Gotthard Erler

Gotthard Erler (born 1933 in Meerane, Saxony) is a German Germanist, author, and editor. He studied German literature in Leipzig, among others under Hans Mayer and Hermann August Korff. From 1964, he worked as a senior staff member at Aufbau-Verlag and served as its managing director from 1990 to 1998. He is particularly known for his decades-long research on Theodor Fontane and for numerous editions that contributed to the study and dissemination of Fontane’s work and biography. In 2014, Erler received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. His publications include the 2018 selection from Fontane’s correspondence with his wife, “Die Zuneigung ist etwas Rätselvolles. Eine Ehe in Briefen” (“Affection Is Something Mysterious: A Marriage in Letters”).