Theodor Fontane

 Theodor Fontane, b. Dec. 30, 1819, d. Sept. 20, 1898, was a German poet and travel writer, and an important novelist. He worked as an apothecary before turning to journalism in 1850. He first became known for the stirring patriotic ballads in Gedichte (Poems, 1851) and Balladen (Ballads, 1861). His Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg (Travels through Brandenburg Province, 4 vols., 1862-82) is a readable historical travelogue. Fontane wrote his first novel, the historical Vor dem Sturm (Before the Storm, 1878), when he was nearly 60 years old. He is now best known for his social novels set in or near Berlin of the late 19th century. Irrungen, Wirrungen (1887; trans. as Trials and Tribulations, 1917), Frau Jenny Trei bel (1892), Effi Briest (1895; Eng. trans., 1967; film, 1974), and Der Stechlin (Lake Stechlin, 1898), are among the best 19th-century German novels.