Theodor Fontane’s Novels and the Spirit of Old Age

NotesAs far as is known to me, this lecture has never been published. I reproduce its contents from my notes.This was meant by our homespun psychologist Walter B. Pitkin, when he coined the oft-repeated phrase that “life begins at forty.” His writings contain valuable material for a discussion of the characteristics of old age, although his theories are far too sweeping and one-sided and take little account of the various phases of aging. Cf. Life Begins at Forty (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1932), Mare Power to You (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1933), Take it Easy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1935), Careers after Farty (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1937). A more reliable discussion of the achievements of old age from an historical and psychological point of view is supplied by Paul Herre, Schöp­ ferisches Alter: geschichtliche Spätaltersleistungen in Überschau und Deutung, Leipzig, 1939.A good description of such an erotic crisis may be found in Goethe’s story “Der Mann von fünfzig Jahren” in Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre.This aspect has been excellently captured in Theodor Storm’s tale Späte Rosen (1859).Cf. Richard Hamann, “Der Altersstil Rembrandts, Goethes, Beethovens” in Der Impressionismus in Leben und Kunst (Köln, 1907), pp. 223–247.Ibid.Die Spätwerke großer Meister, Frankfurt a. M., 1925.Cf. Julius Petersen, Die Wissenschaft von der Dichtung (Berlin, 1939), I, 197–199, 486. About old poets in general cf. Herre, op. cit., pp. 255–276.Cf. Julius Petersen, “Fontanes Altersroman,” Euphorion, XXIX (1928), 1–74.This was already observed by Goethe in his famous utterance to Eckermann on March II, 1828 (J. P. Eckermann, Gespräche mit Goethe in denletzten Jahren seines Lebens, Nachtrag), where he states: “geniale Naturen .... erleben eine wiederholte Pubertät, während andere Leute nur einmal jung sind,” and “daß wir bei vorzüglich begabten Menschen auch während ihres Alters immer noch frische Epochen besonderer Produktivität wahrnehmen; es scheint bei ihnen immer einmal wieder eine temporär e Verjüngung einzutre­ ten, und das ist es, was ich eine wiederholte Pubertät nennen möchte.” In this connection cf. also Herre, op. cit., pp. 24–25.Ursula Wiskott, Französische Wesenszüge in Theodor Fantane’s Persönlichkeit (Leipzig, 1938). Her study must be read with a great deal of criticism, as Henry H. H. Remak has brought out in his fine review (The Germanic Review, XVI, 154–156).See note ii supra.I advisedly use the term “eroticism” as pertaining to the more indirect manifestations of sex, while we should reserve the term “sexuality” to its more direct manifestations. The style of Fontane’s generation of course forbade any too obvious and especially vulgar references to sex, yet made possible a· preponderance of certain other themes and approaches in a poet of a more sexual make-up, as one can demonstrate by the stories of Paul Heyse. Cf. Georg Brandes’ essay on him in Moderne Geister, Frankfurt a. M., 1882.He conceived of it first in 1863, at forty-four years of age, but writing was actually begun in 1876, at fifty-seven years of age.Conrad Wandrey, Theodur Fontane (München, 1919), p. 381 underscores the fa.ct that prior to the actual writing of Vordem Sturm in 1876 Fontane withdrew from his last official position.Cf. the Prussian ballads on Marshall Derffiing, Leopold von Dessau, Joachim Hans Zieten, and Seydlitz. Even “Prinz Louis Ferdinand” with its sad ending ha.s a dashing beginning.In the twelfth chapter Count von Haldern explains: “Ich bin nicht so verrottet, wie du glaubst .... ich habe von der göttlichen Weltordnung nicht die Vorstellung, daß sie sich mit dem Sta.a.tska.lender und der Rangliste vollkommen deckt. Ja, ich will dir noch mehr sagen: ich habe Stunden, in denen ich ziemlich fest davon überzeugt bin, daß sie sich nicht damit deckt. Und es werden, und vielleicht in nicht allzuferner Zukunft, die Regulierungszeiten kommen ....und vielleicht auch wieder die Adam- und Eva-Zeiten.”She wants him to know “wie mir hier klar geworden, daßer in allem recht gehandelt” (chapter xxxvi).On Der Stechlin and the plan to Die Likedeeler cf. Julius Petersen, “Fontane’s Altersroman,” loc. cit.That this is characteristic for the style of old age is proved by the anslyses of Hamann and Brinckmann (cf. notes 5 and 7 supra).A discussion from his point of view is represented by Fred Genschmer’s article “Theodor Fontane: A Study in Restraint,” Monatshefte für deutschen Unterricht, XXXIII (1941), 265–274.Cf. Thomas Mann, “Anzeige eines Fontane-Buches,” Rede und Antwort (Berlin, 1922), pp. 108–110.Ibid.Cf. Harry Maync, “Theodor Fontane,” in Deutsche Dichter (Frauenfeld and Leipzig, 1928), p. 217; also Israel S. Stamm, “Goethe-Nietzsche-Fontane,” The Germanic Review XIII (1938), 252–258.The scathing details of Der Biberpelz could be partly corroborated from Fontane’s Quitt, which appeared but two years earlier. In Quitt too, we have a number of incompetent or ridiculous Prussian officials, and two of them are little more than caricatures. Hewett-Thayer in The Modern German Novel (Boston, 1924), p. 48, points out that Frau Wolf in Der Biberpelz is closely akin to Fontane’s Frau Jenny Treibei, though in a much lowlier sphere of life.Cf. Hamann, op. cit., pp. 249–292

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