“I crossed the March and found it richer than I had dared to hope."
Theodor Fontane wrote that in the 19th century.
As a travel writer and novelist he has made the landscape
and the cities of his native Brandenburg famous.
200 years ago Theodor Fontane was born here in Neuruppin.
He also got a monument in his hometown.
His famous work "Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg" / Rambling through Brandeburg
will accompany me on my journey today.
Theodor Fontane shaped the image of this region with his travel reports about Brandenburg.
The vast land, its lakes, castles and people.
I know Fontane from my German lessons back in school, but very theoretically.
And today, not quite as theoretically, I am following in his footsteps.
Fontane as a traffic light - you'll only find that in Neuruppin, Theodor Fontane's birthplace.
After a fire in 1787 the center of the city was rebuilt
in the classicist style - with wide streets and huge squares.
I'm meeting up with Uta Bartsch.
She heads the Fontane Festival here and has become an expert on the writer's life.
Here we are really at the beginning of the history of Theodor Fontane's involvement with Neuruppin.
His parents moved here at Easter in 1819.
And on December 30th Theodor Fontane was born up there on the first floor of this house.
First Fontane tried his hand as a pharmacist in Berlin.
Then as a journalist, a correspondent in London, a theater critic and a travel writer.
It was only when he was nearly 60 that he began writing his great novels.
Nice building!
Yes.
That is the old secondary school.
Among the many people who attended it were our Theodor Fontane
- as well as the architect Karl-Friedrich Schinkel.
Was it clear in his school days that he would be a writer?
He himself wrote that he wasn't a very good student.
How did Fontane become a writer if things didn't go well in school?
I think a lot of it came from his father
- not necessarily the ability to write,
but to develop stories, to pick up anecdotes and turn them into new things.
Fontane liked that about his father, who was something of a playboy.
He felt that Fontane didn't really need to go to school,
but could learn things from the books and stories of other people.
Great father!
Yes.
Fontane also wrote critically of his birthplace
saying it was a bit lavish for such a small town.
But he did say it was beautifully situated on the lake.
How did Fontane's childhood here in Neuruppin shape him?
I think that the wide-open spaces here,
the lake and forest landscapes gave him a certain sense of home.
And that was the trigger for him to start writing
- not about other regions - but the one he came from
and which he came to love so much that later in life he wrote five books about it.
In Neuruppin you can also meet the city's most famous son in the museum.
Katharina Schneider is one of the curators of an exhibition marking Fontane's 200th birthday.
This room has something really special.
There aren't very many remaining objects from Fontane,
which is why the Neuruppin Museum is very proud to have this clock.
It's the Fontane family's grandfather clock.
It's really old.
It dates from 1790 and the family owned it until 1940.
It's nice to imagine that it not only stood in Fontane's study,
but that he wrote to the rhythm of this clock - you can kind of hear that.
So I'm hearing what Fontane heard?
You're hearing what Fontane heard!
Fontane's unique writing style includes compound nouns
that he used to describe atmospheres and situations.
Do you have a favorite word created by Fontane?
Hmm, Prejudice-Foolishness is one - and Winter-Acquaintance.
We asked ourselves for a long time what a Winter Acquaintance might be
- and we've ended up with five different definitions.
Which is the most convincing?
Either making the acquaintance of winter - lots of people pick that -
like seeing snow for the first time
or the Winter Acquaintance is someone who always keeps a distance, who is aloof.
Or an affair at Christmas.
Or an affair at Christmas time - that's popular, too.
Or it's someone you do wintertime things with - like sledding or ice-skating.
Or wintertime friends - who you don't want to see in the summertime.
Winter Acquaintance...
But let's move on - the 'departure moment' is here.
The next stop on my journey through Brandenburg in the footsteps of Theodor Fontane is Rheinsberg.
The view of the palace here made a deep impression on the writer.
He wrote: "Before us we have a picture of unusual beauty.
The smooth surface of the water, lined by a wreath of reeds,
and finally the palace itself, in the distance."
A gift from his father, Frederick the Great rebuilt the palace in the Rococo style and extended it.
The showpiece is the Hall of Mirrors.
What was this room for?
This was Frederick the Great's ceremonial and concert hall.
He wanted it for big festivities and he wanted to give concerts here.
Frederick was a passionate flute player and he wanted to play here.
But he only managed to do so once because the room was finished so late.
But in that tradition we put on small concerts here.
They're mainly chamber music concerts with the fortepiano, for example.
Small concerts with space for up to 100 people.
Rheinsberg Palace is considered the model for Sanssouci Palace
which Frederick later built in Potsdam and where he resided as Prussian king.
Looks gorgeous!
Yes, it was Frederick's private study when he lived here in Rheinsberg as Crown Prince.
It was one of the first rooms he moved into.
Two days later, he wrote his first letter to Voltaire.
By the way, Fontane did not have as much luck during his visit to Rheinsberg as I did.
The old palace warden was taking a long nap.
Only on the second attempt did he open the door for Fontane.
The last stop on my trip through the Brandenburg described by Theodor Fontane
leads me to the north of the state to Lake Stechlin.
It is the deepest lake in Brandenburg - almost 70 meters.
And its one of the cleanest as well.
Brandenburg is the most watery state in Germany. So I just have to go swimming!
"Der Stechlin" - Theodor Fontane's last novel - was inspired by the lake
and its impressive natural landscape.
Fontane wrote five volumes about his travels through the March of Brandenburg.
And maybe this is the first time I have really understood this Fontane from school,
just because of this trip.
I only saw a small part of this region but that makes me want more!