Fontane's famous late work with extensive commentary. The elderly Dubslav von Stechlin, a retired major and widower, is a representative of the old-established Mark Brandenburg nobility. He takes pride in his dilapidated manor, his village, and above all, the legendary lake: Through a fountain, it indicates volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, and "when something great happens outside, instead of a jet of water, a red rooster rises and crows loudly into the land." The connection to the great movements of the world, to the social and political upheavals of the turn of the century, is also represented by his son Woldemar, who serves in a cavalry regiment in Berlin. His marriage and life plans become the central theme of the story, reflecting the old and the new times. "In the end, an old man dies, and two young people get married" - this is how Fontane described it.