Chapter 465 A Winter Fairy Tale

Heinrich Heine, a famous German poet and writer, was known for his sharp satire and had a very bad impression of his homeland, whether it was the Hamburg government or the nominal German Confederation.

Because in the 19th century, anti-Jewish riots were commonplace, especially for people like Heine who came from a merchant family.

"Burn those Jewish vampires!"

A group of people shouted slogans and rushed into Jewish shops, smashed the glass, pried open the door, frantically looted the property inside, and even burned down Jewish churches.

The police and gendarmes who were supposed to maintain order looked like they had nothing to do with it. Unless the shop owner paid enough money, they would symbolically drive the crowd away.

In fact, the "mobs" would not patronize shops guarded by police. Their targets were more small vendors who would engage in open-air goods trading.

Anti-Jewish riots were always carried out in an orderly manner, and the government was too lazy to intervene. After all, they could end "peacefully" every time.

Heine was supposed to return to Hamburg in October 1843, but his trip was delayed because of many major events 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 had changed, except greed and corruption, which had not changed at all, and were getting worse.

Looking around, there were corrupt officials and nobles, people were greedy, stupid and pretentious. When he passed through the customs set up by the Prussians, the staff searched his luggage again and again.

Even if they found nothing, they were happy to do it, until Heine's friend handed over a handful of broken copper coins (groschen), 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 top-grade perfume, which read:

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

Heine had been an apprentice in his uncle's bank, and who was his uncle?

Although Solomon Heine is a Jew, he has a villa like a palace in Hamburg, and many bigwigs are eager to invite him.

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

When he was young, Heine had a natural sharpness. He once scolded his uncle in anger, "The best thing about you is that your last name is my last name."

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

Although there is still a gap with the Rothschild family, he can be regarded as a well-known rich man in the entire German Confederation.

However, this rich man still did not forget to mock his poor nephew.

In fact, Solomon Heine was very tolerant of his nephew. Most of the latter's living and travel expenses were sponsored by the former.

In fact, this was also the last joke between the rich man and his nephew, because Solomon Heine was already terminally ill and passed away soon.

But Heinrich Heine didn't know this. He was still just obsessed with his own creation, and soon the long poem "Germany, a Winter Fairy Tale" was published.

All this had nothing to do with Austria, but because of the change in history, Austria joined the German Customs Union and occupied a dominant position.

So Heine's main target of attack changed from Prussia to Austria. After all, whether it was the power of the government or the influence of the church, the latter was stronger than the former.

To criticize, of course, you have to criticize the biggest one, so Austria was naturally caught in the crossfire.

However, although he criticized Austria, the core content still involved Prussia's problems. For example, "I think the new uniforms of the cavalry are good, I must praise them, especially the helmet with the sword pointing to the sky"

This is obviously an allusion to the new cavalry helmet of the Prussian army, because the Austrian army's M42 pot helmet, because it looks too much like a rice cooker, and soldiers often use it to cook, it is also jokingly called a pot helmet.

In fact, the Austrian War Department made several improvements based on this feature and finally linked the skill of cooking with the helmet.

But no matter what, the great poet Heinrich Heine hit two targets with one shot, criticizing Austria and mocking Prussia.

However, due to his long-term stay in Paris, he inadvertently acquired some bad habits.

At that time, the Gallic rooster was arrogant and thought that the whole of Europe was only worthy of crawling at its feet, so it was inevitable that there was some illusion that all the beauty in the world was in its own hands.

Moreover, Heine had not actually visited Austria for inspection, and he did not know how the southern brother was developing at that time, so he believed the propaganda in the Paris newspapers, the story of stupid barbarians attacking the brave French border guards.

Regarding the "friction" between the German Confederation and the French army during the Luxembourg crisis, the "Paris Daily" reported as follows:

The young General Jean Durde was attacked by the German Confederation army that crossed the French border!

The brave and fearless French border troops defeated the German barbarian coalition! From the plains of Flanders to the Ardennes, he won ten battles and broke into the enemy territory 130 kilometers in one day and one night!

The star fell, and in the Battle of Namur, Jean Durd failed to continue his legend.

Reading too much of this kind of report will inevitably lead to bias to a certain extent, which would not be a big deal, but it just happened that he caught up with the tide of German nationalism.

So a stone stirred up a thousand waves, and Heine's poem immediately caused a great discussion throughout the German Confederation.

However, the people did not rise up to overthrow the king and capitalists as the greatest poet in German history imagined, but the nobles and capitalists' court writers criticized him in the newspapers.

In fact, Heinrich Heine's attack was a bit wide. Although he was right from a historical perspective, the capitalists and aristocratic bureaucrats at the time were still in their heyday, and in fact, the Austrian royal enterprises did not match his description.

In particular, the Austrian Royal Overseas Development Company was simply the largest welfare institution in the whole of Europe at that time.

Moreover, in several crises and customs unions, the people got real benefits. They did not think that this was a plunder of them, but rather that it was the obligation of the people.

And continuous victories can easily overwhelm people's rationality, especially when people become a crowd, they are more easily infected by emotions rather than calm thinking.

As a result, a large number of celebrities challenged Heinrich Heine to a duel. Heinrich Heine was an idealist who was not afraid of death, so he accepted all the duels in the newspaper.

Then a scene destined to go down in history appeared. Duelists from various German states lined up in front of Heine's villa.

Fortunately, Heine suddenly had "epilepsy" and the duel had to be postponed. Then Franz's people sent him out of the German Confederation overnight. This was the only thing the latter could do at this time. After all, there was hope only when alive.

When Heinrich Heine was awakened by a gust of cold wind in a Paris hotel, he felt that he had a dream. In the dream, the Germans were no longer divided, but united, working for the same thing and the same goal.