175th birthday of Theodor Fontane - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1994 - 100 Pfennig

Theodor Fontane has left an extraordinarily extensive literary work: in addition to experiments in all forms of lyric poetry, there is an extensive correspondence (cautious estimates amount to about 12,000 letters), journalistic-feuilletonistic writings, which culminate in the excursionist footsteps of the Mark Brandenburg, and finally the great novels, short stories and short stories written in the last third of the life of the great writer. The poet's ancestors belonged to both the paternal and the maternal side of the French Huguenots, who had to leave their homes as a result of the annulment of the Edict of Nantes, and so on. a. took refuge in Brandenburg-Prussia. Theodor Fontane was born on December 30, 1819 in Neuruppin in the Mark Brandenburg as the eldest son of the pharmacist Louis Henri Fontane and his wife Emilie. After spending his first childhood years here, his father's reckless disposition and passion for gambling forced the family to relocate to Świnoujście in 1826. Following the visit of two schools Fontane entered 1836 as an apprentice in a Berlin pharmacy. In Berlin, the literary interests of the poet developed; In 1839 he made his debut in »Berlin Figaro« with a narrative and a few poems. Following only the economic necessity of the profession of pharmacist, Fontane found acceptance in various literary clubs and reading rooms, where he found the appropriate contact with like-minded writers. The most lasting influence was exercised by the literary Sunday club "Der Tunnel über der Spree" ("The Tunnel over the Spree"). Here the social horizon of Fontane expanded, which did not remain without significance for the later novelist. In 1849 Fontane finally gave up the profession of pharmacist to live as a freelance writer. The material basis he created as a correspondent of various magazines. This activity led him to England, where he settled 1855 - 1859. The England years were of crucial importance to the poet: his gaze widened, the sensitivity to social processes and processes was sharpened by extensive studies of English history and institutions. The return to Berlin in January 1859 forced Fontane to build a new existence; various attempts failed until he entered as an editor in the "New Prussian Kreuzzeitung", where he opened the previously unknown field of war history. The decade at the Kreuzzeitung gave the writer a relatively long time for his own literary work, yet he quit his position on April 20, 1870, to devote himself entirely to his poetic work. In 1878, Fontane's first novel, Vor dem Sturm, was published. His other epic works followed at short intervals: "Effi Briest" and "The Stechlin" are the last two novels. Shortly before the publication of the book edition of Stechlin Theodor Fontane died very suddenly on 20 September 1898 in his apartment in Berlin. The essential thematic site of the art of Theodor Fontane is the Prussian-German society. The basic motif of many of his novels, such as "L'Adultera," "Cécile," "Trials," "Stine," and "Effi Briest," is the difficulty, the individual's right to freedom, and the public's demand for order To bring agreement. In doing so, the poet more or less clearly criticizes the conventions of a society that is already in the process of dissolution, and therefore clings all the more to its old forms. The collapse of Prussia later confirmed the critical spirit of Fontane, who with seismographic sensitivity had registered the cracks and weight shifts of the wavering Prussian world. The aesthetic design of his most important works is characterized on the one hand by ironic distance and the transfiguring power of humor - this is essentially the secret of the typical »Fontane-tone« - and on the other by the dialogic faceting of the epic world. The age novel The Stechlin is the outstanding example for this: The central language motive questions all dialogically formulated statements in the novel, so that the epic reality is constituted as a wealth of possibilities that exist side by side. By conceiving reality as fundamentally ambiguous and aesthetically designed, Fontane goes far beyond his epoch and justifiably claims a permanent place in the circle of the greats of German-language literature.