An Annotated Bibliography of German Language Sources on the Mariana Islands

Spennemann, Dirk

From the Introduction: "The literature covered in this bibliography encompasses German language sources published before, during and after the period that the Mariana Islands were a German possession. The literature of the pre-German period encompasses missionary account translations of British voyages, as well as an 1848 call to establish a German colony in Oceania, albeit on New Caledonia. The literature of the immediate pre-German period is very limited, unlike the situation in the Marshall Islands, for example. German interests in Micronesia had been concentrated on the Marshalls, and after the partition of Micronesia between Spain and Germany in 1885, German interest in western Micronesia had waned, largely because German trading interests had to withdraw at that time. The purchase of Spanish Micronesia in 1889 led to a flurry of publications, mainly written by Georg Fritz. Literature dealing with the relations with Guam is conspicuously absent, with the exception of items on its economy which were furnished by the German consul in Manila The loss of the colonies as a result of World War I curtailed the publications on Micronesia. The Marianas were particularly affected insofar as no substantial ethnographic work had been carried out there. The famous German South Seas Expedition to Micronesia (1909, 1910), the results of which were published throughout the 1920s and 1930s, had specifically excluded the Marianas because the Chamorro culture was perceived as too acculturated by Spanish influences. In the 1930s the reawakening of German nationalism and the concomitant interest in its former colonies brought about a few publications on the Japanese League of Nations Mandate of Micronesia." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Historic Preservation Office, administered by the Pacific West Regional Office, National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior.

An Annotated Bibliography of German Language Sources on the Mariana Islands

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