Theodor Fontane was the prominent German nineteenth-century realist writer, famous for his understated and allusive conversational style, his astute society portraits and ambivalent stance towards social transgression. As a travel writer, war correspondent, theatre critic, novelist and poet, he was the only author of this period whose works both captured the social and emotional parochialism of nineteenth-century German life and, at the same time, showed the salons and clever economic manoeuvres of the bourgeoisie in the new capital Berlin, Germany’s first metropolis.

Fontane was born on 30 December 1819 in Neuruppin, a small town north-west of Berlin, as the first child of Louis Henri Fontane and Emilie Fontane, née Labry. Both parents were Huguenot descendants who had met in

2442 words

Citation: Rau, Petra. "Theodor Fontane". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 February 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1577, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1577 Theodor Fontane 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.