even the nightingales cease, in spite of all their sorrows 
 "demanding melodious expression. That eagle is you, Karl 
 " Immermann, and often indeed did I think of you while in that 
 "land of which you have so beautifully sung. How could I 
 " travel through the Tirol without thinking of the Trauerspiel' ?' ' 
 
 At the " Golden Eagle' ' in Innsbruch, where Andreas Hofer 
 had lodged and where every corner was alive v\^ith memories of 
 him, Heine's admiration increased for the poet that could create, 
 as did Schiller, out of the very wealth of his imagination, something 
 so like the reality, which he had never seen. He was delighted 
 with the fact that the work was forbidden in the Tirol, and blushed 
 with pride when, upon being shown the landlord's old, worn copy 
 of the " Trauerspiel' ' he could say that the author, Karl Immer- 
 mann, was his friend. 
 
 In the spring of 1827, Immermann took up his new duties in 
 Diisseldorf, the birthplace of his friend Heine and at this time a 
 beautiful city of thirty thousand inhabitants. Here he became 
 acquainted with new types of men, enjoyed greater leisure, and 
 
 28 
 
was troubled only by bis relations to Elise, who had accompanied 
 him — ^relations that were looked upon askance by his new acquaint- 
 ances, so that he was reluctant to mingle with them. His gift of 
 reading aloud, however, made him soon a guest much sought by the 
 families of Diisseldorf and it was not long before he became one of 
 that coterie of young men who were pursuing the same ideals and 
 whom he found congenial and helpful in his Diisseldorf activity: 
 the artist Wilhelm Schadow; the earnest poet Uechtritz, with 
 whom he had corresponded since 1823 and who became a colleague 
 of Immermann's in 1829; Karl Schnaase, who came in 1830 as 
 Schadow's successor in office; the musician Mendelssohn, and 
 Michael Beer, his intimate friend and confidant. This is the 
 period which Immermann has so delightfully characterized in his 
 " Diisseldorf er Anfange' ' and in which he proved his ability as a 
 dramaturgist. From 1835 to 1838 his endeavors were exerted to 
 maintain a model stage with essentially literary aims. He was 
 even granted a year's leave of absence from his official duties to 
 conduct the new enterprise, but after three years the experiment 
 was for financial reasons pronounced impracticable. Nevertheless, 
 inspired by Goethe's example, Immermann realized in Diisseldorf 
 what Tieck had attempted in Dresden; he produced the master- 
 pieces of dramatic literature as they had never been performed on 
 the stage before, and through his earnestness and his imposing 
 personality, he was able to inspire and educate a troupe of fresh 
 young talents to most creditable performances. 
 
 Immediately after Immermann's arrival in Diisseldorf, the 
 second volume of the " Reisebilder" appeared, to which he had 
 contributed those few satirical verses against the imitators of the 
 " West-Ostlicher Divan,' ' making merry over what he considered 
 their mere metrical ingenuity and ridiculing their unnatural, 
 oriental diction. The best is the one about their eating too much 
 of the stolen fruit from the Garden of Shiraz and then vomiting 
 up ghazals. Without his work on the " Ajax' ' Immermann would 
 scarcely have written them; but now, having established for him- 
 self a firm standpoint, he could look back upon his own youthful 
 imitations as a great mistake, believing no longer that a conscien- 
 tious modeling of one's work after that of the greatest masters 
 must lead to perfection. Imitation robs poetry of its historical basis 
 and is impossible in true art, and German art, to be perfected, 
 must be traced back to its beginnings and continued in a straight 
 line from the earliest attempts. He could never again imitate 
 or tolerate imitation in others, and hence his conviction that 
 Platen's oriental metres were mere dalliance with forms that 
 
 29 
 
could mean nothing to the German mind, and that such practice 
 was a serious hindrance to the development of an independent 
 German art. 
 
 The first intimation that his epigrams had hit the mark came 
 to Immermann in 1828, when Platen's " Romantischer Odipus" 
 unexpectedly appeared; for unlike Riickert and others, who must 
 have felt themselves equally included in the satire. Platen could 
 neither forgive nor forget the offence. The attack was directed 
 against the more general aspects of Romanticism, especially its 
 formlessness and its love of experimenting with new and uncouth 
 metres, but Immermann {" Nimmermann' ') was made the target 
 of the author's wit, while Heine, as a punishment for publishing 
 the epigrams, was assailed in the most msulting fashion as a "Pin- 
 dar of the tribe of Benjamin" and as the ''Petrarch of the Feast 
 of the Tabernacles." Immermann was deeply hurt; his sense of 
 justice was outraged, especially as he had great respect for Platen, 
 recognizing in him a seriousness of artistic endeavor akin to his 
 own. Twelve years later he reviews the situation in the " Diissel- 
 dorfer Anfange" with much regret and in " Miinchhausen" he 
 declares that Platen will come into Walhalla and belongs there, in 
 spite of all his follies and blunders. He confesses also that 
 he never read the " Odipus,' ' but had the contents told him by his 
 friends, so that he might learn the order of battle without destroy- 
 ing his humor for the skirmish. The story of the feud is long and 
 ugly and would not need to be mentioned here except for the fact 
 that it coupled the names of Heine and Immermann more closely 
 than ever. Heine, too, had just shown sufficient interest in 
 Platen to speak a good word for him to the Minister Eduard von 
 Schenk, on whose favor the royal pension of 600 gulden, much 
 desired by Platen, depended, and had gained for him also the good- 
 will of Madame Gotta. He had read, too. Platen's comedies and 
 enjoyed them, finding them in form and style closely related to 
 Immermann's, except that wit was lacking and the poetry, while 
 genuine, did not flow so richly. (Letter to Immermann, February 
 24, 1825.) That the attack was without provocation and that 
 Platen knew almost nothing of the two poets at the time when he 
 wrote his " Odipus' ' has been proved by Heine's letters to Gotta, 
 Varnhagen von Ense, and Immermann and by Platen's diary and 
 letters. Gotta even offered to refuse the publication of the work, 
 but Heine declined the favor, having already in mind his plan of 
 campaign, as soon as the book should leave the press. November 
 17, 1829, he writes Immermann that in the forenoon of the day 
 preceding he had chastized Platen and in the evening applauded 
 
 30 
 
Immermann at a very successful performance of " Andreas Hofer' ' 
 " YoU; Immermann, have played the judge. I will play, or rather, 
 seriously personate, the executioner." He thereupon playfully 
 chides Immermann for involving him in trouble and in revenge, 
 dedicates to him the third volume of his " Reisebilder." He had 
 thought of something more worthy, but deems it fitting now to 
 present Immermann with the book in which the spolia opima of 
 the great champion of Classicism are contained. The "Bader 
 von Lucca" he intends only as a fragment of a greater romance 
 of travel, which he hopes to send Immermann in the fall, so as to 
 dedicate to him something superior; when it is finished, the Count 
 will be banished from the work; unfortunately it was never com- 
 pleted and the Count stays in. He writes further that he composed 
 it under unfavorable circumstances, though not before months of 
 deliberation: he is sure that it will annihilate his adversary, in 
 spite of the moderation he has shown: had he told all that he 
 could tell of his enemy, no one would believe him — he has had to 
 conceal the whole truth in order to be believed. 
 
 It is interesting to see with what persistency both Platen and 
 Heine claim to have aimed not so much at individuals as at whole 
 classes. Platen assures Fugger that his "Odipus" was no work 
 of personal revenge; he wished to hit all the poor insignificant 
 poets of the time — " die ganze, toUe Dichterlingsgenossenschaft' ' 
 of which he made Immermann the representative, and only inci- 
 dentally did he cast a slur at Heine; while Heine asserts that he 
 desired to chastize through Platen the aristocrats, priests, and 
 enemies of the Jews in general. In both cases, however, the person- 
 al insults outweigh the impersonal. Later Heine assures Immer- 
 mann that when he first heard in Munich of the intended lampoon, 
 he told Schenck (and possibly Michael Beer also) that he would 
 punish Platen for it, even if he himself should be spared, implying 
 that he would do for his friend what he had never done for himself. 
 In spite of his realization afterwards that he had injured himself 
 with the best part of the reading world, he was satisfied in one 
 respect : " Thank God, people are no longer saying, Toor Heine, 
 poor Immermann!' The commiseration was unendurable.' ' 
 
 Immermann's retaliation was of quite a different order. It 
 was entitled "Der im Irrgarten der Metrik umhertaumelnde 
 Kavalier, eine litterarische Tragodie," and consisted of a prose 
 preface and twenty-two poems in sonnet form, in which all per- 
 sonalities are avoided and only the esthetic principles attacked. 
 He declares polemic unfit for poetry, because of its negative 
 quality; only the positive is the element of art. He severely 
 
 31 
 
blames Platen for cultivating the antique style and refined forms, 
 which serve only to cover up a lack of real feeling, and as he wrote 
 after his indignation at Platen's inexcusable behavior had worn off, 
 the tone is mild and decent. His defence would have had more 
 effect had not Heine's reply taken the attention of the reading 
 world. Indicative of Immermann's attitude toward the whole 
 are some words written to Marianne, April 24, 1839. "Of man- 
 ^'kind in general I have a very good opinion. It is a theory of mine 
 "that no one injures another purposely, but that where this 
 "happens, awkwardness or narrow-mindedness is to blame. 
 "Therefore I am very soon reconciled in my thoughts to such as 
 " have done me any evil turn; in my meditation I soon understand 
 "such things in their natural connection and at this moment I 
 " could not name any one to whom I bear any resentment.' ' 
 
 Heine, however, felt wounded in his most vulnerable spot 
 and was filled with personal hatred and deep bitterness. His 
 venomous reply was therefore meant to bring death to his enemy 
 and to revenge the insult to his race and the infringement of 
 human rights, as well as to reveal the national servility of the 
 Germans. In its startling and absolute conclusiveness, it attained 
 its goal, while Immermann's " Kavalier,' ' in its more modest and 
 becoming garb, failed. 
 
 In the day of theatrical scandals and literary contentions, crit- 
 icisms of Heine were freely made, most of them sharp and unjust. 
 They caused him so much annoyance, that he asked support from 
 his friends, who, however, for the most part remained silent on 
 the subject. But Varnhagen published in the "Blatter fiir lit- 
 terarische Unterhaltung" an article that was mild and just. 
 Michael Beer's attitude toward the work was stern and unyielding. 
 April 2, 1830, Immermann writes Beer from Diisseldorf: "I 
 "have sent Heine's 'Reisebilder' and wish to hear your opinion. 
 "He has lately approached me again and written me several 
 " letters in his childlike, confiding, droll manner. Your good will 
 ''seems to mean a great deal to him; he mentioned you in almost 
 " every letter. In the last one, he wrote me that I should ask you 
 "to look after his interests with Herr von Schenk in the Platen 
 ''affair, which I hereby do. His rejoinder is idealiter, to be sure, 
 " hard to parallel, yet, as a truly productive nature, he deserves 
 " all possible support. And, in the second place, it is to be taken 
 " into consideration that Platen first treated him personally in 
 "the meanest way." To this request Beer replies (April 11, 1830) : 
 "I don't know what he (Schenk) thinks of Heine's book. In 
 "correspondence or oral conversation I will be glad later to act 
 
 32 
 
"as his advocate in so far as my honesty permits. If Heine asks 
 "you again whether you have received an answer from me, tell him 
 " he is to recall how often he has said to me that I handle most 
 "things with kid gloves. Tell him I put on those gloves when I 
 " read his book and am still the same weakling as of old, who can 
 "not digest such coarse fare as his satire: in a word, that it 
 "made me somewhat ill; that I send him my heartiest greetings, 
 " however, and that my personal affection for him is still the same. 
 "I beg of you, write him that.' ' 
 
 A month later (May 3, 1830) Immermann mentions the sub- 
 ject again in reference to the suggestions that he had just received 
 from Heine for the improvement of his epic. "This proof of 
 " interest naturally pleased me very much, and therefore, as you 
 "perceive, I must stand by him out of very gratitude." What 
 Immermann did to support Heine, whether he ever spoke openly 
 for him, is not to be discovered, but it is quite probable that, in 
 spite of his disapproval, he tried to excuse Heine's conduct in the 
 affair. Moses Moser, on the other hand, showed such disgust that 
 Heine broke with him after years of friendship. In one of the two 
 extant letters from Immermann to Heine (February 1, 1830), he 
 thanks Heine heartily for dedicating the work to him and appre- 
 ciates its excellence, but thinks that Platen might have been 
 treated less harshly. For a long while the affair continued to 
 annoy Heine, although he appeared to make light of the matter 
 and, as Immermann says, his letters were full of droll utterances 
 over the feud; but in 1847 he expressed himself with much consid- 
 eration for Platen and regretted his attack on a man whose powers 
 he had underestimated. 
 
 On February 3, 1830, in a letter to Immermann, he drops 
 the disagreeable subject to talk of "Tulifantchen," and with much 
 tact and delicacy he confesses that he has had the poem lying 
 on the table before him for ten days, having taken the liberty of 
 bringing home the manuscript from Campe's office. Four years 
 earlier Heine had recommended Immermann to his Hamburg 
 publisher, expressing in a letter to Merckel his joy at being able 
 to show his interest in Immermann and do Campe a good turn at 
 the same time. Now, having read the manuscript and having 
 certain improvements to suggest, he writes frankly, telling Immer- 
 mann that the suggestions he would make concern a few tedious 
 passages, which can be shortened, and certain metrical defects, 
 which consist mainly in the coincidence of the end of a word and 
 that of a metrical foot — a condition unendurable in trochaic 
 tetrameter, but often remedied by the change of a single particle. 
 
 33 
 
He asks : " Will you go through the poem again with this in mind, 
 or shall I make the changes, and send them to you for approval 
 or rejection?" It is significant for the confidence imposed in 
 Heine's judgment by Immermann that he adopted nearly all the 
 suggestions, acknowledging them as uncommonly fine and sound. 
 In his letter accompanying these suggestions, Heine writes: 
 "The poem is excellent, full of real humor, containing definite, 
 "surprisingly definite forms, and, as I believe now, all good 
 " enough metrically. At least, besides the metrical faults it con- 
 " tains also metrical excellencies which have proceeded from the 
 "soul, the primitive seat of metrics * * * * You, dear 
 " Immermann, sin often enough against the outer rules of metrics, 
 "which can be learned by rote, if need be; but seldom against 
 "the inner metrics, whose norm is the heart-beat. Especially is 
 "this shown in your caesuras; these — ^the hidden respiration of 
 "the Muse, the shorter or longer continuance of which only the poet 
 "knows who has dreamed in her arms — ^that is your metrical 
 "force." 
 
 " Tulifantchen" remains the monument of the combined 
 genius of the two poets. If one wishes a most enlightening com- 
 parison of their ideas of metre and an insight into Heine's more 
 delicate sense of metre and rhythm, one should consult Elster's 
 edition of Heine's poems. Vol. 7, pp. 262-277, where all the sug- 
 gestions for metrical improvement are recorded, and also Richard 
 M. Meyer's essay on Tulifantchen in the " Gedachtnisschrift." 
 Heine was so charmed with Immermann's whole conception of 
 the epic that it may have determined the form of his " Atta Troll' ' 
 (1842). His Barentoter is certainly suggestive of Immermann's 
 "Fliegentoter." In its delicious satire, which hits almost every 
 shortcoming and weakness of the age with never any bitterness, 
 its innccent humor, good-natured irony, and irresistibly funny 
 parodies; in the lyrical charm of its verses, due in so large a meas- 
 ure to Heine's help, and, most important of all, perhaps, in the 
 tone of the whole poem, which is that of one who is playing with 
 his thoughts and loves the game — ^this delightful little mock epic 
 shows Immermann at his best. 
 
 Through Campe's delinquency, the publication of the epic 
 was much delayed: Heine writes in August 1830 that he is still 
 looking forward to its appearance and mentions in the same letter 
 the entertainment that the " Kolnischer Karneval,' ' one of Immer- 
 mann's two novels published in 1829, has afforded him; he is 
 astonished at Immermann's mastery of the prose and the epic 
 forms. 
 
 34 
 
The answer to this letter, written October 6, 1830, is the second 
 of the extant letters of Immermann. He is glad that Heine is 
 planning something epic, as it seems to him the only style of poetry 
 for the times. The monstrous contrasts, which every one has 
 experienced, have called forth that calmly contemplative mood, 
 which is epic. He himself has much material of that sort in his 
 head, but will do nothing with it for the present, as he intends to be 
 busy with his novels this winter. He has felt himself again in the 
 grasp of the " theatrical demon' ' and has written a dramatic poem 
 "Alexis" in two parts, representing the struggle of Peter the 
 Great with the Old Russian party and the fate of the son entangled 
 in its intrigues. Though he is sure that he has worked it up in a 
 characteristic and dramatic way, yet he does not base the slightest 
 hope of its theatrical success on this circumstance, as an intelligi- 
 ble interpretation would require more reflection and imagination 
 than could be demanded of the poor stage-artisans. The letter 
 ends with expressions of sincerest gratitude for the help on the 
 text of " Tulifantchen" and the author begs that Heine order of 
 the publishers as many copies as he wishes. 
 
 After Heine went to Paris, May 1731, there ensued a silence 
 of nearly two years, broken finally by a letter from Heine, Decem- 
 ber 19, 1832. He wishes Immermann to co-operate with him in a 
 vast enterprise: namely, the "Europa litteraire," for which 
 he desires an article from Immermann's pen on the more recent 
 German painting. This he believes Immermann will gladly 
 furnish, because of his relations with Schadow and the Diisseldorf 
 Art School. He explains that the journal is devoted entirely to 
 science and the fine arts and that he himself is writing a series 
 of articles for it on contemporary literature (his "Romantische 
 Schule"). He hopes soon to make Immermann known to the 
 French and to shed such light from France upon his laurels that 
 his enemies shall weep. 
 
 Immermann furnished the desired contribution and, in turn, 
 reference was made in Heine's essays to Immermann's early battle 
 against Pustkuchen, in which "our greatest German dramatist" 
 won his spurs. He mentions Immermann also in the "Salon," 
 where he writes that he has seen recently only two theatrical 
 works — ^two tragedies of Immerman's — " Merlin' ' and " Peter der 
 Grosse," neither of which could possibly be represented on the 
 stage, the former on account of its poetry, the latter because of 
 its politics. Still again he says: "The value of great tragedies 
 ''like those of Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Immermann, Grabbe, 
 " Oehlenschlager, Uhland, Grillparzer, Werner, and such great 
 
 35 
 
" poets, consists more in the poetry than in plot and passion. But 
 " however charming the poetry, its effect is felt more by the soli- 
 "tary reader than by a large company." 
 
 From this time on we have no records to show whether Heine 
 read the remaining works of Immermann, upon which his fame 
 with us really rests; but in view of the sincerity of his affection 
 for Immermann and the interest that he still manifested in his 
 writings even in Paris, it is safe to assume that he made himself 
 acquainted with them all, sooner or later. We learn from Laube 
 (Samtliche Werke, Vol. 50; p. 151) that Immermann sent him in 
 1839 his Miinchhausen, with the request that he share the work 
 with Heine and give him besides the best regards of the author. 
 And before this, when Laube, on his way to Paris, stopped to visit 
 Immermann in Diisseldorf the latter again remembered to send 
 Heine his warmest greetings. 
 
 In 1840 Heine learned quite by chance of Immermann^s 
 death and from the depth of his grief he writes to Laube (end of 
 August) that he wept all night over the event. His letter shows 
 how deeply moved he was and how sincere had been his friend- 
 ship. "You know what Immermann meant to me, this old 
 " brother-in-arms, with whom I made my appearance in literature 
 " at the same time, arm in arm, as it were! What a great poet we 
 "Germans have lost, without ever having really known him! 
 "We, I mean Germany, the old unnatural mother! And he was 
 " not merely a great poet, but also a man of bravery and honor, 
 "and for that I loved him. I am quite prostrated with grief. 
 " About twelve days ago I was standing one evening on a lonely 
 " cliff by the sea, watching the most beautiful sunset and I thought 
 " of Immermann. Strange ! ' ' 
 
 The attempt to establish any marked literary influence of 
 Immermann on Heine or Heine on Immermann could only result 
 in a very artificial structure, in spite of the many instances of 
 similarity in both thought and mode of expression. The criteria 
 for determining influence and appropriation of material have been 
 furnished us by Richard M. Meyer* in such a way as to make the 
 student of literature more cautious in his statements and less 
 inclined to jump at conclusions than formerly. Let me quote a 
 few examples from the works of these two poets which might 
 tempt one to infer a stronger literary influence than the facts 
 warrant. 
 
 * "Kriterien der Aneignung". Neue Jahrbiicher fiir das Klassische Alter- 
 tum und fur Padagogic. 1906, p. 376. 
 
 "Der Sprung aus dem Fenster". Zeitschrift fiir deutsches Altertum 
 und deutsche Literatur. Berlin, 1909. 
 
 36 
 
1. Tannhauser : " Ich schmachte nach Bitternissen.' ' 
 
 Merlin: "Ich schmachte nach Finsternissen/ ' 
 
 2. In reference to the royal throne — 
 
 Memorabilien : "ein Ding von Holz, mit Sammet iiber- 
 zogen." Heine VII: 444: "einen Stuhl, der bedeckt 
 mit rotem Sammet." 
 
 3. Miinchhausen : "Wehe iiber dich, Sand-Jerusalem'' (Berlin) 
 
 Neue Gedichte : " Verlass Berlin, mit seinem dicken Sande." 
 
 4. Heine: "Franzosische Zustande." 
 
 Miinchhausen : " Knippelsdorfer Zustande.' ' 
 Memorabilien: ''Diisseldorfer Zustande." 
 
 5. Salon : " Das deutsche Volk gleicht einem Zopf von dreissig 
 
 Millionen zusammengeflochtenen Haaren." 
 
 Memorabilien: "Dreissig Millionen Menschen fiirchten!" 
 
 6. Memorabilien : " die retrograde Bewegung.' ' 
 
 Romantische Schule: "retrograde Richtung" of Fouqu^. 
 Vermischte Schriften: "Paris, der Werkstatte aller 
 progressiven, aber auch aller retrograden Verbriiderungen.' ' 
 
 And I so could continue the list indefinitely, for such similar- 
 ities are striking. Both poets talk of the Liineburger Heide as 
 symbolic of the arid and barren; they have frequent references to 
 " Zerrissenheit" : Immermann speaks of "unsere kranken, 
 zerrissenen, romantischen Gefiihle" and Heine of "ein zerrissener 
 Mensch" and "der zerrissene, curopamiide Sohn"; they choose 
 Holland as the scene of activity of one of their heroes; they delight 
 in ridiculing the terminology of Hegel; they make merry over 
 Weber's "Freischiitz"; they satirize in similar terms the Fouqu6 
 type of iron knights; they deplore the movement that is making 
 *' machines like men and men like machines"; they speak in the 
 same high praise of George Sand and in like derogatory terms of 
 Victor Hugo, etc., etc. We must remember, however, that the 
 ideas concerning industrialism, for instance, were common to 
 everybody, and even the very phraseology which was employed 
 in- the discussion of certain issues struck the popular fancy so 
 favorably that the whole generation used the same expressions. 
 Thus "thirty million" plays a role in the contemporary literature; 
 Beer uses the term and Borne remarks that 29,999,999 did not 
 invent gunpowder. Objection was made to Heine's use of the 
 expression " Franzosische Zustande," but Goethe also speaks of 
 the " Gottingen Zustande." 
 
 Nor can we say that Heine's prose style influenced to any 
 great extent Immermann's later works. Both poets saw the same 
 
 37 
 
weaknesses in their fellow-men and took delight in satirizing them; 
 but how different was Immermann^s kindly humor from Heine's 
 biting wit and merciless sarcasm! There was nothing in Immer- 
 mann's nature that could respond to Heine's piquant, vivacious, 
 scintillating, narrative style. His prose remains hard and often 
 clumsy and lacks the purely artistic qualities, yet the autobi- 
 ography betrays a lighter touch and in the section " Lehre und 
 Literatur" we are tempted to think of Heine's "Romantische 
 Schule" while the " Reisebilder" in general may have affected 
 the style of Immermann's journals of travel. At any rate, the 
 titles suggest these distinguished predecessors : " Ahr und Lahn' ' 
 (1833), "Blick ins Tirol" (1833), and "Frankische Reise" (1837). 
 The language is certainly more picturesque, but even in the first 
 named, which is the best, wit and grace are lacking, the tone 
 falls into the pedantic, and the poet talks pedagogic ally of the 
 human and historical elements of life, which alone seem to fasci- 
 nate him. There is no nature sense : " Nature,' ' he says, " makes 
 still little impression on me; I have had enough of visionary 
 absorption in the dead stuff.' ' He regarded everything in a cold, 
 objective way; the Rhine bored him, the outside world was dead. 
 
 If, however, we look at Immermann's last poetic composition 
 his " Friihlings-Kapriccio" of 1833 — ^we shall see without doubt 
 the direct influence of Heine's " Buch der Lieder' ' and the " Nord- 
 seebilder." The poet imitates the four verse stanzas of the 
 "Lyrisches Intermezzo," which became the favorite metre of 
 Heine's successors; and, like Heine, he gives to the separate poems 
 no titles. The free rhythm of the "Nordsee," which the genius 
 of Heine succeeded in making indicative of the restlessness and 
 the varying moods of the ocean, he also copies and the " Schwa- 
 nengesang' ' in his collection " Welt und Zeit' 'is a striking example; 
 but in his case the effect is that of unnaturalness and lack of har- 
 mony between form and content. He was not great enough to 
 attempt with success the metrical license that Heine allowed him- 
 self, and as he lacked the fine, sure feeling for the language that 
 Heine possessed, his taste is often questionable. We cannot say 
 that the few antiquated words and the expressions in the popular 
 tone used by him point to Heine's influence; they were rather in 
 the air and eagerly adopted by all who loved and studied the folk- 
 poetry. But there is a conscious attempt to imitate Heine's 
 wit and coquetry and to employ in his manner sudden contrasts 
 and surprising turns. At best, however, they are awkward: 
 grace, delicacy, and spontaneity are wanting. In general I may 
 say that we do not find in Immermann's poetry the features most 
 
 38 
 
characteristic of Heine's. There is no rich personification of Na- 
 ture, without which we cannot imagine Heine. There does not 
 exist for Immermann that close bond of understanding and sym- 
 pathy between man and the plant-and-animal-worlds. Nor do 
 we find Heine's boldness of spirit, his scornful superiority to all 
 traditional conventions, his disregard of formal rules, his striking 
 antitheses, his Romantic irony. The few instances in which he 
 tried to follow Heine's style in these respects are not very success- 
 ful. On the whole Immermann's poetry could well be spared, in 
 spite of many rich thoughts; the influence of Heine's lyrical style 
 seen no less on the works of all the young poets of that generation 
 and the next, is too slight to have raised the level very much. 
 
 It is his prose which deserves to live forever, and in this field 
 he was practically independent, for, in the first place, he is the 
 author of the most charming, most fascinating idyl in modern 
 German literature; there is nothing comparable to it except 
 Gottfried Keller's "Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe." It is to 
 that true Dorfgeschichte, the "Oberhof," that Immermann owes 
 his fame today. The genuineness of a native art, which so faith- 
 fully reproduced the character of the Westphalian land and people, 
 a people that had kept its race pure for over a thousand years and 
 still ruled itself according to tradition and custom; the remarkable 
 portrayal of the Hofschulz; the elevation of a simple love-story, 
 that of blond Lisbeth and her Oswald, from the monotony of a 
 pastoral idyl to the eulogy of a strong passion and enduring love — 
 all this will make the author live forever for the German folk. The 
 beauty of this perfect gem would have suffered, had it not been 
 possible to detach it from its setting; for it is, in fact, only part of 
 a larger work, perhaps the most important Zeitroman in German 
 literature, which Immermann himself called a story in arabesques 
 and which is seen to be a confused mass of contemporary history, 
 satire, and autobiographical elements gathered about the hero 
 Miinchhausen. As the work easily falls into two parts, a separate 
 publication of the " Oberhof ' ' was inevitable. The result is, that 
 its readers do not realize that they have before them only half 
 of a single composition; but for a perfect understanding of the 
 author, his world, and his life, it is necessary to read both halves 
 as he wrote them and observe their subtle connections and mutual 
 dependence. It has been said that the work is unenjoyable 
 as a whole, because of the confused technique of the Miinch- 
 hausen chapters and the lack of commentary for an understanding 
 of the satire, which would require an extensive knowledge of all 
 the contemporary history and literature. The list of those whom 
 
 39 
 
Immermann lashes with his satire is indeed inexhaustible; the 
 aristocracy especially, but the lower classes besides; the fashion- 
 able writers of the day, of the Raupach and Plickler-Muskau type; 
 Goethe, the Romanticists, the Young Germans, Menzel, Gutzkow, 
 Kerner, Gorres, Scott, Rothschild, von der Hagen; all the perver- 
 sities of the day, the newspaper culture, the political instability, 
 speculative philosophy; the whole range of isms; mysticism, Teu- 
 tonism, provincialism, and philistinism, feudalism, with its medie- 
 val sentimentality, and industrialism. On everything affected 
 and unnatural in the literature and life of his time, Immermann 
 turned the lime light of his satire, and in this fact lies the fatal 
 mistake of the work, that he condescended to satirize insignificant 
 events and persons, with the result that, like Aristophanes, Rabe- 
 lais, and Swift, he has hundreds of references to contemporary 
 matters which can no longer be appreciated. But if not appre- 
 ciated, the work can be enjoyed, and the excellent edition of 
 Harry Maync furnishes with its concise footnotes and its general 
 introductory remarks the key to much that has formerly remained 
 obscure. 
 
 The "Epigonen" (1836) has been called Immermann's 
 "Wilhelm Meister," as the "Merlin" is compared with "Faust," 
 and the " Memorabilien" with "Dichtung und Wahrheit." 
 Through the " Epigonen' ' the poet won for himself a place of high 
 rank in the national literature of Germany. In its outlines and 
 certain characters it strongly reminds one of Goethe and may 
 be called the last of the Meisteriaden. Like " Wilhelm Meister' ' 
 it has an ethical background, — ^the struggle between the new 
 industrial classes and the old aristocracy, — and the problems it 
 discusses bring it into touch with the social philosophy of Goethe's 
 later years. The novel represents the people of the "transition 
 period' ' between 1820 and 1830 as sad Epigones, clinging to their 
 old traditions and customs and finding no place where they really 
 fit in, — ^the late-born of an age then rapidly passing away. And 
 not only the individual characters, but the various social classes 
 and even the literary life are all represented as decadent. The 
 poet sees with dread the approaching conflict between agriculture 
 and industrialism; with good-natured satire he again points out 
 the many weaknesses and prejudices of the age, and with great 
 sympathy he realizes the full tragedy of that problematic time — 
 that time of vain seeking and longing, of changing values of life, 
 of disappointment and resignation. 
 
 The " Memorabilien' ' shows clearly the influence of Goethe's 
 autobiography, which Immermann greatly admired, and as his 
 
 40 
 
youth actually had much in common with Goethe's, the poet 
 delighted in following out the similarities. The serious tone, the 
 depth of insight into the currents of thought, the alternation 
 of autobiography and contemporary history in its relation to his 
 life — ^this method of treatment can not but recall Goethe's style, 
 to the disadvantage of Immermann's, however, as the latter did 
 not possess the power to keep his work from falling apart into 
 separate essays. It is to be regretted that the poet did not com- 
 plete the story of his life and give us a picture of his experiences 
 in the campaign of 1816 and of his activity as a dramaturgist in 
 Diisseldorf ; for that which he did write and publish belongs to the 
 very best of our biographical literature. 
 
 41 
 
III. 
 
 PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATION OF THE RELATION- 
 SHIP. 
 
 In the preceding pages I have reviewed at some length the 
 biographical relations of the two poets in order to show clearly 
 that there did exist a warm friendship between them for many- 
 years. It remains now to account for the nature of this attach- 
 ment and the reasons for it. If we believe with Goethe that sharp 
 contrast of character is the best foundation of friendship, then this 
 intimate union will not surprise us; for here were two poets of 
 essentially different character, starting out in life with different 
 traditions, growing up amid most dissimilar political, social and 
 religious influences, yet meeting on friendly terms at once and 
 forming an attachment that was not a mere matter of sentiment 
 but of moral conviction. That their talents supplemented each 
 other is true, as Elster says, and the mutual stimulation of oppo- 
 site natures is not to be lightly regarded; but I shall try to prove 
 that there existed positive grounds of congeniality, and that where 
 these were lacking in reality, they were still present in the mind 
 of the poet Heine with sufficient force to attach him affectionately 
 to Immermann until death separated them. 
 
 Were Heine's nature less complex, had his friendships been, 
 as a rule, unmarked and unmarred by vicissitudes, we should not 
 feel the especial interest in this relationship. But Heine, like 
 most men of extremely artistic temperament, was nervous, high- 
 strung, and over-sensitive; he easily took offense and easily gave 
 it in spite of his real kindliness of spirit. As he himself confesses 
 (letter to Lehmann June 26,1823), owing to his character or rather 
 his poor health, in moments of ill-humor, he did not spare his best 
 friends, but found fault with them and treated them in the most 
 outrageous fashion. But in all his letters to Immermann there is 
 no trace of annoyance or irritability, no reflection of his ill-health — 
 though he constantly speaks of the torture he is enduring from 
 headache and of his efforts to improve his condition by sea- 
 bathing and rest from his literary labors — nothing but the sincerest 
 regard for the man and poet. Probably Immermann was the only 
 friend, not excepting his nearest and dearest, who never felt the 
 
 42 
 
bite of his wit or the sting of his satire. Maximilian, in his " Eriii- 
 nerungen' ' of his brother, relates an incident to show that Heine, 
 out of his regard for Immermann withstood the temptation of an 
 almost irresistible witticism, which, had it found a place in his 
 writings, would have made the touching close of the " Trauerspiel 
 in Tirol' ^ ridiculous. This last scene represented Andreas Hofer 
 incapable of believing the report that Tyrol and its brave defenders 
 were sacrificed by Austria, until he was shown the decree of the 
 Emperor, whereupon, completely crushed, he cried out: "Des 
 Kaisers Siegel." Now it was universally known that Emperor 
 Franz of Austria had a passion for spending his leisure hours 
 making sealing-wax of all colors. Said Heine to his brother: 
 "Max, what a commotion Andreas Hofer or some one in the 
 audience would cause, if at the end he should call out in despair, 
 "Des Kaisers Siegellack!" but for heaven's sake, do not repeat 
 this. I love Immermann, and treat him with far more considera- 
 tion than — ^my brother.' ' 
 
 Contrast now the situation here with that in the case of Heine*s 
 other friendships, both earlier and later. Heine showed himself 
 always a judge of men and we can find almost no instance in which 
 he misplaced his confidence. Real worth he was ever able to 
 recognize and he possessed a keen critical insight into human 
 nature, which enabled him to count among his friends an unusually 
 large number of men and women of the soundest and noblest 
 qualities. And yet there was hardly a friendship that was not at 
 some time threatened with dissolution, if not actually dissolved. 
 At present we feel that no German poet, with the exception of 
 Goethe, has more friends among foreign nations than Heine. 
 The French regard him as their own; the English translate him 
 and seek to understand him; the Italians have long appreciated his 
 talent and in 1875 produced his "Ratcliffe" on the Milan stage; 
 while in Germany his friends are steadily increasing in number, as 
 is evinced by the new editions of his works and the many disserta- 
 tions and journal publications appearing constantly. Neverthe- 
 less, his new friends have to suffer for the same reasons that his 
 contemporaries suffered, although with our deeper knowledge of 
 his peculiar temperament and our broader view of his whole life, 
 we can understand him better and forgive more. The bad, the 
 common, the undignified in both his behavior and his works, his 
 many faults and, chief among them, the fact that he desecrated 
 his beautiful talent by ridiculing the highest and holiest — all this 
 we look at more charitably now when we recall what a nervous 
 sufferer he was his life long and understand all the conditions under 
 
 43 
 
which he lived. Even as early as 1822 he begins to complain of 
 the torturing headaches which were the precursers of his later 
 nervous affliction, and he speaks repeatedly with admiration of 
 Immermann's robust health, which helps him to overlook the 
 miserable jealousies of the countless assailants, to whose attacks 
 he himself is so sensitive. He cannot laugh at the censure of 
 critics and ignore abuse, as he is sure that Immermann with his 
 fine health can do. We recall the words with which Goethe 
 excused Herder's bitterness, sarcasm and contradictory moods: 
 
 " ^we are apt not sufficiently to consider the moral effect 
 
 " of a morbid bodily condition and hence we judge many characters 
 "very unfairly, because we consider all men healthy and require 
 of them that they conduct themselves accordingly." In Heine's 
 moods and peculiarly complex nature there is enough charm to 
 fascinate us and make the study of those whom he chose to call his 
 friends an interesting and profitable one. Let us review the 
 progress and fate of a few of these friendships, as an approach to 
 the consideration of Heine's relations to Immermann. 
 
 One of his very earliest, dating from his lyceum days, was that 
 with Christian Sethe, whom he so earnestly recommended to 
 Immermann in his first letters. Sethe was a year older than Heine, 
 a child of practical nature, quiet, calm, orderly, and dutiful — quite 
 Heine's opposite, and he seems to have protected his friend 
 against the taunts of the older school boys. After their gymna- 
 sium days together, they were separated for some years and then 
 met at Bonn in 1819, where Sethe had gone to complete his law 
 studies. He had grown up so thoughtful in speech, so grave, 
 dignified and reserved in manner, with such an intelligent and 
 judicious way of viewing things, that Heine gave him the nick- 
 name " Councilor' ' and to him he dedicated the " Fresko-Sonette' ' 
 as a memorial of those days in Bonn. In fact, twenty-four poems 
 in Heine's handwriting were found among Sethe's papers, showing 
 the intimacy of their relations and the care with which Sethe 
 preserved whatever poetic productions of his friend came to his 
 hand. Yet Heine's relations to his friends depended greatly 
 upon his mood. April 14, 1822, he writes to Sethe that after the 
 15th they can no longer be friends and that he absolves Sethe 
 from all obligations — not because he is angry with him, but 
 because Sethe is a German and in his present mood everything 
 German is repulsive to him. Not long afterwards, he went back 
 to his friend again, without mentioning the contents of the letter, 
 and he. speaks of him (letter to Friedrich Steinmann, April 10, 
 1823) as " honest Christian, whose mere word on the Day. of 
 
 44 
 
Judgment will have more weight with the Lord of Mercy than the 
 oaths of hundreds of thousands." A few sentences from a letter 
 to Sethe dated August 1825, show still further Heine's uncertain 
 whimsical relations toward his friends. He writes to borrow six 
 louis d'or — " and even if you are no longer my best friend — as I do 
 *' not hope — ^yet you are still the one among my best friends from 
 " whom I can most easily borrow, who, as a perfect philistine can 
 "most easily spare a few louis * * * And really. Christian, 
 "have your feelings toward me remained unchanged? as for me, 
 " mine remain the same, that is, I am angry with you now as ever 
 " nay, I should like to burst out against you today with a vengeance 
 " * * * and find fault with you and abuse you, all the more as 
 " I wish to borrow from you * * * xhe best thing about you is, 
 "that Hove you and that you were always easy to borrow from." 
 This letter he follows by another September 1, in which he assures 
 Sethe that he is giving him the greatest proof of his friendship 
 by turning to him in distress with implicit confidence, "in spite 
 of many inner impulses of ill feeling' ' toward him. After a long 
 silence between them, Heine reports to Klein (December 25, 
 1825) that he saw Sethe the summer before on his wedding journey 
 in Norderney, that the Councilor had married " in order that the 
 dear, good, true-hearted race might not die out"; and in 1843 
 when Heine visited Germany, he took pains to hunt up his old 
 friend in Miinster. 
 
 Among his professors, August Wilhelm Schlegel approached 
 most closely to Heine. In the winter semester of 1819-1820 Heine 
 heard lectures on the History of the German Language and Poetry 
 by Schlegel and in the summer semester of 1820 a Historical- 
 Critical Exposition of the Nibelungenlied and lectures on Metrics, 
 Prosody, and Declamation; and Schlegel certified with pleas- 
 ure to his excellent attendance and his attentive sympathy 
 and application. He took a kindly interest in the youthful poems 
 of his pupil and by his praise and wise criticisms he fired the as- 
 piring young poet to vigorous activity. He initiated him into 
 the mysteries of metrics, and to him Heine owes the care that he 
 spent during his whole lifetime on the metrical finish of his poems. 
 In the field of tragedy, Schlegel's encouragement was not so wise; 
 possibly he misjudged his pupil also in comparing him with Byron 
 and stimulating him to translate the English poet; but on the 
 whole, his influence was significant. The marked attentions 
 that he showed his talented young pupil were extended beyond the 
 class room to his elegant home and Heine's three sonnets to him are 
 a proof of the respect and esteem in which he held his distinguished 
 
 45 
 
teacher, and of the support and encouragement received from him. 
 "Concerning my relations with Schlegel," he tells his friend 
 Friedrich v. Beughem in 1820, "I could write you much that is 
 "gratifying. He was well satisfied with my poems and at their 
 "originality almost joyfully astonished. I am too vain to be 
 " surprised at this. I felt very humble when I recently received a 
 '^formal invitation from Schlegel and chatted with him for hours 
 " over the steaming coffee cup. The oftener I go to him, the more 
 " I find what a genius he is and that it can be said 
 " Unsichtbare Grazien ihn umrauschen 
 Um neue Anmut von ihm zu erlauschen.' ' 
 But in spite of his beautiful tributes to Schlegel during his univer- 
 sity days, Heine treated him with all too little respect in his " Rom- 
 antische Schule"; for while his characterization is after all incom- 
 parable and true, the personalities are offensive and unpardonable. 
 Again in the columns of the " Allgemeine Zeitung' ' he maliciously 
 satirized Schlegel on his mania for public distinction (" Probably 
 with the exception of August Wilhelm Schlegel, there is not a 
 woman in Germany who would so like to be labelled by a gay 
 ribbon * * * * ") in revenge for a hateful epigram in 
 which Schlegel criticized his former pupiFs literary activity in 
 Paris. Heine repeatedly boasts of having driven his literary 
 rival out of Paris by this article. 
 
 Of all Heine's friends, none had such a good and powerful 
 influence on him for so many years as Moses Moser. A banker 
 by calling, he nevertheless found time to devote himself to all 
 possible philosophical and historical studies and cultural activities 
 with the greatest enthusiasm, and was one of the founders of the 
 "Society for the Culture and Education of the Jews." Heine 
 calls him " the man in Israel with the finest feelings' ' — his " Arch- 
 friend" — "the philosophical part" of himself — "the correct 
 edition de luxe of a real man," and characterizes him as a "living 
 epilog to Nathan der Weise." He confided to him his most 
 cherished plans, his dearest wishes, and Moser showed him endless 
 proofs of helpfulness and devotion, sending him reports of politics 
 and all that was going on in the literary and artistic circles of Ber- 
 lin, when Heine was in Liineburg, forwarding him whatever books 
 and periodicals he needed for his studies and loaning him money 
 repeatedly. His kindness and willingness were inexhaustible and 
 a voluminous correspondence was maintained between the friends 
 from 1823 to 1830, when Heine broke with him in a most contemp- 
 tible fashion. The rupture was due to Moser 's unfavorable criti- 
 cism of the third volume of Heine's "Reisebilder." Heine let a 
 
 46> 
 
period of silence follow Moser's remarks and not until the latter 
 wrote again, attributing his silence to injured pride, did Heine 
 reply. Then, in a letter to Moser from Paris June 27, 1831, he 
 writes: "I was never sensitive over any opinion of yours that 
 " concerned the poet; also, whether you blamed or praised any one 
 ^'of my acts that I did as a man, was, if not quite indifferent to me, 
 " yet not offensive. I am neither at all injured by you nor offended 
 "and my silence is not a dumb complaint. I complain only at 
 " the gods, who left me in error so long over the way in which you 
 " comprehended my life and aims. The latter you have not com- 
 "prehended, and that is what grieves me, you do not yet under- 
 " stand, you have never understood my life and aims, and our 
 "friendship has therefore not ceased, but rather never existed. 
 "We never demand of a friend agreement, but understanding of 
 "our actions; let him praise or blame according to his own princi- 
 "ples, but he must always understand them and comprehend 
 ''their necessity from our particular standpoint, even if his own is 
 "quite different." 
 
 The break was irreparable, but five years later financial 
 distress forced Heine to write his friend a most touching appeal 
 for aid, in which he assures Moser in pathetic words of his friend- 
 ship. " Indeed I have thought of you often enough and when not 
 " long ago I lay sick unto death and in a sleepless night of fever 
 " mustered all my friends to whom I could entrust with safety the 
 " execution of a last will, I found that I did not possess two such 
 "friends on this earth and believed I could reckon only on you, 
 "perhaps also on my brother Max. And therefore I turn to you 
 " today, and the friend to whom I have not written for years will 
 " receive today a letter from me asking him for money.' ' 
 
 Varnhagen von Ense and his wife Rahel, who received and 
 entertained Heine so hospitably in Berlin, had likewise to suffer 
 from his oversensitiveness and irritability. Varnhagen showed 
 himself always a wise and just critic of Heine's works and did 
 much to establish his fame. His first act of helpfulness was to 
 seek a publisher for the "Junge Leiden" and to introduce the 
 young poet to Professor Gubitz, who published, we remember, a 
 series of his poems in the " Gesellschafter.' ' For this same periodi- 
 cal Varnhagen wrote an appreciative review of Heine's poems, 
 even before that of Immermann appeared and he was also the first 
 to greet with a few friendly words the " Tragodien' ' (Gesellschafter, 
 May 5, 1823). In his own characteristic way, Heine often ex- 
 pressed his gratitude for all such favors : " You have both shown 
 "me such great kindness and love and have cheered and braced 
 
 47 
 
" me up and polished me off — ^me, ill-humored, sick man — and 
 " helped me by word and deed, and refreshed me with maccaroni 
 " and spiritual food. I have found so little true kindness in life 
 ''and have already been so much mystified, and from you and your 
 "noble-minded wife I have experienced really humane treatment 
 ''for the first time' ' (June 17, 1823). 
 
 The tribute that he paid Varnhagen in his letter to Immer- 
 mann (January 14, 1823) has already been pointed out. It was 
 Heine's practice to consult him in financial difficulties and on 
 literary questions and he found him a wise counselor and just 
 critic. But their friendly relations were somewhat strained at 
 times, and once Heine's irritability caused a break that might have 
 been permanent had he not generously made the first advance 
 toward reconciliation. It happened in 1823 when Varnhagen 
 accused him unjustly of a falsehood concerning his relations with 
 Fouque. They were in Hamburg at the time and Heine was in an 
 unusually nervous and excitable mood, because of the painful 
 associations that the city had for him, so that he magnified the 
 importance of the affair. When, however, in the following spring 
 Heine returned to Berlin, he longed so to restore the old friendship 
 that he wrote Varnhagen a most conciliatory letter and succeeded 
 in re-establishing the former confidence and intimacy again. 
 
 As for Rahel, her instinctive appreciation of Heine's poetic 
 gift and peculiar temperament was immediately felt by him and he 
 joyfully owned that no one understood him so well as she. "I 
 do not need to write Frau von Varnhagen long letters. If she 
 only knows that I am alive, she knows also what I feel and think.' ' 
 His letters are full of affection for " the dear, good, little woman 
 with the great soul," who had been kind to him — "a poor waif 
 of a despised race." In a farewell note to her April 12, 1823, 
 occurs this passage: " * * * if perhaps after several cen- 
 " turies I have the pleasure of seeing you again as the loveliest and 
 "most splendid of all flowers in the loveliest and most splendid of 
 " all the vales of heaven, then have the kindness again to greet me 
 " — poor prickly holly (or am I something still worse?) with your 
 " friendly glance and sweet breath, as an old acquaintance. You 
 " will surely do it — ^have you not already acted in a like manner in 
 " 1822 and 1823, when you treated me — sick, embittered, surly, 
 " poetic, and insufferable being — ^with a grace and kindness which 
 " I certainly have not deserved in this life, and for which I must be 
 "indebted only to kindly memories of an earlier acquaintance?" 
 To her he dedicated his " Heimkehr,' ' writing later to her husband 
 (July 29, 1826) : " The reasons for my dedication she has divined, 
 
 48 
 
I believe, better than I myself. It seemed to me as if I wished to 
 -express in this way that I belonged to some one." Yet even 
 Rahel had to suffer from his oversensitiveness, for he took offence 
 at a well-meant reproof of hers, that if he considered his visits 
 such a great favor to her, she did not wish him to come. His 
 Answer the next day was curt and cold and betrayed clearly that 
 his pride was wounded and that he was receiving all too much 
 attention; but he soon came to a realization of the wrong he had 
 done his friend through his hasty words and with a profusion of 
 roses he made his peace again. 
 
 Heine's friendship and break with Ludwig Borne are too well 
 known to require more than a mention here. For years the two 
 men were regarded as like-minded apostles of freedom, and in 
 1827 Heine, in passing through Frankfort, sought him out and 
 spent three days of idyllic peacefulness in the enjoyment of Borne's 
 wit, good-humor and kindly interest in him. But in Paris the 
 political antagonism and personal friction became apparent and 
 Heine's essay " Ueber Borne' ' is the most heartless of all his works 
 and the most difficult to defend. 
 
 To no one was Heine more loyal than to his publisher, Julius 
 Campe, whose wide experience with young writers gave him a 
 peculiar influence over them. Heine repeatedly praises his keen- 
 ness of insight and was sensible to the wisdom of his advice and 
 judgment. He took from him corrections and plain speech that 
 he would never have borne from another, accepted his suggestions 
 regarding changes in his manuscripts, restrained himself many 
 times from some hasty action, and altogether betrayed a childlike 
 faith in his older friend. The relations, however, were of a dis- 
 tinctly Heinesque character; time after time they were on the point 
 of rupture, when Heine would remember to distinguish in business 
 disagreements between the publishing firm of Hoffmann and Campe 
 and the person of his old friend Julius Campe (letter to Campe 
 April 7, 1835). He complains unceasingly of the paltry amounts 
 received for his books and abuses Campe both directly to his face 
 and indirectly in his letters to others, — ^not only on account of 
 his lack of liberality, though Heine feels that keenly, but also be- 
 cause of the mutilations to which Campe allows his manuscripts 
 to be submitted. Forgetful of how much he really owed Campe 
 for his cleverness in outwitting the censorship, he raves again and 
 again over the fact that his writings are so handled that his words 
 no longer represent his thoughts at all : he vows that he will never 
 give Campe another line, if he does not print his poems as they were 
 written; hostilities sometimes lasted for whole years. Fortunately, 
 
 49 
 
\ 
 
 however, the relations were never entirely broken off and both 
 parties gained thereby. Maximilian Heine relates in his " Erinner- 
 ungen' ' a scene with his brother in Paris, when the question arose 
 as to whether the poet would ever have a monument in his father- 
 land. 
 
 " In Hamburg I have one already," interrupted the poet with 
 a satirical smile. 
 
 " Where?' ' exclaimed Maximilian in astonishment. 
 
 " If you keep to your left from the Borsenplatz, you will see 
 "a, large house, which belongs to the publisherof my 'Reisebilder,' 
 ''Mr. Julius Campe. That is a magnificent monument of stone, in 
 ''grateful remembrance of the many and large editions of my 
 " 'BuchderLiederT' 
 
 In this way I could continue indefinitely the list of Heine's 
 friends, showing how in his gloomy hours he turned rudely away 
 from them and in pride and agony misjudged their love and scorned 
 it. At such times he felt himself, like Goethe's Tasso, the object 
 of a conspiracy, became suspicious and sarcastic, and then bitterly 
 repented the hasty words or deed that resulted in estranging him 
 from his friends. Toward Immermann, on the contrary, he never 
 made use of his sarcasm or caustic wit; the tone of his letters is one 
 of deepest respect, with at times something of deference even. 
 
 The question is asked whether, if Heine had seen more of 
 Immermann, he would not have despised him as a philistine — ^the 
 type of man he most abhorred : Immermann himself acknowledges 
 to Beer (May 3, 1830) that he has " the tinge of a certain genteel 
 Philistinism" in his nature. My answer to this question I shall 
 reserve until the conclusion of my thesis. In the meantime, 
 there is one thing to be borne in mind: namely, that Heine 
 idealized all his friends to some extent. In Rousseau and the 
 other " poets' ' of his Bonn days, he saw the same nobility of pur- 
 pose with which he was inspired and a striving for the same lofty 
 ideals. Hence his encouragement of their literary efforts and his 
 reluctance to admit their failures. Throughout his life, Heine 
 continued to idealize his friends and the members of his family, 
 seeing in them what he wished to see. This tendency is the natural 
 and inevitable quality of the subjective temperament, and of this 
 type we have no better example than Heine. As he absorbed by 
 his personality the whole external world and saw all nature as a 
 mere reflection of his own moods, himself the center of the universe 
 and everything else in sympathy with him, so it followed that he 
 projected himself likewise in his friends and found in them the image 
 of his own ideals and beliefs. This happened, I am convinced, in 
 
 50 
 
the case of Immermann, and in connection with their political views 
 I shall speak of the subject again. Meanwhile, if we remember to 
 distinguish between what Immermann really was and what Heine 
 thought he was, we shall be better able to understand the reasons 
 for the friendship. 
 
 In the first place, a mutual sympathy drew the poets together. 
 " Sick, isolated, persecuted, and unable to enjoy life' ' are the words 
 in which Heine sums up his condition at this time. " I have almost 
 no friends at all here now; a pack of scoundrels have striven in 
 every possible way to ruin me, they unite with old so-called friends, 
 etc.'' (letter to Sethe, Berlin, January 21, 1823). As a result of 
 the adverse criticism of his " Brief e aus Berlin," sneers and taunts 
 had begun to be directed even against his poems; the second letter 
 almost brought on a literary feud with Baron von Schilling and he 
 was attacked by Kochy in the " Konversationsblatt." The 
 essay "Ueber Polen" which appeared in the " Gesellschafter" 
 in January 1823, called down the wrath of the nobility upon his 
 head. He had written it the preceding fall for a certain Count 
 Breza, at whose invitation he had visited Posen during the summer 
 and whose departure from Berlin he speaks of with such regret in 
 the Berlin letters. In spite of the censor's red pencil, the article 
 aroused great antagonism and in Heine's own words to his Jewish 
 friend Wohlwill (April 1, 1823): "This essay has agitated the 
 "whole grand duchy of Posen; in the Posen journals there has al- 
 "ready been three times as much abuse written about it as the 
 "essay itself amounts to, and, what is more, by the Germans there, 
 "who will not forgive me for portraying them so faithfully and for 
 "raising the Jews to the third estate of Poland." His attempts 
 to shake off abuse with a shrug of the shoulders were vain; Heine 
 shrank from it and could not overlook it with the ease of a less 
 sensitively organized person. To Immermann and others he 
 complains of the slander and injustice to which he is subjected 
 and envies the former his fine health, which must enable him to 
 disregard such ill-treatment. 
 
 The sense of isolation was common to both poets. It was 
 deepened in Immermann by his conflict with the "Teutonia," 
 as I have said, and no doubt Heine's expulsion from the Gottingen 
 Burschenschaft was a factor that contributed to his loneliness. 
 Then as they became more sensible to the indifference of the times 
 to poetry, they felt that they could never be understood by their 
 contemporaries and their hostility to their surroundings became 
 greater. " More than ever the poet takes his stand in open opposi- 
 tion to the rest of the world,' ' says Immermann in his Rezension, 
 
 51 
 
and this feeling of isolation was but a foretaste of what both poets 
 were to suffer all their lives — ^the pathetic solitude of genius. 
 
 Soon after the appreciative article of Immermann's appeared , 
 Heine writes to Ernst Christian August Keller (June 15, 1822): 
 "Immermann's review moved me almost to tears. I am really 
 "taken aback by the fact that I am most profoundly understood 
 "in Miinster. In general, the susceptibility that my compatriots 
 "have shown for my slight talents and the profoundness with which 
 " they have judged the same has greatly delighted me, all the more 
 " as here all sentiment is getting more dulled every day and the 
 "critics almost surpass the authors in shallowness of mind." 
 Sept. 1, 1822 he refers to the subject again in a letter to the same 
 man: "Whether I am praised or blamed, I am unmoved; I go 
 " my stern way, which I have once recognized as the best. Some 
 "say it will lead me into the mire, others say it will lead me to Par- 
 " nassus, still others say it will lead directly to hell. It is all one 
 " to me, the way is new and I am seeking adventure. But never- 
 " theless the love with which I have been received by my compa- 
 "triots has moved me. Truly I have been treated better than I 
 "deserve.' ' 
 
 It is not surprising, in consideration of the abuse and slander 
 which Heine's first works had called forth, that Immermann's 
 sympathetic understanding of his poetry and character won his 
 deepest gratitude. But I would refute at the start the idea that 
 Heine's subsequent praise of Immermann grew out of this sense of 
 gratitude. And with just as little reason can we attribute it to the 
 feeling of gratified vanity. That Heine was vain needs no proof, 
 his vanity crops out in a most naive way. The quality of reserve 
 seemed to have been left out of his character and we find instead 
 a frankness in the expression of his feelings that disregards all 
 proprieties and sentiments. A certain childlike openness remained 
 with him always and he loved to talk about his works and to know 
 what others said about them. Instances of this trait are number- 
 less. In speaking of his " Almansor,' ' for example, he writes to 
 Steinmann, February 4, 1821 : " "^^ * ''' it contains bewitchingly 
 "lovely passages and scenes; originality is everywhere in evidence; 
 "everywhere scintillate surprisingly poetic figures and ideas, so 
 "that the whole flashes and gleams as though in a magic shimmer of 
 "diamonds. Thus speaks the vain author, the enthusiast for 
 "poetry." To Friedrich von Beughem (1820) he writes: "His 
 " (Schlegel's) first question is always concerning the publication 
 "of my poems, and he seems to desire it very much. Also you, 
 "dear Fritz, seem to ask me about it likewise. Unfortunately, 
 
 52 
 
" on account of the many changes that I have made on SchlegePs 
 "advice, I have still many poems to rewrite and many entirely 
 "new poems and metrical translations of the Englishman to add 
 "to them. The latter are succeeding especially well and will 
 " prove my poetic dexterity. Enough of self-praise.' ' To Moser, 
 November 6, 1823 : " It has aroused my indignation to see from 
 "your letter that evil things have been said and written of me 
 "from Hamburg * * * I expect you to write me openly. It 
 " is of endless moment to me to know what people say about me in 
 "Hamburg." Again in the same month he begs Moser to write 
 him the full particulars of his status in that city and of Lehmann 
 he makes a similar request. Often Heine solicited praise from his 
 friends and was cast down when he did not get it. But he sought 
 it openly and never tried to procure it by flattery. To Stein- 
 mann, one of the closest of his early friends, he writes, February 4, 
 1821 : " I have read and re-read with a hearty sense of comfort 
 " your dramatic specimens sent me. But the fact that you ask 
 ''my opinion of them puts me to embarrassment. I am too well 
 " acquainted with man in general not to know that people expect 
 " only praise, when they beg, even in all humility, for the severest 
 "judgment, that they nevertheless at heart look upon such a 
 "judgment as unjust, if it turns out to be fault-finding or quite 
 " crushing, and even if they do not exactly hate the honest critic 
 " on that account, neither will they love him the more for it. For 
 "men are the vainest creatures and poets are the vainest among 
 " men. Whoever wounds the vanity of a poet commits a two-fold 
 "lese-majesty. This is precisely where I fail, and it is just this 
 "which makes me universally hated, that I know this experience 
 " and yet do not turn it to account.' ' 
 
 Now Steinmann was one of Heine's most intimate associates 
 during his Bonn days. Together with Simrock, Rousseau, 
 Beughem, and Neunzig, the two formed a little coterie of "poets," 
 who displayed great enthusiasm over art and criticized each other's 
 works with lively interest. But Heine saw that Steinmann had 
 no real poetic gift, and, in sp"te of the desire to please his friends, 
 Heine showed himself a stern critic and told him the hard truths 
 without hesitation, softening them somewhat with his kindly wit 
 and encouragement. " Be severe toward yourself,' ' is his constant 
 admonition, and he adds (Oct. 29, 1820) : " you know I seldom 
 " praise, but when I have reason to bestow praise, it flows all the 
 "more irresistibly from the depth of the heart. Steinmann's so- 
 " called 'dramatic poems' he criticizes thus: "You have at 
 "least produced real tragedies. But whether they are good? 
 
 53 
 
" * * ♦ I doubt it. Perhaps the fault lies in the trochaic 
 "tetrameter, which to me is intolerable anywhere in a drama. 
 "Possibly from prejudice I tolerate there only the iambic penta- 
 " meter, yet these iambics must not rhyme; or at most only in 
 "strictly lyrical passages * * * The poetical figures * * * 
 " look like Pharoah's lean cattle. What surprises me most in you 
 " is that everything bears the character of haste. Finish 'Anna 
 "von Cleve.' I believe you could put it on the stage if you should 
 "work in allusions to the trial of the present Queen of England. 
 "Study that trial. But, in general, be severe toward yourself. 
 "This cannot be sufficiently recommended in the case of young 
 "poets." 
 
 "Many a one of your poetic compositions (to Steinmann, 
 "April 10, 1823) has come to my notice since (his last letter), 
 "and most of them have appealed to me in an unusual degree. 
 " But much also has not come up to my expectations. You have 
 " known of old my honest severity and my severe honesty in such 
 " things and if you are still the old Steinmann and have still the 
 " old confidence in me, then such a judgment will certainly not 
 " wrong you. Some of your songs I liked very much, but in one 
 " of them I almost broke my leg over the old familiar rough hewn 
 " 'hold' (Heine had earlier criticized Steinmann's use of this word), 
 "and however much respect and approval the little tragedy 
 " claimed, yet in one ice-cold place in it I nearly froze to death. 
 *'I hope you will write something that might be more suitable 
 "for the stage." 
 
 Such plain speech is not the language of one who returns 
 praise for praise, whether it is due or not. If this had been 
 Heine's practice, he would have had many occasions to use his 
 eloquence and comment favorably upon the works of his friends, 
 notably in his relations to Ludwig and Friederike Robert. But 
 neither gratitude alone nor desire for notice and approval was a 
 sufficient impulse to friendship; in several instances Heine even 
 forfeited a friendly relation through his frankness in speaking 
 what he considered the truth. 
 
 In the six months that elapsed before Heine acknowledged 
 Immermann's article, he came to feel intimately acquainted with 
 his works and the personality of the author. He tells him out- 
 right that he is not satisfied with his poems, because he read the 
 tragedies first, but with the latter he is so delighted and in praise 
 of them he has so much to say that he will have to wait until a 
 more favorable time, when he is not oppressed with sickness. Only 
 " receive for the present my sacred assurance that I consider you 
 
 54 
 
"next to Oehlenschlager the best living dramatist." Since this 
 statement must be indicative of Heine's true sentiments concerning 
 Immermann, let us consider as our second point the reasons why 
 Heine was attracted to Immermann on the literary side. 
 
 Why did he like " Das Tal von Ronceval"? That Heine was 
 much interested in the legend of Roland is shown by his poem 
 "An eine Sangerin — als sie eine alte Romanze sang" — the first 
 " occasional poem' ' of the young writer. His brother Max relates 
 in his " Erinnerungen' ' that there was at that time attached to the 
 Diisseldorf opera a very beautiful young singer with a wonderful 
 alto voice. She lived a rather retired life with her mother and 
 went about very little except with the Heine family, in whose 
 home she was looked upon almost as a daughter. On the occasion 
 of a great concert for the benefit of the poor, this singer, whose name 
 was Karoline Stern, sang at Frau Heine's request, an old romance, 
 which called forth an unprecedented storm of approval, and Frau 
 Heine, during the supper that followed at her home, expressed her 
 regret that it had never occurred to any of the gentlemen to dedi- 
 cate a poem to her. Harry, who throughout the evening had had 
 eyes only for the charming singer, gave to his mother the next 
 morning the above mentioned poem, which pleased the singer so 
 greatly that she kissed the confused young poet and treasured 
 the romance as the dearest souvenir. The mood that stole over 
 the boy on listening to the old legend of Roland and the Tal von 
 Ronceval, the Romantic haze that enveloped the singer, and the 
 re-animation of Charlemagne's knightly characters — it is all so 
 typical of Heine, even to the last stanza, when he is aroused out 
 of his revery by the applause of the audience and shouts of " bravo !" 
 
 Another evidence of his fondness for the legend is found in 
 " Atta Troll' ' where he lets the bear hero take refuge in the highly 
 romantic valley of Ronceval in the Pyrenees, the scene of Roland's 
 death. The poet's journey thither is pictured with all the Roman- 
 tic ecstasy that he was capable of. 
 
 So much for the legend. There are also lyrical beauties con- 
 tained in the tragedy, which would attract Heine. Of one such 
 passage he writes to Immermann, April 10, 1823: "The place 
 " where Zoraide impels Roland to flight always moves me even to 
 "tears. It seems as if I had once wished to- write this passage 
 " myself, and could not because of excessive pain. In ' Almansor' 
 " somewhere I attempted it again, but in vain. Astonishing how 
 "many similarities these works have, even in material and setting! 
 " Some of the very lines from Immermann's tragedy Heine adopted 
 
 55 
 
"as the motto of his 'Almansor, ' so striking did he feel the resem- 
 blance to be between their dramas : 
 
 " Glaubt nicht, es sei so ganz und gar phantastisch, 
 Das hiibsche Lied, das ich euch freundlich biete! 
 Hort zu : es ist halb episch und halb drastisch, 
 Dazwischen bliiht manch lyrisch zarte Bliite! 
 Romantisch ist der Stoff, die Form ist plastisch, 
 Das ganze aber Kam aus dem Gemiite. 
 Es kampfen Christ und Moslem, Nord und Siiden, 
 Die Liebe kommt am End und macht den Frieden.' ' 
 
 It is evident that the lines belong quite as properly to Heine's 
 tragedy as to Immermann's. Heine's material is decidedly roman- 
 tic and the form plastic in the sense in which he understood the 
 word, which he interpreted in his excellent little essay on the 
 " Romantik' ' as referring to clearness of outline in contrast to the 
 vagueness of the Romantic forms. The third verse from the last 
 belongs even more truly to " Almansor" than to "Ronceval,'' be- 
 cause the love element in the latter had little similarity with 
 Immermann's own heart-tragedy, being objective rather, and com- 
 mon to the Romanticists in general, while Heine's came from the 
 "Gemiit" and was purely subjective. 
 
 Perhaps the second of the three tragedies " Edwin' ' interested 
 Heine especially because of the English setting, since he himself 
 had written in January 1822 a tragedy, "William Ratclifife," 
 treating the old Scotch ballad of " Edward' ' and laying the scene 
 in England. Also "Edwin" is even richer in fine lyric and epic 
 qualities than " Ronceval,' ' but, more than this, it contains as a 
 very prominent element what must have spoken to Heine's heart : 
 namely, that of dissatisfaction with the age. Mixed up with the 
 romantically poetical is a most modern irony and a practical, 
 everyday sort of reflection upon the shortcomings of the present. 
 All of Immermann's works except his last have this tone of discon- 
 tent and of resignation to conditions that seem almost hopeless; 
 and of course this disharmony between ideals and real life is the 
 keynote to Heine's writings and to his Romantic Irony, with which 
 he tried to bridge the deep chasm between reality and idealism. 
 
 He with many of his Berlin friends considered the drama 
 suitable for the stage, but other readers laughed to scorn his efforts 
 to secure its production. "Your 'Edwin' is being viciously 
 attacked," he writes Immermann (Jan. 21, 1823), and he encloses 
 a^clipping from the " Freimiitigen" of the 18th, containing a 
 
 56 
 
particularly annoying form of abuse — ^which, by the way, he 
 wrongly attributed to Uechtritz as the originator, to whom he 
 generously apologized on learning his error. In this notice "the 
 Rhenish artist, Herr Heinrich Heine, who from excessive modesty 
 does not venture to come forward with his talent, is urgently 
 requested by his admirers to delight them with mimic-plastic repre- 
 sentations from Immermann's 'Edwin.' " 
 
 But better than "Edwin" Heine liked the third drama 
 " Petrarca' ' because, as he states in his letter June 10, 1823, it is 
 more concentrated, although "Edwin" is richer. "It is true," 
 he continues, "that just because you did not know how to concen- 
 "trate strictly your boundless wealth, not everybody can over- 
 " look the same, and your tragedies do not have the phalanx-like 
 ''effect, as those of many of our present writers of tragedy, who 
 "laboriously compress into five acts all their stock of beet-root 
 "poetry. With me the art of concentration was easier to practice, 
 " because I had only a little bit of the world, only a single theme to 
 "represent. Since then, especially this winter, in a condition of 
 "illness, I have absorbed more, and in the tragedy that I shall 
 "perhaps publish in a few years, it may become manifest whether 
 "I, who have heretofore painted only the history of Cupid and 
 "Psyche in all varieties of grouping, can paint equally well the 
 "Trojan War." 
 
 To be sure, the speeches of the characters are still too long 
 and the style verbose, but Heine knows that this is a common 
 error of all young poets and that his " Almansor' ' has the same 
 fault, because of the " accursed metaphorical language' ' in which 
 he has had to let "Almansor" and his oriental associates talk 
 (April 10, 1823). This would help to account for the leniency with 
 which Heine regarded the same weakness in Immermann. 
 
 The very subject — a theme of love without any further idea — 
 would be apt also to attract Heine, and, indeed, the public in gener- 
 al; we know that Varnhagen liked " Petrarca' ' by far the best. It 
 was written under the influence of Immermann's love for Elise, 
 and is the most personal of the three tragedies. A sympathetic 
 reader could not fail to catch this intimate note and get a deeper 
 insight into the personality of the author. On the whole, it seems 
 to us the best in style, composition, and plot. Although Immer- 
 mann did not create any real characters until he produced his 
 "Miinchhausen," yet he did succeed in sharply individualizing 
 some of his persons in "Edwin," and "Petrarca" shows some fur- 
 ther progress in characterization. 
 
 57 
 
Moreover, the metre satisfied Heme's sense of propriety, 
 for, like the other two dramas, the " Petrarca' ' is written princi- 
 pally in iambic pentameter. While under Immermann's pen this 
 verse was neither musical nor fluent, it was the only metre, as we 
 have learned from his words to Steinmann, which Heine could 
 tolerate in a drama. His efforts to get the play produced on the 
 Braunschweig stage failed, in spite of favorable promises on the 
 part of the director. 
 
 These, then, are some of the reasons why Heine placed Immer- 
 mann next to the leading Danish Romanticist, Oehlenschlager. 
 In how far was he right? Goethe was dead, as Heine expressed 
 it, and, in the same sense, so was Tieck. With Kleist's suicide 
 in 1811 the drama received a blow from which it was long in recov- 
 ering. The Romantic School with all its theories was unable to 
 produce a single dramatist of note. That strange phenomenon, 
 Christian Dietrich Grabbe, was too unbalanced ever to write 
 dramas of stage merit, and his "Herzog Theodor von Gothland,'' 
 which was the only drama as yet begun by him, had in Heine's 
 eyes not very much poetic or dramatic promise. Nor had Michael 
 Beer shown what he could do for the stage, while Platen's satirical 
 dramas, in imitation of Tieck's, were not written for some years 
 later. The period was dominated in part by Raupach, who had 
 succeeded Kotzebue as playwright, and like his predecessor, held 
 the higher ideals of poetry in cynical contempt ; in part by the fate- 
 tragedy, a type for which Zacharias Werner with his " Vierund- 
 zwanzigster Februar" set the fashion in 1808 and which Milliner 
 and Houwald imitated for more than a decade. So far it is not 
 surprising that Heine ranked Immermann above the other living 
 dramatists, but he overlooked the most illustrious name in the 
 literary annals of Austria — ^Franz Grillparzer. "Die Ahnfrau" 
 had been received in 1817 with great enthusiasm by the Viennese 
 public: "Sappho" had appeared the next year, "Das goldene 
 Vliess" in 1820, Grillparzer's mastery of dramatic technique, the 
 striking beauty of his verse, the classic proportions of these trage- 
 dies seem to have made no impression upon Heine. Indeed, 
 according to a letter from Alfred Meissner, who is one of the most 
 trustworthy sources for our knowledge of Heine's later life, to 
 Gustav Karpeles (quoted in the latter's biography of Heine) the 
 poet never, to his recollection, mentioned Grillparzer : he certainly 
 did not exist for Heine. Their natures were too widely different 
 although there are many connections between "Ratcliffe" and 
 " Ahnfrau,' ' the latter being, for one thing, virtually a fate-tragedy. 
 
 5S 
 
I 
 
 This failure to recognize the greatest dramatic poet of the 
 nineteenth century seems strange to us, who see Grillparzer now 
 in all his literary significance and forget how he might have appeared 
 to his contemporaries. In his adherence to the traditions of the 
 Weimar Classicists, Grillparzer must have seemed imitative and 
 coldly objective to the Romantic poets, who demanded subjectivity 
 and placed too much emphasis on the personal note and the imagi- 
 native element. Yet Heine does reveal a somewhat uncritical 
 judgment in other respects, which we may attribute to his youth. 
 He had an open mind and a good gift of observation, but he could 
 not pass judgment with the sureness and unprejudice of a more 
 experienced person; he understood too little of the great move- 
 ments — ^literary, political, and social — ^to grasp their full meaning 
 at that time. An interesting and charming little essay written in 
 the summer of 1821 only confirms this opinion; for it treats sym- 
 pathetically, even lovingly, the tragedy by Wilhlem Smets called 
 "Tassos Tod" — a work abounding in rhetorical and bombastic 
 language and far surpassing Immermann's tragedies in extrava- 
 gance of expression. The impulse to write it doubtless came 
 partly from Heine's desire to clarify his own ideas on the subject 
 of the requisites of a good drama and to account for the principles 
 of esthetics that he already entertained, since now all his interest, 
 as we know, was centered in his own dramatic attempts and the 
 answer to the question in his own mind whether he could or could 
 not write a drama. 
 
 The essay is a clear exposition of the difference between lyric, 
 epic, and dramatic talent. Heine sees plainly that poets who are 
 masters of the lyric often accomplish nothing worth while in the 
 epic or dramatic. He takes us into the workshop of each class 
 of poets and shows how the dramatic poet must have a purely ob- 
 jective view of his material, while with the epic poet the subjective 
 element may enter to a slight extent, even the Odyssey and the 
 Nibelungenlied not being entirely free from it. The drama, on the 
 other hand, offers no chance for the author to project himself into 
 his work: it must be purely objective. This explains why so 
 many poets go over with success from the province of the lyric to 
 that of the epic, since they do not need to renounce utterly their 
 subjectivity but may gradually accustom themselves to objectivity 
 by attempts at romance, elegy, and novel, where the two forms are 
 mixed. In case of the drama, however, the strictest suppression 
 of all subjectivity is demanded, as there is no transitional form 
 between the purely lyric and the dramatic : the personal connec- 
 tion is entirely severed. 
 
 59 
 
After so clearly analyzing for us the nature of the different 
 poetic temperaments, Heine went to work and wrote a drama more 
 subjective than his " Almansor/ ' set forth even more passionately 
 his agony of love and his murderous hatred of his favored rival 
 (Amalie Heine, his cousin, had married in 1821) : and, what is 
 more, the author cherished a far better opinion of it than of 
 " Almansor," apparently for the very reason of its purely subjec- 
 tive nature. He believed, too, that he had avoided the mistake 
 of being too wordy, and repeatedly expressed the faith that it could 
 be acted. It is true, the ideas are more concentrated and more 
 forcibly presented, but the suspense is pathological, the action 
 halting, and there is again no real characterization. Nothing 
 shows a poet's hopelessness in the dramatic field better than the 
 lack of ability to create characters, and here Heine's theories and 
 practice are in strange contrast; for he says in this same essay: 
 "The drama presupposes a stage, not where somebody sits and 
 "recites the piece, but where the heroes of the poem appear in 
 "person and speak and act together in their roles. Here it is 
 " essential that the poet merely note down what they say and how 
 " they act. Woe to the poet, however, who forgets that thess 
 " living impersonators of heroes have the right to group themselves 
 "and make faces according to their own free choice, that the 
 " theatre costumer looks out for pretty costumes, the scene painter 
 " for pretty environment, the conductor of the orchestra for vague 
 "Romantic feelings, and the lamp-lighters for clear illumination. 
 ''That never enters the epic poet's head; and when he attempts 
 "drama, he becomes entangled in beautiful counter-descriptions, 
 "delineation of character, and too fine shadings. Finally, the 
 "drama permits no lull in the action, no scenes of simultaneous 
 "action, still less of retrospection, like the epic. The chief 
 " characteristic of the drama, then, is a steady advancement of the 
 "plot and a harmonious working together of dialog and action.' ' 
 
 In " Almansor' ' some of the same faults are apparent : the 
 action is no less halting; the chorus is unnecessary and foolish, and 
 epic elements enter, in that the poet explains instead of making 
 the characters speak. Although there is some individualization, 
 there is no really vigorous characterization; nor is there any tragic 
 guilt present: the material in both cases is more sad than tragic. 
 In " Almansor' ' the hero is weak, passive, and lacking in virility, 
 the love plot is tame and flat. On the whole, it is the lyrical ele- 
 ment that predominates, while " Ratcliffe' ' takes a step in advance 
 through its more vigorous dialog and the consequent decrease 
 in the amount of lyric. 
 
 60 
 
In general, we may say that Heine's preference for the sub- 
 jective drama and his overestimation of the imaginative element, 
 which was his inheritance from Schlegel and the Romanticists, 
 were additional grounds for his admiration of Immermann's 
 turgid "youthful failures," as they have aptly been called. His 
 delight over "Tassos Tod," which made it difficult for him to 
 judge the drama according to the cold rules of dramatic art, and 
 his pleasure in the shallow works of Steinmann are indications of 
 the same predilection. Such is his blindness to the faults of the 
 former, that he excused the lack of the unities of time and place 
 and even of interest, because the last was replaC':^d by the unity, 
 of feeling — ^that quality which banishes from the lips of the specta- 
 tor or reader the question " Why?' ' and makes him feel in harmony 
 with the outcome, whatever it is. To this same prejudice we must 
 also attribute his blindness to the classic drama of Grillparzer 
 and his admiration of much that seems to us unworthy. 
 
 But even more than the dramas of Immermann themselves, 
 Heine admired the dramatic talent of the man, which enabled 
 him to accomplish with comparative ease what he himself could 
 not do, shut out as he was from the whole field of history, epic, 
 and dr ma by his subjective type of mind. The thing he most 
 longed for was to write a good drama and the man that could do 
 this was the object of his envy. How intense was this desire to 
 see a work of his put on the stage, a few extracts from Heine's 
 letters will show. 
 
 To Steinmann he writes Oct. 29, 1820 : " I have just finished 
 "except for a few lines the third act of my tragedy 'Almansor.' 
 " That was the hardest and longest act. I hope to finish the other 
 " two also this winter. Even if the play does fail to please, it will 
 " at least create a great sensation. Into this work I have put my 
 "own self, together with my paradoxes, my wisdom, my love, 
 "my hate, and all my madness * * * It will surely be put on 
 "the stage — ^it matters not when. The play has cost me enough 
 " exertion, and to speak plainly, I am almost beginning to think 
 " that it is harder to write a good tragedy than to be a good swords- 
 " man (We recall that Heine never succeeded in learning the art 
 " of fencing.) although in a duel you have to make twelve rounds 
 ^' and in a tragedy only five. I have held perfectly to the rules of 
 "Aristotle and conscientiously accepted his dueling ground in 
 "" respect to place, time, and action. And also I have further sought 
 "to put some poetry into my tragedy." And it is only too true 
 
 61 
 
that he himself is in the work : all the pain of the last years, the 
 anguish over the loss of Amalie, his Jewish aversion to Christianity, 
 and his bitterness over his persecution — all is compressed into these 
 few short acts. 
 
 Again to Steinmann (Feb. 4, 1821), he writes of " Almansor": 
 "I have worked on it with the expenditure of all my energy, 
 "spared neither heart's blood nor sweat of brow, have finished 
 " it except for half an act, and to my horror I find that this splendid 
 " work, which I myself have gazed wonderingly upon and idealized, 
 " not only is not a good tragedy, but does not even deserve the name 
 " of tragedy.* * * A tragedy must be drastic and that is the death- 
 " sentence of mine. Have I no dramatic talent? Easily possible. 
 "Or have the French tragedies, which I once greatly admired, 
 "unconsciously exerted their old influence? This latter is some- 
 " what more probable. Just think, in my tragedy all three unities 
 "are most conscientiously observed, usually only four characters 
 "speak, and the dialog is nearly as select, polished, and rounded 
 " off as in the Thedre' or 'Zaire.' You are surprised? The riddle 
 " is easily solved : I have tried aiso in the drama to unite Roman- 
 "tic spirit with strictly plastic form." Thus the belief that 
 "Almansor" embodied his theories concerning the necessity of 
 combining romantic content and plasticity, is expressed here before 
 he wrote his essay on " Die Romantik.' ' 
 
 Once more to Steinmann (April 10, 1823) he writes: "My 
 " tragedies have just left the press. I know they will be all pulled 
 " to pieces, but I will tell you in confidence : they are very good, 
 " better than my collection of poems, which is not worth a charge 
 "of powder." 
 
 To Immermann the same day Heine says that "Ratcliffe" 
 contains a principal confession and he has the fancy for believing 
 that Immermann belongs to the small number of those who will 
 understand it. He therefore begs his friend to read it in a pro- 
 pitious hour and without interruption. "I am convinced of the 
 "value of this poem (hear! hear!) for it (the poem) is true, or I 
 "myself am a lie; everything else that I have written or am still 
 "writing may perish and will perish." 
 
 May 4, 1823, Heine sends the tragedies to Maximilian Schottky, 
 the author and critic, with the request that he or his friends bring 
 them before the Viennese public by a critical review in the " Wiener 
 Jahrbiicher." He has written "William Ratcliffe" for the stage, 
 and he believes that a discussion of it may stimulate some theatrical 
 management or other to accept it. The dedicatory lines to Chris- 
 
 62 
 
tiani, his new friend in Liineburg, give evidence of Heine's exagger- 
 ated idea of its value : 
 
 " Ich und mein Name werden untergehen, 
 Doch dieses Lied muss ewiglich bestehen." 
 
 In comparison with " Ratcliffe/ ' ^^Almansor" now seemed mild to 
 him. The following verses to Friedrich Merckel, the young Ham- 
 burg merchant, show his preference for his latest creation : 
 
 " Ich habe die siisse Liebe gesucht, 
 Und hab' den bittern Hass gefunden, 
 Ich habe geseufzt, ich habe geflucht, 
 Ich habe geblutet aus tausend Wunden. 
 
 Auch hab' ich mich ehrlich Tag und Nacht 
 Mit Lumpengesindel herum getrieben, 
 Und als ich all diese Studien gemacht, 
 Da hab' ich ruhig den Ratcliffe geschrieben' ' 
 
 When we know what pride Heine had in his dramas, what 
 hopes and fears he entertained for them, we can imagine his bitter 
 disappointment at their failure as stage pieces. To Gobitz he 
 writes (Oct. 21, 1823), "I cannot repeat to you often enough 
 "that everything you do to make my tragedies known will be 
 "requitted to you in heaven"; and to Moser, Oct. 28, 1823: "For 
 ''heaven's sake, are you serious in the statement that 'Ratcliffe' 
 "is to be put on the stage? Give me assurance! Wouldn't I be 
 " happj^ if this succeeds!' ' 
 
 It was a long while before the poet ceased to hope that the 
 tragedies would be acted, but "Ratcliffe" never was performed 
 in Germany, and " Almansor' ' was hissed off the stage in Braun- 
 schweig, where Klingmann had his adaptation of it presented. This 
 unpopularity was due not so much to the theatrical weakness of the 
 piece and to the hostility aroused by the bitter religious views, as 
 to mistaken identity, the audience believing that in the author, 
 the Jew Heine, they recognized a much disliked Braunschweig 
 money-lender of that name. (Strodtmann Vol. I. p. 273.) 
 
 In the summer of 1823, at the very time of the failure of 
 "Almansor," the plan of a Venetian tragedy was engaging Heine's 
 attention, and June 26, 1823, he writes Lehmann from Liineburg: 
 "A whole, new, five-act tragedy, certainly original in every 
 respect, stands vague and yet in its chief outlines before me." 
 
 63 
 
Two months later he reports to Moser from Cuxhaven: "The 
 "tragedy is worked out in my mind, and I shall apply myself to 
 " writing it down, as soon as I have peace and can do so. It will 
 " be very deep and sombre — ^nature mysticism. Do you not know 
 " where I can read something about love-spells, magic in general? 
 "You see, I have an old Italian woman to portray,who practices 
 " sorcery. I am reading a good deal on Italy. Have me in mind 
 " if you come across anything that concerns Venice, especially the 
 "Venetian carnival." 
 
 The news of the ill-success of " Almansor' ' no doubt disheart- 
 ened the poet, for we hear no more of his Venetian tragedy until 
 two months later, when he again reminds Moser to remember the 
 information about love-spells. Through the diary of his friend 
 Dr. Edward Wedekind, we know that the plan was still occupying 
 Heine the next year. (Karpeles, Heine, 1899, p. 83.) 
 
 We recall also Heine's famous remark to Goethe, to the effect 
 that he was busying himself with a " Faust.' ' Be this true or 
 false, he surely told his Berlin friends that he was at work on a 
 "Faust," and for two years we hear this from one or another. 
 Wedekind mentions it and Heine himself in letters to Merckel and 
 to Varnhagen, for whom he claimed to be writing it. But the plan, 
 if ever entertained, was given up and in 1847 his Ballet-poem 
 under that title appeared — ^the nearest approach that Heine ever 
 made to another drama. Later in life, however, the desire still 
 pursued him. Heinrich Laube, who knew Heine in Paris, reports : 
 
 " In conversation with him I often noticed with astonishment 
 " what a sympathy for dramatic form he displayed, how he pos- 
 " itively yearned to be able to write a piece that would be played. 
 * ^He tortured me with the repeated question whether his ' Alman- 
 "sor' and 'Ratcliffe' were really then not acting dramas. To 
 " me this longing for dramatic form was a curious sign, a sign that 
 "at bottom his genius was dramatic. He lacked calm force, 
 "justness of mind, and patience in renunciation of personal 
 " desires; he used up his dramatic talent for monologs * * * '' 
 Theodor Mundt has a similar longing of Heine's to report, so that 
 we know that as late as the thirties and forties the idea of writing 
 for the stage still haunted him. 
 
 How can we doubt, then, that Heine's intense desire for dra- 
 matic expression was an important factor in exciting his interest 
 in the dramatist Immermann — an interest that could only increase 
 as he observed the apparent ease and rapidity with which Immer- 
 mann brought forth new works? On the other hand, can we fail 
 to see what attraction a lyrist like Heine would have for a poet 
 
 64 
 
who was still struggling with lyric forms and seeking adequate 
 expression for his fullness of thought? For Immermann was not 
 a lyric poet. He did not yet know wherein his strength consisted, 
 as Heine writes to Christiani in May 1824, while Heine himself 
 was at the height of his powers and independent from the very 
 start. This gave him in the field of poetry a decided advantage 
 over his friend, whose attempts to utter his subjective feelings 
 resulted in a clumsiness of form that is pitiful, when we consider the 
 richness of the soul life beneath this outer covering of ponderous 
 diction and halting rhythm. Heine's sensitive ear was offended 
 by the strangeness of the form, and though he liked the " Elegien,' ' 
 he said that he had much to criticize concerning the metre. Imita- 
 tion of the antique verse had always been repugnant to him, and 
 since he himself had never been able to write six lines of it, he felt 
 that he could speak thus frankly to Immermann without giving 
 offence. Moreover, Heine's musical sense remained completely 
 unsatisfied, for Immermann was not musically attuned. In his 
 lyrics there are no melodious succession of tones — no tender, 
 melting harmonies, but rather dissonant chords and harsh 
 uneven measures. Richard M. Meyer gives an example of one 
 fearful verse, which would hardly have escaped a true lyrist. 
 (" Gedachtnisschrift' [ p. 48) : 
 
 "Lass uns die Lippen zum Knoten der Wonne verschiirzen." 
 (Poem'^AmTos.") 
 
 His poems lacked grace (Anmut), a quality more French 
 than German, which gives such charm to all that Heine has written, 
 both poetry and prose. And one more quality Immermann lacked, 
 which Heine possessed in the highest degree: taste — ^that fine, 
 selective faculty, which tested every word and every turn, until 
 finally the most significant expression of the idea, the most insinua- 
 ting rhythm and verse-melody was found. 
 
 Now Immermann received little encouragement for his lyrical 
 productions, and for this reason he became afflicted with a sad 
 and morbid self-conceit, peculiar to the times. He said himself 
 that if a poet does not find readers and hearers to make his work 
 live, he will lose himself all too easily in solitude, and in the end 
 find a poor compensation in gloomy self-glorification. The con- 
 trast between his lack of recognition and Heine's immediate popu- 
 larity must have impressed itself forcibly upon him, and he sought 
 to discover the reason why Heine seemed a being of a new order. 
 Through his criticism of the first volume of the " Reisebilder" 
 Immermann showed that he distinguished in Heine the essentially 
 
 65 
 
lyrical genius and could appreciate it; but, though he tried all his 
 life to attain superiority in this field, it was only seldom that inner 
 necessity drove him to lyric utterance, and for this reason the 
 results are labored and betray the effort that it cost the poet to 
 produce them. March 14, 1830, Heine writes Immermann to 
 thank him for the lyrical collection received from his friend and 
 expresses much admiration for a great part of the poems in so far 
 as the poetry is concerned. "Die Wiege des Konigs von Rom" 
 he calls " superb,' ' the elegies " splendid' ' (in all probability because 
 the satire on current political history pleased him) ; but there are 
 material faults again, and he finds it difficult to criticize the poems 
 individually; he marvels at Immermann's productivity in general 
 and encourages him to keep on with his dramatic works, writing 
 without reference to the stage and leaving the work of adaptation 
 for the stage to those who understand the business — ^then things 
 will go better. These seem to be Heine's last comments upon 
 Immermann's lyrical works. The next collection was the charm- 
 ing little " Friihlings-Kapriccio" of 1833, which two years later 
 was embodied in Immermann's final collection of poems, which he 
 selected with great care from those of 1822 and 1830. 
 
 Another consideration must not be overlooked in this literary 
 relationship : the fact that the two poets were not rivals and never 
 conflicted in their separate fields. Immermann, through lack of 
 appreciation from without, came to hold himself, as I have said, 
 better and higher than his contemporaries would concede him to be, 
 and for the failure of his dramas as stage plays, he blamed not him- 
 self, but the times. So long as he chose the best models and imi- 
 tated them, he believed that he could count on the approval of the 
 best critics. This he did, and when the praise was not forth- 
 coming, it was the fault of the age : the dramas were good. A like 
 confidence in his own superior talents inspired Heine. He never 
 doubted that in the field of the lyric he was supreme. The very 
 adjectives with which he everywhere characterized his poems 
 prove this, in spite of an occasional prophecy that they would soon 
 be forgotten. He knew that they were fresh and original, full 
 of music, popular in tone, like those of Wilhelm Miiller, which he 
 so sincerely admired. From his Bonn days, when he was in the 
 midst of a perfect hotbed of poets — Simrock, Rousseau, von Beug- 
 hem, Steinmann, and Neunzig — ^Heine realized the greater worth 
 of his own productions, though he found pleasure in the works of 
 his friends and even called Rousseau an excellent poet worthy of 
 the laurel. And again in Berlin he triumphed over all his literary 
 friends. So convinced was he of the supremacy of his genius, 
 
 66 
 
that it mattered little to him whether his poetic satellites of those 
 days continued to revolve about him or traveled in new orbits 
 round that lesser luminary Grabbe; he could laugh at them all. 
 And when he failed to receive all that he believed his due, it was 
 to the unfeeling times, again, that he attributed the cause. 
 
 It was therefore not with reference to Immermann's lyrics 
 that Heine wrote those appreciative words occurring in his very 
 first letter: "Fools are of the opinion that on account of the 
 " Westphalian points of contact, (you have been thought a West- . 
 " phalian up to this time) I should have to compete with you, and 
 ''they do not know that the beautiful diamond sparkling so brightly 
 "can not be compared with the dark stone, which is merely curiously 
 " formed and out of which the hammer of Time strikes wild, angry 
 "sparks. But why concern ourselves with fools? From me you 
 "will always hear the confession, how unworthy I am to be named 
 "beside you." We have seen that Heine did not care for the 
 lyrics, but rather was he attracted by the dramatic ability of the 
 man, and hence the homage. Had the provinces of the two poets 
 not been so distinct that each was secure against the encroachments 
 of the other, a competition for mastery of the field would in all 
 probability have followed and, instead of friendship, antagonism 
 might have resulted: or the poets might simply have ignored 
 each other. But it does not profit to think what might have been; 
 the interesting fact remains that each felt himself master of his own 
 province and this feeling was respected and encouraged by the 
 other, so that there was never any cause for conflict or jealousy. 
 
 Heine's realization of his own failure as a dramatist could 
 only increase his respect for Immermann's talent. He looked 
 forward to the appearance of Immermann's "Periander" most 
 hopefully, not doubting that the one fault of his first tragedies 
 would here be overcome: namely, the tendency to wordiness. 
 But in this he was disappointed. In the first place, the tragedy- 
 was a failure from the point of view of construction. The exposi- 
 tion scenes are lacking, the speeches too long drawn out; contra- 
 dictions and cases of poor motivation are numerous, and wordy 
 descriptions impede the progress of the action. There is a wild 
 confusion of most glaringly contrasted elements; the theme — the 
 destruction of a whole race as a consequence of a crime committed 
 by the head of the family — is antique and also a favorable motive 
 of the fate-drama, except that there is no connection of the fate 
 with any particular day or object. Periander, King of Corinth, 
 has murdered his innocent wife because of jealousy. In spite of 
 his immediate repentance, he cannot avert the consequences: 
 
 67 
 
his children turn from him and he dies alone and unloved. The 
 tragic lies in the unfulfillment of his longing for love, and the work 
 is a product of the over-wrought condition of Immermann's own 
 mind through his passion for Elise von Liitzow. The fault of divided 
 interest works against any distinct sense of harmony and satisfac- 
 tion at the end, but the subjective tone and the strength that is 
 everywhere apparent would make their usual appeal to Heine. 
 Strength, Heine could admire everywhere, for it was a quality 
 less marked in his own lyrical nature, and this characteristic of all 
 Immermann's writings took the place, in the estimation of the 
 youthful Heine, of a certain lack of artistic sense and good taste. 
 As yet Heine had no settled criteria. The fate-drama was still 
 rampant and he composed his own " Ratcliff e' ' under its influence. 
 In fact, he writes to Adolf Mullner (Dec. 30, 1821) that the latter's 
 " Schuld' ' was once his favorite book, and that if he has become a 
 poet, it is due to that work (The play on the double meaning of 
 the word "Schuld" is of course lost in translation.) Nevertheless, 
 "Periander" did not fulfill Heine's expectations and he calls it 
 "the poorest masterpiece" that he knows (Letter to Ludwig 
 Robert, Nov. 27, 1823,) while to Moser he writes (Sept. 30, 1823) : 
 "It is a most remarkable production. I can not pass judgment 
 "on it. I can see that it contains charmingly beautiful details, 
 ''but whether the whole is a clever fusion of the antique with the 
 ''modern, or merely an unsuccessful kneading together of Sophocles 
 "and Shakespeare — I do not know. There are purely antique and 
 "purely modern forms placed alongside each other — genuinely 
 "antique spirit is often manifest — ^but I will rather hear first what 
 "others say." 
 
 Just before Heine's visit to Immermann, the latter's comedy, 
 " Das Auge der Liebe' ' had gone to press. As soon as Heine read 
 it, he reported the fact to Moser (Oct. 25, 1824) adding: "If 
 one reads it with its title, it is pleasing, otherwise not; there is 
 much in it that is fine, however." 
 
 Four months later (Feb. 24, 1825) he writes to the author, 
 to thank him for his letter and latest work. He tells him that he 
 found the book awaiting him on his return to Gottingen the pre- 
 ceding fall from his foot-tour in the Harz Mountains, from the 
 heights of which he had seen the lofty towers of Magdeburg and 
 thereby thought of Immermann and his towering genius. The 
 poem he read with " the eye of love' ' — ^time and mood were both 
 favorable — and he gave himself up to the pure enjoyment of it, 
 rather than to any critical examination, finding in it an overflow 
 
 68 
 
of wit and an abundance of real poetry. Yet in order not to admire 
 rashly or be governed by predilection, he subjected it to the strict- 
 est test possible, in that he read immediately afterwards Shake- 
 speare's " Midsummernight's Dream," and it did not weaken the 
 impression produced by Immermann's poem. This comedy — ^the 
 most romantic of all Immermann's youthful works — had the good 
 fortune to appear on the Berlin stage in 1828, where it was enthusi- 
 astically received, but it was never given anywhere else, and its 
 popularity was shortlived. Still, the fact that Heine had to read 
 it with the eye of love proves that it failed to satisfy him complete- 
 ly, in spite of his statement to Moser (Feb. 24, 1825) that the work 
 surpassed Platen's comedies in wit and wealth of poetry. 
 
 Another work of Immermann's mentioned by Heine in this 
 same letter to Moser is the "Neuer Pygmalion," a short story 
 which appeared in the " Taschenbuch fiir geselliges Vergniigen" for 
 1825, and showed a decided advance over the " Papierfenster" 
 He says : 
 
 " I should like to say concerning it about the same thing that 
 * 'the mad Englishman on the stairway in Naples said of 'Werther,' 
 ''namely, 'I do not like the book, but neither do I understand how 
 ''it was possible to write it.' Really, I do not care for this tale, I 
 ''am even hostile to this type, but I marvel at your masterly pre- 
 "sentation and still more at your finished prose." 
 
 It was not until "Cardenio and Celinde" appeared in 1825 
 that Heine found himself able to admire unreservedly. Upon 
 reading Varnhagen's favorable discussion of it, he was beside him- 
 self with joy. "With infinite pleasure, Herr von Varnhagen, I 
 *' saw how you have estimated in the 'Gesellschafter' Immermann's 
 ''Cardenio'and I am glad to support your opinion that Immermann 
 *'far surpasses all his contemporaries. This work is now my favorite 
 "reading. It seems to me as if I had written it myself." (May 
 14, 1826). 
 
 To Immermann he expresses himself even more jubilantly 
 (Oct. 14, 1826), saying that it was the best book that he should 
 wish to write; that it had all his own fantastic sickness and yet 
 at the same time all the indestructible health of Immermann; 
 that in this book their two selves had met. And truly, the work 
 was almost universally recognized as the powerful expression of a 
 mighty talent, however grossly its inartistic form, its crudeness, its 
 brutality, even, must offend the esthetic sense. But, as we have 
 seen, Heine allowed the element of strength to take the place of 
 the beautiful in dramas, and we learn that as late as 1843 he 
 enjoyed and greatly praised Hebbel's "Judith," (Hebbel's Diary, 
 
 69 
 
Oct. 14, 1843) admiring especially that very quality. None of 
 Immermann's works so stirred Heine to the depths of his being 
 as did this one. The very theme of disappointed love, the force 
 of a great passion, which defies with over-powering violence all 
 moral principles, the insight it gives into the soul of the poet — this 
 called forth all Heine's sympathy and he felt that it was written 
 with the heart's blood of the poet, as his own sorrows had been 
 written. 
 
 In this connection' it will interest us to see how Heine's per- 
 sonal preferences disagree with the theories that he works out 
 abstractly and objectively on the question of esthetics. At the 
 end of the essay on " Tasso's Tod' ' he says concerning the tendency 
 of the modern drama to present on the stage as a matter of course 
 the most unspeakable horrors : " Really, it is revolting to see how 
 "in our recent tragedies, instead of the truly tragic, there has 
 "arisen a butchering, a slaughtering, a lacerating of the feelings; 
 " how the audience sits with chattering teeth on the benches of the 
 "condemned, how it is morally broken on the wheel, from the 
 "lowest to the highest. Have, then, our poets entirely forgotten 
 "what an enormous influence the theatre exerts upon national 
 "customs? Have they forgotten that they are to make these 
 " customs milder and not wilder? Have they forgotten that the 
 " drama has the same aim as poetry in general, which is to reconcile 
 "not stir up the passions, to humanize, not brutalize? Have our 
 "poets completely forgotten that poetry in itself has enough 
 " expedients to arouse and to satisfy even the most obtuse audience,, 
 "without parricide or incest?" 
 
 In considering the biographical relations of the poets, I men- 
 tioned the great pleasure experienced by Heine from the " Trauer- 
 spiel in Tirol' ' and the beautiful tribute paid the author after the 
 visit to the scene of the play. Heine did not praise the work blindly, 
 however, but writes frankly (Nov. 17, 1829) after seeing a presen- 
 tation of the play in Hamburg : 
 
 "Good morning, dear Immermann! I have nothing to say to 
 " you except what the whole world knows, that last evening your 
 "tragedy, well-played to a well-filled house, was received with 
 " the most appreciative applause. For the first time in six months 
 "I was at the theatre, in the company of dear ladies, whose lips 
 "looked most charming as they pronounced Immermann's praise 
 " * * * * Your 'Friedrich' I read with delight. I like it 
 " infinitely better than 'Hofer' which, however highly I esteem it, 
 " I yet care for least of all your works. Last evening, to be sure, 
 ''it pleased me better than on the occasion of my reading it; when 
 
 70 
 
*^ I read it, it seemed to me as if it were written in a state of morbidly 
 " low spirits. Last evening the Tirolese songs were very effective 
 ^'during the distant shooting * * * * Xhe last act, poeti- 
 ^' cally the most beautiful, was theatrically the weakest, tip to 
 ^' the next to the last act, breathless expectation was sustained in 
 ^'the audience — ^palpitating suspense; but the last had no theatri- 
 "cal charm and a hackneyed ending. It therefore made less of 
 *^ an appeal than the earlier acts. I will read the work again now 
 " and tell you more about it next time." 
 
 In his next letter, probably written the following month, 
 Heine tries to forestall any discouragement that Immermann may 
 feel on hearing reports from Hamburg, by telling him not to be- 
 lieve the correspondents in the journals, who are all opposed to the 
 piece; they attribute enough poetry to it, but for that very reason 
 they declare it unfit for the stage. Heine asserts, on the contrary, 
 that, except for the fifth act, it was received with great approval, 
 and he names others who concur with him in this opinion. But 
 in his preference for " Kaiser Friedrich II' ' he seems to have agreed 
 with the popular sentiment, for this drama had much better success 
 than the " Hofer,' ' being given in Hamburg four times in nineteen 
 days. 
 
 So far I have shown the reasons why the two poets were attract- 
 ed to each other on the literary side. How much Heine's judg- 
 ment was clouded by his admiration of Immermann's personality 
 would be difficult to determine, but we may be sure that the 
 personal qualities of the man influenced to a large extent Heine's 
 estimate of his literary ability. From Heine's first letter it is 
 clear that he was impressed by Immermann's robust nature, his 
 broad-mindedness, his firm conviction of the difference between 
 right and wrong, his stability of character, and it was in the confi- 
 dence that Immermann desired to see the right prevail that he 
 offered himself as Waffenbruder. The fact that Ludwig Robert 
 showed the same breadth of mind delighted Heine, and he writes 
 him (Nov. 27, 1823) that this freedom from narrow mindedness and 
 prejudice pleases him more than all the other attributes of the soul. 
 All of Immermann's works were additional evidence to Heine that 
 he had not been mistaken in his estimate of the man, and none in 
 a higher degree than the Pustkuchen pamplets, which he read a 
 second time and declared he could not admire enough. Varn- 
 hagen, that excellent critic, saw through Immermann's works 
 the force of an unusual personality and after reading "Cardenio 
 and Celinde" he writes to the poet these true and sympathetic 
 
 71 
 
words: "I have * * * you yourself to praise more than your 
 works; your works all together more than any one of them.'' 
 It was the man that won Varnhagen's respect. To him Heine 
 showed the Pustkuchen pamphlets, together with Immermann's 
 letter, after which he writes his friend (Jan. 14, 1823) : " In order 
 **to give you pleasure and at the same time not to be obliged myself 
 " to tell you my opinion of the two pamphlets, I am sending you 
 "the letter that Varnhagen's wife wrote on the subject day before 
 "yesterday. For an understanding of it, I will merely remark that 
 "among the letters on the 'Wanderjahre' published in the 'Gesell- 
 "schafter,' of which Goethe so beautifully expressed his apprecia- 
 " tion, those signed ' Friedericke' proceeded from the pen of Frau 
 " von Varnhagen and that in one (it is the first) occur several ex- 
 "pressions in the same tone as your pamphlet * * * How 
 " Varnhagen regards your critical work you will read in his an- 
 " nouncement in the 'Gesellschafter.' He wishes me to tell you that 
 " you should by no means fail to send a copy of it to Goethe and 
 "to Tieck." His deepest regret is, that he cannot be a volunteer 
 in the campaign against Pustkuchen, and in this mood he ad- 
 dresses his friend as "wackerer Immermann." It is this epithet 
 (which I translate "stout-hearted") which seems particularly 
 significant. From the first the moral courage of Immermann in 
 standing alone against the usurpations of a powerful student organi- 
 zation and bearing the consequences of his act alone, was impressed 
 upon Heine through the publications concerning the "Teutonia." 
 " Your little book on duelling has shown me what is to be expected 
 "of you in the great struggle against licensed absurdities. I 
 •'lack courage for such deeds, and I reconcile to myself and excuse 
 " my faint-heartedness with the fine considerations that in my case 
 "so much can be misinterpreted, etc." Then the Pustkuchen 
 works strengthened his faith in Immermann's fearlessness and 
 sense of right, which allowed him to shirk no duty, however disa- 
 greeable the consequences. He saw in his friend the future diplo- 
 mat, and offers to help him after he is himself once in Paris and has 
 seen what the conditions are; he rejoices in the prospect of helping 
 to broaden the sphere of activity of a man from whose ability he 
 expects so much. (Apr. 10, 1823.) 
 
 Moreover, the very form and contents of Immermann's 
 pamphlets in support of Goethe delighted Heine, for he did love 
 polemic above all things and Immermann's use of it was both 
 effective and ingenious, as he wrote in the same form that Goethe 
 himself used for scourging Leuchsenring : namely, the Hans Sachs 
 carnival play, giving to the hero the same name also — Peter Brey. 
 
 72 
 
The other pamphlet — "Brief an einen Freund" was of a 
 different sort, being rather an esthetic treatise dealing with the 
 genesis of a work of art, but at the same time giving expression 
 to the author's deep regard for Goethe throughout. The little 
 work shows that Immermann had devoted much thought to the 
 subject and had come to the conclusions that the rules for artistic 
 production were not to be formulated but that the creative talent 
 was the only law-giving force in art. Poetry exists for its own sake : 
 it has the right of existence in itself. And as the poet can create 
 only in a tranquil state, so will his works be a joy and gratification 
 only to the tranquil. The calm, serene man will find in poetry 
 the gentle solution of the difficult riddle of life. 
 
 As Heine was pondering on the same subjects and attempting 
 to formulate his own esthetic ideas, this treatise must have meant 
 much more to him than merely a defence of a great genius. Be- 
 hind it, too, he saw again the personality of a powerful, mature 
 thinker, one who was superior to him in ripeness of thought and 
 judgment, if inferior in his ability to give it expression. He saw 
 the earnest seeker for truth and beauty, the advocate of the right, 
 the man of ideas with the will to carry out his ideas. Altogether 
 the forcefulness of Immermann's individuality was strikingly 
 apparent to Heine, whose romantically impressionable nature 
 perceived readily the practical, active type so distinctly its opposite. 
 
 "We agree admirably, have become sincerely fond of one 
 another," writes Heine to Christiani, a month after his visit to 
 Immermann. Had this friendship other foundations besides the 
 common literary interests of the two poets and the mutual at- 
 traction of opposing personalities? No doubt the most absorbing 
 topic during their visit was their literary pursuits, their artistic 
 endeavors, and esthetic ideas; but for various reasons one other 
 subject could scarcely have been avoided — ^that of 'politics, since 
 Heine was firmly bent on leaving Germany and going to Paris, 
 and Immermann was contemplating the same step. The talk 
 must have broadened out into a discussion of politics in general, 
 of German and French conditions, of the recent wars and Napo- 
 leon and of more remote events in the political history of 
 Germany. Immermann surely made acquaintance with Heine's 
 revolutionary views and the ideals for which he stood, while Heine 
 in turn, learned of Immermann's participation in the campaign 
 and of his liberal sentiments. Doubtless, too, they rehearsed 
 their university days and discussed the Burschenschaft movement 
 
 73 
 
and the part they had played in the attempt to reconstruct Ger- 
 many, and in the end — they agreed admirably. Heine discovered 
 more in the man than he had expected and could continue to call 
 him his Waffenbruder, for in his very first publication Immermann 
 had shown himself a fighter, and a fighter he remained all his life. 
 Whether he combatted old abuses in student life or false aims in 
 literature, whether the preposterous deceptions of a Pustkuchen 
 or the overweening self-assumption and arrogance of rank of a 
 Platen — he fought for justice, which his father had taught him to 
 believe in as the highest of the virtues. Heine's keen insight, 
 already quickened by Immermann's early writings, which were all 
 interesting documents of the author's personality, now recognized 
 in him a free and independent being, who both in his conviction 
 and in his actions held himself apart from the prevailing views 
 exactly as he himself did in his struggle for the realization of his 
 " Idea' ' — for Heine, too, was a born fighter, never once yielding the 
 struggle from the first outbreak of the fighting mood in the " Fres- 
 kosonette,' ' where the sharp contrast between form and content 
 expresses so well the disharmony of the poet's soul, to the end of his 
 life. That both poets were ready to stand for their convictions is 
 clear ; the question is, in how far were they able to agree politically 
 — ^in how far were they fighting for the same cause as confederates 
 — Waff enbriider ? 
 
 If we look back to Heine's student days at Bonn, we shall 
 find what may surprise us, knowing the later Heine as we do. 
 The fall of 1819 saw him for the first time enrolled as a university 
 student, after his complete failure to show any aptitude for the 
 professions chosen for him by his mother. That winter he entered 
 into his work with great enthusiasm and his professors testified 
 to his attentiveness and his commendable attendance upon their 
 lectures. The courses elected by him the next two semesters are 
 the best evidence of the subjects most interesting to him then. In 
 addition to the lectures on the Nibelungenlied and metrics, he 
 heard Schlegel also on the history of the German Language and 
 Literature; Hiillmann on the History of Antiquity, the History 
 of Civilization, Germanic Civil Law of the Middle Ages, and 
 French History; Arndt on the History of the German People 
 and Kingdom, and on Tacitus's "de Moribus Germanorum"; 
 and Radloff on the History of the Primitive Germans. To all 
 these studies Heine applied himself with Romantic enthusiasm for 
 everything German, which reigned here as at all the universities. 
 He belonged to one of the Burschenschaften and was the confessed 
 adherent of its views and aims. He probably sang Arndt's well- 
 
 74 
 
known song to the effect that all Germany is the German's father- 
 land with as much feeling as any other student and wore the black- 
 red-and-gold with just as much pride. On the anniversary of 
 Leipzig he took part in a celebration held by the students in the 
 vicinity of Bonn and drank a health to Bliicher and German 
 freedom, and even after the strict reactionary measures of the 
 Prussian King were enforced and a system of espionage estab- 
 lished, his Burschenschaft continued to meet secretly and make 
 most revolutionary plans. But Heine's connection with this 
 organization ceases to surprise us, when we consider the nature 
 of its aims, which were so Romantically vague and hazy that they 
 were adapted to all temperaments. Conservatives and Liberals 
 read into the program their own particular ideals and associated 
 on equal terms; for the great wave of patriotism that swept over 
 Germany during the time of the Napoleonic wars, caught up and 
 bore along with irresistible force all sorts and conditions of men, 
 who hoped to bring about through the Burschenschaften the 
 realization of their dreams of freedom and unity. Thus for 
 a while Heine was in full sympathy with his fellows in the great 
 cause of German nationality. Inspired by the same sentiments 
 that filled the minds of the enthusiastic student of those days, he 
 wrote a number of poems in the prevailing style and it was the 
 most natural thing in the world that he should have imbibed the 
 patriotism of the time, for the air was full of it. Rousseau's poem 
 on " Das Lied der Nibelungen' ' is evidence of the enthusiasm that 
 was inspired in the hearts of the youth by the discovery of the 
 literary treasures of the German poet. Apropos of this, Heine 
 writes to Steinmann (Feb. 4, 1821) : " How did you like the Poet's 
 ''poem on the Nibelungen? I received a copy of it a few days ago 
 "and cannot get enough of it. I have read it aloud at least twenty 
 "times and explained its beauties with a mighty critical mien." 
 Nevertheless, this Teutomism was a current that became upper- 
 most in Heine's nature for only a short time. In the midst of^ his 
 enthusiasm over Bliicher and the heroes of the War of Liberation, 
 he could write his Song of Songs, — "Die Grenadiere" ; the Napoleon 
 cult was the strong, deep current always, and the former soon 
 disappeared below the surface again. 
 
 The change came during the next year, while he was pur- 
 suing his studies at Gottingen, which he entered in the fall of 1820, 
 and it was chiefly due to two causes. First, after his suspension 
 from the university through violation of the laws of duelling, it 
 was also made clear to him that his membership was no longer 
 desired in the Burschenschaft, because of rumors concerning his 
 
 75 
 
laxity of morals. From this time he lost sympathy with its aims, 
 and declares in the " Wintermachen' ' that the Old-German fools 
 in the Burschenschaft spoiled his pleasure in the black-red-and- 
 gold once so dear to his heart. Secondly, he had already come to 
 see the narrowness of its patriotism and to feel an aversion to the 
 Burschen because of their strong hostility to the Jews and the 
 French. Their views began to seem more vague and fanatical 
 to him; the anti-Semitic tendency repelled him more and more, 
 and from 1822 on we constantly run across passages in his letters 
 that show his growing aversion to Teutonism and its heroes. He 
 lost all patience with the narrowness and intolerance of so limited 
 a nationalism, and so in April 1822 we find him writing that 
 strange letter to Sethe announcing the end of their friendship, 
 since Sethe is a German. " The German language grates upon my 
 ''ears. My own poems sometimes disgust me, when I see that they 
 "are written in German. Even the writing of this note bothers 
 "me, because the German characters have a painful effect upon 
 "my nerves. (He continues in French!) I should never have 
 "believed that those animals called Germans could be a race at 
 " the same time so dull and so malicious. As soon as my health is 
 ''restored, I shall leave Germany and go to Arabia and there I shall 
 "lead a pastoral life, I shall be a man in the full meaning of the 
 "word, ^ * *" etc. 
 
 By the time Heine reached Berlin, his enthusiasm for the 
 Burschenschaften had almost entirely disappeared and in his 
 " Briefe aus Berlin' ' he scores the sect-spirit of the Teutons whose 
 love of freedom was based on hatred of the French and on national 
 egoism. From this time forth the never-ending ridicule and 
 mockery directed against the whole party of so-called patriots won 
 Heine his reputation for anti-national sentiments. Jahn, the 
 father of the gymnastic movement, a Teuton and hater of the 
 French is a cowardly, foolish fellow; the harmless Massmann 
 becomes the type of Old-German demagog, just as dangerous as 
 grotesque. The latter Heine conceived a perfect mania for perse- 
 cuting all his life; from the "Reise von Miinchen nach Genua" 
 through "Atta Troll" the " Wintermarchen" and the "Roman- 
 zero" he pursues him with his bitterest ridicule. Of course we 
 realize that in his desire to make the " Teutomaniacs" appear 
 absurd he went too far and laughed at real patriotism and^ the 
 whole epoch of the War of Liberation, causing truly patriotic 
 feelings to seem the pose of intriguers and fools. 
 
 But Heine was not hostile to Teutonism in the best sense of 
 the word. In Gottingen, he showed decided interest for his 
 
 76 
 
country's past by studying German history and literature, and 
 was aroused to indignation by the fact that so few were taking 
 the course of lectures under the Germanic scholar Beneke. " Think 
 of it," he writes Steinmann (Oct. 29, 1820) "Hofrat Beneke is 
 "the only one here who lectures on German Literature and has 
 " (horribile dictu ! !) only 9 (nine) hearers. Among them is my 
 " humble self. If Hundeshagen is going to lecture on the Nibelun- 
 "gen next summer, that might probably draw me back to Bonn." 
 In similar words he makes known his sentiments to Beughem 
 (Nov. 9, 1820) " I am hearing Beneke's course of lectures on Old- 
 " German Language with great pleasure. Think of it, Fritz! 
 "only 9 (nine) student are taking this course. Out of thirteen 
 " hundred students, among whom are surely a thousand Germans, 
 '•'there are only nine who have any interest for the language, for 
 "the inner life, for the intellectual relics of their fathers. O Ger- 
 "many! Land of oaks and stupidity!" 
 
 Then in the fall of 1822 Heine wrote those fine words at the 
 close of his essay "Ueber Polen," in which he glorifies the Middle 
 Ages of Germany and encourages efforts to revive true enthusiasm 
 for that period. "May the time soon come, when justice shall 
 "be done to the Middle Ages, when no silly apostle of shallow 
 "rationalism will make an inventory of the dark places of the 
 "great painting in order to compliment thereby his dear enlightened 
 " age; when the learned school-boy will not draw parallels between 
 "the Cologne Cathedal and the Pantheon, between the Nibel- 
 "ungenlied and the Odyssey, when the splendors of the Mid- 
 " die Ages shall be recognized by their organic connection and 
 " compared only with themselves, when the Nibelungenlied shall be 
 " called a versified cathedral and the Cologne Cathedral a stone 
 "Nibelungenlied." 
 
 To the Burse hen, however, Heine was at that time no longer 
 attracted and when the "Arminia" was dissolved because of 
 opposition to the government in its struggle against liberal tenden- 
 cies, his connection with the organizations was severed for good. 
 No longer able, as formerly, to unite his patriotic Romantic ideals 
 with his more progressive views, he set himself the task of combat- 
 ting without mercy the destructive forces of the past, getting fur- 
 ther and further away from the national as he approached the 
 democratic. 
 
 It was just here in his intolerance of all narrowness, in his 
 hatred of a limited nationalism that Heine met Immermann, 
 for the latter was also mature enough to see the weaknesses of the 
 whole Burschenschaft movement. Even the gymnastic associa- 
 
 77 
 
tions were spoiled for Immermann by the political savour that 
 they received from their well-meaning but narrow-minded leader. 
 In his youth, Immermann, too, had burned with enthusiasm for 
 his fatherland, and to this inspired love he gave poetic expression. 
 In 1812, at the age of sixteen, he composed a poem called " Das 
 Vaterland" and the War of Liberation brought forth a lyrical 
 outburst of a similar national content. Yet in spite of this ardent 
 love for his country, he went his way independent of the Burschen- 
 schaften. The reason for his attitude is not difficult to formulate. 
 All the natural surroundings of his childhood and youth had tended 
 to awaken his public spirit early, broaden his views, and incline 
 him to monarchical sentiments and faith in the Prussian govern- 
 ment. As he obeyed his father implicitly and in his harsh com- 
 mands saw only love and authority rightly exercised, so he learned 
 to respect and reverence the authority of the State — to trust the 
 wisdom of its great rulers before all else. Immermann's own 
 testimony to the value of strict home discipline is beautifully 
 expressed in the " Memorabilien" — ^the last paragraph of the 
 section entitled " Die Familie' ' : severe training, provided it pro- 
 ceeds from a blamelessly pure, loving personality, capable of self- 
 sacrifice is a blessing and an endowment for all time to him who 
 obeys. 
 
 In the " Avisbrief ' ' of the " Memorabilien' ' he also tells of his 
 inquiring disposition as a child, his attentive mind and powers of 
 observation, which helped to develop him in advance of his 
 associates, so that when he finally came into contact with the 
 Burschenschaften, their aims, in comparison with those of the 
 great state, seemed most vague and impracticable, even fanatical. 
 He was mature enough to perceive the dangers that are always 
 apt to attach themselves to such organizations, because of the 
 presence of extremists with their inflammatory speeches; he had 
 too much practical sense to be carried away by the wild schemes 
 and abstract ideals of the fiery young patriots, who, from lack of 
 experience and tradition, were not the people to reconstruct a 
 state. Brought up to consider the Prussian state and Prussianism 
 as the most mighty and sublime conception, he was repelled by 
 whatever was contrary to its law and traditions, so that on the 
 whole, he had little in common with his fellows. All their " Teuto- 
 mania" seemed hollow and silly to him, and gradually he with- 
 drew more and more into himself and kept aloof from more active 
 participation in the affairs of his country. Strong historical sen- 
 timents he had, as he confesses in the "Reise journal" but no real 
 political vein; one single trait of nature observed in a cottage 
 
 78 
 
interests him more than a diet, the account of which fills a whole 
 newspaper. He writes also to Beer that as a German and artist 
 he cannot take sides with any political party, that only the human, 
 natural, pragmatic which he observes in the masses and in indivi- 
 duals here and there interests him historically. 
 
 This was the real Immermann. Politics left him cold and he 
 was as far removed from young German radicalism and Revolu- 
 tionary views as they took shape in Heine's emotional, intense 
 and impulsive nature, as was Heine from Prussian conservatism. 
 
 To be sure, Heine feared the results of the overthrow of the 
 existing social order. He was afraid of the power of the people 
 and knew that in case of a revolution his own head would not be 
 the last to fall. (Strodtmann I p. 665.) Moreover, he knew that 
 temperamentally he was an aristocrat, and the thought of universal 
 equality was almost repulsive to him. By virtue of his genius he 
 belonged to the elite; aristocracy of birth and so-called noble 
 institutions meant nothing to him; the aristocracy of genius 
 everything. His tastes were fastidious; his artistic nature con- 
 trolled him always; and while deeply impressed by the pauperism 
 that he saw about him, especially in London, and sympathetic 
 with the oppressed lower classes, he never took the initiative in any 
 schemes to alleviate their sufferings nor did he ever sacrifice his 
 beloved art to the service of social or political questions. He 
 shrank from contact with the masses, and yet he believed in the 
 rights of the individual and preached this doctrine with all the 
 fervor that his enthusiastic nature could put into his "Idea." 
 Thus his aristocratic temperament and his democratic principles 
 were in constant conflict, but in spite of his realization of the at- 
 tending dangers, and notwithstanding his esthetic prejudices, 
 there is not the least doubt th;,t Heine passionately desired the 
 rise of a free state and the establishment of equal rights for all. 
 
 And so, on the other hand, Immermann, while able to see the 
 advantages of the more liberal tendency in the southern provinces, 
 nevertheless sympathized with his Prussia and never dreamed of 
 any changes that would involve danger to the State. He found 
 intolerable the strict reactionary measures — ^the suppression of 
 free thought and speech, the censorship of the press, and the dis- 
 couragement of all original endeavor in the last years of Friederick 
 Wilhelm's reign. In spite of the attachment he felt, in common 
 with his people, for the person of the king, who had been through 
 the same hardships as they, he was filled with indignation at the 
 narrowness of his restraining policy, the cruelty of the deceits 
 practiced upon his people, and the whole burden of misery of the 
 
 79 
 
spiritual stagnation. Disapproving of Prussia's attitude toward 
 South German constitutional sentiments, he turned the whole 
 force of his satire against the bureaucracy with its opposition to all 
 free development of state and municipal life; but even more was 
 he offended by the hostility of the southern states, since he realized 
 that such an organization as they were blindly struggling for, Prus- 
 sia had already effected. 
 
 Conservative then we must acknowledge Immermann to be, 
 but — he felt himself a free man — both in thought and in action, 
 free from all servility — unconstrained in his judgment of his 
 superiors, and full of sympathy for those beneath him, wherever 
 he saw them oppressed. His dissatisfaction with existing con- 
 ditions would naturally call forth the sympathy of Heine, who 
 would then interpret Immermann's independence of spirit and 
 broad-mindedness as a liberalism akin to his own, without recall- 
 ing how deeply rooted in his friend's nature his monarchical 
 principles were. Already deeply impressed by Immermann's 
 strong sense of right and justice, he saw in him in 1824 a man of 
 tremendous energy and will, ready to fight for an idea, as he him- 
 self was doing. This is why he believed Immermann suited to the 
 post of foreign diplomat; he did not take into consideration how 
 ill the devious ways of international politics would accord with his 
 simple, straightforward nature. But in his unbounded enthusiasm 
 for his "Idea" — the emancipation of humanity, socially and po- 
 litically — ^Heine could easily misinterpret Immermann's liberal 
 tendencies and read into them his own ideas and aims, which 
 would seem to him the logical outcome of a character like Immer- 
 mann's. 
 
 The very vagueness and general nature of his Revolutionary 
 views would make Heine the more liable to misjudge Immermann's 
 position. First, he might readily see in Immermann's paternal 
 defence of his university brothers the confirmation of his own 
 Revolutionary idea of fraternite. As a cosmopolite by birth and 
 temperament, Heine came naturally by this idea. To be a papist 
 in the narrow sense of the word, would have been to him an utter 
 impossibility. As a Jew, he loved his race and felt at times an 
 infinite sympathy with them; as a politician, he belonged to the 
 French; as a poet, he revelled in German sentiment; and because of 
 this cosmopolitanism, he could love or curse any one or all of the 
 nations according to his momentary mood. 
 
 In his letter from Berlin, March 16, 1822, he writes: 
 
 " O German youth, how sinful and foolish do I find you and 
 *'your words in such moments when my soul embraces in love 
 
 80 
 
"the whole world, when I would embrace jubilantly Russians 
 ^' and Turks, and when I should like to sink weeping on the frater- 
 "nal bosom of the shackled African! I love Germany and the 
 "Germans, but I love no less the inhabitants of the rest of the 
 "earth, whose number is forty times greater than that of the 
 "Germans. Love gives man his worth. Thank God! I am 
 " therefore worth forty times more than those who cannot struggle 
 "out of the quagmire of national egotism and who love only 
 "Germany and the Germans.' ' 
 
 Accused by Christiani of trying to divest himself of his German 
 
 character, he writes (March 7, 1824) : " ^you are mistaken, I 
 
 " know that I am one of the most German beasts ; I know only too 
 "well that German is to me what water is to the fish, that I can 
 " not get out of this vital element and — ^to retain the simile of the 
 "fish — ^must shrink up into a dried cod (block head)if — ^to keep the 
 "aqueous simile — ^I leap out of the water of Teutonism. At bottom 
 "I love what is German, more even than everything else in the 
 " world. I take joy and delight in it and my breast is an archive of 
 " German feeling, as my two books are an archive of German song." 
 
 Notwithstanding such extravagant expressions of passionate 
 love for Germany, it is plain that Heine had little national in- 
 stinct, but as a good Romanticist, he was sincere in his attach- 
 ment to Germany and her traditions. The collection of poems 
 with the heading " In der Fremde' ' among the " Neue Gedichte/ ' 
 written after his voluntary exile, are pathetically touching in their 
 note of longing and of tender reminiscence of the German home, 
 especially the one beginning "Ich hatte einst ein schones Vater- 
 land' ' perhaps because of its beautiful, musical settings. But his 
 vague ideas of fraternity led him to attach himself as one of the 
 most zealous members to the Berlin Kulturverein, and for a con- 
 siderable time he taught his Jewish brothers history, German 
 language and literature and French with the greatest enthusiasm, 
 however unmercifully he treated his race at such times as their 
 ignorance and sordid condition and meanness were borne upon him. 
 
 Secondly, he believed also in egalit^ theoretically, and in his 
 humorous way he praises the French for their method of equalizing 
 their people by gently removing the heads of the greatest. More 
 seriously, however, he takes up the defence of^ the people's rights 
 against the privileges of the nobility in an article written in 1831 
 as introduction to "Kahldorf iiber den Adel, in Briefen an den 
 Graf en M. von Moltke.' ' But Heine in his tastes and temperament 
 was an out and out aristocrat and everything common disgusted 
 him. Hence it was that he and Borne became so uncongenial in 
 
 81 
 
Paris. All Borne's associations were repulsive to Heine's more 
 fastidious nature. In theory he believed that all men are equal; 
 there should be no privileged classes by birth; individuals should 
 .all have the same right in the state. But — and this is a most 
 important fact in Heine's complex character — ^there was an aristo- 
 cracy that he admired — nay, worshiped: the aristocracy of 
 genius. For this he idolized Napoleon. "My admiration has 
 "respect not to deeds, but only to the genius of the man, whether 
 " this man bears the name of Alexander, Caesar, or Napoleon * * * 
 "I never extol the deed, but only the human spirit ; the deed is only 
 "its garb, and history is nothing but the old wardrobe of the 
 "human spirit." (Reise von Miinchen nach Genua. Chap. 29.) 
 For Heine there was nothing beyond the dynamic element in 
 the activity of a genius — ^the creative power, the spiritual force, 
 which was able to impel to action, to produce deeds; it was the 
 dynamic that attracted Goethe also to Napoleon. 
 
 "Spirit longs for spirit: wherever Heine feels a spiritual 
 ''force, where a creative genius discharges itself in deeds, there he 
 " lowers the weapons of criticism and accords unlimited admiration. 
 " 'That is the very force of force, that it makes us give way directly 
 " to admiration, without first reasoning over its application. So it 
 "happens that in our day Napoleon is praised by a democrat.' 
 "His Napoleon cult, which Hiene alludes to in this passage, is 
 "sufficiently explained by the reverential wonder with which 
 "every exhibition of a dynamic force fills him, be it a sublime 
 "spectacle of Nature or the display of force in a spiritual Titan." 
 (Boucke. Euphorion, 1909, p. 451.) 
 
 It is of great significance that Heine saw Napoleon as a four- 
 teen-year old boy in Diisseldorf. The incomparable descriptions 
 that he gives us of the General in "Buch le Grand" makes as 
 indelible an impression upon our memory as the actual appearance 
 did upon Heine's. In Heine's home, too. Napoleon was looked 
 upon as the long-expected Messiah and so he seemed to all the Diis- 
 seldorf Jews — ^their liberator, who through his decrees of 1808, 1809 
 and 1812, freed them from slavery. In Berlin also, the most anti- 
 Napoleonic city of all Germany, Heine in all probability was^ influ- 
 enced in his estimate of the man by the broad-mindedness of Rahel 
 and Varnhagen; for though the latter had fought againstNapoleon, 
 he and Rahel were both too great to stoop to abuse of such a 
 genius. Their love of humanity made them lenient in their judg- 
 ment of all men and their own greatness enabled them to appreciate 
 the truly great in another, regardless of nationality. 
 
 82 
 
Heine's ideal then was social and political equality of indivi- 
 duals, but his stronger sympathies were for the intellectually 
 superior, and personally he rebelled at the thought of contact 
 with the rude and commonplace. And how could he feel differ- 
 ently, when he was filled with bitterness over his own miserable, 
 unequal lot as a Jew, and at the same time was conscious of the 
 immeasurable superiority of his genius? 
 
 When he visited Immermann he was experiencing the full 
 force of his hopeless condition in his native country. The career 
 for which he was preparing himself offered no opening for a Jew. 
 As early as 1822 a law had been passed denying to his race the 
 right to hold academic positions, so that his aspirations " to teach 
 antiquity in the light of truth' 'were shattered. In Hamburg he 
 could not live because of its memories of his love-sorrows; he hated 
 Prussia, little dreaming of her destiny, but seeing only her weak- 
 ness and mistakes. He was not far-sighted enough to appreciate 
 the value of her introduction of universal conscription, her economi- 
 cal management of finances, the growth of an excellent civil 
 service, her efforts for the upbuilding of educational institutions. 
 A mutual distrust existed between Prussian and Rheinlander, 
 and the suspicion increased as the power of Prussia advanced, 
 for the Rhenish provinces had been so long in close proximity 
 to the French that they could not accustom themselves to the 
 presence of Prussia. They had almost lost all national feeling 
 and were languid Germans, like the Alsatians today. Heine, 
 like the other Rheinlanders, knew what it was to live now under 
 French rule, now under Prussian, and the Jews of Diisseldorf had 
 Napoleon to thank for the greatest blessing they had ever enjoyed. 
 No wonder they looked upon him as a god! In return for the 
 citizenship that they enjoyed under him, they bore uncomplain- 
 ingly the unspeakable burden of taxes and conscription, and as 
 time went on and Prussia's authority rested more and more heavily 
 on the border provinces, the Jews looked back with longing to the 
 freedom of the French regime. Heine's admiration of the French 
 likewise grew with his hatred of the Prussians, and he turned his 
 gaze toward the land of promise. " Paris is a new Jerusalem and 
 the Rhein is the Jordan, which separates the consecrated land of 
 freedom from the land of the Philistines. (Englische Fragmente 
 Chap. XIII.) 
 
 The July Revolution was what finally caused Heine to take 
 the decisive step and in 1831 he left Germany forever to begin life 
 in his chosen country. This was the land where ideas were realized , 
 where thoughts became deeds, and Paris was the centre from which 
 
 83 
 
he could act as representative not of French, but of world interests 
 Hear the glowing terms in which he tells of the receipt of the glad 
 news from Paris. (Borne Book II.) The tidings coming on the 
 sixth of August fired him to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. 
 
 "They were sunbeams wrapped up in newspapers and they 
 *' inflamed my soul to the fiercest blaze. It seemed to me that 
 "I could enkindle the whole ocean to the North Pole with the 
 ''glow of enthusiasm and the mad joy that burned in me * * * 
 "I ran round in the house like a crazy person and kissed first the 
 " fat landlady and then her friendly Seewolf, and embraced also 
 " the Prussian solicitor, from whose lips, to be sure, the frosty smile 
 *'of incredulity did not entirely disappear. Even the Dutchman 
 " I pressed to my bosom.' ' 
 
 Then on the 10th of August : " Gone is my longing for rest. 
 "Now I know again what I am to do, what I must do * * * I 
 " am the son of the Revolution and again I lay hold of the charmed 
 "weapons, over which my mother pronounced her incantations 
 << * * * Flowers! Flowers! I will crown my head for the 
 "death struggle! and the lyre too, hand me the lyre, that I may 
 " sing a battle-song * * * Words like flaming stars, which 
 " shoot down from above and consume palaces and illumine huts 
 « * * * Words like shining spears which go whizzing even 
 '*up to the seventh heaven and hit the pious hypocrites, who have 
 "stolen into the holy of holies there * * * I am all joy and 
 "song, all sword and fire!' ' 
 
 A comparison with Immermann's words concerning the 
 Revolution will give a good idea of the radical difference in their 
 views. The poet, instead of taking any part in political life, had 
 retired more and more from public view and was seeking to forget 
 himself in hard work. As a German and Prussian he could 
 hardly be expected to act: France was the land of deeds, Ger- 
 many of ideals. Not that he neglected his vocation! The com- 
 monplace official life he led conscientiously as long as he lived 
 and it served as a counterpoise to the more imaginative, so that 
 he found little time for the dreams that haunted natures less 
 practical. The July Revolution, however, aroused him from his 
 apathy and to Beer, who lived through the event in France, he 
 writes (Aug. 15, 1830) : 
 
 "Never has a fact had such a powerful and thrilling effect 
 " upon me as this. It moved me like a miracle and during these 
 " weeks I have not been able to get to work for excitement. That 
 " after all the storm and blood of forty years ago the Revolution 
 "is repeated, only more imposing even than the first time, is 
 
 84 
 
* 'without precedent in history and shows the incalculable strength 
 " of the century and the nation. The French are right when they 
 " call this catastrophe unique, for it has not proceeded, as usually 
 ' 'happens, from a physical necessity, properly speaking, but rather 
 " from a spiritual need and from the impulse to assert one's rights. 
 "In this enthusiasm for something abstract, the event has for me 
 "a similarity with the religious movement of the Middle Ages and 
 " perhaps the agent of our times is politics, as then it was religion." 
 
 But in the belief that Germany would inevitably be involved, 
 he says: "God grant that my foreboding is wrong! For there 
 "is indeed nothing for us to expect from war but disgrace and 
 "ignominy, increased liabilities and loss of provinces." Also 
 in one of his letters to Heine (first published by Elster in the Rund- 
 schau Vol. 107) he again betrays his great agitation over the 
 reports from France, he fears a struggle that will involve the whole 
 world and is convinced that matters cannot be adjusted peaceably 
 and that in the war to come, " Germany will again become the 
 wretched tavern in which the riotous guests of freedom cudgel 
 each other." 
 
 However, with the failure of the Revolution, the poet retired 
 again into his own world, disappointed and chagrined, and resumed 
 his old aristocratic and sceptical standpoint. To Beer he writes : 
 " Finally I submitted to the decrees of fate and swore to myself 
 " a sacred oath never again in my life to believe that anything 
 "great can originate from the masses and to remain true to my 
 " old symbol, that the spiritually great can never proceed from any 
 "but individual, eminent men. In my resignation I found a 
 "feeling of youthful vigor and energy again such as I had not 
 "experienced before for a long time. I was almost always in a 
 harmonious and productive mood." 
 
 Thus we see that, after all, Immermann's feet were firmly 
 planted on German soil, that he believed rather in evolution than 
 revolution. The horizon that bounded his vision was that of 
 law and order and beyond it lay the gravest dangers. 
 
 Nor did his liberal tendencies extend even to the admiration 
 of Napoleon. His father, though he said little against Napoleon, 
 hated him; the Magdeburg citizens, in contrast to those of Dussel- 
 dorf , had every reason to fear him, as the city had been forced to 
 capitulate to Ney and pay an extortionate amount for bearable 
 treatment from his soldiers. Although the figure of Napoleon 
 inspired Immermann in his youth to a cycle of poems, "Das 
 Grab auf St. Helena,' ' he did not write for the purpose of glorifying 
 the Corsican. As he shows in some verses, written at the same 
 
 85 
 
time, it is often the charm of reflective observation that leads to 
 poetic creation, and here he chose to reflect upon the condition 
 of Europe. He looked upon Napoleon as the tool of heaven and 
 tried to unravel the mystery of the despotism under which the 
 land was suffering. There was pity for the dead, not the living 
 Napoleon. Geffcken (p. 25 of the " Gedachtnisschrift' ') shows 
 that there was no contradiction to the cold, reasoning analysis 
 to which Immermann later subjected the personality of Napoleon, 
 in the first volume of his "Memorabilien." He saw in Napoleon 
 the gigantic tyrant, whose shadow was despotism, and while he 
 recognized the incomparable value historically of a pure, simple 
 despotism, he felt Napoleon's to be a discordant, defective type 
 resulting from the colossal egoism of the man, and had only cen- 
 sure for it. 
 
 Not only in the world of politics, but also in the social world 
 was Immermann distinctly conservative. The "Epigonen" 
 and " Miinchhausen" show him a friend and champion of the 
 peasant and citizen classes, of all who are oppressed and struggling 
 to rise. But there is no evidence of revolutionary enthusiasm. 
 Only in a gradual evolutionary progress does he see hope for the 
 the lower classes. Being not a fantastic dreamer, but a sub- 
 stantial, live, active man, he sees the approach of industrialism 
 and its union with feudalism as inevitable, in order to bring new 
 life into the old decayed class, and to counteract the one-sided- 
 ness of the new. In " Tulifantchen" he deliciously satirizes the 
 industrial movement; in his later works his broad sympathies 
 have led him to strike out on new paths toward a healthy realism, 
 and he no longer takes a pessimistic view of the present.", 
 
 Thirdly. Heine's ideas of liberte, for which he showed him- 
 self a tireless fighter, were rather negative than positive. He 
 fought for no particular form of liberty, but for removal of oppres- 
 sion, for protection and leisure. In this vague conception, as in 
 his conception of equality, the artistic element in his nature gained 
 over the liberal and cosmopolitan and it was as an artist that he 
 felt the oppression and struggled for freedom to realize himself. 
 Aware of the fact that great art epochs have been under the patron- 
 age of great rulers, he was dissatisfied at finding no encouragement 
 under Friedrich Wilhelm III. As a whole, the young Germans had 
 no more definite ideas than Heine. That freedom implied civic 
 duties did not occur to them, their influence consisted in the 
 enthusiasm that they inspired, rather than in the value of the 
 ideas formulated. The whole period was rich enough in ideas 
 and impulses, but poor in the real values of life and in action. 
 
 86 
 
It was a time of feverish seeking and longing, of disappointment 
 and resignation, of problematical characters, and Heine was one 
 of the most characteristic figures in this literary, social, and 
 political transition-period — ^the type of thousands of young men 
 in Germany at that time, who, restless and discontented and 
 without occupation, left their country for more promising condi- 
 tions. 
 
 Moreover, Heine's idea of emancipation embraced the whole 
 world and meant to him freedom from the domination of priesthood 
 and aristocracy — freedom in both political and religious life. In 
 the " Reise von Miinchen nach Genua," Chap. 29, he says : " Every 
 " period has its problem and through the solution of it humanity 
 " advances * * * g^^ what is this great problem of the 
 " time? It is emancipation. Not merely that of the Irish, Greeks, 
 "Frankfort Jews, West-Indian Blacks, and the like oppressed 
 " people, but it is the emancipation of the whole world, particularly 
 "of Europe, which has become of age and is now tearing itself 
 " free from the iron leading-strings of the privileged, the aristoc- 
 " racy * * * Every age believes that its struggle is the most 
 ''important of all, this is, properly speaking, the religion of the 
 " age; in this it lives and dies and we also will live and die in this 
 "reigion of freedom, which perhaps deserves more the name re- 
 " ligion than the hollow, dead spectre that we are still accustomed 
 " to call by that name.' ' 
 
 This very vagueness of all Heine's Revolutionary views I 
 believe is to blame for his misinterpretation of Immermann's 
 liberalism, and so again it is not the question of what Immermann 
 was, so much what Heine saw in him. Immermann's dissatisfac- 
 tion and longing — his Weltschmerz — his pessimistic view of the 
 political and social condition of Germany, his intention to enter 
 the more sympathetic field of foreign diplomacy, his independence 
 in thought and act; his fearlessness in combatting evils — all this 
 and many other qualities of Immermann's nature interpreted 
 through the medium of Heine's subjectivity could easily suggest 
 to him far more radical tendencies than existed in reality, so that 
 it is not surprising that he imagined an admirable harmony of 
 thought. 
 
 There is another interesting side to Immermann's character : 
 however conservative he was in the social and political world, in 
 the world of literature he was a friend of innovation. Beginning 
 with " Edwin' ' he showed himself really revolutionary by intro- 
 ducing contemporary satire, and in the Platen epigrams and all 
 his later works he continued to hold the mirror of satire and poetic 
 
 87 
 
humor to all the follies and shortcomings of the age with startling 
 audacity. While Goethe's and Schiller's " Xenien' ' and Tieck's 
 "Marchen"had to do only with literature and poetry, Immermann's 
 satire was directed against social and political conditions besides. 
 And surely the introduction of the Westphalian peasant into 
 literature and the glorification of his race was a decided novelty, 
 and the " Trauerspiel in Tirol' ' in no less degree, especially as it 
 was illumined by the light of contrast with the prevailing state 
 of society and politics in the rest of Germany, since it took its 
 material from the recent past of a German people and exalted a 
 war of independence bearing the outer character of unlawful 
 self-help. In its revision as " Andreas Hofer' ' it was barred from 
 performance on any German stage, for the reason that part of its 
 sentimental character was banished and it was put on a strictly 
 historical basis, Metternich's system being unmistakably branded 
 by serving as the cause of Hofer's ruin. 
 
 If friendship is based on congeniality in the essentials of life, 
 then surely we must consider the religious natures of the two poets, 
 whether their views here could have contributed to the union of 
 their interests and their soul life. 
 
 There is no discussion of this subject in Heine's letters to 
 Immermann, but we can hardly imagine the poets spending four 
 days together without each coming to some understanding of the 
 other's philosophy of life. How could Heine have talked on 
 political matters without reference to his hopeless position as a 
 Jew, which was so powerful a factor in determining his whole 
 future career? Was not the Judenschmerz the most terrible of 
 all national sorrows and was not Heine's Judaism of necessity 
 bound up with his social, political and literary life so indissolubly 
 as to make a separate treatment of his religious views a practical 
 impossibility? He felt all the tragic in the history of the Jews : 
 ''Yet," he says," if one were to write about this tragedy, one would 
 be laughed at. This is the most tragic of all." The conviction that, 
 as a Jew, he could not fiad employment in Germany was growing 
 upon him and his despair was at almost no time deeper than in the 
 first years of his acquaintance with Immermann. His letters 
 from this period to Wohlwill, Moser, and others testify to his 
 indignation and bitterness against Christianity — a mood that was 
 only intensified after his apostasy, when he found that he was 
 no better off than before the change. It is unthinkable, then, 
 that Heine should not have revealed what was uppermost in his 
 
 88 
 
mind at this time; he had already betrayed himself in his " Alman- 
 sor" and had even expressed to Immermann the hope that he 
 might soon be known perfectly by his friend. (Dec. 24, 1822.) 
 So there seems every reason to believe that absolute frankness 
 existed between them and that there was a hearty endeavor to 
 understand and appreciate each other's view. Immermann says 
 in one of his letters to Marianne — ^the one in which he makes the 
 confessions of his faults and weaknesses, defending himself against 
 false accusations and describing his character with the incompar- 
 able charm of naivete and modesty : '' I am thoroughly unassuming, 
 I always respect another's opinions, another's merits and talent.' ' 
 In his letters to Michael Beer, he constantly praises truth and 
 frankness as most necessary to friendship and in his correspc ndence 
 with his beloved he speaks of truth as the eternal watchword 
 between them, a firm rock. 
 
 This absolute truthfulness was one of the most marked charac- 
 t eristics of Immermann's being. He could tolerate nothing less in a 
 friend, and since truth, sincerity, frankness beget like qualities 
 in one's friends, as Goethe liked to believe, we can feel sure that 
 the two poets exchanged views with mutual openness, as they 
 had done in their preceding correspondence. One difference 
 in their religious views will strike the student at once. While 
 Heine's can be characterized not as permanent, but at most only 
 as a prolonged, intensified mood, Immermann's can be regarded 
 as his well-grounded and lasting conviction. Not that Immer- 
 mann could not change an opinion that he once held as settled! 
 On the contrary, as he confessed to Marianne, he was often accused 
 of being changeable, but to quote his own words: "In among 
 " all my mistakes and weaknesses there is intertwined in my soul 
 " a deep feeling for truth in all things. I cannot be content with 
 "superficial ideas: I see continually the most profound and 
 " ultimate. From this proceeds the restless pondering and brood- 
 " ing of my mind, also the ability of my nature to relinquish that 
 "which I am convinced my mind chose in error. To follow out 
 " something erroneous in order — as people are accustomed to say — 
 " to remain consistent, to perpetuate a mistake — ^that is for me 
 " impossible. The great law of motion and change is deeply im- 
 " printed in my soul. God sends the seasons, one after the other, 
 *'He causes men to be born, to grow, and to die, kingdoms to rise 
 "and fall, and so I believe man should not desire to petrify the 
 " moment. But in every instant he should achieve and conquer 
 "anew the established.' ' 
 
 89 
 
Still, the religious convictions formed early in life and be- 
 trayed in his first writings and his first public acts were not essen- 
 tially different from those revealed in his confessions to Marianne 
 in 1837. The same deeply serious nature is perceived through 
 his early letters to his brother Ferdinand, whom he encourages 
 to free himself from doubts and get nearer to God through a 
 careful study of the Bible. Immermann feels always his oneness 
 with God who is everywhere and in everything and this certainty 
 of his existence and the consciousness of the indestructible union 
 of the individual with him is the conclusion reached in "Merlin.'' 
 " Wherever I am, whatever I do, I feel myself on the breast of the 
 ''everlasting Father: I have an unshaken confidence inJriim, my 
 ''God, who, to be sure, has not granted me all my wishes, but, 
 "nevertheless, has led me to that point where I have had to 
 " acknowledge His rule, even in the most adverse matters, as holy 
 " and just.' ' This same justice that he felt was administered him 
 Immermann practiced toward others in actual life, and this 
 insistence on justice we have already pointed out as prominent 
 in much that he wrote. As early as in " Ronceval' ' we find that 
 profoundly serious tone and the moral lesson that great misfor- 
 tune and tragic consequences often follow a very little wrong. 
 
 But Immermann's religious nature was of the non-ecclesiasti- 
 cal type. To understand the true significance of this fact, one 
 must project one's self into the spirit of German religious life of 
 nearly a century ago and try to realize the burden of 18th century 
 dogma under which the people were still held down, the formalism 
 of both the Catholic and the Protestant confessions, together with 
 the confining influence of the Pietistic culture. Although con- 
 ditions were less rigid in North Germany, even there Immermann's 
 views stood out by comparsion as those of a decided liberalist. He 
 seldom went to church, because he seldom felt the need, though 
 he benefited by the communion service whenever he attended, 
 and while in certain moods he could be moved to tears by the story 
 of the Passion, he stood in no relation to the gospels in themselves 
 or to Christ as he appears there. Christianity was to him an exter- 
 nal fact of the deepest truth and necessity, but the real Christian 
 state of mind he experienced only when he buried himself in the 
 whole history of the church. The forcible separation of gospel 
 sayings from the context and their conversion into formulas for 
 passing sentence on individual cases seemed to Immermann 
 abominable — a total misconstruction of Christ, who came to free 
 the world from the letter of the law and to teach the one only 
 lesson of perfect love to one's neighbor. 
 
 90 
 
"I think of God," he says (letter to Marianne Feb. 22, 
 *1839) as engaged in an eternal alliance of love with the world. 
 ' * * * Sin is there, certainly, but it is only the negative 
 ' element — ^that which is not yet permeated with God — nothing 
 ' positive. In the end God will be everywhere and consequently 
 'hell will cease to be. So reads my confession of faith, which, 
 'it must indeed be admitted, may not stand in the formulas of 
 'the system." 
 
 Immermann confessed to a belief in eternal life, because it 
 seemed unreasonable to him that the highest and best in us — 
 the spiritual person — the individual — ^the ego — should be lost 
 after a life-effort to make of ourselves what God destined for us; 
 but his conviction rested wholly on faith and feeling and he never 
 attempted to imagine the future life in definite pictures, on account 
 of the inevitable contradictions. 
 
 " One should hope, always hope, but not make all too definite 
 an image of the things to be hoped for * * * By hope I under- 
 stand something very high and divine in man, the ever positive 
 element in him, the conviction that everything which once truly 
 lived and moved in him will also sometime and somewhere bear 
 visible fruit. And not perchance in the next world alone, to 
 which, on the whole, I should not care to see mankind referred 
 too generously, but even in this world — ^to be sure, many a fruit 
 acquires a different form under God's care than man thought of 
 in the moment of germination * * * Heaven is already 
 on earth; we can recognize the Divine Being in all forms of earth 
 and even here below lead an eternal life; nay, he alone will see 
 blessedness who has even felt eternity in the temporal and 
 stamped it plainly in every aspect of his life. This sounds, to be 
 sure, somewhat at variance with the conception expressed in 
 such utterances as 'the earth is only a place of preparation' 
 we are 'pilgrims on earth,' etc., but yet it seems to me that it was 
 in all probabilty the real meaning of what Christ said and desired 
 on earth." 
 
 Immermann knew that what he lacked was the personal 
 relation to the Savior and this he felt could be obtained only by 
 a strictly ecclesiastical life; but with the so-called pious he had no 
 sympathy, because of their narrow-mindedness and their inability 
 to see beyond their own limited circle and view a man's whole life, 
 his aims and endeavors. Much as he desired the closer relation, 
 however, he could not honestly join with the church and keep up 
 his connection with the Countess Elise, which, of course, the 
 church would not countenance. But as long as he remained 
 
 91 
 
natural and free from every hypocritical affectation, he knew 
 himself a Christian man in his own way, and practiced the Chris- 
 tian virtues of patience, submission, and reconciliation in full 
 confidence that God was leading him. His whole life, indeed, 
 from his first love disappointment through the long years of 
 patient renunciation of the happy family life for which he longed, 
 seemed to preach resignation. 
 
 One more passage from a letter to Marianne I cannot refrain 
 from quoting here, as it shows a remarkable religious liberalism 
 for those days. It is in answer to a condemnation of Goethe 
 which Marianne had heard uttered. Immermann writes : " It is 
 " a hideous and preposterous accusation to deny religion to any- 
 "body; no one is without it, even the atheist confesses God 
 "through his denial." Later Immermann makes this same asser- 
 tion again in a letter to a relative (published by von Putlitz), 
 adding: "for his denial even is a struggle against the Divine 
 force seeking to penetrate him." As for Goethe, he was not 
 only religious, but in his way, even Christian. His continuous, 
 incessant, faithful search for truth, his charitable conception of all 
 human relations, his recognition of the dignity of man, even the 
 most perverted, is thoroughly Christian. In the " Memorabilien,' ' 
 p. 372, he says again : " He (Goethe) had the religion to be a 
 " great man and to compel foreigners to admiration, while we 
 "crouched in the dust before them. I tell you, these two 
 "heathen (Goethe and Schiller) have been of more service to 
 "us than you good Christians ever were or are now or will be." 
 
 The few confessions in Immermann's own words betray a 
 breadth of view, a clear understanding of the values of life, a 
 broad sympathy, which would admit of friendship with Jew ^r^ 
 Gentile and not know distinction of race or creed. With pe re ct 
 freedom from prejudice, the Protestant Immermann, while 
 director of the Diisseldorf stage, had the plays of the Catholic 
 Calderoa given along with those of Schiller and Goethe; no nar- 
 row-mindedness shut out from his vision the great and worthy, 
 wherever it existed. 
 
 This liberalism in religion would make a strong appeal to 
 Heine who was hurling his invectives against Jew and Christian 
 alike. His Jewish descent and home-training and his instruction 
 by Catholic priests were responsible for an early scepticism; for 
 Heine was a keen, observant lad, who soon noticed the incon- 
 sistencies and drew his own conclusions. Besides this, his mother 
 was a Rationalist, steeped in eighteenth century thought, fond of 
 Rousseau and Voltaire, and this influence, together with that of 
 
 92 
 
the French with whom he associated in his boyhood, tended to 
 increase his doubts and foster agnosticism. His reason caused 
 him to lose sympathy with the Jewish ritual, and yet, as he expe- 
 rienced during his work for the Verein in Berlin, Judaism stripped 
 of its rites was nothing but the barest, unadorned Rationalism. 
 Against the barrenness of a Hebraism that knew no ritual and no 
 national language, his artistic nature revolted; his Romantic 
 imagination inclined him rather to the warmth of Catholicism, 
 his reason, however, to Protestantism, yet no one was more bitter 
 against popes and priests, both Catholic and Protestant, than 
 Heinrich Heine. 
 
 While sacrificing time and energy to teaching in the Verein, 
 attracted to the work partly by his affection for the great men at 
 the head, he yet took occasion to dispel the illusion of the Ham- 
 burg Jews that he was enthusiastic for the Jewish religion. It was 
 rather his interest in improving the condition of the Jews and 
 making them fit for civic rights (letter to Moser, Aug. 23, 1823). 
 Three months later (Nov. 28, 1823) he writes Moser again: ''I 
 *'have received a letter from my Uncle von Geldern. He writes me 
 "that along the whole Rhine I am as much hated as once I was 
 ''loved, because they say there that I am interested in the^ Jews. 
 "Truly, I did laugh! O, how I despise the human rabble, uncircum- 
 "cized together with the circumcized!' ' 
 
 Not a Jew, not a Christian, not an Oriental, but according to 
 his mood, all of them and at the same time hostile to all — ^Heine 
 defies labelling and can be treated only as an individual. "A 
 born enemy of all positive religions," (to Moser Aug. 23) he 
 yet would have been tolerant of all dogmas, all religions, if only 
 the church had not been connected with the state. "There is a 
 " pious dialetic, dear reader, which will prove to you most convinc- 
 "ingly that an opponent of the establishment of such a state 
 " religion is an enemy of religion and also of the state, an enemy 
 " of God, and of the king, or, as the usual formula goes, an enemy 
 " of the throne and the altar. But I say to you, that is a lie. I 
 "honor the inner sanctity of every religion, subordinate myself 
 " to the interests of the state.' ' ' (Die Stadt Lucca. Chap. XIV.) 
 But state religion Heine believed to be a constant menace to the 
 spiritual freedom of the human race and an obstacle to the outer 
 development of peoples. Anv religion associated with politics 
 was impure; Heine would substitute the democratic religion of 
 reason for that of transmitted revelation, because reason is an 
 unceasing revelation, which is repeated in every human head, 
 while the revelation that was given only a few is aristocratic; 
 
 93 
 
not with that sort can one fight aristocrats, but with a democratic 
 revelation. Finally, Heine reaches the conclusion that the religion 
 of the future is the religion of reason, of freedom, equality, 
 fraternity, which was preached not to the rich, but to the poor. 
 Christianity is in its very nature identical with such a religion, 
 for Christ, its prophet, was not a God of the aristocracy, but 
 of the people, " a citizen-God — ^the God of love — of the unhappy, 
 the disinherited, and the suffering. ' ' 
 
 But the caste spirit, embodied in churches and the nobility, 
 tyrannizing over the masses by means of a ministry of the privi- 
 leged, Heine felt must be broken. Just as the nobility had usurped 
 political power, so the priests had usurped the religious and made 
 it subservient to their own ends, had dogmatized it and finally 
 united it with the state, in order to degrade the temporal power 
 to serve their insatiable ambition. Just because Heine was a 
 friend of religion and of state, he hated " that monstrosity called 
 state-religion." War on priests, war on the state-church, war 
 on the nobility! This is the watchword that Heine gave to all 
 friends of freedom, all who were struggling for universal emanci- 
 pation. This summary of the religious views of the two poets 
 shows again the common ground of meeting on this most serious 
 of all subjects. Again it was in their abhorrence of all intolerance 
 and in their breadth of human sympathy that they must have 
 found their views of life in agreement. 
 
 The foregoing pages have disproved, I hope, the belief of 
 Max Koch and others that Heine's words to Immermann were 
 nothing but insinuating flattery, made use of in order to gain and 
 maintain an alliance with a man of weight and distinction for tHp 
 the purpose of more effective polemical utterance. The state- 
 ment that the friendship grew out of their common grievance 
 against Platen is plainly false. A common enemy is very often a 
 bond of friendship and the fact that the two poets defended each 
 other against the attack of the classic Count may have drawn 
 them a little more closely to one another for the time. But the 
 friendship had been established long before, and both poets had 
 shown themselves true in it. On other occasions Heine felt im- 
 pelled to protect his friend against an enemy, for it was always a 
 source of surprise to him that Immermann's work was not more 
 favorably received. Adverse criticism — "the insidious attacks 
 and systematic intriguing" — affected him most unpleasantly 
 and he reproached Wolfgang Menzel in 1830 for the bitterness that 
 he showed toward Immermann. He does not mind injustice to 
 himself, but the wrongs done his brother-in-arms hurt him sorely. 
 
 95 
 
That Heine, then, was sincere in his affection and honestly ad- 
 mired and envied Immermann's genius, that he was strengthened 
 and refreshed by his correspondence with a man of Immermann's 
 sound principles and wholesome qualities, that his regret over the 
 death of his friend was heartfelt — all this is a matter of no doubt. 
 The friendship was one of mutual helpfulness, Immermann de- 
 riving certain more material advantages, Heine the sense of com- 
 fort and satisfaction from a friend in whom he found his ideals 
 realized — his ideals in a coveted literary field as well as in many 
 attributes of character. The mutual sympathy of two isolated 
 human beings, Heine's joy in finding a friend in a man of such 
 stability and sense and weight, his idealization of his " Waffen- 
 bruder' ' and, in turn, the latter's deep respect for Heine's superior 
 lyrical genius and his gratitude to him — ^these were the bonds that 
 united the two poets and held them together in a natural, if some- 
 what romantic friendship. 
 
 It is true, however, that Immermann played the more 
 passive role throughout. As he grew older, he became more and 
 more conservative, while Heine was constantly becoming more 
 radical. The correspondence came to a natural end and the 
 poets drifted apart. So we are not greatly surprised to find that 
 Immermann just before his death was so far removed from Heine 
 that he could no longer sympathize with his political views. Prus- 
 sian to the core, he felt that the new Rationalism was hollow and 
 he could not excuse the attitude of its advocates in the literary 
 field. Thus in 1838 he says to Gutzkow (Gutzkow, Samtliche 
 Werke, Vol. 8, p. 153) : " Heine is a droll, queer fellow, but a 
 "hopeless braggart, in whom no confidence can be placed and 
 "whose recent works I do not read any more." Such a remark 
 made in reference to Heine's political views after so many years 
 of separation does not point to any insincerity in their earlier 
 relations. It merely proves that Immermann realized more, 
 perhaps, than Heine that their ways had widely diverged and saw 
 in him no longer the great lyrist, but the exponent of political and 
 religious doctrines of which he disapproved. Nevertheless, in 
 memory of their earlier literary struggles together, and their close 
 sympathy in the twenties, Immermann still continued to send 
 warm messages of greeting to Heine in Paris and as late as 1839 
 he desired that Laube share with Heine the copyof'Miinchhausen," 
 which he was sending him. 
 
 As for the letter to Beer, May 3, 1830, which is sometimes 
 quoted as evidence of Immermann's coldness toward Heine 
 and his apparent indifference to his attentions, we admit that the 
 
 96 
 
tone sounds somewhat cool and calculating when compared with 
 the warm, impulsive utterances of Heine, yet we must recall the 
 circumstances under which the words were written and attribute 
 a moderate amount of diplomacy to Immermann when addressing 
 a man with whom he was carrying on a most intimate literary 
 correspondence and whose sentiments toward Heine's attitude 
 in the Platen affair he knew to agree with his own. But in spite 
 of the diplomatic tone, there is enough in the letter to show that 
 Immermann's gratitude and affection were sincere and he never 
 forgot what he owed to his friend Heine. 
 
 96 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 Editions. 
 
 Elster — Heinrich Heines Samtliche Werke. Leipzig. 1890 
 
 Maync — Immermanns Werke. Leipzig, 1906 
 
 Boxberger — Immermanns Werke 20 Bande. Berlin. 1883 
 
 Biographies and Letters, 
 
 Karpeles — Heinrich Heine. Leipzig. 1899 
 
 Karpeles — ^Heines Autobiographie. Berlin. 1888 
 
 Daifis — Heine-Brief e 2 Bande. Berlin. 1906 
 
 Strodtmann — Briefe von Heinrich Heine XIX, XX, XXI. 
 Von Embden — Heinrich Heines Familienleben. Hamburg. 1892 
 Elster — Heine und Christiani Rundschau. 107 S 426 ff. 
 AUgemeine deutsche Biographie. 
 Goedeke — Geschichte der deutschen Literatur 
 Hiiffer — Aus dem Leben Heinrich Heines. Berlin. 1878 
 
 Max. Heine — Erinnerungen an Heinrich Heine. Berlin. 1868 
 
 Von Putlitz — Karl Immermann-2 Bande. Berlin. 1870 
 
 Adolf Stahr — Immermann. 1843 
 
 Max Koch — Beitrage zur Erliiuterung der Immermann'schen 
 Werke in Karschners Deutsche Nationalliteratur. 
 Von Schenk — Beers Briefwechsel mit Immermann. 
 
 Historical and Critical Works. 
 
 Johann Proelss — Das Junge Deutschland. Stuttgart. 1892 
 
 Robert Proelss — Heinrich Heine. Stuttgart. 1886 
 
 Holzhausen — Heinrich Heine und Napoleon I. Frankfort. 1903 
 Brandes — Die Literatur des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts in 
 
 ihren Hauptstromungen-Band VI-S 90 fif. Leipzig. 1891 
 Bartels — Geschichte der deutschen Literatur-2 tes Band iieber 
 
 das neunzehnte Jahrhundert. Leipzig. 1902 
 
 Kaufmann — Heinrich Heine contra Graf August von Platen. 
 
 Leipzig. 1907 
 
 Lichtenberger — Heine als Denker. Dresden. 1905 
 
 97 
 
O. H. & G. Geffcken — Karl Immermann. Eine Gedachtniss- 
 chrift zum 100 sten Geburtstag des Dichters. Ham- 
 burg. 1896 
 
 R. M. Meyer — Deutsche Charaktere. Karl Immermann. 
 
 Berlin. 1897 
 
 Deetjen — Immermanns Jugenddramen. S 120-127, lieipzig. 1904 
 
 Jahn — Immermanns Merlin. Berlin 1899 
 
 Erich Schmidt— Charakteristiken. S 288-295, Berlin. 1901 
 
 Klovekorn — Immermann's Verhaltnis zum deutschen Alter- 
 
 tum. Miinster. ^ 1907 
 
 Treitschke — Deutsche Geschichte im neunzehnten Jahrhun- 
 
 dert. S 446-451. 1889 
 
 Wienbarg — Zur neuesten Literatur. S 34-119, Hamburg. 1838 
 
 Wienbarg — Esthetische Feldziige. 
 
 Laube — References in his Samtliche Werke. 50 Bande. 
 
 Donner — Der Einfluss Wilhelm Meisters auf den Roman der 
 
 Romantiker. Berlin. 1893 
 
 Gutzkow — Karl Immermann in Hamburg. 
 
 Page. 
 I. Introduction. ^ ^ 
 
 II. Personal and Literary Relations of the Poets ^ "OO- ^ j 
 
 III. Psychological Explanation of this Relationship. "OS* *f ^ 
 
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