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He deeply mourns the passing away of so many friends back home during his twelve years of exile. But all his sorrows are forgotten when the sun rises and his beautiful woman appears and smiles. Heine worries about Germany but sees France as a political and social model in those times.
1
Heinrich Heine was born in Düsseldorf on 13 December 1797 and died in Paris on February 1856. He is one of the most important German poets, writers and journalists of the 19th century. Heine is considered to be the "last poet of the Romantic" and at the same time the one who overcame this period.
2
Heine wrote the poem in his Paris exile in 1843. At that time, the Central European countries were in a pre-revolutionary general situation which should lead to the revolutions of 1848, including Germany and France. In the German countries, political opposition to the established regime and the particularism as decided by the Congress of Vienna increased.
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In rst stanza of Nachtgedanken(Night Thoughts) Heine describes that the thought of Germany leads to sleeplessness and makes him cry. But in the other stanzas no direct analysis of the political situation in Germany follows. He is concerned about his former living in Germany, especially his beloved mother who he has not seen for 12 years and can only exchange letters. He says that he prays to God that his mother will have a long life but he is worried about his mother and that he might not see her again before her death.
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3
Although Heine himself was not one of the poets of the pre-March period, this poem is considered a work of this political-literary movement.
He describes Germany as being of good health and strong, but this is irony because the reality is quite different.
Because of his Jewish background and his political views he was repeatedly attacked and marginalized, especially in Prussia where his work was first censored and later forbidden. He decided to move to Paris in 1831 where he worked as a journalist and writer. He was in contact with French intellectuals such as Alexandre Dumas, Honoré de Balzac and George Sand, with musicians such as Frédéric Chopin and Hector Berlioz.
The experience of being an outsider shaped his life and influenced his work.
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