Henri Theodore Fontane was born as son of the pharmacist Louis Henri Fontane in Neuruppin, Germany, on 30 December, 1819. From 1826 to 1832 Theodor Fontane attended school in Schwinemünde. On his mother's request Fontane was given private lessons by his father as well as by tutors of friends of the family. In 1834 the artist moved to his father's half brother, his uncle August. Fontane's first short novel "Geschwisterliebe" was published in 1839. In 1840 he accepted the job as a pharmacist's assistant in Burg (near Magdeburg) and began to write his first poems. In 1848 Fontane participated in revolutionary events. Around this time he wrote four rather radical texts in the magazine "Berliner Zeitungshalle". A short time later he attained a job in the Bethanien Hospital. From 1870 Fontane worked as a theater critic. In the same year he also visited the theater of war in Paris. In 1982 he came down with a serious brain anaemia. He died in Berlin on 20 September 1898.