Fontane trails (often also called Fontane hiking trails) are hiking and cycling routes that lead through the former Mark Brandenburg in the footsteps of Theodor Fontane's work. In his five-volume work, which was published between 1862 and 1889, Fontane described castles, monasteries, places and landscapes of the Mark, their inhabitants and their history based on his own hikes. The paths are still largely unknown, only listed on a few maps and often inadequately marked. In recent years, Fontane hiking trails have therefore been defined on the basis of their literary representation; the first six in 1988 to mark the 90th anniversary of the poet's death. They were signposted and developed to such an extent that they could be connected as hiking trails to a national hiking trail network, with the district of Potsdam-Mittelmark leading the way. In the meantime, several Fontane hiking clubs have been founded, whose hikers are rediscovering these paths. The paths put together so far do not represent authentic tours such as Fontane would have undertaken in this form. In addition, it is not always known which paths Fontane followed at the time. Furthermore, after the landscape was divided by railway lines and motorways, some paths no longer exist. In this respect, the Fontane Trails are partly arbitrary links between the places and cultural assets described in the hikes, which were formed according to today's landscape conditions and offer routes away from the roads that are as scenic as possible. Fontane avoided Berlin on his tours. The fact that sections of today's Fontanewege still lead through parts of Berlin is due to the fact that today's Berlin districts belonged to the province of Brandenburg in Fontane's time and were only incorporated into the capital in 1920 with the formation of Greater Berlin.
(Source: Wikipedia)
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