Citation

Lü Y. Ger. Life Lett. 2008; 61(2): 202-214.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-0483.2008.00419.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This essay examines the coverage of the Boxer uprising in the German mainstream press in 1900 as a shaper and reflection of public opinion. Through comparative analyses of contrasting strategies of reporting in three major daily papers with different readerships, the Kölnische Zeitung, the Frankfurter Zeitung and the Berliner Morgenpost, it shows how certain events emerge as ‘key experiences’, resulting in a surprisingly convergent, patriotic narrative for the literate German public. This stresses both Germany's moral obligation to civilise the ‘backward’ and also its duty to punish the ‘barbaric’. The essay further reveals a tendency in the relevant journalism to celebrate Germany's rise to enhanced status as a colonial power. This, in turn, is cast as a second foundation myth, elevating the nation to the eminence of a ‘Weltmacht’ in rivalry with its new ally, France.