The Danish philosopher and writer Georg Brandes (1842-1927) originally published his essay on the poet Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) in 1897. The focus of the work is less on the late Romantic lyricist and ironist, and more on the political journalist, whose predictions about the authoritarian and anti-democratic nature of the Prussian authoritarian state Brandes sees confirmed in the development of the Prussian-German Empire. This is a reprint of the expanded and updated edition from 1922, which was influenced by the First World War.