Heinrich von Kleist

Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist was born at Frankfort on the Oder on the 18th of October, 1777. At the age of fifteen he served in the military. He was reluctant to do so, and eventually gave it up some years later, retiring as a lieutenant and continued to collect knowlede, politically, socially, and anyway. He studied law and philosophy at the Viadrina University and in 1800 received a subordinate post in the Ministry of Finance at Berlin. As he began to write he also travelled, from Berlin to Paris, and from Paris to Switzerland. It is here he wrote his first work "The Schoffenstein Family". In 1807, he was arrested and accused of being a spy by the French, where they held him captive for six months. Afterward he published a journal entitled "Phobus". He went on to write several works, both tragedy and comedy. On Novermber 21, 1811, however, he shot himself.
1803 "The Schroffenstein Family"
1808 "Phobus" Journal
1808 "The Käthchen of Heilbronn"
1808 "The Broken Jug
1809 "Die Hermannsschlacht"
1821 "The Prince of Homburg"