Theodor Fontane

Theodor Fontane (December 30, 1819, Neuruppin - September 20, 1898, Berlin) was a German novelist and poet.

Youth

Fontane was born in Neuruppin into a Huguenot family. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a apothecary, his father's profession. He took up the profession and in 1839, at the age of 20, wrote his first works (Heinrichs IV. erste Liebe, lost). He continued his education in Leipzig, where he got in contact with the progressives of the Vormärz. His first post as apothecary was in Dresden, after which he returned to his father's shop now in the province town Oderbruch. Evading the provincial athmosphere, Fontane published in the Leipzig newspaper Die Eisenbahn, and translated Shakespeare. In 1843, he joined a literary society called Tunnel over the Spree in Berlin, where he met with many the most renowned prose writers in Germany: Theodor Storm, Joseph von Eichendorff and Gottfried Keller.

Newspaper writer and critic

In 1844 he enrolled in the Prussian army, started the first of many journeys to England, which fostered his interest in old English ballads, a form he took up at that time. He engaged his later wife, Emilie Rouanet-Kummer, whom he knew from school. After briefly participating in the revolutionary events of 1848. In 1849, ended his work as pharmacist and newspaper writer and took up writing. To support his family, he took up work as a writer for the Prussian information agency Centralstelle für Preußenangelegenheiten, that was installed to influence the press furthering the national cause. His speciality was again England, allowing him to spend several years in London, later joined by his wife and now two sons. Still in London, he quit his government job and, returning to Berlin became editor for the conservative Kreuzzeitung.

London

His books about England include Ein Sommer in London (1854); Aus England, Studien und Briefe (1860) and Jenseits des Tweed, Bilder und Briefe aus Schottland (1860). Old England was en vogue in the continent at this time; his Gedichte (1851) and ballads Männer und Helden (1860) tell of England's glories in bygone days. Then the achievements of his own countrymen entered into rivalry, and these, as an ardent patriot, he immortalized in poem and narrative.

In 1860, for the first time, his finances worries lessened, and his daughter and another son was born. Fontane was particularly attached to the Mark Brandenburg, place of origin; he was proud of its past achievements, and delighted in the growth of the capital city, Berlin. The fascination especially for the countryside around Berlin may be seen in his delightfully picturesque Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg (1862—1882, 5 vols.).

Prussian War

In 1870, he quit his job at the Kreuzzeitung and became stage critic for the liberal Vossische Zeitung, a job he kept until retirement. He had already described the earlier wars of Prussia in Der schleswig-holsteinische Krieg im Jahre 1864 (1866) and Der deutsche Krieg von 1866 (1869). He proceeded to the theatre of war in 1870, and, being taken prisoner at Vaucouleurs, remained three months in captivity. His experiences are given in Kriegsgefangen Erlebtes 1870 (1871), and he published the result of his observations of the campaign in Der Krieg gegen Frankreich 1870—71 (1874—1876).

Later years

At the age of 57, he completely took to his passion, the novel. His fine historical romance Vor dem Sturm (1878) was followed by a series of novels of modern life, notably L'Adultera (1882), which the public found so, that it took Fontane two years to find a publisher. In this novel, Frau Jenny Treibel, Irrungen und Wirrungen and Effi Briest (1894), he found his special tone, yielding insights into lives of nobility as well as the "common man"; this was later described as poetic realism. In Der Stechlin (1899) Fontane adapted the realistic methods and social criticism of contemporary French fiction to the conditions of Prussian life.

Poems

• Archibald Douglas
• Die Brück am Tay
• John Maynard
• Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland
• Aber es bleibt auf dem alten Fleck
• Ausgang

External link

• Trials and Tribulations (http://www.bartleby.com/315/4/) (English)
• Project Gutenberg Fontane works (http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/autoren/fontane.htm) (German)
• Link collection (http://www.ub.fu-berlin.de/internetquellen/fachinformation/germanistik/autoren/multi_fgh/fontane.html)

This text includes material adapted from

• Fontane biography (http://www.xlibris.de/Autoren/Fontane/Fontane-Biographie/Fontane-Biographie-01.htm) (German)

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