Collections

The inventory group W of the Theodor Fontane Archive comprises the correspondence and contracts of Friedrich Fontane and his publishing house with the estate commission, the co-heirs, editors, owners of Fontane autographs and other people and institutions concerning Fontane’s estate and the publication of estate editions.

The inventory group was organized by Joachim Kleine in 1995/96 and indexed with a card index. Today, all components are recorded in the OPAC.

Included in this inventory group are rudiments of the publishing house archive such as original copies and transcripts of publishing house contracts as well as excerpts from account books. The archive of the Fontane publishing house itself has been lost, so the designation ›publishing house archive‹ used for this inventory group is not entirely correct. The archive of the Fontane-Verlag, founded in 1888, included files on over 1000 books by over 200 authors. None of this has survived. The only exception is a folder on Arno Holz and Johannes Schlaf (W 694-W 714).

Friedrich Fontane occupies a key position in the transmission of the works, biography and estate of Theodor Fontane. The volumes of transcripts he created, rearranged and revised several times, form part of the Theodor Fontane Archive and, where the originals have been lost, they are today’s most important witnesses to the textual tradition.

Under the designation »Handbibliothek« (Reference Library), the Theodor Fontane Archive preserves a 155-volume partial holding from Fontane’s own library, i.e. a collection of books from Theodor Fontane’s possession that has been preserved. The volumes in this collection are thereby - with some exceptions - part of the »writer’s workshop«, irreplaceable because of the numerous marginalia written by Fontane and valuable because of the many dedication copies from friends and colleagues.

The collection was completely digitized in 2017/18 and subsequently indexed at the page level with regard to traces of reading and use. In 2018/2019, a prototype for an interactive visualization was developed in cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam. Further information can be found here.

The convolute collected by Christian Andree was considered the largest German private collection of Fontane autographs and Fontaneana. It includes several hundred manuscript pages on novels, poems, and the Wanderungen, as well as letters and autographs from Fontane’s circle. The collection was acquired in 1997 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. In 2009, the collection was extensively restored. An illustrated documentation was published as Patrimonia-Heft Nr. 142 der Kulturstiftung der Länder (Patirmonia booklet No. 142 of the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States), and a catalog as Patrimonia-Heft Nr. 142a (Patrimonia booklet No. 142a).

The collection is accessible via the archive’s electronic catalog. It has been completely digitized and is available for use as part of the archive’s services.

The Zeitungsausschnittsammlung (Newspaper Clipping Collection) is one of the most extensive collections of the Theodor Fontane Archive. It records all publications by and about Fontane in print media of the ›newspaper‹ and ›magazine‹ type, unless they have been preserved in other holdings groups. It also lists and archives the various sources, and provides material for a wide variety of user requests. Originating from a collection of the Fontane family, it starts in the middle of the 19th century and manages media from a period of more than 150 years.

The core of this collection is a chronologically arranged loose-leaf collection, partly of original newspaper articles, partly of copies (110 archive boxes). Another extensive group of holdings includes large parts of Fontane’s primary journalistic works (20 file folders, each arranged according to place of publication, photocopies only). Copies and offprints of scientific articles from journals and collective works form the third large inventory group of this collection with the so-called Yellow Series (approx. 80 file folders). In addition, thematic folders were created for frequently recurring research inquiries. The scientifically relevant part of the collection is indexed in the Fontane bibliography.

Paul Conrad (1906-1985) had already been on friendly terms with the later director of the Theodor Fontane Archive, Joachim Schobeß, since 1917 and taught German, English and history as a teacher. He owned one of the largest private Fontane libraries in the GDR, which included many first editions and letters.

Conrad was considered an outstanding expert on Fontane literature and was one of the co-founders and editors of the Fontane Blätter. In 2000, Conrad’s daughter offered part of his private estate to the Theodor Fontane Archive.

The Conrad Collection comprises 318 volumes, including several first editions of Theodor Fontane’s works. The collection is housed in a closed collection and can be searchedusing the signature Slg C.

The Bartsch Collection, which has not yet been completed, currently comprises 101 volumes listed under the signature Slg Bartsch. In recent years, Bernhard Bartsch has left the Theodor Fontane Archive several first editions and particularly well-preserved later editions of Theodor Fontane’s works, as well as several autographs.

Bernhard Bartsch was appointed honorary member of the »Theodor Fontane Gesellschaft« in October 2017. Since March 2018, he has been an honorary member of the Society of Friends and Supporters of the Theodor Fontane Archive.

The literary scholar Renate Böschenstein-Schäfer (1933-2003) studied German, Latin and philosophy in Bonn. From 1958 to 1964, she was an assistant for German literature at the »Freien Universität Berlin«, from 1969 until her retirement in 1998 she taught at the University of Geneva and published numerous works on Theodor Fontane’s oeuvre. Her study of Fontane’s Melusine motif, published in 1962, is considered seminal.

Her written estate has been housed in the Theodor Fontane Archive since 2004 and includes 28 archive boxes of manuscripts and materials relating to her research and publication activities.

Helmuth Nürnberger (1930-2017) studied philology and history in Münster and Hamburg and taught modern German literature at the universities of Flensburg and Hamburg until his retirement. With his monograph Der frühe Fontane, published in 1967, he established his reputation as a profound expert on the works of Theodor Fontane. This was followed, among other things, by the editing of Werke, Schriften und Briefe (1969-1997), published by Hanser Verlag, and the biography Fontanes Welt in 1997.

Between 1974 and 2016, Nürnberger wrote more than 30 essays and reviews for the Fontane Blätter. For more than 25 years, he was responsible for the journal as a member of the advisory board and co-editor. Nürnberger was one of the founding members of the »Theodor Fontane Gesellschaft«, founded in Potsdam in 1990, which he chaired for 20 years. He had been its honorary chairman since 2004.

After his death, Nürnberger bequeathed approximately 350 volumes of his private library to the Theodor Fontane Archive. These are predominantly standard works on Fontane research, which are arranged together.