Germany. A Winter Tale — Heinrich Heine

Germany. A Winter Tale (Deutschland. Ein Wintermaerchen) is a satirical verse epic by German author Heinrich Heine (1797-1856). --- Since 1831 Heine had been living in exile in France; because of his critical works, he no longer felt safe from the German censors and police. In 1835 the German Bundestag passed a decree banning his writings. --- In late 1843 Heine went back to Germany for a few weeks to visit his mother and his publisher, Julius Campe, in Hamburg. It was on his return journey that the first draft of Germany. A Winter Tale took shape. The verse epic appeared in 1844, published by Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg; and before the year was out, the book was banned in Prussia and the stock confiscated. In December 1844 King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia issued a warrant for Heinrich Heine's arrest. Before the book could be published elsewhere in Germany, outside Prussia, Heine had to shorten and rewrite it. --- Our historic bilingual edition presents the German text in a version dating from 1887 and a translation by Edgar Alfred Bowring from the same year. Heine's 1844 Preface was retranslated by Annette Bridges for our 2007 edition.