The Wisdom of the Silenus plays around the motif of the misery of human life.Omnipresent in literature and art in the first half of the 19th century, it is the antitype and spur to that “Banquet of life” with which Heine motivates the aim of his social and political commitment.This study is the first to place Heine’s work comprehensively within the context of the literary and artistic scene of the age in Paris.