Martha Fontane

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Martha Fontane with her father

Martha "Mete" Fontane (born March 21, 1860 in Berlin ; † January 10, 1917 in Waren (Müritz) ) was the only daughter of the writer Theodor Fontane . She is considered the archetype of several of his characters in the novel.

Life

After George (* 1851) and Theodor (* 1856) Martha was the third surviving child of the married couple Theodor and Emilie Fontane - in 1864 the youngest son Friedrich followed . Three other Marthas brothers died shortly after their birth. Martha is considered the favorite child of the writer, who always wanted a daughter. At the age of ten she was brought to England for a year, where she lived with the Merington family, friends, and learned the national language. The first parts of an extensive correspondence with the parents, especially with the father, have survived from this period.

After returning from England, she graduated from the secondary school for girls in Berlin by 1876 and then moved to the Stockhausen family as a “house daughter” . Being a house daughter was the prerequisite for admission to the state teacher training seminar in Berlin. There, trained as a teacher for primary, secondary and higher schools, Martha Fontane worked in 1880/81 as a teacher and a private tutor of the children of the family of almond in Neumark small Damme . During this time there was a lively correspondence with the parents, which was largely preserved. Martha approached the training of her protégés Ella and Sofie von Mandel with vigor, but despite all the efforts of her employers, she suffered from the rather low social status of a governess in a rural household, which was also disproportionate to her relatively high level for the time Degree of training stood. In addition, she lacked the glamor that life at the side of her prominent father radiated on her, because due to the proximity to him she had contact with people such as the painter Adolph Menzel or the writer Paul Heyse at an early age .

Diffuse ailments soon made themselves felt in her, which eventually led her to return to the home as a "luxury item", as she described herself to her father. However, in the next few years she did not live with her parents all the time, but spent a lot of time on spa stays and - especially after her financial situation had improved through inheritance - on trips. However, the center of her existence remained the parental home until after the death of her father in 1899 she married the widower Karl Emil Otto Fritsch and moved to Waren in Mecklenburg . There she died in 1917 after falling out of the window - possibly suicide due to depression . One of the more recent investigations comes to the conclusion, based on new findings, that it was an accidental death.

aftermath

Martha Fontane is not only known as an imaginative and enthusiastic correspondent and source of inspiration for her father - 270 letters from this correspondence are known and published - but also served him as a model for the characterization of many of his female characters, such as Corinna in Frau Jenny Treibel and Melusine in Der Stechlin - women who, to a certain extent emancipated , combine the art of pleasant conversation with a keen observation of their surroundings and a flexible mind, but who do not lack charm.

Martha Fontane read her father's designs and publications, praised, criticized and, last but not least, also acted as editor of the book From Toulouse to Beeskow , the memoirs of her great-grandfather Jean Pierre Barthélemy Rouanet . As co-administrator of her father's literary estate, she did not appear frequently, but often blocked or impaired publications that her brother Friedrich tried to obtain.

Text output

  • Edgar R. Rosen (Ed.): Mete Fontane. Letters to parents from 1880 to 1882. Ullstein, Frankfurt a. M. - Berlin - Vienna 1974, ISBN 3-548-04602-9
  • Gotthard Erler (Ed.): My dear Mete. A letter conversation between parents and daughter. Structure, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-7466-5288-X
  • Regina Dieterle (Eds.): Theodor Fontane and Martha Fontane. A family mail network. de Gruyter, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-11-015881-7

literature

  • Iwan-Michelangelo D'Aprile: Fontane  : A Century in Motion, Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-4980-0099-8 .
  • Robert Rauh : The topic of mete is inexhaustible. Martha Fontane. In: Fontanes Frauen, be.bra verlag, Berlin 2018, pp. 71–124, ISBN 978-3-86124-716-6 .
  • Regina Dieterle: The daughter. The life of Martha Fontane. Hanser, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-446-20774-0 .
  • Marianne Goch: Meta Fontane (1860-1917). 'Stand by and wipe your mouth ...' . In: Luise F. Pusch (Hrsg_): Daughters of famous men. Nine biographical portraits . Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1988.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The mysterious death. Martha in Waren, in: Robert Rauh : Fontanes Frauen , be.bra verlag, Berlin 2018, pp. 104–123
personal data
SURNAME Fontane, Martha
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fontane, Mete (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Daughter of Theodor Fontanes, role model for several fictional characters
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 1917
Place of death Goods (Müritz)