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Theodor Fontane (1819-1898), born in Neu-Ruppin, is as integral to Berlin as the Brothers Grimm are to Hesse. Despite being a Huguenot, he identified more with his Märkische roots, exploring his homeland up to the Baltic Sea, where his father ran a pharmacy. As a traditional writer, he traveled abroad, contributing journalistic pieces, theater reviews, poetry, and prose. He was even suspected of espionage while serving as a war correspondent in France. His experiences in England, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and the USA, known only through stories, enriched his novels. His correspondence with his wife, Emilie Rouanet-Fontane, sheds light on their marital struggles and daily concerns. Fontane's characters reflect the full spectrum of 19th-century bourgeois society, set against the backdrop of the Märkischer nobility and the Berlin salons of the Gründerzeit. The ethnic diversity of Berlin during this period, alongside colonial expansion and various border conflicts, fostered both engagement with foreign influences and insecurity about the unfamiliar. Women emerge as central figures in his narratives, grappling with the isolation and alienation of married life that stifles their personal and professional aspirations. The rigid norms of Prussian military society respond to any attempts at rebellion with duels, discrimination, and social exclusion. Thus, the liberation from feudal constraints did not equate to the emancipation of suppre