Kleist, (Bernd) Heinrich Wilhelm von

Kleist, (Bernd) Heinrich Wilhelm von (1777-1811), German dramatist, whose depiction of humanity's torment by incompatible demands won him recognition as one of the foremost German dramatists, despite his short career. He was born in Frankfurt an der Oder to 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 travelling through Europe. He was also writing. He was greatly influenced by the Romantic movement, particularly its philosophy and interest in the subconscious workings of the human mind. In his personal life and in his writing his struggle to come to terms with his own destiny and individuality, the conflict between the emotions and the intellect, and the realization that knowledge is illusory are prominent. His important plays include the tragedy Die Familie Schroffenstein (1803), the popular romantic drama Käthchen von Heilbronn (1810), the comedy Der zerbrochene Krug (1806; pub. c. 1811; The Broken Pitcher, 1961), and the patriotic play Prinz Friedrich von Homburg (1811; pub. 1821, The Prince of Homburg, 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 Kohlhaas (1808; trans. 1967) in Phöbus, a literary periodical he co-founded. His eight masterly works in the novella form—which also include Die Marquise von O—were published in Erzählungen (1810-1811; Tales, 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, at her request, in 1811 near Berlin.