Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist

Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist (1777-1811), German dramatist, whose depiction of humanity's torment by incompatible demands and concise, polished style won him recognition as one of the foremost German dramatists, despite his short career. He was born in Frankfurt into a military family. After seven years in the Prussian army, Kleist spent the period 1799-1810 studying law and philosophy in Frankfurt, serving as a minor official in Berlin and Königsberg, and traveling through Europe. He was also writing. His important plays include the tragedy Die Familie Schroffenstein (1803), the popular romantic drama Käthchen von Heilbronn (1810), the comedy The Broken Pitcher (1806; pub. 1811?; trans. 1961), and the patriotic play The Prince of Homburg (1811; pub. 1821, trans. 1956), which no one in a Germany occupied by Napoleonic armies would produce. He published some poems, the tragedy Penthesilea (1808), and the novella Michael Kohlhass (1808; trans. 1967) in Phöbus, a literary periodical he cofounded. His eight masterly works in the novella form—which also include The Marquise of O. ...—were published in Tales (1810-1811; trans. 1960). He founded a patriotic newspaper, Berliner Abendblätter, in 1810, but it was suppressed in 1811. Lacking a job, a publisher, or a producer, and depressed by the French occupation, Kleist shot himself and his mistress in 1811 near Berlin.