Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) attended Hegel’s lectures in Berlin and was among the writers who carried his philosophy into literature.

His account of Hegel is the best known there is — and the least reliable. The anecdote about the sentence “What is real is rational,” which Hegel is said to have taken back with a wink, comes from him and cannot be substantiated.

This has had consequences for the history of Hegel’s reception: what many people believe they know about Hegel, they in fact know from Heine.