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Lecture

Professor David Peimer
Henrich Heine: ‘One of the Most Remarkable Men and Poets of Our Age’- George Eliot

Saturday 4.03.2023

Summary

Professor David Peimer explores the life and work of Henrich Heine (1797–1856) and discusses why his work still resonates today.

“One of the most remarkable men and poets of our age.” -George Eliot

Professor David Peimer

head and shoulders portrait of david peimer looking at camera, smiling

David Peimer is a professor of theatre and performance studies in the UK. He has taught at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and New York University (Global Division), and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing. He has written eleven plays and directed forty in places like South Africa, New York, Brussels, London, Berlin, Zulu Kingdom, Athens, and more. His writing has been published widely and he is the editor of Armed Response: Plays from South Africa (2009) and the interactive digital book Theatre in the Camps (2012). He is on the board of the Pinter Centre in London.

Yeah, great question Gene also, because as I said, I mean, they burnt his books in that 1933 burning, but, they could not stop German, millions and millions of Germans reading. But what they did was, they published his works and they used the name “anonymous,” and they pumped it through propaganda and school education, university. This was somehow anonymous in German literary history.

Great question. No, I don’t think so, because Paris was living more through the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic period. No, you, you know, no. He was much, he could be more honest about his inner conflicts and in fact he was feted in Paris, was a kind of celebrity, what we would call today celebrity.

Absolutely, absolutely. He was bedridden for quite a few years.