Theodor-Fontane-Archiv
Cultural Place of Remembrance
The Theodor Fontane Archive (established 1935) at the University of Potsdam is a literary archive, a research institute and a cultural organization dedicated to Theodor Fontane, his time and his contemporaries. Today, it is a scientific institute of the University of Potsdam.
In 2001 it was admitted to the Federal Government’s »Blaubuch« (Blue Book) as a cultural place of remembrance of particular national significance. Since 2007 it is situated in the Villa Quandt next to Potsdam's Pfingstberg.
Digital Services
The Theodor Fontane Archive is gradually making its collections of objects and metadata available digitally.
Digital Collection of ManuscriptsFontane Bibliography Online
Aktuelles
FontaneVR: the 3D interactive environment for literary societies
Research focus »Digital Literary Archive«
Virtual Exhibition: Tracing Fontane's Legacy
For more than eighty years, the Theodor Fontane Archive has been preserving, indexing, researching and presenting the most extensive authentic »traces« of Theodor Fontane. Since the end of 2019, these »traces« - thousands of manuscripts, but also paintings, drawings and photos as well as life documents of all kinds - can be experienced even more vividly by visitors of the archive: The mobile panel exhibition »Tracing Fontane's Legacy« allows you to explore the Theodor Fontane Archive - its history, holdings and activities - and a wide variety of life documents of Theodor Fontane.
Digital Services
Missing holdings and returns after 1945
Missing Holdings
Numerous collection items of the Theodor Fontane Archive were lost in the last months of the war in ways that remain unexplained to this day. A complete overview of the missing holdings can be found here.
Returns after 1945
The history of the Theodor Fontane Archive since 1945 has also been marked by returns and reacquisitions from private and public collections. A tabular overview of the returnees since 1945 can be found here.
Social Media
Fontane-Zitat
[D]as Menschlichste, was wir haben, ist doch die Sprache, und wir haben sie, um zu sprechen ... .