Letters by Heinrich von Kleist discovered: What is so surprising about the new sources

Five previously unknown letters by Heinrich von Kleist have been found, commented on and presented by German scholars. Perhaps the most interesting result of the new sources is that Kleist, who hated the French, was in agreement with Napoleon.

In the spring of 1809, the patriotic atmosphere in Germany was burning. Austria began a war against Napoleon and his German allies, including Bavaria, which the Austrians hated. They hoped to strike the French Emperor in a moment of weakness, as he seemed tied up in a stubborn people’s war in Spain. German patriots also longed for such a people’s war against the foreign ruler who had crushed Prussia in 1806 and reorganized the rest of Germany with satellite states.