Heinrich Heine, a famous German poet and writer, had a very bad impression of his homeland, both in the Hamburg government and in name only, for his bitter satire.

Because in the nineteenth century, anti-Semitic riots were commonplace, especially for someone like Heine, who came from a merchant family.

"Burn those Jewish vampires!"

A crowd of people shouted slogans and stormed Jewish shops, smashed glass, pried open doors, and went on a frenzy to loot the belongings inside, and would even go to burn down Jewish churches.

The policemen and gendarmes, who are supposed to maintain order, act as if they don't care about themselves, and unless the shopkeeper pays enough money, they symbolically drive the crowd away.

In reality, the "mobs" do not patronize police-guarded shops, but rather target petty traders who will be engaged in open-air trade in goods.

Anti-Semitic pogroms were always carried out in such an orderly manner that the government did not bother to intervene, after all, they always ended "peacefully".

Heine, who was supposed to return to Hamburg in October 1843, was delayed due to the events that took place in Europe during this period.

When the German poet, who had been in exile in France for twelve years, returned to Hamburg, he found that everything was wrong, except for greed and corruption, which had not changed, and was about to become more and more violent.

Looking at the past, there were corrupt and depraved officials and aristocrats, people who were greedy, stupid and contrived. As he passed through the Prussian customs, the staff rummaged through his carry-on luggage over and over again.

Even if he didn't get anything, he didn't get tired of it, until Heine's friend handed him a handful of broken copper coins (grochen), and the customs officer smiled and saluted and let him go.

As soon as Heinrich Heine got off the train, he received a "gift" from his uncle, a luxurious letterhead sprinkled with the finest perfumes, which read:

"To the man, he found that the best thing about me was his last name."

Heine had been apprenticed to his uncle's bank, and who was his uncle?

Solomon Heine, although a Jew, had a court-like villa estate in Hamburg, and many big people flocked to his invitations.

Even people like former Prussian Field Marshal Blücher and Chancellor of the Exchequer Heinrich Friedrich Karl would take time out of their busy schedules to attend appointments.

As a young man, Heine had a natural aura, and once rebuked his uncle in anger, "The best thing about you is your surname and my surname." ”

Now he has become a famous poet, and his uncle Solomon has gone from a wealthy man with millions of thalers to a super-rich man with tens of millions of thalers.

Although there is still a gap with the Rothschilds, he can be regarded as a rich man in the entire German Confederation.

But the rich man didn't forget to mock his nephew, who had no money.

In fact, Solomon Heine was very tolerant of his nephew. The vast majority of the latter's living and travel expenses are sponsored by the former.

In fact, this was also the last joke between the rich man and his nephew, because at this moment Solomon Heine was terminally ill and died soon after.

But Heinrich Heine didn't know this. He was still only obsessed with his own creations, and soon the long poem "Germany, a winter fairy tale" was published.

All this had nothing to do with Austria, but because history changed, Austria joined the German Customs Union and became the dominant one.

Heine's main target of attack was thus changed from Prussia to Austria, after all, the latter was stronger than the former in terms of both the power of the government and the influence of the church.

If you want to criticize nature, you have to criticize the biggest one, so Austria naturally lies down the gun.

However, although he criticized Austria, the core of the criticism was still related to the Prussian question. For example, "I think the new armor of the cavalry is good, and I must praise it, especially the helmet that points to the sky"

This is obviously alluding to the new cavalry helmet of the Prussian army, because the Austrian army's M42 pot helmet is too similar to a rice pot, and soldiers often use it to cook, so it is nicknamed the pot helmet.

In fact, the Austrian War Ministry made several improvements based on this characteristic and finally linked the skill of cooking to the helmet.

But in any case, the great poet Heinrich Heine was a two-pronged critic of Austria and a mockery of Prussia.

But because he lived in Paris for a long time, he inadvertently contracted some bad habits.

At that time, the Gallic rooster was above the top, believing that the whole of Europe was only worthy of prostrate under its feet, so it was inevitable that there was some delusion that the beauty of the world was in his own hands.

Moreover, Heine had not actually visited Austria, and did not know how the southern brother had developed at this time, so he believed the propaganda in the Parisian newspapers, the story of the attack of the brave French border guards by stupid barbarians.

Regarding the "friction" between the German Confederation and the French army in the Luxembourg crisis, the "Journal de Paris" reported:

The young General Jean Durde was attacked by the German Confederate troops who crossed the French border!

The brave and fearless French army smashed the German barbarian coalition! From the Flemish plain to the Ardennes Heights, ten battles and ten victories, 130 kilometers into enemy territory in one day and one night!

The fall of the stars, the battle of Namur, Jean Durde failed to continue the myth.

If you read too many of these reports, it is inevitable that you will be biased to a certain extent, which would not have been a problem, but it is a coincidence that he caught up with the tide of German nationalism.

Heine's poem immediately sparked a great deal of discussion throughout the German Confederation.

However, it was not the people who rose up to overthrow the king and the capitalists, as the greatest poet in German history imagined, but the royal literati of the nobles and capitalists denounced them in the newspapers.

Heinrich Heine's attack was actually a bit wide, and although he was right from a historical point of view, the capitalists and aristocratic bureaucrats were still in full swing at the time, and in fact Austria's royal enterprises did not match what he described.

In particular, the Austrian Royal Overseas Development Company was the largest welfare agency in Europe at this time.

Moreover, in several crises and in the customs union, the people have benefited from tangible benefits, and they do not feel that this is a plunder of them, but that it is the duty of the people.

And constant victories can easily overwhelm people's rationality, especially when people become crowds, they are more likely to be emotionally infected than calm thinking.

As a result, a large number of well-known people duel Heinrich Heine, who was an idealist and was not afraid of death, so he took the duel in the newspapers.

Then a picture destined to go down in history appeared, with duelists from various German states lining up in front of the Heine family's villa.

Fortunately, Heine suddenly "epilept", and the duel had to be postponed, and then the Franz faction sent him out of the German Confederation overnight. This is the only thing the latter can do at this time, after all, there is hope to be alive.

When Heinrich Heine was woken up by a cold wind blowing in a Paris hotel, he felt that he had a dream in which the Germans were not divided, but united and working for the same thing and the same goal.

(End of chapter)