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.

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