Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse (German:[paʊlˈhaɪzə]ⓘ; 15 March 1830 – 2 April 1914) was a German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, theTunnel über der Spree inBerlin andDie Krokodile in Munich, he wrote novels, poetry, 177 short stories, and about sixty dramas. The sum of Heyse's many and varied productions made him a dominant figure among German men of letters. He was awarded the1910 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories." Wirsen, one of the Nobel judges, said that "Germany has not had a greater literary genius sinceGoethe."[citation needed] Heyse is the fifth oldest laureate in literature, afterAlice Munro,Jaroslav Seifert,Theodor Mommsen andDoris Lessing.
Paul Heyse was born on 15 March 1830 in Heiliggeiststraße,Berlin. His father, the distinguished philologistKarl Wilhelm Ludwig Heyse,[1] was a professor at theUniversity of Berlin who had been the tutor of bothWilhelm von Humboldt's youngest son (during 1815–17) andFelix Mendelssohn (during 1819–27). His paternal grandfatherJohann Christian August Heyse (21 April 1764, Nordhausen – 27 July 1829, Magdeburg), was a famous German grammarian and lexicographer. Paul Heyse's mother was Jewish.[2]
Heyse attended the renamed Friedrich-Wilhelms-Gymnasium until 1847. He was later remembered as a model student. His family connections gained him early entry to the artistic circles of Berlin, where he made the acquaintance ofEmanuel Geibel, a man fifteen years his elder who was to become his literary mentor and lifelong friend, and who introduced him to his future father-in-law, the art historian and writerFranz Kugler.
After leaving school Heyse began studying classical philology. He metJacob Burckhardt,Adolph Menzel,Theodor Fontane andTheodor Storm, and in 1849 joined theTunnel über der Spree literary group.Frühlingsanfang 1848, the first of Heyse's poems to see print, expressed his enthusiasm for the recent Revolution. After a brief excursion to see the student militias he returned home without joining them, apparently out of consideration for the concerns of his parents and friends.
Having studied for two years at theUniversity of Berlin he left forBonn in April 1849 in order to study art history and Romance languages. In 1850, he finally resolved on a career as a writer and began a dissertation under the supervision ofFriedrich Diez, a pioneer of Romance philology in Germany; but when it was discovered he was conducting an affair with the wife of one of his professors he was sent back to Berlin. Heyse's first book,Der Jungbrunnen (a collection of tales and poetry) was published anonymously by his father that same year as was his tragedyFrancesca von Rimini. About the same time, Heyse received from the publisherAlexander Duncker a manuscript by the then-unknownTheodor Storm. Heyse's enthusiastic critique ofSommergeschichten und Lieder laid the foundations of their future friendship.
In 1851, Heyse won a contest held by the members of the "Tunnel" for the balladDas Tal von Espigno, and his first short story, "Marion" (1852), was similarly honoured. It was followed in 1852 by theSpanisches Liederbuch, a collection of translations of poems and folk songs by Geibel and Heyse which was to be a favourite with composers, includingRobert Schumann (Opp. 74 & 138),Adolf Jensen (Op. 21) andHugo Wolf (Lieder collectionSpanisches Liederbuch, 1891). Wolf also set poems from Heyse's collectionItalienisches Liederbuch of 1860 (Lieder collectionItalienisches Liederbuch 1892–96). Throughout his career Heyse worked as a translator, above all of Italian literature (Leopardi,Giusti).
Several members of the "Tunnel" began to find its formalities and public nature distasteful, and a smaller circle, theRütli, was formed in December 1852: it included Kugler,Lepel, Fontane, Storm, and Heyse. In May 1852, Heyse was awarded a doctorate[3] for his work on thetroubadours, and a Prussian scholarship allowed him to depart for Italy to look for old Provençal manuscripts. He made friends withArnold Böcklin andJoseph Victor von Scheffel but was banned from the Vatican library after being discovered copying passages from unpublished manuscripts. He returned to Germany in 1853, where, with the Italian landscape still fresh in his mind, he wrote the works which first made him famous: his most famous short story, "L'Arrabbiata"[1] ("The Fury", 1853, published in 1855); and theLieder aus Sorrent ("Songs of Sorrento", 1852/53). Much of his new writing appeared in theArgo, the yearbook of theRütli writers.
Emanuel Geibel persuaded the King of Bavaria,Maximilian II, to grant Heyse a titular professorship in Munich. Heyse was thus appointed professor of Romance philology, although he never taught at that city's university. After his marriage on 15 May to Margarete Kugler he arrived in Munich on 25 May 1854. At his first audience with the King, Heyse presented his verse tales,Hermen, and began a productive life as one of theNordlichtern ("northern lights": Geibel, Heyse and Riehl) and establishing another literary society,Die Krokodile, which includedFelix Dahn,Wilhelm Hertz,Hermann Lingg,Franz von Kobell, the cultural historianWilhelm Heinrich Riehl,Friedrich Bodenstedt, and the travel writer and art patronAdolf Friedrich von Schack. In December Heyse began a long correspondence withEduard Mörike.
On 22 August 1855, Heyse's first son, Franz, was born. Heyse had four children by his first marriage: Franz (1855–1919), Julie or Lulu (Frau Baumgarten, 1857–1928), Ernst (1859–1871) and Clara (Frau Layriz, 1861–1931). In 1859, obligations to the Kugler family led Heyse to take up a position as editor of theLiteraturblatt zum deutschen Kunstblatt, and he declined a tempting offer from the Grand Duke Carl Alexander von Weimar which would have involved moving toThuringia.
On 30 September 1862, his wife Margarete died inMeran of a lung illness. He completed the historical drama,Ludwig der Bayer – a Bavarian period piece which Maximilian II had long been eager to see – but its theatrical production was a failure. Nevertheless, Heyse worked throughout the 1860s on new plays, eventually achieving his greatest success withKolberg (1865).
He married Anna Schubart in 1867. Over the next three decades, Heyse continued to write prolifically. Despite a number of bereavements his life was uneventful, and his fame grew steadily until he was a world-famous figure. He was a very early opponent ofnaturalism, making critical references to it in print long before its influence could be felt in Germany. Younger critics who favoured naturalism made attacks on his writings, to which he replied inMerlin (1892): but their influence on the public was negligible. He was dubbedDichterfürst, prince of poetry, and he worked tirelessly to promote international understanding within Europe. He was elected an International Member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1895.[4] In 1900, he was named an honorary citizen of Munich, and several special publications honoured his 70th birthday; and in 1910, he was made a member of the nobility, before being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature on 10 December. He could not attend the ceremony, and was represented in Sweden by Count von Pückler.
His last published works wereLetzten Novellen andItalienischen Volksmärchen (1914). He died on 2 April 1914, several months before the outbreak ofWorld War I, and was buried in the old section of the Waldfriedhof (Nr. 43-W-27).
A street and tunnel in Munich, "Paul-Heyse Strasse" and "Paul-Heyse-Unterführung" are named after him as well as “Heysestrasse” in Hamburg Bergedorf.
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