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KLEIST, EWALD CHRISTIAN VON (1715–1759)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 846 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KLEIST, See also:EWALD See also:CHRISTIAN VON (1715–1759) , See also:German poet, was See also:bore] at Zeblin, near See also:Koslin in See also:Pomerania, on the 7th of See also:March 1715. After attending the Jesuit school in Deutschkrona and the gymnasium in See also:Danzig, he proceeded in 1731 to the university of See also:Konigsberg, where he studied See also:law and See also:mathematics. On the completion of his studies, he entered the Danish See also:army, in which he became an officer in 1736. Recalled to See also:Prussia by See also:Frederick II. in 1740, he was appointed See also:lieutenant in a See also:regiment stationed at See also:Potsdam, where he became acquainted with J. W. L. See also:Gleim (q.v.), who interested him in See also:poetry. After distinguishing himself at the See also:battle of Mollwitz (See also:April lo, 1741) and the See also:siege of See also:Neisse (1741), he was promoted See also:captain in 1749 and See also:major in r7J6. Quartered during the See also:winter of 1757–1758 in See also:Leipzig, he found See also:relief from his irksome military duties in the society of Gotthold See also:Ephraim See also:Lessing (q.v.). Shortly afterwards in the battle of See also:Kunersdorf, on the 12th of See also:August 1759, he was mortally wounded while leading the attack, and died at See also:Frankfort-on-See also:Oder on the 24th of August following. Kleist's See also:chief See also:work is a poem in hexameters, Der Fruhling (1749), for which See also:Thomson's Seasons largely supplied ideas. In his description of the beauties of nature Kleist shows real poetical See also:genius, an almost See also:modern sentiment and See also:fine See also:taste..

He also wrote some charming odes, idylls and elegies, and a small epic poem Cissides and Paches (1759), the subject being two Thessaliaa See also:

friends who See also:die an heroic See also:death for their See also: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 See also:Ramler (q.v.) published an edition of Kleists sdmtliche Werke in 2 vols. (1760). A See also:critical edition was published by A. Sauer, in 3 vols. (1880-1882). Cf. further, A. Chuquet, De Ewaldi Kleistii vita et scriptis (See also:Paris, 1887), and H. Prahle, See also:Friedrich der See also:Grosse and die deutsche Literatur (1872).

End of Article: KLEIST, EWALD CHRISTIAN VON (1715–1759)

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