FONTANE, Tit t.onon ( 1819-98 ) . A noteworthy German author, born at Neuruppin (Brandenburg). After study at the Industrial School of Berlin and three years (1840-43) spent as an apothecary's apprentice at Leipzig and Dresden, lie turned to the more congenial activ ities of journalism and literature. Ile was an editor on the stair of the Xcu• I'•eussisehI %rifling from 181i0 to 1870, and from 1870 to 1889 wrote au thoritatively as dramatic critic for the rossis•he %Pilling. In 18711 he visited the scene of war in France, and was taken prisoner at Doinri'•y. Ile was a close student of the thought and literature of England, where be resided 111 1852, and 1855-59, chiefly for the purpose of investigating the old ballads which had so important an street upon his own earlier work as a poet. In 1876 he was elected first seereta•y of the Berlin .\catl emy of Arts, and in 15111 received 3000 marks from the German Emperor in recognition of his services to German literature. Ile published two collections of verse: Gedirlite (18:51, ith e(1. 1901). and Bal laden of whose contents such poems as "Archibald Douglas," done in the very spirit of their English prototypes, placed him among the foremost. modern ballad \vriters. based
on his observations in Great Britain-- Ins Eng lund (1.8(30) ; Jenseil des Tweed (14110)—or on I he Franco-l'russian \Var—Kricasgpf anyen (1871, 5th e(1. 190(1); Der Ic•ieg gegen Frankreich much esteemed in Germany. and his /larch die Mark Bratuienbu•g (1S(11-82. numerous subsequent editions) estab lished him as the peculiar interpreter of that region. It was from Brandenburg' also that he drew the material for many in his series of works of fiction. which he began in 1878 with For dent (i•n, and closed with Der Mechlin (15991. Ilis Irrungen, Wi••ungen (Ititig. Galt ed. 1899) is credited with the introduction of what has be come known as the Berlin type of fiction. It cer tainly allied him with the younger school, the so-called realists. But his realism was quite in dividual, and dominated by his own kindly per sonality. After the death of Freytag (1895) he occupied a position of distinguished prominence in German literature. No notice of him would be complete without mention of his reminiscences, Mcine Kinderjahre (1894), and Von Zwanzig bis Dreissig (1S9S). Consult Servaes, Theodor Fon, tone (Berlin, 1900).