Gustav Heine von Geldern


Gustav Heine, after 1870 Gustav Freiherr Heine von Geldern was a German-Austrian journalist and press publisher.
He was born into a Jewish family in Düsseldorf; one of his brothers was Heinrich Heine. On completing his preliminary education at Hamburg he studied at the universities of Halle and Göttingen. He first engaged in agriculture, then in business, and then entered the Austrian army, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. In 1847 he founded in Vienna Das Fremdenblatt, a periodical that became the official organ of the Austrian Foreign Office. In 1867 he was made a member of the Order of the Iron Crown 3rd class and, as provided by the statutes of this order, made a hereditary knight within the Austrian Nobility. In 1870 he was elevated to the rank of Freiherr, with the cognomen Geldern, his mother's family name. He was also decorated with the Order of Franz Joseph of the second class.
One of his sons, Maximilian Heine, wrote under the name "Heldern", and was the author of the libretto to the operetta Mirolan.