High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Graf August von Platen-Hallermünde (24 October 1796 - 5 December 1835), German poet and dramatist, was born at Ansbach, the son of the Oberforstmeister in the little principality of that name. In German he mostly is called Count (Graf) Platen. The latter, together with other Franconian principalities, having shortly after his birth become incorporated with Bavaria, he entered the school of cadets (Kadettenhaus) in Munich, where he showed early promise of poetical talent. In 1810 he passed into the royal school of pages (Königliche Pagerie), and in 1814 was appointed lieutenant in the regiment of Bavarian life-guards. With it he took part in the short campaign in France of 1815, being in bivouac for several months near Mannheim and in the department of the Yonne. He saw no fighting, however, and returned home with his regiment towards the close of the same year. Possessed of an intense desire for study, and finding garrison life distasteful and irksome, he obtained a long leave of absence, and after a tour in Switzerland and the Bavarian Alps, entered the university of Würzburg in 1818 as a student of philosophy and philology.