Polemiker oder Weltpsycholog? Zu einigen Lektüren von Heines Denkschrift über Ludwig Börne

The article examines Heinrich Heine’s Memorial of Ludwig Börne as a work that is at once a polemic and a reflection on the limits of polemic. The ambivalence of the text can be traced back to the complexity of its genesis and becomes particularly evident in its contradictory reception. Two exemplary readings are central to the discussion: the critique by Karl Kraus, who denies Heine any genuine polemical force, and the enthusiastic judgment of Thomas Mann, who sees in him a “world psychologist” and a precursor of Nietzsche. A comparison of these two positions reveals how Heine deliberately subordinates the public impact of his polemic to an anthropological reflection on the antagonism between “Nazarenes” and “Hellenes”. This gives rise to a “skeptical polemic” that lends the text a distinctive poetological depth and presents the marginality of the poet not as a complaint but as a condition of his art.