Freiheit, Fortschritt, und Verheißung: Blickwechsel zwischen Europa und Nordamerika seit der frühen Neuzeit (review)

In 2011, the Franke Foundations (Frankesche Stiftungen) in Halle held a yearlong exhibition in honor of the 300th birthday of Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg (one of the key figures in the founding of the Lutheran Church in America). The exhibition presented a collection of drawings, maps, and artifacts that together represent the range of European images and impressions of America from 1492 to the present, with a concentration on the eighteenth century and on German views of North America. Freiheit, Fortschritt, und Verheißung is the companion volume to the program. The book is divided into two sections: the first is dedicated to a collection of original essays that provide historical context; the second features pictures of artifacts from the exhibition, as well as descriptions of all of the items in the displays (many but not all of which are pictured here).

The essays are a mix of summary articles designed to place the images of the exhibition into a larger analytical and conceptual framework and more in-depth pieces. The target audience seems to be general readers (as opposed to scholars). More general articles bookend the collection, focusing on the earlier and later centuries, while the articles in the middle are more specific and concentrate on the work of Pietist-Lutheran ministers from Halle in North America in the eighteenth century. This focus makes sense based on the nature of the collection displayed and given the connection to the Francke Foundations. The editors acknowledge that both the exhibition itself and the articles focus on European visions of America rather than Amerindian or African views of Europeans or the realities that all the peoples of the New World often faced on the ground. Special attention in the volume is given to European prejudices as revealed by the sources under discussion here, which demonstrate both the sensationalized fears of the unknown and the overblown idealism that came to be characteristic of promotional literature.

It is impossible in a review of this length to adequately discuss all the articles. A few deserve comment here, however. Perhaps the most original piece is Wolfgang Splitter’s investigation of the correspondence between August Hermann Francke and Cotton Mather. Splitter rejects the longstanding interpretation that this transatlantic exchange was an example of early global communications, arguing instead that the “friendship” wasn’t all that close. Instead, Mather pursued Francke because he hoped to gain recognition for his scholarship in European circles, and hoped to convince Francke to publish some of his work. Francke was quite reserved in his reception of Mather’s overtures and leery of his attention-seeking behavior. Clear throughout is Mather’s awareness of dismissive European attitudes toward colonials, as well as his personal insecurities. Most pertinent to the inspiration behind the exhibition is Thomas Müller-Bahlke’s essay outlining Mühlenberg’s efforts to establish an organizational structure for the Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania. Müller-Bahlke emphasizes the importance of Mühlenberg’s continuing ties to Halle, as well as his ultimate failure to tie the American church to the European hierarchy. Instead, individual churches developed their own organizational schemas. Wolfgang Flügel then carries the story to the next generation, tracing the efforts of Lutheran ministers (including two of Mühlenberg’s sons) to help congregants adapt to life in America without losing their German culture and identity.

The Moravians were not neglected in the collection, as Dorothea Hornemann provides an overview of Zinzendorf and the Moravians in Pennsylvania, although the article is very general. The weakest essay is Frauke Geyken’s “Of Heathens and Noble Savages,” which is marred by some rather glaring factual errors. When discussing missionary writing about native peoples, Geyken asserts that the French Jesuits were the first on the North American continent, ignoring the earlier Spanish Jesuit and...