n Acta Germanica : German Studies in Africa - Musterländle oder "Vorstadt der Heimat"?

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Forster und Chamisso am Kap der Guten Hoffnung

Abstract

Ideal Society or "Suburb of my Home"? Forster's and Chamisso's Stay at the Cape of Good Hope

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In the travel accounts of their respective voyages around the world Georg Forster and Adelbert von Chamisso describe the Cape colony at the time of their visits in 1772 and 1818. Whereas Forster fashions his texts as educational and critical writings, Chamisso primarily aims to describe how he has established himself as a natural scientist. As a result Forster asks to which extent the colonist society at the Cape has already achieved the ideals of Enlightenment, especially freedom and progress. Nearly half a century later Chamisso's description focuses on the community of Prussian botanists in Cape Town - and on the narrators emotions on his arrival at what he calls "a suburb of my home".