Romantic Wanderlusts: German Travelers to the United States, 1822-1852

Abstract

This paper examines the travel diaries and sketches of four Germans who traveled to the United States in the nineteenth century: Paul Wilhelm, Duke of Württemberg (1822-1824); Frederick Julius Gustorf (1835-1836); Albert C. Koch (1844-1846); and Rudolph Friedrich Kurz (1846-1852). Each man observed the peoples, particularly Native Americans, and the natural landscape of America with the ultimate aim of presenting the results of their studies to the general German public in the form of published travel narratives. Many historians overlook German efforts to explore the “New World,” instead focusing their energy on nations with formal colonies in the Americas, such as France, England, and Spain. Analysis of these four travel narratives, however, demonstrates that this trend is unwarranted in the larger historiography of exploration and expansion into the Americas. These four Germans were actively involved in exploring the North American continent, even if they did not formally possess colonies or hope to establish a “New Germany” in North America. The absence of formal colonial possessions does not preclude a nation from participating in a broader discourse on exploration or scientific discoveries.