13 Facts About Theodor Fontane

Theodor Fontane was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist author.

Theodor Fontane published the first of his novels, for which he is best known today, only at age 58 after a career as a journalist.

Theodor Fontane was born in Neuruppin, a town 30 miles northwest of Berlin, into a Huguenot family.

Theodor Fontane's first published work, the novella Geschwisterliebe, was published in the Berlin Figaro in December 1839.

Theodor Fontane played a brief part in the revolutionary events of 1848.

Theodor Fontane enjoyed rambling through its rural landscapes and small towns and delighted in the growth of its capital city, Berlin.

In 1870, Theodor Fontane quit his job at the Kreuzzeitung and became drama critic for the liberal Vossische Zeitung, a job he held until his retirement.

Theodor Fontane had already written about Prussia's war against Denmark in Der schleswig-holsteinische Krieg im Jahre 1864 and the Austro-Prussian War in Der deutsche Krieg von 1866.

Theodor Fontane went to the front to observe the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 and after being taken prisoner at Vaucouleurs remained in French captivity for three months.

At the age of 57, Theodor Fontane finally began work on his novels, for which he is remembered best today.

In Der Stechlin, his last completed novel, Theodor Fontane adapted the realistic methods and social criticism of contemporary French fiction to the conditions of Prussian life.

Theodor Fontane was plagued by health problems during his last years but continued to work until a few hours before his death.

Theodor Fontane died in the evening of 20 September 1898 in Berlin.