Friedel is partaking in one of these wedding cakes; the sister of his friend E. got married this afternoon, and of course your Mama was at the wedding service. Such couples always get married in the Jerusalem Church, and the marriage address commenced with the words: “It is a bold and heroic step you are about to make…” True enough, but unusual.
We are leading a very restless lifestyle, especially I: social gatherings, visitors from out of town, and above all else, a lot of theater. This includes performances at the so-called “Freie Bühne,” which is managed by little Brahm. Another play is on the schedule tomorrow, at lunchtime from 12 to 2 o’clock, a quintessential realist drama, which will generate raging disputes in its wake; I will be there as a standard-bearer for the Neue Preußische Zeitung. Incredible, the things one lives to see.
As always, your
old Papa.
V. To Friedrich Stephany (October 22, 1889)
Shortly after attending the premiere of Hauptmann’s Before Daybreak on October 20, 1889, and immediately after writing his two-part review, Fontane reflected on Ibsen’s and Hauptmann’s contribution to German drama in letters to Friedrich Stephany, his editor at the Vossische Zeitung. It was nonsense, Fontane believed, to say that Hauptmann lacked real talent, as many Berlin theater critics were claiming.
Berlin, October 22, 1889
Most esteemed gentleman and friend.
Yesterday evening, after I had turned in the second half of my review, I allowed myself the pleasure of buying all the evening papers at a newsstand, so that I could go home and immerse myself in the opinions of my colleagues. It was very enjoyable indeed; and there is still just enough of the “old Berliner” (from the 1830s) in my veins to be amused by good jokes, even if I have to dismiss them. And so I had to laugh heartily about Lindau and Landau and the stranger in the Kleine Journal, [ . . . ]. But – and this is why I am writing – all of these reviews [ . . . ] are rantings and jokes, some of them very good as the latter. In terms of their essence, however, they are superficial and malicious, written either without any real understanding of culture or with the suppression of all better judgment. It is ridiculous to fob off this young fellow (Hauptmann) by evoking the common phrase that he also has a bit of talent. That means nothing at all; everyone has “a bit of talent,” one can say that of about every third person. Hauptmann, though, has a very great and rare talent, but above all, and this is something I have to emphasize time and again – and am entitled to emphasize, because I really know more about the things under review here – above all, his play is the expression of a stupendous degree of art, judgment, and insight into everything that belongs to the technique and structure of drama. It may be that he got lucky just once and went with it; that is possible but not very likely. Do overcome, if possible, your personal aversion to the school (I certainly respect your feelings), but let me, as an “old sober-sides,” express my unwavering conviction that there is more behind a man who can write such a work than behind the whole lot of those who only hanker after “author’s royalties.”
Your Th. F.
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