Georg Schweinfurth. Letzter Naturforscher humboldtscher Prägung an der Schwelle einer sich verändernden Welt

Valentina Serra

2021-01-01

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Abstract

Georg August Schweinfurth (Riga 1836-Berlin 1925) was one of the most important scientists who explored extensive areas of North and Central Africa over several years. The travel diaries that the author published during his long life are unique in the German-speaking world, as they show the author's multifaceted personality as explorer, scientist, botanist, ethnologist, geographer, archaeologist, linguist and Egyptologist. This paper examines Schweinfurth's most important travel diary, Im Herzen von Afrika (1874), whose adventurous experiences, recounted through skillful narrative strategies, captured the attention not only of geographers, botanists, ethnologists, etc., but also and above all, of the European bourgeoisie, eager for knowledge and travel to foreign lands. The paper finally opens up to a reflection on the role played by such travel reports in the colonial policy of the German Empire on the one hand, and in the final abolition of slavery on the other.