von Kleist was born into the Prussian officer class, one of seven children of the two marriages of his father, who died in 1788. von Kleist was soon sent away to Berlin to be raised by a Lutheran pastor, Samuel Heinrich Catel, where he was unhappy. Aged only 14, he enlisted in the Prussian army in 1792 but in 1793 his mother died, leaving him an orphan at 15.

His lack of a proper Prussian devotion to discipline, order and "correctness," and his aimless lifestyle after leaving the army in 1799, estranged him from almost his entire family. He also had a speech impediment.

He became a literary magazine editor/publisher in Berlin and the author of a relatively small but very important body of plays, short stories, novellas, essays and poems.

Deeply depressed by life and by his study of Kant's philosophy, he shot himself and a friend, Henrietta Vogel, in a murder/suicide pact.

References

Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia, 1993-97
Hohoff, Curt. Heinrich von Kleist in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. (Hamburg: Rowolt, 1958)
Koch, Friedrich. Heinrich von Kleist: Bewußtsein und Wirklichkeit. (Stuttgart: J.B.Metzler, 1958)
Maass, Joachim. Kleist: A Biography. (New York: Straus & Giroux, 1983)
Kleist-Archiv Sembdner der Stadt Heilbronn. "Heinrich von Kleist: Biographien." Available at: http://www.kleist.org/umat/bio.htm
The Heinrich von Kleist Society in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, which runs his birthplace museum, also has a Website, available at: http://viadrina.euv-frankfurt-o.de/kleist/kleistge.html

Indexes

European
Germany
18th Century
19th Century
Journalism
Literature
Mental Illness
Physical Handicaps
School-age Years, Adolescence
Unmarried Mother, Single Parent (Mother or Father) Unable to Cope
Family Friends or Acquaintances
Customary or Traditional Adoption, Informal and Extra-Legal Care
Adoptees/Fosterees from Wealthy, Famous, Noble or Divine Birth Families
Birth Sibling(s) Separated