Heine saw himself as the founder of a radically modern school of German poetry. Such claims have been treated to a mixed reception, however; and Karl Kraus provided one of the most intelligent and influential readings. His virulent attack on Heine's innovative effect as a writer set the agenda for many subsequent critics in the twentieth century. The essay remains an embarrassment; but equally Kraus identifies problems in Heine that are still difficult to resolve. Chief among these is a failure of authenticity, which Kraus believes Heine bequeaths to contemporary journalists, and his strategy is to insist on Heine's personal responsibility for this effect of modernization. Like many hostile critics before him, Kraus is forced to submit to a biographical imperative which will also guide Adorno's attempt at rehabilitation in 1956. Kraus's critique, cast in the terms of his own transcendental understanding of literature, may be allergic, but his response to the peculiar stylistic expression of Heine's modernity is extremely acute.

HEINE THE PROBLEM

‘Heine und die Folgen’ (‘Heine and the Consequences’, 1910) is central to a critical attack extending from ‘Um Heine’ (‘Around Heine’), written for the fiftieth anniversary of the poet's death in 1906, to Kraus's major essay on rhyme of 1927. The continued use and abuse of Heine over this period is striking. Kraus's essay powerfully associates Heine with central issues in modernity, while simultaneously attempting to block his reception.