Elisabet Delbrück’s ‘Reports from Africa’: An Example of German Travel Writing of the 1930s

Abstract

This article examines Elisabet Delbrück’s ‘Reports from Africa’ as an example of German travel writing of the 1930s, which has received less attention by scholars than its English counterparts. Delbrück’s twenty-eight reports (March 1934 to January 1937) contain features of other examples of 1930s travel writing, such as a circular structure, the use of direct speech and scene setting commonly found in fiction, a desire by the author to educate the reader, and an engagement with colonial matters. They have an added dimension of a political overlay, which affects her writing in places, distinguishing it from many other examples of that era.

Keywords:

• Elisabet Delbrück
• art
• Germany
• Africa
• 1930s
• colonialism
• National Socialism