Heinrich von Kleist

Heinrich von Kleist (1777–1811) was a philosopher, novelist, and playwright; the acknowledged precursor of modern drama; and the author for whom Germany’s most prestigious literature prize is named. His plays were controversial, renouncing the Romantic impulse and dramatizing instead moments of real crises. Kleist’s essays frequently explored psychology and metaphysics, and the protagonist in his acclaimed novella “Michael Kohlhaas” eventually served as the inspiration for the character of Coalhouse Walker in E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime. Financially unsuccessful in his day, Kleist shot his terminally ill beloved, and then himself, on the banks of Kleiner Wannsee.