ABSTRACT
Displays of ethnic Others, known in German-speaking regions as Völkerschauen, constituted a flourishing branch of the entertainment industry in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. Among many entrepreneurs and impresarios employed in the business, there is one figure of particular importance: Carl Hagenbeck (1844–1913). Starting out as the son of a humble Hamburg-based fishmonger, not only did Carl Hagenbeck build a thriving animal trading company but he also developed an impressive showbusiness enterprise specialized in touring exhibitions of non-European people. What has been called Carl Hagenbeck’s empire of entertainments (Ames 2008) constitutes a well-established subject of academic investigation. Research conducted so far has shed light on how Hagenbeck’s business was organized; on the network of recruiters, impresarios, and managers; on exhibiting practices and structures of the shows; on the intermingling of Europeans with ethnic Others; and finally on how the shows were perceived by various groups of hosting communities (Ames 2008; Ciarlo 2011, 77–81; Rothfels 2002, 82–142; Thode-Arora 1989, 2008; see also Thode-Arora in this volume).
