2 - Reporting India
Summary
Letters to the Editor
About thirty reports written by officers of the Hanoverian expedition were published in various German periodicals. Most were anonymous letters sent by officers from India. The main purpose of the letters was to report on military developments, but most also included descriptions of the natural and human Indian landscape. Eleven letters were published in local Hanoverian periodicals, the Hannoverisches Magazin and its successor the Neues Hannoversches Magazin, between 1782 and 1795. Nine reports were published in the Politisches Journal, a periodical dedicated to supplying a global view of political developments that was one of the most successful German magazines of its time. Additional reports were published by the Stats-Anzeigen, Niederelbisches historisch-politisch-litter-arisches Magazin, Neues militärisches Journal and Hanauisches Magazin.
The largest number of letters was published in the Hannoverisches Magazin and its successor, the Neues Hannoversches Magazin. The editors of this semi-official, typically Enlightenment periodical for the general public viewed the expedition to India as an issue which directly concerned its readership. Calls for letters from expedition participants were published. On 12 May 1783, the editors wrote:
In case further information is received from friends taking part in this journey, those who receive it are kindly asked to transfer it to the Intelligenzcomptoir for the sake of preparing an extract and presenting it to our inhabitants, who surely would delight in such news.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- German Soldiers in Colonial India , pp. 49 - 98Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014