On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany and Other Writings

by Heinrich Heine, Terry P. Pinkard (Editor), Howard Pollack-Milgate (Translator)

This volume presents a colourful and entertaining overview of German intellectual history by a central figure in its development. Heinrich Heine (1797 1856), famous poet, journalist, and political exile, studied with Hegel and was personally acquainted with the leading figures of the most important generation of German writers and philosophers. In his groundbreaking History he discusses the history of religion, philosophy, and literature in Germany up to his time, seen through his own highly opinionated, politically aware, philosophically astute, and always ironic perspective. This work, and other writings focussing especially on Heine's rethinking of Hegel's philosophy, are presented here in a new translation by Howard Pollack-Milgate. The volume also includes an introduction by Terry Pinkard which examines Heine both in relation to Hegel and Nietzsche and as a thinker in his own right."

Genres: Philosophy, History, German Literature, Religion, Germany, Nonfiction, Classics

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1835

About the author

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder (art songs) by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Heine's later verse and prose is distinguished by its satirical wit and irony. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities. Heine spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris.

Reviews

[Mesoscope · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heine is one of the great modern Germans in every sense, anchored deeply in its traditions, while also preserving an intellecutally-healthy and honest distance from the culture to which he devoted his life and energies. We see this in some of his fascinating poems, like Die Nacht am Strande, which begins in a stunning high Romantic mode, only to step back at the conclusion in a surprising surge of self-conscious irony, with a sea-spirit complaining of the chilly cold that may cause "divine sniffles." It was as though he loved the grandeur of that particular idiom while also recognizing that there is something here we probably shouldn't take too seriously.

So Heine was in his Zeitgeist but not of it, so to speak. He moved with its energies, but saw it for what it was. And it was in this spirit that he composed this essay on religion and philosophy in Germany, which he wrote in France for an audience had had become newly interested in German belles lettres, in part under the influence of Mme. de Staël's enormously popular books on German culture.

Heine's central thesis is that the German character is fundamentally pantheistic, which he understands as holding it as an absolute principle that the energies of God or the divine move in and through nature, and are not apart from it. He identifies this view with the old German religions of Wotan and Thor, and interprets the arrival of Christianity, with its core doctrine of the transcendence of God, as an alien influence that has softened the German character, but never really won it over to its own way of thinking.

In one illuminating discussion, Heine reflects on how easy it was for Martin Luther to jettison the entire Catholic edifice of saints and miracles - but he never abandoned the belief in witchcraft and demons. Why? In a manner reminiscent of the Grimms and similar scholars of German religion, Heine believes that the traditions of bogeymen and spirits are to some significant degree survivals of the pre-Christian religion that lives on in the tales told in nurseries and by the fireside. The survival of this impulse, and the continual return of German philosophy and religion to some form of pantheism, is a Leitmotif of the culture.

Philosophically speaking, Heine sees Spinoza, who argued that the substance which composes all things is identical with God, as the epitome of this doctrine of pantheism. He reviews various intellectual controversies regarding Spinoza in Germany, and situates his Ethics as the prototype for all of German idealism.

There is very much more in this book, and it is a delightful and endlessly-insightful work told in the most artful manner. His discussions of Luther, Lessing, Kant, Fichte, and Schilling are all magisterial, and I very much wish that Hegel had gotten more from him than a brief mention. I found Heine's interpretive instinct unerring, and found myself in strong agreement with him much of the time.

I was prepared to give this book five stars even before the end, which reached a startling and unexpected crescendo that was nearly overpowering. With uncanny foresight, Heine warns the French in emphatic terms about the dangers of a German nation united under the signs of its old pre-Christian consciousness, warning that if such a day should come, there will be a thunder such as the world has never heard, which will set lions in Africa cowering in their dens.

[Ferda Nihat Koksoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Estetik, birikim, nükte ve samimiyet dolu bir Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) şaheseri;   okuduğum en hayranlık uyandırıcı eleştiri ve özeleştiri timsali kitaplardan (1835) biri.

Kendisinden "kozmopolitizmin ete kemiğe bürünmüş hali" olarak söz eden Heine'yi, Karl Marx "hümanist ilkenin Alman cisimleşmesidir; politik kurtuluşun ya da özgürleşmenin, insani özgürleşmeyle ilişkisini  somutlaştırmıştır" şeklinde tanımlamıştır.

***

"Devrimde, aşkta ve edebiyatta başarının sırrı cesarettir; kendi gölgesinin peşinde koşan tazıdan ötelere geçmeyi gerektirir gerçek edebiyat."


"Spiritüalizm (ruh, idealizm, Platon) maddeyi yok etmeye çabalayarak ruhu yüceltmek isterken, sensüalizm (madde, materyalizm, Aristo) ruhun gasp ettikleri karşısında maddenin doğal haklarını geri almaya çalışır. Bu iki sistem aslında kadim zamanlardan bu yana bütün kostümler içinde az ya da çok düşmanca bir tavırla karşı karşıya duran iki farklı insan doğası tipidir. Hıristiyanlıkta ruhani doğa kilisede, materyalist doğa ise genelde manastırda konumlandı ve birbirleriyle aralıksız çatıştılar.
Luther hem hayalperest mistik hem de pratik bir eylem adamı olarak, İncil'i Almancaya çevirerek gerçeğin anlaşılmasını sağlayan Protestan Reformunda, hayatın bu iki yönünü, ruh ve maddeyi bütünleştirdi; bir yandan kendini kutsal ruha sonsuz adıyor diğer yandan dünya harikalarının değerini çok iyi biliyordu (Kim ki muhabbet beslemez şarap, müzik ve kadına, bir ahmak olarak kalır ömrü hayatı boyunca-Luther).
Protestanlık maddeyi meşrulaştırıp, aklı öne çıkararak düşünce özgürlüğünün, doğa bilimlerininin, üniversitelerin ve Alman Felsefesinin gelişmesini sağladı.
Ruha beden veren Luther, düşüncelere de dil vererek modern Alman dilini ve edebiyatını yarattı.
Ruhani kilise baskısından kurtulan Almanlar geçmişlerindeki paganist geleneği çabuk hatırladı ve panteizmin en verimli toprağı olmayı sürdürdü; deizmi aşan Almanya'nın aleni sırrı panteizmdir ve onun felsefesi, bugün doğa felsefesi adı verilen felsefedir."

"Luther çevirisi ile ezici kilise geleneğinden kurtulup İncil'i tek kaynak haline getiren Protestanlık zaman içinde kaskatı bir yapıya büründü, bu zorbalaşan yapıyı kıran ve  Alman özgür düşüncesine ikinci büyük katkıyı sağlayan ise Lessing'tir (1729-81); deha, espri ve dürüstlük sembolü bir hakikat aşığı olan Lessing, yazılarında en yüce sağlamlıkla en yüce basitliği birleştirerek Alman edebiyatına yol açan bir dahiydi."

"Madde/ampirizm/materyalizm/a posteriori kanadı ve ruh/matematik/idealizm/a priori kanadının toplamı olarak modern felsefeyi kuran Descartes'in (1596-1650) iki talebesi olan Locke (1632-1704) ampirizmi (İngilizler doğuştan materyalisttir zaten) geliştirirken, Leibniz (1646-1716) idealizmi (Almanlar öteden beri materyalizme antipati besler) sürdürmüş, üçüncü öğrencisi Spinoza (1632-77) ise ayrı bir kulvarda başka bir bütünlük içeren doğa felsefesini geliştirmiştir."

"Alman felsefesinde Leibniz'den sonraki büyük düşünür, ismi bile kötü ruhları kovan bir güce sahip olan Kant'tır (1724-1804); gösterişsiz dürüstlük sembolü bu adam, acımasız, keskin, şiire ait olmayan 'Saf Aklın Eleştirisi' kitabıyla Almanya'da deizmi idam etmiştir.
Kant bize, şeyleri kendinde ve kendi için bilemeyeceğimizi, bilebileceğimiz tek şeyin zihnimizdeki yansımaları olduğunu ispatladı; o zamana kadar görünüşler dünyasının çevresinde dolanan aklı, Kopernik'in güneşi gibi merkeze alıp, görünenleri bu güneşin altına girdiğinde aydınlanır hale getirmiştir."

"Kant'ın öğrencileri arasında erkenden öne çıkan Fichte idi (1762-1814); Kant'ın düşünceyi soğuk ve duygusuz bir şekilde ayrıntılarla anatomik incelemeye almasına karşın Fichte canlı, huzursuz, karışık ve yaşamın tüm hatalarını barındıran şekilde irdeleme yapar ve bütün şeylerin (Tanrı dahil) sadece zihnimiz içinde gerçekliği olduğu kanısıyla idealizmi en ileri noktasına götürür. Onun bükülmez, inatçı, demirden karakteriyle uyumlu olan transandental idealizmi, bütünüyle bir yanılgı olsa bile, gururlu bir bağımsızlık, özgürlük sevgisi ve özellikle gençliğe sağaltıcı bir etki yapmış olan insan onuru taşır."

"Fichte ile idealden gerçek yaratan düşünce, Schelling (1775-1854) ile olayı ters çevirdi ve gerçek olandan ideal, doğadan düşünceyi oluşturdu ve bu dönüşümlerle ideal, gerçek, özne, nesne, ruh, madde ayrımları bulanıklaştı."

"Hegel (1770-1831) ile Alman Felsefesinin devrimi zirvesine ulaştı ve taç giydi, sonrasında sadece doğa felsefesi öğretisinin gelişim ve biçimlenişini, tüm bilimlerde yer alışını, sıra dışı ve muazzam işler meydana getirişini görmekteyiz."

"Hıristiyanlıkla bir ölçüde yumuşamış olan Cermen panteizminin kadim geleneğinde bulunan, ne yok etmek ne de yenmek için, sadece savaşmak için savaşan o arzunun yeniden paganizmle uyanması, o anlamsız ve yıkıcı öfkenin ortaya çıkması korkunç olacaktır.
O zaman eskinin taştan Tanrıları kayıp enkazdan çıkıp doğrulacaklar, gözlerindeki bin yıllık tozu silecekler ve Thor elinde dev çekiciyle Gotik katedralleri paramparça edecek.
Olimpos'ta nektar ve ambrosia ile eğlenen çıplak Tanrılar ve Tanrıçalar arasında, bir sürü neşe ve eğlenceyle çevrelenmiş olsa da her zaman zırh giyen, başından miğferi, elinden mızrağı hiç düşmeyen bir Tanrıça vardır; Bilgelik Tanrıçasıdır o."

[Christopher Iacovetti · Rating 4 out of 5]

'It is not a lack of talent, I believe, which keeps most German scholars from expressing themselves about religion and philosophy in a popularly understandable manner. Rather, I think that they fear the results of their own thinking, which they thus do not dare to communicate to the people' (p. 9).

'The ultimate fate of Christianity thus depends on whether we still need it. This religion was a blessing for suffering humanity during eighteen centuries. It was providential, divine, holy. Every way in which it was helpful to civilization - taming the strong, strengthening the tame, connecting peoples through a common feeling and a common language, and whatever else its apologists have thought of praising it for - all this even is negligible in comparison to that great consolation which it has provided to humanity. Eternal glory is due to the symbol of that suffering God, the savior with the crown of thorns, Christ crucified, whose blood was, as it were, the balsam of relief which poured into the wounds of humanity' (p. 14).

'These gothic cathedrals: how perfectly they harmonize with the cult and how the idea of the Church itself reveals itself in them! Everything strives upward here, everything transubstantiates itself: the stone sprouts into branches and foliage and becomes tree; the fruit of the grapevine and wheat becomes blood and flesh; man becomes God; God becomes pure spirit! Christian life in the Middle Ages is a fertile, inexhaustibly precious material for poets. Only Christianity could have produced such bold contrasts on earth, such bright-colored pains, and such bizarre beauties, that one might well think they could never have existed in reality and that all of it is just a colossal fever dream, indeed, the fever dream of an insane God' (p. 14).

'But one man was there, I am persuaded of this, who did not think of himself, but only of the divine interests which he was to represent. This man was Martin Luther, the poor monk, whom Providence had selected to break that Roman world-power, against which even the most powerful emperors and the boldest wise men had fought in vain. ... Luther is not only the greatest, but also the most German man of our history. In his character, all the virtues and faults of the Germans are unified in the most magnificent way, and he represents in person the wonder of Germany. He also had characteristics which we seldom find together, and which we normally think of as the most extreme opposites. He was at the same time a dreamy mystic and a practical man of deeds. His thoughts not only had wings, but also hands; he spoke and acted. ... The same man who cursed like a fishwife could also be as soft as a tender virgin. ... He was full of the most tremulous fear of God, full of sacrifice to honor the Holy Spirit, and he could sink himself into pure spirituality; and yet he knew well the splendors of this earth and treasured them, and from his mouth came the splendid motto: "Who loves not wine, women, and song, remains a fool his whole life long." He was a complete person, I would even say, an absolute person in whom spirit and matter are undivided. To call him a spiritualist would be just as wrong as to call him a sensualist. How should I say it, he had something elemental, incomprehensible, and miraculous, as we find in all men of Providence, something frightfully naive, awkwardly wise, sublimely narrow minded, and unconquerably demonic' (pp. 29-30).

'[Since] Luther, one no longer distinguished between theological and philosophical truth, and one debated openly and without fear in vernacular German and in the public market' (p. 33).

'I still must declare most certainly that Mr. Schelling, in his earlier phase, when he was still a philosopher, did not differ in the least from Spinoza. He merely took a different route to the same philosophy' (p. 53).

'We thus see, a few centuries after the birth of Christ, the rise of a religion which will always astonish humanity and elicit the most dreadful admiration, even from the last generations ... Yet this religion was all too sublime, all too pure, all too good for this same earth, and, here, it was only possible to proclaim its idea in theory, but never to put it into practice. The attempt to implement this idea produced innumerable glorious phenomena in history which will remain subjects for the songs and tales of poets for a long time to come. But, as is clear in the final analysis, the attempt to implement the idea of Christianity failed most miserably, and this unfortunate effort demanded incalculable sacrifices from humanity - whose dismal consequence is the social unease in all of Europe today' (p. 55).

'No one says it, but everybody knows it; pantheism is the open secret of Germany' (pp. 58-9).

'[Jacobi] was nothing but a quarrelsome sneak, who, disguising himself in a philosopher's cloak, made his way in among the philosophers, first whimpering to them about his love and his tender soul, and then letting loose against reason' (p. 59).

'Wolff was the first to successfully introduce the German language into philosophy' (p. 61).

'Spener was the Scotus Eriugena of Protestantism. Just as Eriugena founded Catholic mysticism with his translation of the legendary Dionysius Areopagita, so Spener founded Protestant Pietism with his collections of devotional literature' (p. 63).

'As Luther overthrew the papacy, so Mendelssohn overthrew the Talmud, and in exactly the same way: by rejecting tradition, declaring the Bible to be the source of religion, and translating its most important part. He thus destroyed Jewish Catholicism as Luther destroyed the Christian version. Indeed, the Talmud is the Catholicism of the Jews. It is a Gothic cathedral, overloaded, to be sure, with childish embellishments, but also reaching audaciously to the heavens in a gigantic way which astonishes us' (p. 69).

'Since Luther, Germany has not produced a greater or better man than Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. These two are our pride and joy' (p. 71).

'You, Luther! - Great, misunderstood man! ... You saved us from the yoke of tradition; who will save us from the even more unbearable yoke of the letter! Who will finally bring us a Christianity as you yourself would have taught; as Christ himself would have taught!' (Lessing, quoted p. 75).

'Take note of this, you proud men of deeds. You are nothing but the unconscious servants of those men of thought, who, often in modest silence, have plotted out all your doings in advance. Maximilian Robespierre was nothing but the hand of Jean Jacques Rousseau, the bloody hand, which, from the womb of his time, pulled out a body for the soul which Rousseau made. The restless anxiety which haunted the life of Jean Jacques, did it perhaps arise because he sensed in spirit what sort of midwife his thoughts needed to come bodily into the world?' (p. 77).

'This book [Kant's first Critique] is the sword with which deism was executed in Germany' (p. 78).

'What a remarkable contrast between the external life of this man [Kant] and his destructive, world-crushing thought!' (p. 79 - cf. the Rozanov quote about Kant's 'stillness').

'Why, though, did Kant write his Critique of Pure Reason in the grey, dry style of a paper bag?' (p. 80).

'The Critique of Pure Reason, as I have said, is Kant's main work, and his other writings can be seen as more or less dispensable or, at the most, as commentaries' (p. 82).

'After the tragedy comes the farce. Up to now, Immanuel Kant has, as relentless philosopher, played the tragic hero: he has stormed heaven, he has disposed of the whole crew, the ruler of the world swims, unprovable, in his own blood, there is now no more mercy, no fatherly benevolence, no reward in the hereafter for abstinence now, the immortality of the soul lies in its final agonies ... and old Lampe stands there with his umbrella under his arm, watching in dismay, his face dripping with anxious sweat and tears. Seeing this, Immanuel Kant takes pity and shows that he is not merely a great philosopher but also a good person. He thinks, and half with goodwill and half with irony, he speaks: "Old Lampe has to have a God, otherwise the poor man cannot be happy - people, however, should be happy in this world - that is what practical reason says - well, what do I know? - maybe we can let practical reason vouch for the existence of God." As a result of this argument, Kant distinguishes between theoretical and practical reason and with the latter, as with a magic wand, he again animates the corpse of deism which had been killed by theoretical reason' (p. 87).

'Germany was placed upon a philosophical course by Kant, and philosophy became a matter of national importance' (p. 88).

'Fichtean idealism is among the most colossal errors ever concocted by the human spirit. It is more godless and damned than the crudest materialism' (p. 102).

'Unlike the cases of Kant and Fichte, there is no main work of Schelling which can be seen as the center of his philosophy. It would be unjust to judge Mr. Schelling by the content of one book, and strictly by the letter. Rather, one must read his books chronologically and follow the gradual development of his thought, holding fast to the basic idea. Indeed, it also seems to me to be necessary, not infrequently, to determine where thought ends and poetry begins. For Mr. Schelling is one of those creatures to whom nature gave more poetic inclination than potency, and who thus unable to satisfy the daughters of Parnassus, flee into the woods of philosophy and enter into barren marriages with abstract hamadryads' (p. 107).

'Strange! After having spent my whole life knocking about every dance-floor of philosophy, giving myself over to every orgy of the intellect, flirting with every possible system without being satisfied, like Messalina after a night of dissipation - now I find myself suddenly with the same point of view as Uncle Tom, that of the Bible, and I kneel down next to that black, pious man with the same devotion. ... With all my knowledge, I have gotten no farther than that poor ignorant black man who has hardly learnt to spell. Poor Tom, it is true, seems to see even deeper things in the holy book than I; I, for whom especially the last part was never entirely clear. Perhaps Tom understands it better because there are more beatings in it, in particular, those incessant lashes of the whip which sometimes repulsed me in most unaesthetic manner, when I read the gospels and the apostles. Such poor black slaves read at the same time with their backs and thus understand much better than we do' (from Heine's Confessions [1854]; p. 210).

'I owe my enlightenment simply to reading a book. - A book? Yes, and it is an old, simple book, modest like nature, also just as natural: a book that looks everyday and unpretentious, like the sun which warms us and the bread which nourishes us; a book, which looks at us with a kindness so intimate and blessed, like an old grandmother who also reads daily in the book with her dear trembling lips and with her spectacles on her nose - and this book is called quite simply "The Book," the Bible. One rightly calls it also the Holy Scripture; whoever has lost his God can find him again in this book, and whoever never knew him finds here the breath of the divine Word gently blowing over him. The Jews ... knew very well what they were doing when, during the burning of the Second Temple, they left the gold and silver sacrificial vessels, the lamps and the candelabras, even the breastplate of the High Priest with its large gems, and saved only the Bible. ... I will quote [Yeshua ben Sira ben Eleazar's] beautiful words here... "No one has ever learned all there is to learn from it; and no one will ever fully sound its depths. For its meaning is richer than any ocean, and its word deeper than any abyss"' (from the Preface to the 2nd Edition of Heine's History [1852]; pp. 7-8).

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main text, "On the History of Religion and Philosophy in Germany", was a joy to read, although perhaps wittier than it is substantial in regard to the German Idealists (Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel.) Not convinced by his assimilation of Spinoza's pantheism to pre-Christian Germanic religion, although perhaps there is a thread through the hermetic/mystic writers that he didn't fully lay out. Didn't read the "other writings."

[Angelo Marcano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leer a Heine es tan refrescante como la brisa que debe sentirse a la orilla del Rin. Aprendí muchísimo de la evolución de las ideas en Alemania, los procesos que las desencadenaron y, en general, sobre las bases de los grandes temas de la filosofía. Gran lectura. No imaginé que a estas alturas, un escritor del siglo XIX pudiera causarme tanta dicha. Estoy completamente tentado a leerme toda su obra que haya sido traducida y digitalizada. Su poesía también es preciosa.

[a]

really great; i wish more intellectual/cultural histories were written like this

[JV]

Uma obra magistralmente escrita, vivaz, contraditória e - como se diz hoje - problemática. É anti-didática e antissistemática; visa formar mentes. Escrita para franceses para influenciar alemães. É sobre a Alemanha mas também sobre a Europa. Aparenta pretender objetividade mas é um manifesto profundamente pessoal. Desenvolve todos os "talking points" do ateísmo enquanto se declara paradoxalmente panteísta e materialista. Passa aquela energia filosofia-no-ensino-médio mas não me envergonharia de igualmente recomendar a quem se acha avançado no caminho filosófico. Tudo isso sob o elusivo nome "História da Religião e Filosofia na Alemanha"


Heine via a Alemanha de sua época como um baluarte conservador diante da França liberal; para ele o protestantismo havia fechado aquela sociedade para a emancipação com a qual sonhava. Apenas por uma nova história intelectual esse objetivo seria alcançado. Uma história cujos pressupostos incluem fácil compreensão, exclusão de qualquer fato ou doutrina que não tivesse consequências sociais e políticas, bem como de ideias teológicas muito acima da compreensão geral.

O resultado é uma visão completamente secularista da Europa, uma visão mais identificável que a de seu primo de terceiro grau, Karl Marx. Embora alguns críticos se fizessem de desentendidos (como o Carpeaux) e outros a tomassem sério por demais (como Matthew Arnold), acredito que foi uma obra de larga influência - penso especialmente em Nietzsche.

Embora não ache a crítica a pontos singulares efetiva, gostaria de expor dois erros críticos: o primeiro é geral do século XIX, todos acham que porque um processo histórico aconteceu numa megalópoles como Paris ou Londres ele necessariamente se repetirá em um país menor com o tempo. Heine acreditava que dialeticamente uma revolução se passaria na Alemanha como o foi na França. Durante a leitura notei que intelectualmente a Alemanha teve inícios parecidos com o da Inglaterra, (Kant como Locke, Fichte como Berkley) embora tenham tomado caminhos diferentes. Outro - mais difícil de explicar - é crer que o "panteísmo" intelectual é algo próprio da Alemanha e que ele necessariamente conecta-se com o "paganismo" supersticioso popular.

A previsão final do livro é que a Alemanha teria uma revolução emancipatória como a francesa - exceto que muito mais violenta pois os alemães são mais brutos. Alguns tiveram o alerta como uma antecipação do nazismo. Nada mais longe. Na verdade, comparando com o marxismo, Heine parecia ver que as revoluções partem menos de uma parca situação material que uma auto entrega aos desejos mais primitivos e negação do cristianismo.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can tell this book was written by the best prose writer Germany has ever seen. Heine's style is witty, sharp, and refreshing. This was the first work of Heine I've read, and I am happy to say he is a favorite of mine. You can also see Heine's influence on Nietzsche.

This series of Essays focuses on the development of thought in Germany. Heine first begins with an analysis of Germany when it was under the Geist of Roman-Christianity. He argues that in Northern Europe, Christian Germans were far more spiritual than those living in Southern Europe and far more sensitive to sin. Even a simple nightingale song was enough to give a German the skeptical fear of the devil. It was then this sensitivity to sin that led to Germans being critical of the excesses of Catholicism. Martin Luther, therefore, to Heine is a hero who rescued the Teutonic race from the limitations of dogmatic popery and let the Germans breathe fresh air once again.

Luther's reformation, along with many German rationalists who had begun to preach the bible in common tounge, opened up public discourse in the north and led to the birth of Philosophy in Germany. Ironically, Luther's attempt to reform the religion led to the development of secular and deistic thought and most interestingly, led to Spinoza's influence in Germany, which Heine argues led to the return of German Pantheism (Pantheism for Heine is the secret ingredient in all German philosophy and the Germanic soul). Heine then concludes with a discussion of the Kantians and Hegel and character assasination of Schelling whom Heine uses as an embodiment of a problem in German philosophy (that being the tendency of German philosophers who in their youth bravely confront the world to relapse into dogmatic Catholicism in old age).

I confidently recommend this book to anyone interested in philosophy and religion. Heine writes with a brevity of crisp air and a passion rare to philosophical/religious literature.

Es lebe die Nachtigall und die Rosenparty

[Nikolay Nadirashvili · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein nicht allzu tiefer Überblick über die Entwicklung der deutschen Philosophie aus dem Geiste des Lutherischen Protestantismus. Der Grund der mangelhaften Tiefe mag die (übrigens mehrmals im Texte hervorgehobene) Oberflächlichkeit des damaligen französischen Publikums sein, welches ein ursprüngliches Zielauditorium dieser Schrift bildet.
Es entsteht bisweilen, trotz einer indiskutablen Belesenheit des Autors in Sachen Philosophie, ein fester Zweifel, ob die Bekanntschaft mit den Ideen des Deutschen Idealismus jemals zu einer innigen Beziehung wurde. Vielmehr habe ich einen Eindruck bekommen, als hätte Heine nicht genug Zeit der Lektüre der Kantischen Kritik gewidmet.
Der Einfluss von Hegel auf Heine ist in diesem Werke schwer zu übersehen. Das Fortschreiten der Geschichte wird als ein unendlicher Kampf zwischen zwei Parteien (personifiziert durch Platon und Aristoteles) dargestellt.
All dessen ungeachtet, kommt das gar nicht infrage, dies Werk diene den Zwecken der Aufklärung des allgemeinen Publikums und ist eine gute, voll witzigen Wortspielerei, Einführung in die Materie.

[Sabina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heinrich Heine was born in Düsseldorf before he fled to Paris to write about German Religion and Philosophy since Luther. A book I’ll need to re-read for a clearer understanding of Heine’s complex thoughts.

[Ahmet Akın · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alman edebiyatı ve felsefesi üzerine doyurucu ve derinlik sağlayan bir eser... Dili kimi zaman sıksa da enteresan bilgiler barındırıyor.

[Benedikt Kraft · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aufgrund der vielen Aphorismen ist das Buch sehr schwer zu verstehen. Ich habe mich beim Lesen sehr schwer getan, aber vielleicht ist es einfach nichts für mich.

[Cem Taskiran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heine'nin güzel bir eleştirisi olmuş ama ben açıkçası Semih Hoca çevirdiği için okudum.

[Fernanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro se ha convertido en mi biblia de los padres de la filosofía, poesía y literatura alemana. Está hermosamente detallado, explicado y presentado. Todo en un pequeño libro que contiene una información valiosa e importante para cualquier persona que esté interesado en conocer y entender la filosofía y literatura alemana.

Es uno de esos libros que se quedará en mi repisa para poder obtener de el alguna referencia útil. Si ya acabo de anotar entre mis siguientes lecturas el drama de "Ondina" , escrito por Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué.

En fin, muy bueno. Fue una verdadera suerte haber dado con el en una venta de libros viejos de la UNAM, fue un encuentro afortunado.

[Jordan Ballor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A philosophical miracle!