''Der Stechlin'' () is a
novel by
Theodor Fontane
Theodor Fontane (; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he is best known toda ...
written between 1895 and 1897, and first published in the
literary journal ''
Über Land und Meer
''Über Land und Meer'' (German: ''Over Land and Sea'') was a German illustrated news and political magazine published in Stuttgart, Germany, between 1858 and 1923. Its subtitle was ''Allgemeine illustrierte Zeitung''.
History and profile
''Übe ...
''. It was published in book form in 1898. It is Fontane's second longest novel, and his last novel published before he died, about a year after its publication.
Its central figure is the aging Dubslav von Stechlin, widowed for thirty years and living alone in his somewhat dilapidated mansion near the shore of
Lake Stechlin
Lake Stechlin or Großer Stechlinsee is a lake in Landkreis Oberhavel, Brandenburg, Germany. At an elevation of 60 m, its surface area is 4.52 km². The Stechlin cisco, a dwarfed fish, is found only in this lake. Theodor Fontane's last no ...
, to be imagined as being in the neighbourhood of Fontane's native Neuruppin. Dubslav, a man of honest and humorous character, refuses to take himself seriously, and lives modestly and contentedly in contact with his elderly valet Engelke, his politically progressive vicar Lorenzen, and Krippenstapel, the most Prussian of Prussian schoolmasters. Dubslav's only son, Woldemar, is a captain in a cavalry regiment of the guard in Berlin.
Der Stechlin
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Through the character of Stechlin, Fontane depicted an ideal type of a patriarchal family head of Prussian Junker (Prussia), Junker.
References
External links
Personenverzeichnis
Mi-Ae Chon: ''Charakter und Funktion Melusines in Fontanes Altersroman „Der Stechlin“''
1897 German novels
Novels set in Berlin
Novels first published in serial form
Works originally published in German magazines
Works originally published in literary magazines
Novels by Theodor Fontane
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