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Saturday, October 26, 2024

Dream islands and island dreams (1)

Hawaiʻi and Berlin

Voyages to the islands of dreams

Harry von den Sandwich-Inseln, en face und im Profil nach links

200 years ago, on October 26, 1824, the Berlin sculptor and draughtsman Johann Gottfried Schadow wrote under one of his drawings: “Harry Sandwich Islands. 26. octob. 1824.” Who was this “Harry” and where are the “Sandwich Islands” actually located? So much can already be revealed: Harry was the first Hawaiian who arrived in Prussia and his home islands are known today as Hawaiʻi – not to be confused with Haiti in the Caribbean.

A man of the Sandwich Islands dancing
“A man of the Sandwich Islands dancing” (John Webber)

Even today, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Maui and Hawaiʻi are among the destinations that many people dream of visiting – but they also often say: I've never been to Hawaiʻi. Neither the desire to travel today nor easy flight connections bring the archipelago in the middle of the Pacific for Europeans as close as some islands in the Mediterranean or the Canary Islands, the “islands of eternal spring”. This is why dreams of the South Seas in general and the islands of Hawaiʻi in particular have played an important role in music, visual art, newspaper articles, radio and television broadcasts and other areas of culture up to the present day. This is shown not only by examples such as the banner “Visa-free to Hawai” [sic] at one of the so-called Monday demonstrations during the peaceful revolution in Leipzig in 1989 or “Dreamboat” episodes on German entertainment television, but also by references to the “dream islands” in pop lyrics and movies. 

These imaginary worlds have roots going back more than 200 years. Since the 18th century, tales of the paradise islands in the German literature have reflected dreams of a better world as well as other than spiritual desires. Not only the reports of French and English expeditions, but also the book “Johann Reinhold Forster's Reise um die Welt während den Jahren 1772 bis 1775” by the Prussian naturalist Georg Forster (1754-1794) formed the basis of the ideas of the South Seas. This translation of “A Voyage Round the World” (1777), published in two volumes in 1778 and 1780, was followed shortly afterwards by “Heinrich Zimmermanns von Wissloch in der Pfalz, Reise um die Welt, mit Capitain Cook” (Journey around the world with Captain Cook of Heinrich Zimmermann from Wissloch of the Palatinate, 1781). The British painter John Webber (1751-1793), who was sometimes called Johann Wäber because of his Swiss origins, also took part in Captain Cook‘s third voyage around the South Seas from 1776 to 1779/1780. The engravings based on his drawings supplemented the texts of the official travel report and remain important historical documents to this day.

Georg Forster Heinrich Zimmermann Niklaus Schweizer
Georg Forster
(1754-1794)		 Heinrich Zimmermann
(1741–1805)		 Niklaus Schweizer
(*1939)

In his book “Hawaiʻi and the German speaking peoples, Hawaiʻi a me ka poʻe o nā ʻāina Kelemānia” (1982), Niklaus Schweizer traced the history of island dreams for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which continued to be dreamed of when cultural contacts increased in the 19th century with international trade and later traveling. Niklaus Schweizer was Honorary Consul of Switzerland in Honolulu for many years and taught at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, as did the German scholar Anneliese W. Moore. Born in Tempelhof, she worked as a secretary and interpreter at the U.S. weather station during the Berlin Airlift (1948-1949), where she met the Californian meteorologist, Paul Moore. After the end of the airlift, the two married and moved directly to Honolulu.

Anneliese W. Moore
Anneliese W. Moore
(1914–2012)

But even in faraway Hawaiʻi, Anneliese W. Moore remained connected to the German language and literature. She analyzed the files from the “Central State Archives” in Merseburg and published her biography of the first Hawaiian in Prussia, “Harry Maitey: from Polynesia to Prussia”, in the “Hawaiian Journal of History” in 1977. Thanks to the work of Anneliese W. Moore and Niklaus Schweizer, not only the memory of the travels of such famous people as James Cook was kept alive, but also the exciting life story of Harry Maitey, who came to Prussia as a teenager and found a new home on Peacock Island as an adult.

(To be continued)

Illustration credits

References

Historical sources

Anneliese W. Moore

Niklaus Schweizer

  • Schweizer, Niklaus R. Hawaiʻi und die deutschsprachigen Völker. Bern; Las Vegas: Lang, 1982.
  • Schweizer, Niklaus R. Hawaiʻi and the German speaking peoples, Hawaiʻi a me ka poʻe o nā ʻāina Kelemānia. Honolulu, Hawaii: Topgallant Pub. Co, 1982.

Miscellaneous


Erstveröffentlichung: „No ka hoʻomanaʻo ana ia Berlin“

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Posted by Thomas Tunsch at 12:00:00 PM
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