Heidi Urbahn de Jauregui (5 March 1940 – 12 August 2024) was a German-French Germanist and essayist who was an

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

Professor of German Literature at the

Jean Monnet University Jean Monnet University ( or ) is a public research university based in Saint-Étienne, France. It is under the Academy of Lyon and belongs to the administrative entity denominated University of Lyon, which gathers different schools in Lyon and S ...

, France.

Biography

Heidi Urbahn de Jauregui came from an entrepreneurial family in Remscheid. After the basic studies (Philosophy, History, German) in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

, she moved to

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

. A medical condition ended her studies. Following her recuperation, she could "fulfill her desire to leave

Adenauer Konrad Hermann Joseph Adenauer (5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman and politician who served as the first chancellor of West Germany from 1949 to 1963. From 1946 to 1966, he was the first leader of the Christian Democrati ...

Germany, something she had wished to do for some time." She continued her studies in French Literature and

German studies German studies is an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German h ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and obtained her Licence (French academic grade) at the Faculté de Lettres of the

University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier () is a public university, public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous opera ...

. It was not possible for her to take the necessary

Agrégation In France, the () is the most competitive and prestigious examination for civil service in the French public education A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all stu ...

(a required competitive exam in France) for a University teaching commission because the French authorities refused to

naturalize Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...

her in spite of her fulfillment of the formal admission criteria. The reason was that her research involved close contact with authors in

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

. She went to the

University of Lyon The University of Lyon ( , or UdL) is a university system ( ''ComUE'') based in Lyon, France. It comprises 12 members and 9 associated institutions. The 3 main constituent universities in this center are: Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, which f ...

in order to finish a dissertation on the poet

Peter Hacks Peter Hacks (21 March 1928 – 28 August 2003) was a German playwright, author, and essayist. Hacks was born in Breslau (Wrocław), Lower Silesia. Displaced by World War II, Hacks settled in Munich in 1947, where he made acquaintance with T ...

and to attain a doctorate. She then received the naturalization and took the Agrégation. After the tenure, an academic position would continually be refused to her. In particular, no one accepted her argument that Peter Hacks was no East German

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

but a

Utopian socialist Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often ...

with whom the East Germans did not entirely agree and support. Finally, she received a position as

Maître de conférences The following summarizes basic academic ranks in the France, French higher education system. Most academic institutions are state-run and most academics with permanent positions are French Civil Service, civil servants, and thus are Academic tenur ...

at the Jean Monnet University. Urbahn de Jauregui later lived in

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

together with her husband the Spanish

Biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

Juan Jáuregui-Adell, who researches in Montpellier at the

CNRS The French National Centre for Scientific Research (, , CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 staff, including 11,137 tenured researchers, 13,415 eng ...

. She died on 12 August 2024, at the age of 84.Montaigne verpflichtet

Work

Heidi Urbahn de Jauregui worked mainly on essays. She had the reputation of a well known expert of Germans and in particular Literature of East Germany. In her publications, she never followed academic rules. Her main interests were in the classics of German literature, in particular

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; ; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was an outstanding poet, writer, and literary criticism, literary critic of 19th-century German Romanticism. He is best known outside Germany for his ...

and

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

. She received the

Heinrich Mann Prize The Heinrich Mann Prize () is an essay prize that has been awarded since 1953, first by the East German Academy of Arts, then by the Academy of Arts, Berlin. The prize, which comes with a €10,000 purse, is given annually on 27 March, Heinrich ...

of the Academy of Art in East Berlin in 1986.

Friendship with Peter Hacks

De Jauregui saw in the East German dramatist Peter Hacks the legitimate foundations of the German classics and the descendant of Goethe,

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...

and Heine. She devoted her dissertation and many essays to his creative activity. From 1975 on, she personally visited him regularly and maintained a continual correspondence until Hack's death in 2003.

Works on Heinrich Heine

A significant part of Heidi Urbahn de Jauregui's essays deal with Heinrich Heine's works. She presented the first comprehensive biography of

Elise Krinitz Elise or Elyse may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Elise, the unidentified person to whom Beethoven dedicated ''Für Elise'' * ''Elise'', a 1979 speculative fiction novel by Ken Grimwood * ''Élise ou la vraie vie'' (''Elise, or the Real Life' ...

, who was the Heine's last mistress, at the end of 2007 called "die Mouche."

Publications

Heidi Urbahn de Jauregui: Zwischen den Stühlen : der Dichter Peter Hacks. (Between the Chair: the Poet Peter Hacks) Eulenspiegel-Verlag, Berlin 2006, Heidi Urbahn de Jauregui
Charlotte und Goethe - a Monolog
(German: Charlotte and Goethe - a Monologue) In: neue deutsche literatur (New German Literature) 3/1998, Nr. 46, pp 144–153 (Essay of Heidi Urbahn de Jauregui to a piece by Peter Hacks)

References

External links

Literature on and by Heidi Urbahn de Jauregui
in the Catalog of the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; ) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to collect, permanently archive, comprehens ...

(German)
Hacks-Encyclopedia
(German)

(German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Urbahn De Jauregui, Heidi 1940 births 2024 deaths German Germanists Heinrich Mann Prize winners Academic staff of Jean Monnet University West German emigrants Immigrants to France French Germanists