Kleist was born into the
von Kleist family in
Frankfurt an der Oder in the
Margraviate of Brandenburg, a province of the
Kingdom of Prussia. After a scanty education, he entered the
Prussian Army in 1792, served in the
Rhine campaign of 1796, and retired from the service in 1799 with the rank of lieutenant. He studied
law,
philosophy,
natural sciences and
Latin at the
Viadrina University, and in 1800, he obtained a subordinate post in the Ministry of Finance at Berlin. In the following year, Kleist's roving restless spirit got the better of him, and procuring a lengthened leave of absence, he visited Paris, then settled in Switzerland. There, he found congenial friends in
Heinrich Zschokke and (1777–1819), son of the poet
Christoph Martin Wieland; and to them, he read his first drama, a gloomy tragedy, '''' (1803). In the autumn of 1802, Kleist returned to Germany; he visited
Goethe,
Schiller, and Wieland in
Weimar, stayed for a while in
Leipzig and
Dresden, returned to Paris. Returning in 1804 to his post in Berlin, he transferred to the Domänenkammer (department for the administration of crown lands) at
Königsberg. On a journey to Dresden in 1807, Kleist was arrested by the French as a spy; he remained a close prisoner of
France in the
Fort de Joux. On regaining his liberty, he proceeded to Dresden, where, in conjunction with
Adam Heinrich Müller (1779–1829), he published the journal
Phöbus in 1808. after renovation in 2011 addressed to his half-sister Ulrike In 1809 Kleist went to
Prague, and ultimately settled in Berlin. He edited (1810/1811) the ''''. Captivated by the intellectual and musical accomplishments of the terminally-ill Henriette Vogel(
de), Kleist, more disheartened and embittered than ever, agreed to do her bidding and die with her, carrying out this resolution by first shooting Vogel then himself on the shore of the Kleiner
Wannsee (Little Wannsee) near
Potsdam, on 21 November 1811. According to the
Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, "Kleist's whole life was filled by a restless striving after ideal and illusory happiness, and this is reflected in his work. He was by far the most important North German dramatist of the
Romantic movement, and no other of the Romanticists approaches him in the energy with which he expresses patriotic indignation."
A life with a plan In the spring of 1799, the 21-year-old Kleist wrote a letter to his half-sister in which he found it "incomprehensible how a human being can live without a life plan" (
Lebensplan). In effect, Kleist sought and discovered an overwhelming sense of security by looking to the future with a definitive plan for his life.
Marie von Kleist, the most important sponsor and confidant of Heinrich von Kleist, also made sure these rumors spread. According to the autopsy report, Vogel was suffering from
cancer. On 21 November 1811 the two traveled from Berlin to Wannsee. Prior to their departure, they penned farewell letters, along with an account of the final night they spent at the inn Gasthof Stimming. Upon their arrival in the vicinity of the
Wannsee in
Potsdam, Kleist shot Henriette, then turned the gun on himself. They were buried together in a common grave at Kleine Wannsee (Bismarckstrasse), which became a tourist attraction. It was re-designed prior to the bi-centenary of their deaths. On that occasion, direct access from Wannsee station to the grave was built. The gravestone, erected in 1936, was rotated, and shows engraved original text written by
Max Ring and the Pater Noster's request: "forgive us our guilt" as well as the names and data of Henriette Vogel and Heinrich von Kleist. == Literary works ==