Heinrich von Kleist, Prinz Friedrich von Homburg [The Prince of Homburg]

William C. Reeve (Queen's University at Kingston Ontario)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.2: German-language Writing and Culture: Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, 800-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1821

Places

Germany, Brandenburg (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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Recommended Reading

After his patriotic drama

Die Hermannsschlacht

[

Hermann’s Battle

, 1808], Kleist resolved to write a play to encourage Prussia to resist Napoleonic domination and gain independence for itself and the other German states. In 1809 he read K.H. Krause’s

My Fatherland Under the Hohenzollern Regents

and discovered an account of the battle of Fehrbellin (1675). Other possible sources include the Roman historian Livy and his concern with insubordination, the disobedience of the Bastard de Boissy as related by François de Boyvin in his

Nouvelles Collections de Mémoires

(1607), Frederick the Great’s unsuccessful attempt to escape to England, the fate of Prince Louis Ferdinand who, by refusing to obey orders, destroyed his troops and himself during the 1806-07 campaign against France, or…

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3163 words

Citation: Reeve, William C.. "Prinz Friedrich von Homburg". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 March 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13121, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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