wn. His
interesting personality attracted general notice. All circles welcomed
him. The _salons_ did their utmost to make him one of their votaries.
Romantic student clubs at Lutter's and Wegener's wine-rooms left nothing
untried to lure him to their nocturnal carousals. Even Hegel, the
philosopher, evinced marked interest in him. To whose allurements does
he yield? Like his great ancestor, he goes to "his brethren languishing
in captivity." Some of his young friends, Edward Gans, Leopold Zunz, and
Moses Moser, had formed a "Society for Jewish Culture and Science," with
Berlin as its centre, and Heinrich Heine became one of its most active
members. He taught poor Jewish boys from Posen several hours a week in
the school established by the society, and all questions that came up
interested him. Joseph Lehmann took pleasure in repeatedly telling how
seriously Heine applied himself to a review which he had undertaken to
write on the compilation of a German prayer-book for Jewish women.

To the Berlin period belongs his _Almansor_, a dramatic poem which has
suffered the most contradictory criticism. In my opinion, it has usually
been misunderstood. _Almansor_ is intelligible only if regarded from a
Jewish point of view, and then it is seen to be the hymn of vengeance
sung by Judaism oppressed. Substitute the names of a converted Berlin
banker and his wife for "Aly" and "Suleima," Berlin under Frederick
William III. for "Saragossa," the Berlin Thiergarten for the "Forest,"
and the satire stands revealed. The following passage is characteristic
of the whole poem:[98]

"Go not to Aly's castle! Flee
That noxious house where new faith breeds.
With honeyed accents there thy heart
Is wrenched from out thy bosom's depths,
A snake bestowed on thee instead.
Hot drops of lead on thy poor head
Are poured, and nevermore thy brain
From madding pain shall rid itself.
Another name thou must assume,
That if thy angel warning calls,
And calls thee by thy olden name,
He call in vain."

Such were Heine's views at that time, and with them he went to
Goettingen. There, though Jewish society was entirely lacking, and
correspondence with his Berlin friends desultory, his Jewish interests
grew stronger than ever. There, inspired by the genius of Jewish
history, he composed his _Rabbi von Bacharach_, the work which, by his
own confession, he nursed with unspeakable love, and which, he fondly
ho