Heinrich Von Kleist

German poet, novelist and playwright. Born into a military family, he entered the Prussian army, 1792-1799, leaving to study mathematics and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt. He produced his first play in 1803, a tragedy. In 1807, he was arrested as a spy and imprisoned. When released, he lived in Dresden where he published a literary periodical. Too passionately nationalistic for occupied Germany, Kleist was not recognized in his time, and in his despair over his latest writing, a political newspaper, he arranged for his suicide. At the time, he had a fatal passion for Henriette Vogel and he shot her to death before turning the gun on himself on 21 November 1811 at about 4:30 PM near Potsdam, Germany.