Ludwig Pietsch was a German painter, art critic and feature writer in Berlin and a friend of Theodor Fontane

Theodor Fontane

Theodor Fontane was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist writer.-Youth:Fontane was born in Neuruppin into a Huguenot family. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to an apothecary, his father's profession. He became an...

.

Life

Pietsch studied first at the Danzig art and vocational school and from 1841–1843 at the Berlin Art Academy. He worked as an illustrator for such newspapers and journals as the well known Leipzig Illustrirte Zeitung. His articles in the Vossichte Zeitung and the Spenersche Zeitung started to appear in 1864, and he later contributed to the Breslau Schlesische Zeitung where he served as a chief feature writer for a period, as well as the periodical Grenzboten, published by Gustav Freytag

Gustav Freytag

Gustav Freytag was a German novelist and playwright.-Life:Freytag was born in Kreuzburg in Silesia...

 and Julian Schmidt and the Berliner Allgemeine Zeitung. He reported on Berlin's social events such as the annual Presseball, and was its most important and gifted fashion critic, much to his own embarrassment. He also reported on his own travel experiences, art and handicraft exhibitions, and served as a companion to the Crown Prince Frederich in the Franco-German war of 1871.

He was given an honorary title of Professor for his 70th birthday.

Pietsch was reputed to be a tireless socialite well into his old age. He associated daily with actors, artists and politicians, and had an intimate knowledge of Berlin's social scene, cafes, restaurants and balls, and was much admired by his female readers. Pietsch harnessed his Christmas Eve birthday to celebrate the whole day, starting at midnight. Alfred Kerr

Alfred Kerr

Alfred Kerr , born Alfred Kempner, was an influential German-Jewish theatre critic and essayist, nicknamed the Kulturpapst ....

 wrote of Pietsch:

"He is a daredevil, shrugging off his seventy years, and draws in all the joie de vivre to live life to the full. He has hardly given up hope for women, and he is even dangerous in their presence. He appears at every notables' banquet, every premiere, and at the opening of every show."

Walther Kiaulehn

Walther Kiaulehn

Walther Kiaulehn was a German journalist and writer.- Biography :After completing his studies as an electrician, Kiaulehn chose to work as journalist. In 1924, he started writing for Berliner Abendblatt , and then between 1930 and 1933 for B.Z. am Mittag...

 recalls similarly:

"Pietsch was a talented painter who withdrew from his easel with his imperious talents into society. He was was the confidant of houses where art was loved. Humorous and gallant, he chatted about everything having to do with old families and new images, exhibitions, on the dresses of the ladies, suppers, and studio visits."

The most important of Pietsch's close acquaintances were labor leader Ferdinand Lassalle

Ferdinand Lassalle

Ferdinand Lassalle was a German-Jewish jurist and socialist political activist.-Early life:Ferdinand Lassalle was born on 11 April 1825 in Breslau , Silesia to a prosperous Jewish family descending from Upper Silesian Loslau...

, the sculptor Reinhold Begas

Reinhold Begas

Reinhold Begas was a German sculptor.Begas was born in Berlin, son of the painter Karl Begas. He received his early education studying under Christian Daniel Rauch and Ludwig Wilhelm Wichmann...

, the painter Aldolph Menzel and the writers Theodor Storm

Theodor Storm

Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm , commonly known as Theodor Storm, was a German writer.-Life:Storm was born in Husum, at the west coast of Schleswig than an independent duchy and ruled by the king of Denmark...

 and Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Turgenev

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...

. With the latter, Peitsch was in particularly close contact, both in Berlin and in Baden Baden.

Selected works

• Aus Welt und Kunst : Studien und Bilder. Jena : Costenoble, 1867 (2 volumes)
• Von Berlin bis Paris. Kriegsbilder (1870 -1871). Berlin 1871
• Nach Athen und Byzanz. Ein Frühlingsausflug. Berlin: Janke 1871
• Orientfahrten eines Berliner Zeichners. Berlin: Janke 1871
• Marokko. Briefe von der deutschen Gesandtschaftsreise nach Fez im Frühjahr 1877. Leipzig: Brockhaus 1878
• Wallfahrt nach Olympia im ersten Frühling der Ausgrabungen (April und Mai 1876) nebst einem Bericht über die Resultate der beiden folgenden Ausgrabungs-Campagnen. Reisebriefe. Berlin: Luckhardt 1879
• Andreas Achenbach. Breslau 1880
• Paul Meyerheim. Breslau 1881
• Die deutsche Malerei der Gegenwart auf der Jubiläums-Ausstellung der Königlichen Akademie der Künste zu Berlin 1886. München: Hanfstaengel 1886
• Die Malerei auf der Münchener Jubiläums-Kunst-Ausstellung 1888. München: Hanfstaengel 1888–1889
• Ludwig Pietsch: Wie ich Schriftsteller geworden bin. Der wunderliche Roman meines Lebens.
  • Volume 1: Erinnerungen aus den Fünfziger Jahren. Berlin: Fontane 1893.
  • Volume 2: Erinnerungen aus den Sechziger Jahren. Berlin: Fontane 1894.
  • Newly edited by Peter Goldammer, Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag 2000. ISBN 3-351-02875-X
• Aus jungen und alten Tagen. Memoirs. Berlin : Fontane 1904