Acquisitions

The archive continuously expands its collections through acquisitions, occasionally also through donations. The announcement of all acquisitions is made in the Fontane Blätter. On this page we present some of the outstanding new acquisitions of the last decades.

In April 2013, the archive was able to purchase eighteen letters from Fontane to his wife Emilie at an auction held by Haus Stargardt. This acquisition was made possible by the support of the »Kulturstiftung der Länder« (Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States). The archive was thus able to add valuable pieces to its collection of letters from the marriage correspondence. The acquired letters date from the last ten years of Fontane's life, a period from which letters from Fontane to his wife were previously only known in transcripts. Three letters in the series were even completely unknown to researchers.

At an auction in November 2010, Fontane’s letters to the Schmiedeberg magistrate Georg Friedlaender came up for auction. The archive was able to acquire these letters, famous since their first publication by Kurt Schreinert, with the support of the »Kulturstiftung der Länder« (Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States), the »Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft«, the »Ministeriums für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur des Landes Brandenburg« (Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg), the »Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung« and the »Mittelbrandenburgische Sparkasse Potsdam«.

In November 2010, the archive was able to acquire 56 of Fontane’s letters to the publicist, philosopher of language and writer Fritz Mauthner at a Hamburg auction. These letters, previously privately owned, were known to researchers only through their publication in the Fontane Blätter in 1984/85. They were acquired with the support of the »Kulturstiftung der Länder« (Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States), the »Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft«, the »Ministeriums für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur des Landes Brandenburg« (Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg), the »Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung« and the »Mittelbrandenburgische Sparkasse Potsdam«.

In November 2009, with the support of the »Kulturstiftung der Länder« (Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States) and the »Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft«, the archive was able to acquire a collection of 23 letters written by Fontane himself to the editor and German-Jewish literary historian Gustav Karpeles at an auction in Basel.

In June 2007, we acquired a bundle of 106 letters written by Fontane himself to his son Theodor, which had been sold at the auction of Fontane’s estate by the auction house Meyer & Ernst in 1933 and was thought to have been lost after the war, but was actually in private hands. The collection was acquired with the support of the »Kulturstiftung der Länder« (Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States) and the »Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft« together with the »Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz« (Berlin State Library – Prussian Cultural Heritage) and is kept in the Fontane Archive.

In the fall of 2006, the Archive succeeded in acquiring five Fontane manuscripts at an auction held by Christie’s, London, entitled Adel und Judentum, Die Juden in unserer Gesellschaft, Wie man in Berlin so lebt, Berliner Ton und Berliner Sprechanismus, and a letter to Ernst Kossak. The manuscripts had been sold at the auction of the Fontane estate by the auction house Meyer & Ernst in 1933 and were subsequently in private hands.

In spring 2002, the archive was able to acquire 43 letters from the Leo Baeck Institute Jerusalem written by Fontane to his childhood friend, the Jewish publicist, translator and writer Wilhelm Wolfsohn, who came from Odessa. The letters had been considered lost since their first publication. In cooperation with the Leo Baeck Institute, the archive organized a workshop at the Jewish Museum Berlin in October 2004 and published the letters in the volume Theodor Fontane und Wilhelm Wolfsohn - eine interkulturelle Beziehung, published by Mohr Siebeck Verlag in 2006.

In 2001, the »Stadtbibliothek Wuppertal« (Wuppertal City Library) donated the autograph of the famous story fragment Oceane von Parceval and 20 letters of Fontane to the family to the archive. The manuscripts came from the archive’s pre-war holdings, had been lost at the end of World War II under unexplained circumstances, and were later acquired by the Wuppertal City Library from private ownership. The manuscripts were ceremoniously handed over by the mayor of the city of Wuppertal on September 20, 2001, in the presence of the then Federal President Dr. Johannes Rau. Oceane kehrt zurück was published to commemorate this occasion.

At the end of 1999, the archive was able to acquire ten unknown letters from Fontane to his publisher Carl Müller-Grote at a Hamburg auction. The letters provide information for the first time about this author-publisher relationship and the publication history of the crime novella Unterm Birnbaum. The letters were published in the Fontane Blätter.

In 1997, the largest German private collection of Fontane autographs and Fontaneana became the property of the Fontane Archive. The collection was acquired with the support of the »Kulturstiftung der Länder« (Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States), the federal government, the state of Brandenburg and private sponsors. It contains numerous letters, documents, and prominent manuscripts of works such as the conclusion of the novel Der Stechlin, the final word of Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg, and early drafts of Fontane’s first novel Vor dem Sturm. In April 1997, the collection was ceremoniously presented to the public in our house. An illustrated documentation was published as Patrimonia booklet No. 142 of the »Kulturstiftung der Länder«.

In 1993, three of Fontane’s diaries, thought to be lost, were acquired from private ownership and subsequently published for the first time in the Großen Brandenburger Ausgabe (Great Brandenburg Edition).