"The Prince of Homburg," like other works by Kleist, is a Romantic transformation of an incident in history. In the year 1675, the Prince is a general in the service of the Elector of Brandenburg. (In the centuries before the German states were unified, "Elector" [Kurfürst in German] was the title for the ruling princes of the individual states that made up the Holy Roman Empire.) During a war between Brandenburg and Sweden, Homburg disobeys an order from the Elector not to bring his troops into the Battle of Fehrbellin (a place about 90 kilometers from Berlin). Although Homburg's action wins the battle for the Brandenburgers, the Elector has him arrested and court-martialed for insubordination. But due to the intervention of Homburg's fiancee, who is the niece of the Elector, as well as the other officers in the army, the Elector pardons him. We can immediately see several key themes of the Romantic movement. Homburg is an individualist, a man who sees himself an independent actor not bound by authority—as other characters in the literature of the early nineteenth century were, such as Goethe's Faust, Byron's Don Juan and Manfred, and others. But Homburg is also a misfit, an outcast of sorts even before his disobedience of the Elector.

In the first scene, the Elector and his retinue find Homburg asleep on a bench in a garden outside the castle on the night before the battle is to take place. For some unknown reason, the drowsing Homburg is holding a laurel wreath. The others wonder if there is something wrong with him, perhaps that he's ill or crazy, and decide to play a kind of joke on him by taking the laurel wreath away and giving it to the Princess Natalie, with whom Homburg is in love. Homburg then begins sleepwalking, following Natalie, and he inadvertently takes one of the Princess's gloves. He remembers this as a dream, but in a convoluted way the incident ends up being partly responsible for Homburg's not hearing or comprehending the Elector's subsequent order, which he disobeys, to refrain from attacking the Swedes in battle. Homburg is thus the Other, a dreamer laughed at and marginalized by the others. After his court-martial, the Elector relents and indicates that he will allow Homburg to go free if Homburg really believes his insubordination was justified and can defend himself to the Elector. But Homburg chooses not to. The Elector, as stated, ends up pardoning him anyway, but Homburg's decision not to justify his actions is arguably the most revealing thing about him. He does not actually believe himself guilty, so his refusal to defend himself must have other reasons. In my view, Homburg, like other Romantic heroes, is a man alienated from life. As an outsider, a misfit—though apart from the dreamer shown to us in the sleepwalking scene we are not given much insight into his character—he would as soon choose not to live as to do anything else. The inexplicable factors, deep within the psyche, that motivate people or provide a sort of negative motivation, a withdrawal from the world, are what Romantic writers often focus on. The Prince resembles Hamlet in this mystery of world-weariness that afflicts him.

Kleist himself committed suicide at the age of 34 in 1811, the year after he completed "The Prince of Homburg." It is always a bit facile to analyze a literary work in light of the writer's biography, but there is also generally an incontrovertible truth in such real-life connections with art. Kleist's characters often have a self-destructive bent. The surprising thing about "The Prince of Homburg" is that it does not end tragically. We see an unexpected goodness in the authority figure of the Elector, and Homburg's individuality is rewarded rather than punished.