Kleist's Grave at Kleiner Wannsee

Berlin · Tyskland · Natural site

A quiet slope down to the Kleiner Wannsee hides one of German literature's darkest places. On 21 November 1811 the poet Heinrich von Kleist came here with Henriette Vogel, a terminally ill friend who had asked him to help her die. At the lakeshore Kleist shot first her and then himself – a carefully planned joint death that both had described in cheerful farewell letters that very morning. The pair were buried quietly where they fell, since suicides could not rest in consecrated ground, and Kleist's grave remains on the spot to this day beneath old trees. The stone's inscription has changed over the centuries, but the weight of the place endures: readers make their pilgrimage here at dusk, and many speak of the strange stillness that lies over the slope where one of the country's greatest writers chose to end.

FAQ

Hvor ligger Kleist's Grave at Kleiner Wannsee?

Kleist's Grave at Kleiner Wannsee ligger i Berlin, Tyskland.

Opplysningene bygger på lokal folketro og vitneskildringer.

Image: Jochen Teufel · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons