His first tragedy, Die Familie Schroffenstein, has been already referred to; the material for the second, Penthesilea (1808), queen of the Amazons, is taken from a Greek source and presents a picture of wild passion. More successful than either of these was his romantic play, Das Käthchen von Heilbronn, oder Die Feuerprobe (1808), a poetic drama full of medieval bustle and mystery, which has retained its popularity. In comedy, Kleist made a name with Der zerbrochene Krug (1811), while Amphitryon (1808), an adaptation of Molière’s comedy, is of less importance. Of Kleist’s other dramas, Die Hermannschlacht (1809) is a dramatic treatment of an historical subject and is full of references to the political conditions of his own times. In it he gives vent to his hatred of his country’s oppressors. This, together with the drama Prinz Friedrich von Homburg, the latter accounted Kleist’s best work, was first published by Ludwig Tieck in Kleists hinterlassene Schriften (1821). Robert Guiskard, a drama conceived on a grand plan, was left a fragment. Kleist was also a master in the art of narrative, and of his Gesammelte Erzählungen (1810–1811), Michael Kohlhaas, in which the famous Brandenburg horse dealer in Luther’s day (see Kohlhase) is immortalized, is one of the best German stories of its time. He also wrote some patriotic lyrics. His Gesammelte Schriften were published by Ludwig Tieck (3 vols. 1826) and by Julian Schmidt (new ed. 1874); also by F. Muncker (4 vols. 1882); by T. Zolling (4 vols. 1885); by K. Siegen, (4 vols. 1895); and in a critical edition by E. Schmidt (5 vols. 1904–1905). His Ausgewählte Dramen were published by K. Siegen (Leipzig, 1877); and his letters were first published by E. von Bülow, Heinrich von Kleists Leben und Briefe (1848).
See further A. Wilbrandt, Heinrich von Kleist (1863); O. Brahm, Heinrich von Kleist (1884); R. Bonafous, Henri de Kleist, sa vie et ses œuvres (1894); H. Conrad, Heinrich von Kleist als Mensch und Dichter (1896); G. Minde-Pouet, Heinrich von Kleist, seine Sprache und sein Stil (1897); R. Steig, Heinrich von Kleists Berliner Kämpfe (1901); F. Servaes, Heinrich von Kleist (1902); S. Wukadinowic, Kleist-Studien (1904); S. Rahmer, H. von Kleist als Mensch und Dichter (1909).
KLEIST, EWALD CHRISTIAN VON (1715–1759), German poet, was born at Zeblin, near Köslin in Pomerania, on the 7th of March 1715. After attending the Jesuit school in Deutschkrona and the gymnasium in Danzig, he proceeded in 1731 to the university of Königsberg, where he studied law and mathematics. On the completion of his studies, he entered the Danish army, in which he became an officer in 1736. Recalled to Prussia by Frederick II. in 1740, he was appointed lieutenant in a regiment stationed at Potsdam, where he became acquainted with J. W. L. Gleim (q.v.), who interested him in poetry. After distinguishing himself at the battle of Mollwitz (April 10, 1741) and the siege of Neisse (1741), he was promoted captain in 1749 and major in 1756. Quartered during the winter of 1757–1758 in Leipzig, he found relief from his irksome military duties in the society of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (q.v.). Shortly afterwards in the battle of Kunersdorf, on the 12th of August 1759, he was mortally wounded while leading the attack, and died at Frankfort-on-Oder on the 24th of August following.
Kleist’s chief work is a poem in hexameters, Der Frühling (1749), for which Thomson’s Seasons largely supplied ideas. In his description of the beauties of nature Kleist shows real poetical genius, an almost modern sentiment and fine taste. He also wrote some charming odes, idylls and elegies, and a small epic poem Cissides und Paches (1759), the subject being two Thessalian friends who die an heroic death for their country in a battle against the Athenians.
Kleist published in 1756 the first collection of his Gedichte, which was followed by a second in 1758. After his death his friend Karl Wilhelm Ramler (q.v.) published an edition of Kleists sämtliche Werke in 2 vols. (1760). A critical edition was published by A. Sauer, in 3 vols. (1880–1882). Cf. further, A. Chuquet, De Ewaldi Kleistii vita et scriptis (Paris, 1887), and H. Pröhle, Friedrich der Grosse und die deutsche Literatur (1872).
KLERKSDORP, a town of the Transvaal, 118 m. S.W. of Johannesburg and 192 m. N.E. of Kimberley by rail. Pop. (1904), 4276 of whom 2203 were whites. The town, built on the banks of the Schoonspruit 10 m. above its junction with the Vaal, possesses several fine public buildings. In the neighbourhood are gold-mines, the reef appearing to form the western boundary of the Witwatersrand basin. Diamonds (green in colour) and coal are also found in the district. Klerksdorp was one of the villages founded by the first Boers who crossed the Vaal, dating from 1838. The modern town, which is on the side of the spruit opposite the old village, was founded in 1888.
KLESL (or Khlesl), MELCHIOR (1552–1630), Austrian statesman and ecclesiastic, was the son of a Protestant baker, and was born in Vienna. Under the influence of the Jesuits he was converted to Roman Catholicism, and having finished his education at the universities of Vienna and Ingolstadt, he was made chancellor of the university of Vienna; and as official and vicar-general of the bishop of Passau he exhibited the zeal of a convert in forwarding the progress of the counter-reformation in Austria. He became bishop of Vienna in 1598; but more important was his association with the archduke Matthias which began about the same time. Both before and after 1612, when Matthias succeeded his brother Rudolph II. as emperor, Klesl was the originator and director of his policy, although he stoutly opposed the concessions to the Hungarian Protestants in 1606. He assisted to secure the election of Matthias to the imperial throne, and sought, but without success, to strengthen the new emperor’s position by making peace between the Catholics and the Protestants. When during the short reign of Matthias the question of the imperial succession demanded prompt attention, the bishop, although quite as anxious as his opponents to retain the empire in the house of Habsburg and to preserve the dominance of the Roman Catholic Church, advised that this question should be shelved until some arrangement with the Protestant princes had been reached. This counsel was displeasing to the archduke Maximilian and to Ferdinand, afterwards the emperor Ferdinand II. who believed that Klesl was hostile to the candidature of the latter prince. It was, however, impossible to shake his influence with the emperor; and in June 1618, a few months before the death of Matthias, he was seized by order of the archdukes and imprisoned at Ambras in Tirol. In 1622 Klesl, who had been a cardinal since 1615, was transferred to Rome by order of Pope Gregory XV., and was released from imprisonment. In 1627 Ferdinand II. allowed him to return to his episcopal duties in Vienna, where he died on the 18th of September 1630.
See J. Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall, Khlesls Leben (Vienna, 1847–1851); A. Kerschbaumer, Kardinal Klesl (Vienna, 1865); and Klesls Briefe an Rudolfs II. Obersthofmeister A. Freiherr von Dietrichstein, edited by V. Bibl. (Vienna, 1900).
KLINGER, FRIEDRICH MAXIMILIAN VON (1752–1831), German dramatist and novelist, was born of humble parentage at Frankfort-on-Main, on the 17th of February 1752. His father died when he was a child, and his early years were a hard struggle. He was enabled, however, in 1774 to enter the university of Giessen, where he studied law; and Goethe, with whom he had been acquainted since childhood, helped him in many ways. In 1775 Klinger gained with his tragedy Die Zwillinge a prize offered by the Hamburg theatre, under the auspices of the actress Sophie Charlotte Ackermann (1714–1792) and her son the famous actor and playwright, Friedrich Ludwig Schröder (1744–1816). In 1776 Klinger was appointed Theaterdichter to the “Seylersche Schauspiel-Gesellschaft” and held this post for two years. In 1778 he entered the Austrian military service and took part in the Bavarian war of succession. In 1780 he went to St Petersburg, became an officer in the Russian army, was ennobled and attached to the Grand Duke Paul, whom he accompanied on a journey to Italy and France. In 1785 he was appointed director of the corps of cadets, and having married a natural daughter of the empress Catharine, was made praeses of the Academy of Knights in 1799. In 1803 Klinger was nominated by the emperor Alexander curator of the university of Dorpat, an office he held until 1817; in 1811 he became lieutenant-general. He then gradually gave up his official posts, and after living for many years in honourable retirement, died at Dorpat on the 25th of February 1831.
Klinger was a man of vigorous moral character and full of fine feeling, though the bitter experiences and deprivations of his youth are largely reflected in his dramas. It was one of his earliest works, Sturm und Drang (1776), which gave its name to this literary epoch. In addition to this tragedy and Die Zwillinge (1776), the chief plays of his early period of passionate fervour and restless “storm and stress” are Die neue Arria (1776), Simsone Grisaldo (1776) and Stilpo und seine Kinder (1780). To
