Betty Heine

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Betty Heine, portrayed by Isidor Popper
Betty Heine's tombstone at the Ohlsdorf Jewish Cemetery
(further pictures)

Betty Heine (born November 27, 1771 in Düsseldorf , † September 3, 1859 in Hamburg ) was Heinrich Heine's mother .

Live and act

Betty Heine was born as Peira van Geldern in Düsseldorf. Her parents were the general practitioner Gottschalk de (van) Geldern from Düsseldorf († 1795), the "predecessor" of the Jews of Jülich , Kleve and Berg , and his wife Sara, née Bock, from Siegburg . Her ancestors, including her great-grandfather Joseph Jacob van Geldern, who built the first synagogue in Düsseldorf, were well-known court factors and doctors. She received a school education which can be regarded as common at the time for women of the higher classes. Van Geldern had knowledge of Latin, French and English, which enabled her to study works of world literature in the original language. Her preferred authors and works included Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Emile or, about the education of Jean-Jacques Rousseau . As a young woman who was well acquainted with the ideas of the Enlightenment , she lamented “fashionable sensitivity” and the Germans' small states. She orientated herself on "prosperity", which she preferred to conventions and etiquette.

In 1797 van Geldern, who had her first name changed to "Betty", married Samson Heine, who had moved in. The couple had four children Heinrich (birth name: Harry), Charlotte , Gustav and Maximilian . Since the Jewish community in Düsseldorf emphatically refused Samson Heine marriage and settlement, Betty Heine no longer took part in community life. In order to make it easier for her children to assimilate later , she brought them up in an enlightened and liberal manner. The three youngest children Charlotte, Gustav and Maximilian Heine followed their mother's ideas. Heinrich Heine, on the other hand, became a poet, which Betty Heine saw as “art without a job”.

In 1819, after initially successfully starting his own business, Samson Heine had to file for bankruptcy. During this time, Betty and Samson Heine received financial donations from Samson Heine's brother Salomon Heine , who was a very successful banker in Hamburg. The couple moved from Bad Oldesloe to Hamburg via Lüneburg . Samson Heine died there in 1828. Salomon Heine paid Betty Heine a pension of 1,000 marks per year after the death of her husband.

Betty Heine saw her son Heinrich Heine, who had lived in Paris since 1831 , again after twelve years in 1843. A year later he returned to Hamburg with his wife Mathilde. Since Mathilde Heine could not find a way to integrate into the family, she left Hamburg prematurely.

Betty Heine was 87 years old and outlived her famous son Heinrich by three and a half years. She was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Ohlsdorf (Ilandkoppel) , grid square ZX 12.

Betty Heine and the works of Heinrich Heine

Even if Betty Heine did not approve of her son's work as a poet, he only wrote benevolently about her. In his memoirs he noted: “It has never assumed a dominion over my real way of thinking and for me it has always been the protection and love itself. [...] It was economical, but only in relation to its own person; she could be extravagant for the pleasure of others, and since she did not love money but only appreciated it, she gave with a light hand and often astonished me with her charity and generosity. "

Letters that Betty Heine and her son wrote to each other show that both were closely connected emotionally. Since Heinrich Heine destroyed a large part of his mother's letters, only a few of these documents have survived.

Betty Heine had little influence on the artistic creation of her son. Heinrich Heine only asked his mother during his time in Paris to do small business with his Hamburg-based publisher Julius Campe . Heine mentioned his mother in the poems To my mother B. Heine, nee v. Geldern , the night thoughts , in Germany. A winter fairy tale and several other works. He gave information on biographical details of his mother's life, which he invented or alienated for stylistic reasons. They are therefore not a reliable source for Betty Heine's life.

literature

Web links

Commons : Betty Heine  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Abraham Wedell : Heinrich Heine's maternal family tree . In: Contributions to the history of the Lower Rhine , Volume 1 (1886), pp. 5 ff. ( Digitized version )
  2. ^ Joseph Jacobs: Heine Jewish Encyclopedia from 1906
  3. ↑ quoted from: Heinrich Heine's memoirs about his youth on Wikisource.org
personal data
SURNAME Heine, Betty
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Geldern, Peira van
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mother of Heinrich Heine
DATE OF BIRTH November 27, 1771
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH September 3, 1859
Place of death Hamburg