From a Prussian family with military traditions, Von Kleist joined the Potsdam Guards when he was 15 and took part in the Rhine campaign of 1792. He left the military in 1799 and began to make his way as an author in Berlin. He travelled to France and Switzerland and published his first book, Die Familien Schroffenstein, in 1800. Later that year he producedDer Zerbrochene Krug (The Broken Jug), one of German literature's best comedies. He returned to Prussia and spent time in Weimar before taking a civil-service position in Koningsberg. He later lived in Dresden, but returned to Berlin in 1809 during the Napoleonic campaigns. He then went to Prague, where he produced a patriotic journal called Germania. He returned to Berlin in 1810 and started a newspaper, the Berliner Abendblatter. During 1810 and 1811 collections of his short stories were published, but he still had trouble attracting financing for his plays. In final despair, Kleist entered a suicide pact with Henriette Vogel, a woman who was suffering from terminal cancer. Kleist's death stimulated interest in his works and today he is regarded as a major figure in German literature. Some of his other works included Penthesilea (1807), Katie of Heilbronn (1808). On the Marionette Theatre (1810), Robert Guiskard (1810) and Prince Fredserick of Homburg (1811). |
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