Narrating empire: Die Gartenlaube and Germany's nineteenth-century liberal expansionism

German Studies Review

Volumn 30, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 97-120

  Fitzpatrick, Matthew ^a  

^a FLINDERS UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COLONIZATION; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; NATION STATE; NINETEENTH CENTURY; POLITICAL HISTORY; POLITICAL POWER;

CENTRAL EUROPE; EURASIA; EUROPE; GERMANY;

EID: 33947404845     PISSN: 01497952     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (122)

1. Keil had been intimately involved with the political and satirical Laterne and Leuchtthurm. For biographical detail on Keil, see Magdalene Zimmermann, Die Gartenlaube als Dokument ihrer Zeit (Munich: Heimeran Verlag, 1963), 9-10.
2. Heidemarie Gruppe, "Volk" zwischen Politik und Idylle in der Gartenlaube 1853-1914 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1976), 29-30.
3. Zimmermann, Gartenlaube als Dokument, 10.
4. Geoff Eley, From Unification to Nazism: Reinterpreting the German Past (London: Allen & Unwin, 1986), 11.
5. Gruppe, "Volk," 103.
6. Kirsten Belgum, Popularizing the Nation: Audience, Representation, and the Production of Identity in Die Gartenlaube, 1853-1900 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998), 12ff.
7. Keil was a member of the Nationalverein during the 1860s. See Expedition der Wochenschrift des Nationalvereins, Verhandlungen der vierten Generalversammlung des deutschen Nationalvereins (Coburg: Verlag der Expedition der Wochenschrift des Nationalvereins, 1863), 39.
8. On the close links between Die Gartenlaube, the Nationalverein, the Nationalliberalen, and the German nationalist movement, see Gruppe, "Volk," 2 7-32, 103.
9. On the influence of the liberal press, see a pessimistic assessment in James J. Sheehan, German Liberalism in the Nineteenth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 97-98, 151-52.
10. A more convincing, positive assessment in Dieter Langewiesche, Liberalism in Germany, Christiane Banerji, trans. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 90. Die Gartenlaube is the type of publication Langewiesche alluded to when he noted that periodicals dominated by liberals played an important role.
11. Belgum, Popularizing the Nation, 15.
12. Marcus Koch, Nationale Identität im Prozess nationalstaatlicher Orientierung; dargestellt am Beispiel Deutschlands durch die Analyse der Familienzeitschrift Die Gartenlaube von 1853-1890 (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2003), 189-90.
13. Gruppe, "Volk," 37. All translations from German are by the author unless otherwise noted.
14. Thomas Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte 1800-1866: Bürgerwelt und starker Staat, 3d ed. (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1985), 593.
15. Belgum, Popularizing the Nation, chapter 3.
16. Ibid., esp. chapters 3 and 4.
17. On nineteenth-century liberal imperialism, its links to national identity, and the problem of undirected emigration, see Frank Lorenz Müller, "Imperialist Ambitions in Vormärz and Revolutionary Germany: The Agitation for German Settlement Colonies Overseas, 1840-1849," German History 17/3 (1999): 346-68;
18. Frank Lorenz Müller, "Der Traum von der Weltmacht. Imperialistische Ziele in der deutschen Nationalbewegung von der Rheinkrise bis zum. Ende der Paulskirche," Jahrbuch der Hambach Gesellschaft 6 (1996-97): 99-183;
19. Hans Fenske, "Imperialistische Tendenzen in Deutschland vor 1866: Auswanderung, überseeische Bestrebungen, Weltmachtträume," Historisches Jahrbuch 97-98, 1978: 336-83;
20. Hans Fenske, "Ungeduldige Zuschauer: Die Deutschen und die europäische Expansion 1815-1880," in: W. Reinhard, Imperialistische Kontinuität und nationale Ungeduld im 19. Jahrbundert (Frankfurt: Fischer, 1991);
21. Woodruff D. Smith, The Ideological Origins of Nazi Imperialism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).
22. Müller's analysis of imperialist tendencies in both the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung and the 1848/9 Nationalversammlung can be supported by an examination of the Wochenschrift and Wochen-Blatt of the Nationalverein, as well as Petermann's Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes' geographischer Anstalt über wichtige neue Erforschungen auf dem Gesammtgebiete der Geographie. The novels of Otto Ruppius, Sophie Wörishöffer, and Friedrich Gerstäcker as well as the treatises of Friedrich List, Hermann Blumenau, Johann Sturz, Wilhelm Roscher, Alexander von Bülow, Karl Gaillard also represent varying approaches to the theme of German expansionism.
23. Contra Belgum Popularizing the Nation, 151. In positing overseas expansionism as an essentially bourgeois liberal aim is not to discount the resonances such ac fivities found in working class circles, particularly during the colonial era.
24. See John Phillip Short, "Everyman's Colonial Library: Imperialism and Working-Class Readers in Leipzig, 1890-1914," German History 21/4 (2003): 445-75.
25. Gruppe, "Volk," 103.
26. Far more overt were the official political mouthpieces of the Nationalverein, Wochenschrift des Nationalvereins (WS) and Wochen-Blatt des Nationalvereins. (WB). E.g. "Die deutsche Kriegsflotte," WS No. 133, 14 November 1862: 1116;
27. "Noch einmal: Die deutsche Flotte," WS No. 203, 17 March 1864: 1719;
28. "Die Flotten Sache," WS No. 232, 6 October 1864: 1999;
29. "Die deutsche Seemannsschule in Hamburg in ihrer Bedeutung für die Zukunfts-Marine Deutschlands," WB No. 23, 7 September 1865: 183. These papers, as overtly political, at times doctrinaire periodicals, could afford a more forthright position than the ostensibly apolitical Gartenlaube, which sought to further its political agenda through the more intimate, personal narrative modes delineated below.
30. To this extent, the depiction of colonial alterity might be added to those aspects of otherness that Marcus Koch has seen as assisting in the negative delineation of bürgerlich identity: Marcus Koch, Nationale Identität, 191-93.
31. Also: Andrew Zimmerman, Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial Germany (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), 2-4.
32. On changes in broad narrative structure and approach in Die Gartenlaube during the nineteenth century, see Gruppe, "Volk," 13-14, 103.
33. As per Hans Fenske, "Imperialistische Tendenzen" and "Ungeduldige Zuschauer"
34. and Frank Lorenz Müller, "Imperialist Ambitions" and "Der Traum von der Weltmacht."
35. For an example of this approach, see Susanne Zantop, Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family and Nation in Precolonial Germany, 1770-1870 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997).
36. Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994), 70-71.
37. See also Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (London: Vintage, 1994).
38. Homi Bhabha, "DissemiNation: Time, Narrative and the Margins of the Modern Nation," in: Nation and Narration, Homi Bhabha, ed. (London: Routledge, 1990), 310.
39. For a comprehensive list of Gartenlaube articles dealing with America between 1871 and 1913, see Undine Janeck, Zwischen Gartenlaube und Karl May. Deutsche Amerikarezeption in den Fahren 1871-1913 (Aachen: Shaker Verlag, 2003), 373ff.
40. "Der Deutsche in Amerika," Die Gartenlaube (hereafter: DG) 1853, No. 1: 6.
41. Stefan von Senger und Etterlin, Neu-Deutschland in Nordamerika: Massenauswanderung, nationale Gruppenansiedlungen und liberale Kolonialbewegung, 1815-1860 (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, 1991). For a concise statement of his thesis, see pages 2-3.
42. "Die Deutschen in Amerika," DG 1856, No. 8: 109-11.
43. "Eine mecklenburgische Colonie in Nordamerika," DG 1861, No. 9: 140.
44. Ibid., 139.
45. "Ein Denkmal deutscher Eintracht in der Fremde," DG 1866, No. 5: 76-78.
46. "Eine südamerikanische Hauptstadt," DG 1868, No. 40: 636.
47. "Das Thor Amerikas," DG 1866, No. 31: 477.
48. "Eine deutsche Colonie in Neuschottland," DG 1869, No. 51: 809.
49. "Neu-Deutschland unter dem Aequator," DG 1859, No. 52: 763-64. The introduction continues, "Keine Nation, keine Regierung der Welt kann sich so vieler festen und sichern, gedeihenden und vergrößerden Colonien rühmen, als Deutschland."
50. Johann Jakob Sturz, Die deutsche Auswanderung und die Verschleppung deutscher Auswanderer (Berlin: Kortkampf Verlag, 1868).
51. Samuel Gottfried Kerst, Ueber Brasilianische Zustände der Gegenwart, mit Bezug auf die deutsche Auswanderung nach Brasilien und das System der brasilianischen Pflanzer, den Mangel an afrikanischen Sklaven durch deutsche Proletarier zu ersetzen, zugleich zur Abfertigung der Schrift des Kaiserl. Brasil. Prof. Dr Gade: Bericht über die deutschen Kolonien am Rio Preto (Berlin: Verlag von Veit & Comp, 1853).
52. "Rettung vor Seelenhandel," DG 1869, No. 25: Frontispiece.
53. "Vorsicht vor amerikanischen Landagenten!" DG 1873, No. 36: 589;
54. "Die Einwanderungs- oder Transportgesellschaften" DG 1853, No. 4: 41;
55. "Deutsche Colonisation in Brasilien," DG 1862, No. 29: 454ff.;
56. "Deutscher Kuli-Handel," DG 1874, No. 22: 358.
57. Bhabha, The Location of Culture, 70.
58. "Das Paradies in central-Amerika," DG 1853, No. 36: 389.
59. For racial hierarchy see also DG 1854, No. 26: 307.
60. "Der entdeckte Schlüssel zum Herzen Afrikas" DG 1856, No. 41: 557.
61. Ibid., 556.
62. "Die Jagd auf Flußpferde," DG 1874, No. 43: 698.
63. "Die deutschen Fremdenlegion und das Kap der guten Hoffnung," DG 1857, No. 3: 41.
64. "Ein deutscher Gruß von Australien her," DG 1868, No. 44: 700.
65. See also "Die Azteken, der Buschmann und die Corana," DG 1856, No. 12: 156-58. The use of images in DG in such articles always emphasized the advanced nature of the Europeans, in comparison to the "backward natives."
66. "Civilisation und Wildniß," DG 1855, No. 17: 224-25.
67. Belgum, Popularizing the Nation, 81-82.
68. "Der entdeckte Schlüssel zum Herzen Afrikas," DG 1856, No. 41: 556, 559.
69. "Other individuals lauded by Die Gartenlaube included Theodor von Heuglin in DG 1862, No. 5: 72;
70. Paul Büßfeldt in DG 1874, No. 38: 613;
71. Eduard and Theodor Vogel in DG 1875, No. 40: 679;
72. Wölber in DG 1878, No. 4: 64;
73. Henry Stanley in DG 1878, No. 7: 113;
74. and, of course, the non-German but nonetheless "heroic" Dr. Livingstone, whose spirit was invoked in not a few of Die Gartenlaube's articles on imperialist exploration: DG 1878, No. 27: 443.
75. DG, No. 41: 558.
76. "Die deutsche Expedition nach Mittelafrika und ihre Gegner," DG 1862, No. 5: 72.
77. Ibid., 74.
78. "Die 'Afrikanische Gesellschaft' und die deutsche Expedition nach Loangoküste," DG 1874, No. 38: 613.
79. For the expedition's funding, see page 614; also DG 1883, No. 7: 116.
80. Fenske, "Imperialistische Tendenzen" and "Ungeduldige Zuschauer";
81. Müller, "Imperialist Ambitions" and "Der Traum von der Weltmacht."
82. "Die weißen Flecken unserer Landkarten," DG 1875, No. 28: 478;
83. "Die Vorgänge in China," DG 1853, No. 27: 288-92;
84. "Handelsstationen in Westafrika," DG 1878, No. 4: 64.
85. "Die Transvaal-Republik im Kafferlande," DG 1855, No. 32: 425.
86. Ibid.:
87. "Die Kaffern müßten aus demselben Gründen ausgerottet werden, aus welchem man Heuschrecken, Wanzen, Flöhe und Wölfe im Interesse der allgemein Wohlfahrt vertilge."
88. Also "Die deutsche Fremdlegion und das Kap der guten Hoffnung," DG 1857, No. 3: 41.
89. "Die nordamerikanischen Indianer der Jetztzeit," DG 1862, No. 9: 132.
90. "Bilder aus dem Stillen Ocean," DG 1881, No. 42: 700.
91. "Von den 'rothen Teufeln,'" DG 1874, No. 47: 754. The article ends with a dismissal of "Romantic" ideas about their preservation. See 757.
92. "Die weißen Flecken unserer Landkarten," 478.
93. "Australien und die Weltausstellung in Sydney," DG 1879, No. 21: 353.
94. "Die deutsche Loango-Expedition im Kriege," DG 1876, No. 21: 348.
95. "Neue Indianerkämpfe," DS 1876, No. 33: 552.
96. "Die Zulus und der drohende Racenkrieg in Südafrika," DG 1879, No. 12: 208.
97. "Erinnerungen von der deutschen Flotte," DG, 1857, No. 1: 9.
98. See also "Die letzten Tage der deutschen Flotte," DG 1855, No. 42: 562.
99. DG 1857, No. 1: 9.
100. Ibid., 10.
101. "Bilder aus dem Seeleben," DG 1859, No. 4: 53-4.
102. Ibid., 54.
103. The Nationalverein undertook a vigorous pro-naval stance at the Nationalverein committee meeting of the 22 August 1861 and the Generalversammlung of 23 and 24 August 1861. See Andreas Biefang, Der Deutsche Nationalverein (Düsseldorf: Droste, 1995), 135, 137, 151;
104. Verhandlungen der zweiten Generalversammlung des Nationalvereins (Coburg: Verlag der Expedition der Wochenschrift des Nationalvereins, 1861), 32ff.
105. "Die deutsche Flottenmacht," DG 1861, No. 41: 654.
106. Ibid., 655-56.
107. "Zur deutschen Flotten," DG 1861, No. 44: 696.
108. "Deutschland auf dem Meere," DG 1865, No. 45: 708.
109. "Wann, wann marschiren wir gen Norden?" DG 1863, No. 21: 328.
110. It is also calls to mind Schulze-Delitzsch's view that a conflict with Schleswig-Holstein could turn into a Europe-wide conflict, which could force Germany to unite. See Verhandlungen der zweiten Generalversammlung des deutschen Nationalvereins, 35.
111. DG 1863, No. 21: 328.
112. "Die deutsche Seewarte in Hamburg," DG 1875, No. 12: 195.
113. Ibid., 195.
114. On Germany's maritime reputation see also "Das neue Marinelazareth in Yokohama," DG 1879, No. 2: 39.
115. "Deutschlands erster Kriegshafen," DG 1883, No. 8: 132-36.
116. Ibid., 136.
117. Calls for colonies had come earlier. E.g.: "Neu-Deutschland unter dem Aequator," DG 1859, No. 52: 763-64.
118. "Die niederdeutschen Bauern (Boers) von Südafrika," DG 1880, No. 11: 177. That this would entail war with England is not discussed.
119. Ibid.
120. "Vorzeitliche und moderne sociale Probleme. Uebervökerung und Auswanderung," DG 1881, No. 12: 195.
121. DG 1884, No. 17: 283-85 and No. 18: 299-302, esp. 302.
122. DG 1884, No. 21: 351.