Heinrich von Kleist

Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (October 18, 1777 - November 21, 1811) was a German poet, dramatist and novelist.

Life

Kleist was born at Frankfurt an der Oder, and after a scanty education, he entered the Prussian army in 1792, served in the Rhine campaign of 1796 and retired from the service in 1799 with the rank of lieutenant.

Related Topics:
Frankfurt an der Oder - 1792 - 1796

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He next studied law and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder, and in 1800 received a subordinate post in the ministry of finance at Berlin.

Related Topics:
University of Frankfurt an der Oder - 1800 - Berlin

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In the following year his roving, restless spirit got the better of him, and procuring a lengthened leave of absence he visited Paris and then settled in Switzerland. Here he found congenial friends in Heinrich Zschokke and Ludwig Friedrich August Wieland (-1819), son of the poet Christoph Martin Wieland; and to them he read his first drama, a gloomy tragedy, Die Familie Schroffenstein (1803), originally entitled Die Familie Ghonorez.

Related Topics:
Heinrich Zschokke - Ludwig Friedrich August Wieland - Christoph Martin Wieland

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In the autumn of 1802 Kleist returned to Germany; he visited

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Goethe, Schiller and Wieland in Weimar, stayed for a while in Leipzig and Dresden, again proceeded to Paris, and returning in 1804 to his post in Berlin was transferred to the Domänenkammer (department for the administration of crown lands) at Königsberg. On a journey to Dresden in 1807 Kleist was arrested by the French as a spy, and being sent to France was kept for six months a close prisoner at Châlons-sur-Marne. On regaining his liberty he proceeded to Dresden, where in conjunction with Adam Heinrich Müller (1779-1829) he published in 1808 the journal Phöbus.

Related Topics:
Weimar - 1804 - Königsberg - 1807 - Adam Heinrich Müller - 1808

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In 1809 he went to Prague, and ultimately settled in Berlin, where he edited (1810/1811) the Berliner Abendblätter. Captivated by the intellectual and musical accomplishments of a certain Frau Henriette Vogel, Kleist, who was himself more disheartened and embittered than ever, agreed to do her bidding and die with her, carrying out this resolution by first shooting the lady and then himself on the shore of the Wannsee near Potsdam, on the 21st of November 1811.

Related Topics:
1809 - 1811

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Kleist's whole life was filled by a restless striving after ideal and illusory happiness, and this is largely reflected in his work. He was by far the most important North German dramatist of the Romantic movement, and no other of the Romanticists approaches him in the energy with which he expresses patriotic indignation.

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