Germany. A Winter's Tale

Germany. A Winter's Tale (German: Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen) is a satirical epic poem by the German writer Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), describing the thoughts of a journey from Paris to Hamburg the author made in Winter 1843. The title refers to Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, similar to his poem Atta Troll: Ein Sommernachtstraum ("Atta Troll: A Midsummer Night's Dream"), written 1841–46.

From the onset of the (Metternich) Restoration in Germany, Heine was no longer secure from the censorship, and in 1831 he finally migrated to France as an exile. In 1835 a decree of the German Federal Convention banned his writings together with the publications of the Young Germany literary group.

At the end of 1843 Heine went back to Germany for a few weeks to visit his mother and his publisher Julius Campe in Hamburg. On the return journey the first draft of Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen took shape. The verse epic appeared in 1844 published by Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg. According to the censorship regulations of the 1819 Carlsbad Decrees, manuscripts of more than twenty folios did not fall under the scrutiny of the censor. Therefore, Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen was published together with other poems in a volume called ‘New Poems’. However, on 4 October 1844 the book was banned and the stock confiscated in Prussia. On 12 December 1844, King Frederick William IV issued a warrant of arrest against Heine. In the period following the work was repeatedly banned by the censorship authorities. In other parts of Germany it was certainly issued in the form of a separate publication, also published by Hoffmann and Campe, but Heine had to shorten and rewrite it.

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