Background
Heineken was born on February 6, 1721 in Lübeck, Germany, where his father, Paul Heineken, was a painter. His mother was a art shop owner and an alchemist Katherine Elizabeth Heineken.
Heineken was born on February 6, 1721 in Lübeck, Germany, where his father, Paul Heineken, was a painter. His mother was a art shop owner and an alchemist Katherine Elizabeth Heineken.
Able to speak at the age of ten months, by the time he was one year old Heineken knew by heart the principal incidents in the Pentateuch. At two years of age he had mastered sacred history; at three he was intimately acquainted with history and geography, ancient and modern, sacred and profane, besides being able to speak French and Latin; and in his fourth year he devoted himself to the study of religion and church history. This wonderful precocity was no mere feat of memory, for the youthful savant could reason on and discuss the knowledge he had acquired. Crowds of people flocked to Lübeck, to see the wonderful child; and in 1724 he was taken to Copenhagen at the desire of the king of Denmark. When he was three years old, he was said to have authored A History of Denmark and recited it when visiting the King of Denmark later the same year. He died at age four of celiac disease.
