Theodor Fontane

A Life Sketch

Henri Theodor Fontane – born on the 30th of December 1819 in Neuruppin. Went to school (or sometimes didn’t) there as well as in Swinemünde and Berlin. Both parents are descended from Huguenot families. Father Pharmacist, first in Neuruppinm, later in Swinemünde, Mühlberg and Letschin. Fontane begins his pharmacy apprenticeship in Berlin and works as a pharmacist in Burg, Leipzig, Dresden and Berlin.

  • 1835, his first meeting with Emilie Rouanet-Kummer, his later wife. First poems. First attempts at prose. First translations from English: poems, ballads, Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Becomes a member of the Literary Sunday Society Tunnel über der Spree (Tunnel over the Spree) through a childhood friend, to which he belongs for more than 20 years.
  • 1844, Military service as a one-year volunteer. First trip abroad: to London with a friend from his youth, who pays for the trip.
  • 1848, according to his own accounts, takes part in the barricade fights in Berlin.
  • Political journalism, including an article Preußens Zukunft in the newspaper Berliner Zeitungshalle. Unable to buy his own pharmacy for material reasons.
  • From 1849, freelance writer. The first books appear: Männer und Helden. Acht Preußenlieder  and the ballad cycleVon der schönen Rosamunde.

Further reading

This sketch outlines Theodor Fontane’s life and work. We suggest the following titles for an in-depth look:

Roland Berbig: Theodor Fontane Chronik. 5 Bände. Berlin/New York 2010.

as well as the recently published biographies:

Iwan-Michelangelo D’Aprile: Fontane. Ein Jahrhundert in Bewegung. Reinbek b. Hamburg 2018. – Regina Dieterle: Theodor Fontane. Biografie. München 2018. – Hans-Dieter Rutsch: Der Wanderer. Das Leben des Theodor Fontane. Berlin 2018. – Hans Dieter Zimmermann: Theodor Fontane. Der Romancier Preußens. München 2019.

  • 1850, his parents separate without a divorce. Fontane receives a small position in the Prussian State and marries. Loss of position due to dissolution of the department.
  • 1851 new position at the »Zentralstelle für Preßangelegenheiten« (Central Department for Press Affairs), on whose behalf he is sent to London.
  • 1855 to 1859 works as a press agent on government mandate in London. Political and feuilletonistic reports for German newspapers.
  • Birth of six sons, three of which die shortly thereafter, and a daughter, Martha. Return to Berlin.
  • 1860 employed by the Neue Preußische Zeitung a.k.a. Kreuzzeitung  as »unechter Korrespondent« (mock correspondent) of the English articles until he resigns in 1870.
  • In the following years, publication of travel books from England and Scotland. Commencement of the Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg as a series of newspaper and magazine articles, which first appear as a book in 1861 and undergoes several revisions and sequential publishing.
  • Trips to the theatre of war in 1864 (against Denmark), 1866 (against Austria) and 1870/71 (against France). Subsequently, comprehensive war books appear in hopes of earning royal recognition. Spends several months as a prisoner of war in France because he is mistaken for a spy.
  • 1870 begins his twenty years of work as a theatre critic for the Vossische Zeitung.
  • 1876 attempts to become a civil servant, which Fontane abandons after a few months of his own volition.
  • From 1878, 16 novels and novellas appear in 20 years, beginning with Vor dem Sturm to Der Stechlin, including, among others, autobiographical works and reprints of Gedichte and the Wanderungen.
  • In 1894 Fontane receives an honorary doctorate of the Friedrich Wilhelms University  Berlin.

Theodor Fontane dies on the 20th of September 1898 in his Berlin apartment.