Heinrich von Kleist

Heinrich von Kleist (1777–1811) was a German dramatist, short-story writer, poet, and publisher. Born in Frankfurt an der Oder, he served in the Prussian military from 1792 to 1799 before beginning university studies, which he abandoned in 1800. His best-known works include the plays “The Broken Jug,” “Penthesilea,” and “The Käthchen of Heilbronn,” as well as the stories “Michael Kohlhaas,” “The Marquise of O—,” and “The Earthquake in Chile.” Kleist also edited the periodicals Phöbus and the Berliner Abendblätter. In 1811, he died by suicide at the Wannsee near Berlin together with Henriette Vogel.