A Note on Thematic Affinities in Max Weber and Heinrich Heine: Disenchantment, Devaluing Reversal, and the Demonic

This ‘note ’ constitutes a study of thematic affinities in the work of the German poet Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) and Max Weber (1864–1920). With an emphasis on Weber’s reference to Heine in the footnotes of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, we seek to respond to and explore Gregory Höhn’s (2002) observation that in the philosophy of history expressed in Heine’s poetry and prose, Heine antici-pates Weber’s understanding of the process of disenchantment and its existential consequences. This discussion is the site for a consideration of the Enlightenment-mythology relation. A particular emphasis is placed on devaluing reversal as a motif of the disenchantment-rationalization narrative in Heine and Weber, and how this motif relates to a condition of alienation. We explore the way in which devaluing reversal as an inner motif of the development of modern capitalist society finds an apposite expression in the religious image of the demonic