Understanding the diverse ways in which national literature was framed and shaped by transnational forces challenges us to re-examine our view of the long nineteenth century. Such re-examination is also productive for cultural documents, such as travel writing, that we might have already considered to be obviously transnational. Of course, travel writing is predicated on crossing borders, both in the person of the author as traveler and in terms of opening up vistas for readers who themselves are not traveling. Yet, even here, a closer look can uncover additional transnational connections. A re-examination of an example of popular German-language travel writing from that era can productively complicate traditional conceptions of national distinctiveness and interest.

It is perhaps ironic that the period of heightened interest in German national cohesiveness went hand in hand with a fascination about the rest of the world. At the same time that the middle classes in the German states were clamoring for German unification, the amount of travel writing distributed by major German publishing houses was steadily increasing. The illustrated press also participated actively in promoting readers’ interest in events and cultures outside of the German nation. Scholars such as Susanne Zantop and Russell Berman have compellingly linked this phenomenon to colonial aspirations that preceded and anticipated the German Empire joining the European race for colonial territories. While it is clear that fantasies of colonial grandiosity played a role in the German interest in travel writing, they were not limited to that national context. In fact, they were easily exportable; well-written German travel reports were often translated and published in England.