ABSTRACT
In the following pages, we will explore some stereotypical themes and motifs that are commonly found in German and French nineteenthcentury non-ction travelogues about the Netherlands, but have spread into ctional accounts as well. By describing and analysing points of convergence and, more intriguingly, divergence between French and German texts and situating them in the socio-political context of the time, this chapter seeks to provide some elements of explanation as to how such variations in the stereotypes used might have arisen. Even before the birth of modern tourism, the Netherlands enjoyed a long tradition as a popular travel destination. To give a brief impression of just how popu lar it was, for nineteenth-century France alone, the catalogue of the French National Library indicates over ten different tourist guides for Holland, including the Guide Richard, which was already in its twenty-fourth edition by 1853. Guides were also translated from German or English by Baedeker and by Murray. If we look at literary production, including both ction and travel writing, we nd over 50 titles in French for this same period. For Germany, the picture appears to be much the same. The catalogue of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin alone contains about 30 travelogues, but its collection is far from complete. An interesting title in this catalogue is the Freundliche Erinnerung an Holland und seine Bewohner: Zugleich ein Wegweiser für Reisende [Pleasant Reminder of Holland and Its Inhabitants: Also a Guide for Travellers] by Friedrich Wilhelm Dethmer, published in 1838 by Baedeker. This publishing company belonged to the father of Karl Baedeker, who would launch his famous series of travel guides for tourists the following year with Holland: Handbüchlein für Reisenden [Holland: A Small Guide Book for Travellers], perhaps inspired by Dethmer’s book and by the success of an even earlier travel guide, the Handbuch für Reisende am Rhein von Schafhausen [sic] bis Holland [Handbook for Travellers along the Rhine from Schaffhausen to Holland] (1816, with several subsequent editions over the next decades) by Aloys Wilhelm Schreiber. In 1900, the Baedeker guide for the Netherlands (then called Belgien
und Holland nebst dem Großherzogtum Luxemburg [Belgium and Holland together with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg]) had reached its twenty-second edition.
