Named for Theodor Fontane (1819-1898) on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death. He brought the German novel to worldwide importance. Descended from a Huguenot family, he worked as an apothecary, travel writer, editor, drama critic and finally as a full-time writer. Besides ballads and the multivolume Wanderungen durch die Mark Brandenburg, his novels are especially significant (e.g. Effi Briest, Der Stechlin). He chose his material mostly from Prussian history and the Berlin of his times. He combined love of tradition with open-mindedness for the new and skepticism with religious faith.