Author: Theodor Fontane

Theodor Fontane was born on December 30, 1819, in Neuruppin, Brandenburg. After a four-year apprenticeship, he worked as an assistant pharmacist in various cities and obtained his license as a first-class pharmacist in 1847. In 1849, he left the profession, established himself as a journalist and freelance writer, and married Emilie Rouanet-Kummer in 1850. From 1855 to early 1858, he stayed in London, among other roles as a press agent for the Prussian envoy. Between 1862 and 1882, he published "Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg." In addition to his extensive work as a war correspondent and travel writer, Fontane was a theater critic for the Vossische Zeitung for two decades. He made his debut as a novelist at the age of 60. Following his first novel "Vor dem Sturm" (1878), he published his famous novels and stories in quick succession, along with two memoirs, "Meine Kinderjahre" and "Von Zwanzig bis Dreissig." Fontane passed away on September 20, 1898, in Berlin.

Co-authored by: Alfred Frank

Alfred Frank (1941–2010), born in Warsaw, was an interpreter and translator for Russian and French. He worked as an editor and translated, among other works, Alexander Goldenweiser's notes on Tolstoy's last year, the diary of the dancer Nijinsky, as well as works by Andrei Platonov, Osip Mandelstam, Boris Pilnyak, Vladimir Voinovich, and Anna Politkovskaya.