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Description
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The album collects the photographs taken by the Naval Officer A. Martiensen, who took part in Wilhelm II's trip to the Levant in 1898, as he was serving on the Imperial liner "Hohenzollern" from September 1898 to March 1900. The visit was a key diplomatic move of the German Empire and the Protestant Church to strengthen the political ties with the Ottoman Empire and it was widely reported and commentated in all the media. The album was probably compiled at end of the 1920s, as indicated by the form and layout. Also, pictures are not arranged in chronological order, which would suggest that they may initially have been kept in different places and only later incorporated into the album. The last picture dates from 1929 and shows Martiensen and tourist group seated on camels in front of the Pyramid of Giza. Photographs show Wilhelm II close-ups and in an almost private setting when on board the Hohenzollern - such as for his birthday -, whereas other pictures were carefully staged and intended to serve propaganda purposes. Some of these photographs must have been taken by other people, such as the German photographer Ottomar Anschütz (1846-1907) and Empress Auguste Victoria (1858-1921) and by other professional photographers. The prints have numbers in the negative which could have been catalog numbers the passengers and crew could use to order souvenir pictures., Title devised by Library staff, date from item. The pictures are contact prints from glass negatives with a format of 12 x 18 cm. Most of them have numbers as would have been written on the glass negatives and are captioned in white ink on the mount., Main Heritage Display General, HC.HP.2016.0053-0158, 2-D Graphic, Item-ID: i23299381, BIB-ID: 2496329 |
