Seven Years' Fortress Detention @museum.de

M: "My casemate is damp and insalubrious – the saltpetre hangs down in crystals on the walls."

F: Dark, cold, damp and with unacceptable hygienic conditions – that was how Fritz Reuter described the conditions of his detention. Over a period of seven years, he saw the inside of five fortresses, four of them in Prussia. His great misfortune was to have been arrested in Berlin, that is, in Prussia. The authorities showed no mercy and there was no due process of law.

He was only informed of his sentence in late January 1837, more than three years after his arrest: death by decapitation. But:

M: "Along with the sentence, the King's pardon arrived, in which it is ordained that those sentenced to death have been pardoned by the King to 30 years in prison, and I, my dear father, am one of them."

F: But Fritz Reuter didn't lose his sense of the comical and the absurd: he would later describe his experiences in his novel "Ut mine Festungstid" – with a good dose of humour despite the terrible conditions.

M: After five and a half years inside, a glimmer of hope appeared on the horizon: his father's numerous petitions had had an effect, and Fritz Reuter was transferred to Mecklenburg. He would spend the last year of his fortress detention in Dömitz on the Elbe, where he was allowed to move about freely and become involved in social life. He drew and painted portraits of the fortress commander and his wife, and the family of Mayor Vogel, who were his friends.

F: In August 1840, he finally received a pardon from the King of Prussia. Fritz Reuter was free. He'd been in prison for seven years, from the age of 23 to the age of 30. His health was ruined. Marked by a lifelong alcohol addiction, he returned to Stavenhagen.