This section is from "The American Cyclopaedia", by George Ripley And Charles A. Dana. Also available from Amazon: The New American Cyclopædia. 16 volumes complete..
Heinrich Spiess, a German painter, born in Munich, May 10, 1832, died there, Aug. 8, 1875. He was the son of an engraver, completed his studies under Kaulbach, whom he assisted in his cartoon of " The Crusaders," and executed a celebrated copy of his "Angel carrying a Dead Child to Heaven." In 1855 he was employed by Kaulbach in decorating the Wartburg, and he was one of the school of artists known as "young Munich," led by Faltz. In 1856 he obtained a prize for his "Jacob Wrestling with the Angel," and in 1861-2 he painted for the museum of Munich the great frescoes relating to the pilgrimage of Duke Henry the Lion to Jerusalem, and to his quelling the disturbances at St. Peter's at the coronation of the emperor Frederick I.
Heinrich Von Kleist, a German poet, born in Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Oct. 10, 1776, died near Potsdam, Nov. 21, 1811. He made the campaign of the Rhine against France, and afterward studied law. After the battle of Jena he lamented in his poems the misfortunes of his country and his own imprisonment during the French occupation of Berlin. During the Austrian war against France in 1809, he hastened full of hope toward Vienna, but heard of the conclusion of peace on his way. Two years later he committed suicide in company with a friend, the wife of a Berlin merchant. He was one of the most able of the German romantic school of poets, and Gervinus calls him "the political Werther of his age."
Heinrich Von Ofterdixgex, a German minstrel, who flourished about 1200. He was a native of Saxony, but is believed to have spent much of his life at the court of Austria, and is one of the reputed authors, according to Simrock, of the second part of the Wartburg-fa'ieg, and according to Spaun of the Nibe-lungenlied; but he had nothing to do with the latter, and his connection with the former and other works is also contested. He is represented in the poem of the Sangerhrieg as one of the great minstrels in the poetical contest at the Wartburg, and his fame has been revived in modern times by Novalis, who made him the hero of an unfinished romance.
Heinrich Von Rustige, a German painter, born at Werl, Westphalia, April 12, 1810. He studied under Schadow in Düsseldorf, was a teacher at the Städel institute in Frankfort, and in 1844 became professor at the school of art in Stuttgart. He paints historical and genre pictures, as "The Gueux. Sermon," "Raphael and the Fornarina," " The Recovered Child," "The Duke of Alva in the Castle of Rudol-stadt," "The Funeral of the Emperor Otho III.," and "The Emperor Frederick II. and his Court at Palermo." He has published poetry and dramas, including Attila and Ludwig der Baier, and a popular military song, Deutscher Marsch, set to music by Kücken.
Heinrich W1jttke, a German historian, born in Brieg, Silesia, Feb. 12, 1818. He studied in Breslau, and in 1841 became a private lecturer and in 1848 professor of history at the university of Leipsic. In the latter year he was elected to the Frankfort parliament, and succeeded Blum in the national assembly, where he was one of the founders of the " Great German" party. His works include Polen und Deutsche (Leipsic, 1847); Brdhunde und Karten des Mittelalters (1854); Die Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig (Berlin, 1863); Ueber die Gewissheit der Geschichte (1865); and Geschichte der Schrift (1872 et seq.).
 
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