Theodor-Fontane-Denkmal

Theodor Fontane’s bronze likeness sits on a granite bench in the middle of Neuruppin’s Fontaneplatz. The sculptor Max Wiese cast the seated figure in 1907, showing the writer’s right leg crossed over the left, a pen resting on his lap and a notebook in his left hand. A hat, scarf and walking stick lie on the granite slab beside him. Two inscribed bronze tablets flank the bench: one records Fontane’s birth and death dates, the other calls him “the poet of the Mark.”

The drive to honour Fontane began within a year of his death in 1898, when a local committee opened a public account and raised five thousand Marks. Wiese, who had already carved the Schinkel monument in Neuruppin, used Fontane’s own son Friedrich as his model. A grand ceremony on 8 June 1907 unveiled the finished work, and in 2005 the square itself was renamed Fontaneplatz. Every 30 December the town and the Theodor Fontane Society hold an annual tribute at the statue.

Visitors find the bronze figure framed by the quiet square’s low buildings and mature lime trees. The inscriptions on the granite bench are clearly legible, and the surrounding paving forms a small open space for gatherings. The nearby streets still carry Fontane’s name on shop signs and street plates, linking the monument to the town he described in his Wanderungen.