Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811) was a German poet, dramatist, novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. Along with his older contemporaries Goethe and Schiller, he was one of the great innovative forces in the early Romantic movement. After serving in the Prussian Army during the Rhine campaign of 1796, Kleist enrolled in Viadrina University, where he studied law and philosophy. Eventually, after much travel, he settled in Berlin. He committed double suicide with a terminally ill woman.
