Heinrich von Kleist

Born in Frankfurt an der Oder on October 18, 1777, Heinrich von Kleist served in the Prussian army before turning toward study and writing. He became a poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer, and journalist, and his life was marked by constant movement, intellectual searching, and periods of personal crisis.

Kleist is best known for plays including The Prince of Homburg, Das Käthchen von Heilbronn, The Broken Jug, Amphitryon, and Penthesilea, as well as the novellas Michael Kohlhaas and The Marquise of O. His writing often blends powerful emotion, moral conflict, and abrupt shifts in tone, which helped later readers see him as one of the most original German-language writers of his era.

He died near Berlin on November 21, 1811, at only thirty-four. Although his life was short, his reputation grew strongly after his death, and he is now widely regarded as a major figure in German literature.