Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/120

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108 K L A K L

population left the town in consequence of the introduction of Unitarian doctrines. In 1603 it fell into the hands of the usurper Moses Székely, but was soon regained by the imperialists under General Basta. In 1662 it was ineffectually besieged by the Transylvanian prince Michael Apaffi I., but two years later it came into his power. The burg or citadel was erected between 1715-23, during the reign of King Charles III. (as emperor, Charles VI.). In 1798 the town was to a great extent destroyed by fire. As capital of Transylvania and the seat of the Transylvanian diets, Klausenburg from 1830-48 became the centre of the national movement in the grand principality; and in December 1848 it was taken and garrisoned by the Hungarians under the Polish General Bem. After the conclusion of the war it was degraded from its position as capital of Transylvania, and subordinated to Nagyszeben (Hermannstadt), but in 1861 it was reinstated in its former rank. The official name is Kolozsvár.


KLAUSTHAL, or Clausthal, in the circle of Zellerfeld and the district of Hildesheim, Prussia, is the chief town and mining centre of the Upper Harz. It is situated on a bleak plateau, 1860 feet above sea-level, and unites to form one town with Zellerfeld on the opposite bank of the Zellbach. The streets are broad, opportunity for improvement having been given by fires in 1844 and 1854; the houses are mostly of wood. Klausthal has a famous mining college, with a mineralogical museum, and a mine-surveying and a mining school. There is also a disused mint The men of the town are mainly employed in the neighbouring mines and smelting works; of the latter the most important is the Frankenscharner silver smelting house, where American as well as German ore is worked. The population in 1875 was 8539; including Zellerfeld, it was 12,799.


Klausthal was founded about the middle of the 16th century, after the erection of the Benedictine monastery at Cella. Mining was carried on by the monks, and more energetically by the dukes of Brunswick, who brought miners from Franconia.


KLÉBER, Jean Baptiste (1753-1800), was born at Strasburg in 1753 or 1754, where his father was a builder. He was meant to be an architect, but his opportune assistance to two German nobles in a tavern brawl obtained for him a nomination to the military school of Munich. He soon obtained a commission, but resigned it in 1783 on finding his humble birth in the way of his promotion. On returning to France he was appointed inspector of public buildings at Belfort, where he studied fortification and military science. In 1792 he enlisted in the Haut-Rhin volunteers, and was from his military knowledge at once elected adjutant. At the siege of Mainz under Merlin de Thionville, he so distinguished himself that he was made general of brigade in July 1793. In that capacity he commanded in the Vendean war, and was instrumental in winning the victories of Torfou, Chollet, Le Mans, and Savenay. For openly expressing his opinion that lenient measures ought to be pursued towards the Vendeans he was recalled; but in April 1794 he was made general of division, and sent to the army of the North. Under Jourdan he commanded the left wing at Fleurus, June 26, 1794, and Aldenhaven, October 2, and took Maastricht after a short siege on November 8. During the winter of 1794-95 he besieged Mainz, and on June 4, 1796, gained the victory of Altenkirchen over the prince of Würtemberg. Kléber now considered he had a fair claim to a command in chief, and, not receiving one in the spring of 1797, he resigned his division in disgust, and retired to Paris. There he allied himself with the reactionary party, and, according to Mathieu Dumas even offered to command any forces that could be raised against the coup d'état of Fructidor 1797, but there were no forces to command. He gladly accepted a division in the expedition to Egypt under Bonaparte, but was wounded in the head at Alexandria in the very first engagement, which prevented his taking any further part in the campaign of the Pyramids, and caused him to be appointed governor of Alexandria. In the Syrian campaign of 1799, however, he commanded the vanguard, took El-Arish, Gaza, and Jaffa, and bore the brunt of the battle of Mount Tabor, April 15, 1799. Being left by Bonaparte in command of the army in Egypt, he made the convention of El-Arish, and, when Lord Keith refused to ratify the terms, attacked the Turks at Heliopolis, though with but 10,000 men against 60,000, and utterly defeated them on March 20, 1800. He then retook Cairo, which had revolted from the French, and was assassinated there by a fanatic on June 14, 1800, the very day on which Desaix fell at Marengo. Kléber was undoubtedly one of the greatest generals of the French revolutionary epoch, but hardly had a chance of showing his powers against a capable adversary; Napoleon's ejaculation on hearing of his death was "Eh bien; a rival the less."


Ernouf, the grandson of Jourdan's chief of the staff, published in 1867 a valuable biography of Kléber. See also Reynaud's Life of Merlin de Thionville, Ney's Memoirs, Dumas's Souvenirs, Napoleon's Memoirs, dictated at St Helena, and Martha-Becker's Desaix.


KLEIN, Julius Leopold (1804-1876), a German writer of Jewish origin, was born at Miscolcz, in Hungary, in 1804. He was educated at the gymnasium in Pest, and studied medicine in Vienna and Berlin. After travelling in Italy and Greece, he settled as a man of letters in Berlin, where he remained until his death in 1876. He was the author of many dramatic works, among others the historical tragedies Maria von Medici, Luines, Zenobia, Moreto, Maria, Strafford, and Heliodora, and the comedies Die Herzogin, Ein Schützling, and Voltaire. These plays were published between 1841 and 1867. The tendency of Klein as a dramatist was to become bombastic and obscure, but many of his characters are vigorously conceived, and in nearly all his tragedies there are passages of brilliant rhetoric. He is chiefly known as the author of an elaborate Geschichte des Dramas (1865-1876), in which he undertook to record the history of the drama both in ancient and in modern times. He died when about to enter upon the Elizabethan period, to the treatment of which he had looked forward as the chief part of his task. The work, which is in 12 bulky volumes, gives proof of immense learning, but is marred by many eccentricities of style.

KLINTZY, a town in Russia, situated in the government of Tchernigoff, 203 miles north-east of the capital of the province. It is one of the most important industrial centres in Little Russia. Its 8000 inhabitants are engaged in the manufacture of woollen cloth and knitted woollen goods (to the value of more than £100,000 per annum), morocco-leather, leather, and cast-iron wares.

KLOPSTOCK, Friedrich Gottlieb (1724-1803), German poet, was born at Quedlinburg on the 2d of July 1724. He was educated partly at the gymnasium of his native town, partly at Schulpforta. After studying theology for a short time at Jena, he went in 1746 to the university of Leipsic, where he made the acquaintance of Cramer, Schlegel, Rabener, and other young rnen of letters, who were conducting the Bremische Beiträge. At Schulpforta Klopstock had become conscious of a talent for poetry, and had resolved to write a great epic. His original intention was to make Henry the Fowler his hero, but this was soon abandoned in favour of the scheme to which he devoted the best years of his life. The first three cantos of The Messiah, which were planned in prose in Jena, he finished in Leipsic; and they were published anonymously in the Bremische Beiträge in 1748. The name of the author was soon known, and Klopstock suddenly found himself the most popular poet of his generation. In 1748 he accepted the position of tutor to a private family in Langensalza, and in 1750 he went to Zürich, whither he was invited by Bodmer, the translator of Paradise Lost, who had been deeply impressed by the early cantos of The