The portrayal of Egypt in German travel accounts of the 19th century is the subject of this book. The focus is on the travelogues of the Austrian Joseph von Russegger: “Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa undertaken between 1835 and 1841, with special regard to the natural history and geology in these countries”. Both the portrayal and the form of presentation of Egypt in Russegger's work will be studied. In order not to neglect other travel writers entirely, a general overview of Arabs who travelled to Europe and Europeans who went to Egypt is given at the beginning of the book.

The main study, however, concentrates exclusively on Russegger's Egyptian travel report, which is discussed under various aspects such as politics, economics, geography, religion, society and culture: To what extent could authors describe reality – and where were they influenced by their prejudices? What prejudices were refuted or confirmed by new insights? Were there traditional modes of thinking, or modes of argumentation, to which travellers were consciously or unconsciously captive? How did a traveller, influenced by Romanticism and its inherent fascination with the Orient, perceive the foreign?

At the end of the 18th century, by which time numerous expeditions had been made to previously unknown lands, the scientific exploration of the globe and writing about distant lands also saw rapid growth. Travel at this time not only produced trip reports but also provided the inspiration for novels and fictional travelogues. Reports about expeditions, such as the French expedition of 1798-1801 to Egypt, and romantic poetry galvanized more and more people to explore foreign lands. Many authors tried to describe foreign cultures to the reader in an easily accessible form on the basis that one should be able to experience foreign lands from the comfort of one's own study. Yet these descriptions were contingent on the subjective eye of the beholder, who perceived the foreign always through his own idiosyncratic haze. Even if it was a pretention of many travellers to do otherwise, the boundaries between the two cultures, that of the writer and that of the visited country, were rarely overcome.

Russegger and Egypt

Russegger has the advantage of having visited Egypt not as a private citizen, but as a scientist on behalf of the Egyptian government. His stay, which lasted several years, his extensive travels and his access to high places, won him an insight that was likely only granted rarely to foreigners.