Patricia Anne Simpson is Professor of German at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

“Stretching over nearly 500 years and across much of the globe, Simpson makes a compelling case that the history of German speakers is inextricably linked to—and not infrequently shaped by—a colonial world order. The book will propel forward discourses on German history, migration, and the role of Germans in the world from 1492 to 1942 and signals a new phase of German studies, in which the full complexity of German colonial projects, patterns of mobility, and immigrants themselves is in focus. Simpson urges us to question the authority of nation-state narratives, a perspective that will resonate across academic disciplines beyond German studies.”

• List of IllustrationsArchival SourcesAcknowledgementsIntroduction: The “German” Globe, 1492Part I: Imperial EntanglementsChapter One: Prussia’s First FortressChapter Two: Enlightened ColonialismChapter Three: Enslaved Souls, Perfect Freedom, and SavageryPart II: Transatlantic German WorldsChapter Four: The New World WildernessChapter Five: German PioneersChapter Six: Upon the Water: Immigration as DestinyPart III: Global ImaginariesChapter Seven: Global German FrontiersChapter Eight: Wohin? The Ungovernable Chapter Nine: First Footprints and Recolonial FantasiesConclusion: Decolonial Fantasies Works CitedIndex

Patricia Anne Simpson is Professor of German at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

“Stretching over nearly 500 years and across much of the globe, Simpson makes a compelling case that the history of German speakers is inextricably linked to—and not infrequently shaped by—a colonial world order. The book will propel forward discourses on German history, migration, and the role of Germans in the world from 1492 to 1942 and signals a new phase of German studies, in which the full complexity of German colonial projects, patterns of mobility, and immigrants themselves is in focus. Simpson urges us to question the authority of nation-state narratives, a perspective that will resonate across academic disciplines beyond German studies.”

• List of IllustrationsArchival SourcesAcknowledgementsIntroduction: The “German” Globe, 1492Part I: Imperial EntanglementsChapter One: Prussia’s First FortressChapter Two: Enlightened ColonialismChapter Three: Enslaved Souls, Perfect Freedom, and SavageryPart II: Transatlantic German WorldsChapter Four: The New World WildernessChapter Five: German PioneersChapter Six: Upon the Water: Immigration as DestinyPart III: Global ImaginariesChapter Seven: Global German FrontiersChapter Eight: Wohin? The Ungovernable Chapter Nine: First Footprints and Recolonial FantasiesConclusion: Decolonial Fantasies Works CitedIndex