Heinrich Heine, Germany’s poet who during his lifetime and after death was declared to be a Jew in spite of his Baptism and was denounced by German Nationalists, was not of Semitic origin, but of Aryan blood, according to Dr. Paul Koerner who printed an article to this effect in the various publications of the anti-Semitic Voelkishe Party.
According to Dr. Koerner, Heine was the natural son of a Prussian aristocrat and a Jewish mother. To prove his thesis he quotes Heine as speaking about his “deep native German feelings” and says that every one “even the bitterest opponent of the Jews finds in Heine’s work so many references which give every Aryan heart a rate and joyful purely German sensation”.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.