Theodor Fontane
| Theodor Fontane | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
30 December 1819 Neuruppin, Brandenburg, Prussia |
| Died | 20 September 1898 (aged 78) Berlin, Prussia Germany |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | Prussian |
| Ethnicity | German |
| Citizenship | Prussian |
| Period | 19th century |
| Genre | Novel |
| Notable works | Effi Briest |
Theodor Fontane (German: [ˈtʰeːodoɐ̯ fɔnˈtaːnə]; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist writer.
Fontane was born in Neuruppin, a town 30 miles northwest of Berlin, into a Huguenot family. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to an apothecary, his father's profession. He became an apothecary himself, and in 1839, at the age of 20, wrote his first work (Heinrichs IV. erste Liebe, now lost). His further education was in Leipzig where he came into contact with the progressives of the Vormärz.
Fontane's first published work, the novella Geschwisterliebe (Sibling Love), appeared in the Berlin Figaro in December 1839. His biographer Gordon A. Craig observes that this gave few indications of his promise as a gifted writer: "Although the theme of incest, which was to occupy Fontane on later occasions, is touched upon here, the mawkishness of the tale... is equalled by the lameness of its plot and the inertness of the style in which it is told, and [the characters] Clärchen and her brother are both so colorless that no one could have guessed that their creator had a future as a writer."
Fontane's first job as apothecary was in Dresden, after which he returned to his father's shop in the provincial town of Letschin in the Oderbruch region. Fleeing its provincial atmosphere, Fontane published articles in the Leipzig newspaper Die Eisenbahn and translated Shakespeare. In 1843, he joined a literary club in Berlin called Tunnel über der Spree (Tunnel over the River Spree) where he came into contact with many of the most renowned German writers, including Theodor Storm, Joseph von Eichendorff and Gottfried Keller.
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