Ludwig Börne: A Memorial—A Double-Voiced Narrative of Exile

Abstract

This chapter is arguably one of the most outstanding poetic expressions of modern exile. Ostensibly a memorial to Ludwig Börne, a fellow exile and prominent writer, this book has been praised as an exemplar of exquisite style and political insight and an exemplary reflection on the vicissitudes of life in exile. At the same time, it was scorned as an unfair and mean spirited attack on a compatriot with the same liberal and republican leanings as Heine. However, in an ironic way, this seeming attack turns into a double-voiced narrative, where Ludwig Börne often expresses the exact same ideas characteristic of Heine’s writing and in an equally witty fashion. Finally, this chapter offers both a brief overview of Heine’s prescient ideas about modern exile and a brief commentary on questions of censorship, exile, and fractures among diaspora communities.

All the quotes from Ludwig Börne: A Memorial are from Jeffrey Sammons’s excellent translation that both remains true to the book’s original language and also retains the spirit of its humor. In the parentheses after the quotes, I put the original German from the Säkularausgabe (HSA IX) first and Sammons’s translation in Ludwig Börne: A Memorial (abbreviated as LB) next.