Fontane Theodor Views
His 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.
His 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.
Enlarge image (© picture alliance/ dpa) The film version of his novel Effi Briest attracted more than 400,000 people to the cinema and there is hardly a sixth form school pupil in the whole of Germany and Austria who does not know his texts: Theodor Fontane died 111 years ago but in the intervening years he has lost nothing of his fascination. “Each generation rediscovers him for itself,” said Fontane expert Hubertus Fischer. Fontane’s novels are still very readable today and the writer has fans all over the world.
A number of Fontane’s novels take place against the backdrop of Prussian society in the last century. Nobel laureate Günther Grass once said: How shallow would the 19th century seem to us were it not for the novels of Theodor Fontane.” The versatile author and realist died in Berlin on September 20 1998.
Fontane Theodor Images
