Theodor Fontane jun.

Theodor Henri Fontane jun. (* 3. November 1856 in Berlin ; † 16th May 1933 ) was a German commissariat official , and - together with his brother Friedrich - from 1919 manager of the literary legacy of his father Theodor Fontane .

Live and act

From 1862 he attended the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium , from 1871 the French Gymnasium in Berlin, where he graduated from high school as a "primus omnium" . This was followed by a law degree from 1875–1878 , completing the first state examination at the University of Berlin . In 1879/80 as a one year old he did his military service - like his father - with the Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 2 "Kaiser Franz" in Berlin. In 1880 there was a traineeship in Berlin and Eberswalde, which he broke off, however, in 1882 in the army administration, namely in the military directorate at III. Army corps in Berlin to change and take up the traineeship in the directorate. In 1885 he began his eventful civil servant career with a sense of his career, working as a director's assessor with the VII Army Corps in Münster . In 1889 he was promoted to the directorate and transferred as such to the XIV Army Corps in Karlsruhe . The next change followed as early as 1891 when he was employed as an unskilled worker in the military and economy department in the Prussian War Ministry in Berlin, then in 1894 with the X Army Corps in Hanover and again in 1896 in the War Ministry. In April 1897 he was awarded the 4th grade Red Eagle Order . In 1898 he became head of the military directorate in the XI. Army corps in Kassel transferred. Finally, with the appointment to the Real Secret War Council and Lecturing Council from 1907 he finally worked in the War Ministry. In addition, he was appointed to the board of directors of the Great Military Orphanage in Potsdam in 1909 as an administrative member . Due to illness, he was retired on December 14, 1912, “by the highest farewell”, which meant that an appointment as “excellence” was no longer effective. During the First World War he was reactivated as field manager in Brussels , but finally retired in autumn 1917 at the age of 60. Furthermore, from 1884 he was a member of the “casual society” in Berlin. After contributions in the military weekly paper , he also undertook his own literary attempts, which, however, were not recognized by his father. As a manuscript he left memoirs of which only a small part has been published, but which certainly confirm his literary skills. As a literary aftermath, his father had given his features to the characters of Baron Innstetten in Effi Briest and Wendelin von Poggenpuhl in the Poggenpuhls . His strong external resemblance to his father meant that he was the sculptor Max Wiese for the Fontanedenkmal in Neuruppin and Max Klein for the one in the Berlin zoo.

After the estate commission set up by the father in his will remained ineffective, he and his brother, the publishing bookseller Friedrich Fontane, assumed unrestricted responsibility for the maintenance and editing of the father's literary legacy from 1919. After the expiration of the protection period in 1928, both brothers could no longer raise the necessary funds for the maintenance of the archive in the following years of crisis and tried to get the Prussian State Library to buy it . Since this failed for financial reasons, it was auctioned off at the Berlin auction house Meyer & Ernst in October 1933 (after the death of Theodor junior), which caused the collection to be fragmented.

family

tomb

He was born as the fifth male child of the writer Theodor Fontane and his wife Emilie Rouanet-Kummer. He married Martha Soldmann in Münster in 1886 (born November 21, 1865 in Dortmund; † October 12, 1934 in Berlin), daughter of the Chief Postal Director Carl Soldmann. The marriage had three children: Otto (1887–1958), lieutenant captain; Gertrud married Grosse (* 1889) and Martha married. Rinkel (* 1896). Theodor and Martha Fontane's final resting place is in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf in the chapel block, hereditary burial 74.

Publications

• Theodor Fontane: Festival for the 200th anniversary of the Edict of Potsdam by the French Colonie in Berlin in the concert hall of the Philharmonie on October 29, 1885 . Münster 1885. (Ed.)
• Theodor Fontane: Walks through the Mark Brandenburg. New edition . 5 volumes. Stuttgart-Berlin 1925. (Ed. With Friedrich Fontane)
• Theodor Fontane's chats about theater. Vol.1: The Royal Theater in Berlin [theater reviews 1870–1890] . New verm. Edition. Berlin 1926. (Ed. With Friedrich Fontane)
• The sisters of the poet Theodor Fontane . In: Fontane-Blätter Vol. 3 (1974) H. 3, pp 161-165. [from the memoirs ]
• Relationships with my father . In: Fontane-Blätter Vol. 3 (1974) H. 4, pp. 253-264. [from the memoirs ]

literature

• Ursula von Forster-Grosse: Theo - A granddaughter reports from the life of her grandfather Theodor Fontane junior. In: Fontane-Blätter Vol. 4. (1981) H. 8, p. 691f.
• Astrid Priebs-Tröger: “Theo's story”. Previously unknown Fontane letters presented in the Villa Quandt. In: Potsdam Latest News from November 16, 2007.
• Hartmut Dietz: Theodor Fontane junior - The years in Münster. Munster 2009.
• Hartmut Dietz: Martha Fontane b. Soldmann in conflict with her family and the Fontane family . In: Fontane-Blätter 89 (2010), pp. 132–141.
• Iwan-Michelangelo D'Aprile: Fontane  : A Century in Motion, Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-4980-0099-8

Web links

• Correspondence Theodor Fontane sen. and jr.
• Correspondence Theodor Fontane sen. and jr.