He became a prolific and successful novelist in the social realist style, depicting common working people.

His father was the main tenant of the Odeum, an establishment in which the provincial bourgeoisie held cultural events.

[1] Although poorly educated, Kretzer began a career as a self-taught writer after an accident at work in 1879.

At first he published short sketches, then a long series of novels, which sold about one million copies in his lifetime.

[1] Kretzer's work shows an ethical and increasingly Christian socialism, e.g. in "Das Gesicht Christi" (i.e.