Henriette Vogel

Adolphine Sophie Henriette Vogel (born Adolphine Sophie Henriette Kaeber 9 May 1780 – 21 November 1811) was a friend of German poet and dramatist Heinrich von Kleist. They committed suicide together.

Henriette Vogel was married to the landowner Friedrich Ludwig Vogel, called Louis, and had with him a daughter named Pauline. It was said she was a wonderful housewife and companion with a sense for poetry, art, and music, who practiced piano playing and singing.

She met Heinrich von Kleist in 1809 through his friend Adam Müller and, as both discovered mutual affinities, soon friendship flourished between them. They shared a fondness for music, and according to Ernest Peguilhen, Henriette Vogel asked her friend to explain to her the art of war, as well as to teach her fencing, for the dramatist had been a soldier.

The relationship between the two became more intimate in the autumn of 1811. According to their contemporaries, there was no fire of passion but a purely spiritual love. It was Adam Müller's point of view, who in fact had been in love with Henriette for a while. Marie von Kleist, who was the most important sponsor and confidant of Heinrich von Kleist, also made sure that this claim was widely spread.

On November 21, 1811, Kleist first shot Henriette and then himself in the vicinity of the Wannsee in Potsdam. The farewell letters, which the two still wrote in Berlin, on the day of their departure to Wannsee, and the night they had spent there at the inn Gasthof Stimming, are now part of world literature.

The common grave of the two at Kleine Wannsee (Bismarckstrasse) attracts many visitors. It was redesigned by the time of the bicentenary of their deaths. On that occasion was built a direct access from the station Wannsee to the grave. The gravestone, erected by the Nazis in 1936, was turned round and now shows and engraved original text written by Max Ring and the Pater Noster's request: "forgive us our guilt" as well as the names and data of Henriette Vogel and Heinrich von Kleist.

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