Life and exile
Düsseldorf, Bonn, Berlin
Heine grew up in Düsseldorf and studied at several universities, including Bonn and Berlin. His early poems made him widely known, although fame is not always the same thing as freedom.
A changing public world
The political settlement after the Napoleonic wars narrowed the space for writers who disliked obedient opinions. Heine's journalism and criticism made that narrowing hard to ignore.
Paris
Heine moved to Paris in 1831 and remained there for the rest of his life. The city gave him a different political vantage point and a durable connection to French intellectual life.
Exile as perspective
Distance did not make Germany disappear from his work. It gave him a sharper way to write about nationalism, censorship, and the habits of public virtue.