Heinrich von Kleist

Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811), whose full name was Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist, was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short story writer and journalist. He was born on 18 October 1777 in Frankfurt an der Oder. His best known plays are The Prince of Homburg, Das Kathchen von Heilbronn, The Broken Jug, Amphitryon and Penthesilea, and his best known prose consists of the novellas Michael Kohlhaas and The Marquise of O. In November 1811 he took his own life by shooting himself in a suicide pact with a close woman friend who was terminally ill. The Kleist Prize, a prestigious German literary award, is named after him, as was the Kleist Theater in his birthplace.