Catalogue
Catalogue
Object Type
Name/Title
Samoa : ein Bilderwerk
Primary Maker
Contributor/Publisher
See-Verlag
Place
Date
1927
Physical Description
32 pages, 139 leaves of plates : chiefly illustrations ; 27 cm
Language
German
Level of Current Record
Bib record
Member Object
Subject Category
Public Access Text
[Keywords: Samoan Islands - Description and travel - Pictorial works; Samoan Islands - History - Pictorial works]
Subject Notes
Scheurmann (1876-1957) was a painter and writer. From 1903 he lived on Lake Constance, where he met Hermann Hesse, who was also living there at the time. In 1914 he traveled to Samoa, at the time a German colony, at the suggestion of Gustav Muller-Grote, a publisher and with an advance payment for a book on the South Seas. There he was surprised by the First World War and the takeover of the colony by New Zealand troops. In 1915 he was allowed to travel to the USA, where he was interned as an enemy foreigner in 1916. Shortly before the end of the war, however, he was able to return to Germany. In 1919 he took over the buildings of the failed sanatorium on Monte Veritα for some time, which he operated as a hotel. The only successful one of his books was and is still today "The Papalagi. The Speeches of South Sea Chief Tuiavii", which expresses his discomfort with the western culture of his time and in its fictional speeches reflects less the thoughts of a South Sea man than the ideas of the life reformers. The book became the cult book of the hippies and the green alternative movement, who overlooked that Scheurmann was a staunch Nazi after 1933 and had been a party member since 1937.
Collection Type
Reserve Collection
Copyright
All rights reserved
Last Update
06 Dec 2024
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