Most of Fontane's early education was acquired from private tutors and his parents. He studied at the gymnasium in Neu-Ruppin for a year and in 1883 went to Berlin, where he received industrial training. He became an apothecary's apprentice in 1835, hoping to follow in his father's footsteps, and when that was completed, held various apothecary positions in Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden and Burg. Although Fontane continued his apothecary career well into his thirties, he was more interested in writing and had published some verse and his first short story in Berliner Figaro in 1839. In 1844, he spent a year in the army in Berlin and whilst there joined a literary club known as The Tunnel. There he became friends with Theodor Storm and also had contact with Heyse, Dahn, Schrenberg and Smidt, among others. In 1852, he worked for the Prussian Ministry to London as a correspondent. Returning to London again in 1855, Fontane spent the next four years there as a journalist. In 1854, he published A Summer in London and in 1860, Beyond the Tweed appeared, both drawn on his experiences in England. From 1860 to 1870, he worked as a journalist and war correspondent for The Kreuzzeitung. He was captured in France and imprisoned for a year on the island of Oleron. He published Prisoner of War in 1871, which gave an account of his captivity. He became a dramatic critic for the Vossische Zeitung in 1870 and continued there until 1889. In 1876, he was elected secretary of the Berlin Academy of Arts. In 1894, he was awarded an honoray doctorate from the University of Berlin. Fontane was one of the most popular German authors of the late 19th century. His many well-known works include Before the Storm (1878), Grete Minde (1880), L'Adultera (1882), Cecile (1887), Trials and Tribulations (1887), Stine (1890), Frau Jenny Treibel (1892), Effi Briest (1895), The Poggenpuhls (1896) and Stechlin (1898). |
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