Heinrich von Kleist

Heinrich von Kleist was born on October 18, 1777, in the small town of Frankfurt an der Oder. His parents passed away when Kleist was still young, and an aunt took on the responsibility of raising him. In 1788, Kleist was sent to a boarding school, and at the age of 14, he enlisted in the Potsdam Guard. He remained in the military until 1799. In 1801, Kleist went to the island of Delos on Lake Thun in Switzerland. There, he experienced a brief period of happiness, enough to complete his first play, "The Ghonorets Family," which he later set in Germany and retitled "The Schroffenstein Family" (1803). He focused on writing plays from 1803 to 1811, including "The Schroffenstein Family" (1803), "The Broken Jug" (1806), "Amphitryon" (1807), "Penthesilea" (1807), "Käthchen of Heilbronn" (1807), "The Battle of Hermann" (1808), and "The Prince of Homburg" (1811). He also wrote short stories and novellas from 1806 to 1811, such as "The Earthquake in Chile" (1807), "The Marquise of O..." (1808), "Michael Kohlhaas," "The Beggarwoman of Locarno" (1810), "The Foundling," "The Engagement in Santo Domingo," "Saint Cecilia or the Power of Music," and "The Duel" (1811). In 1807, Kleist started a monthly literary magazine, "Phoebus," which served as a vehicle for publishing excerpts of his works. However, a series of adversities followed this period of good fortune. Although Goethe agreed to stage "The Broken Jug," he rejected "Penthesilea." Furthermore, "The Broken Jug" failed on the Weimar stage, tensions arose between Goethe and Kleist, and "Phoebus" closed in December 1808. A period of depression was followed by renewed enthusiasm. In 1810, he published the first Prussian daily newspaper, "Berliner Abendblätter," which closed in March 1811. Some of his stories, such as "Saint Cecilia or the Power of Music," and significant essays, most notably "On the Marionette Theater" (1810), were published in the "Berliner Abendblätter." The closure of the newspaper dealt the final blow. He turned back to theater, but no one was willing to stage his work. It was then that he happened to meet Henriette Vogel, a married woman suffering from incurable cancer. Betraying his wife, Marie von Kleist, who refused a suicide pact, Kleist turned to Vogel, who enthusiastically embraced the idea of a double death. They meticulously prepared the final details. Kleist burned the remnants of his works, including his autobiographical novella "The Story of My Soul," which reportedly astonished the few who read it. On November 21, 1811, they went to the countryside and drank tea; there, Kleist first shot Vogel and then himself.