 Another friend was the satirist Karl Immermann, who had praised Heine's first verse collection, "Gedichte", when it appeared in December 1821.During his time in Berlin Heine also joined the "Verein für Cultur und Wissenschaft der Juden", a society which attempted to achieve a balance between the Jewish faith and modernity.Since Heine was not very religious in outlook he soon lost interest, but he also began to investigate Jewish history.