Der Rütli was a German literary group, named after the famous Swiss meadow. It was founded on 9 December 1852 by members of the Tunnel über der Spree

Tunnel über der Spree

Der Tunnel über der Spree was a German literary society based in Berlin, founded on 3 December 1827 by Moritz Gottlieb Saphir. Most active between 1840 and 1860, it acquired 214 members and influenced literary life in Berlin for more than seventy years....

as "a kind of subsidiary tunnel" ("eine Art Nebentunnel" — 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...

) with a more intimate atmosphere, in contrast to the ceremonial and public nature of the larger group's activities. They met weekly at one another's homes. One major difference between meetings of the Tunnel and meetings of the Rütli was that members' wives were admitted, albeit only after the "work" of the gathering was completed.

The members can be divided into the founders, or Ur-Rütlionen, and the Späteren. At first, the anniversary of the group's founding was celebrated each 9 December, but as this conflicted somewhat with the Tunnel's Stiftungsfest on 3 December, the date was moved to 5 February.

The group entertained many guests: Berthold Auerbach

Berthold Auerbach

Berthold Auerbach was a German-Jewish poet and author. He was the founder of the German “tendency novel,” in which fiction is used as a means of influencing public opinion on social, political, moral, and religious questions.-Biography:Moses Baruch Auerbach was born in Nordstetten in the Kingdom...

, Friedrich von Bodenstedt, Eduard Devrient

Eduard Devrient

Eduard Devrient was a German baritone, librettist, playwright, actor, theatre director and theatre reformer and historian.Devrient came from a theatrical family...

, etc.

By 1892, only three members still attended meetings; on 5 January 1897 Fontane wrote to Lazarus that "the Rütli's current slumber is a blessing; for years it's been in a tragic way."

Members

Ur-Rütlionen Karl Bormann Friedrich Eggers 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... Adalbert Noel Paul Heyse Franz Kugler Bernhard von Lepel Adolph von Menzel Adolph von Menzel Adolph Friedrich Erdmann von Menzel, was a German artist noted for drawings, etchings, and paintings. Along with Caspar David Friedrich, he is considered one of the two most prominent German artists of the 19th century, and was the most successful artist of his era in Germany... Wilhelm von Merckel 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... Titus Ullrich Titus Ullrich Titus Ullrich was a German poet, dramatist, art critic and literary critic from the County of Kladsko. Some of his songs were set by Robert Schumann....

Spätere Leopold Goldammer Hugo von Blomberg Hugo von Blomberg August Gotthold Dietrich Hugo, Baron von Blomberg, a poet and painter, was born at Berlin in 1820. He studied under Wach in the Academy at Berlin, and under Léon Cogniet at Paris, and copied Rubens's works in the Louvre. He died at Weimar in 1871. Among his paintings may be mentioned:*Das... Karl Eggers August von Heyden Paul Heyse Richard Lucae Moritz Lazarus Moritz Lazarus Moritz Lazarus , born at Filehne, in the Prussian province of Posen, was a German philosopher, psychologist, and a vocal opponent of the anti-Semitism of his time.- Life and education :... Wilhelm Lübke Wilhelm Lübke Wilhelm Lübke was a German art historian, born at Dortmund. He studied at Bonn and Berlin; was professor of architecture at the Berlin Bauakademie and professor of the history of art at Zurich , Stuttgart , and Karlsruhe... Otto Roquette Otto Roquette Otto Roquette was a German author.- Life and Work :The son of a district court councillor, he first went to Bromberg in 1834, and from 1846-1850 studied Philology and History in Heidelberg, Berlin, and Halle. After tours in Switzerland and Italy, he moved to in Berlin in 1852... Karl Zöllner

Works

• Argo. Belletristisches Jahrbuch für 1854. Hg. v. Theodor Fontane / Franz Kugler, Dessau 1854.

• Literatur-Blatt des deutschen Kunstblattes. Redigirt v. Friedrich Eggers, 1. Jg. (zum 5. Jg. des Deutschen Kunstblattes gehörig), 1854; 2. Jg., 1855; 3. Jg. 1856; 4. Jg. 1857.

• Argo. Album für Kunst und Dichtung. Hg. v. Friedrich Eggers / Theodor Hosemann / Franz Kugler, Breslau 1857; dass. Hg. v. Friedrich Eggers / Theodor Hosemann / Bernhard von Lepel, ebd. 1858.

• Literatur-Blatt des Deutschen Kunstblattes, 5. Jg. (zum 9. Jg. des Deutschen Kunstblattes gehörig), 1858.

• Argo. Album für Kunst und Dichtung. Hg. v. Friedrich Eggers / Theodor Hosemann / Bernhard v. Lepel, Breslau 1859; dass. Hg. v. Friedrich Eggers / Theodor Hosemann / Bernhard v. Lepel, ebd. 1860.