Mountains and the German Mind : Translations from Gessner to Messner 1541-2009

The first scholarly English translations of thirteen vital texts that elucidate the central role mountains have played across nearly five centuries of Germanophone cultural history.

Mountains have occupied a central place in German, Swiss, and Austrian intellectual culture for centuries. This volume offers the first scholarly English translations of thirteen key texts from the Germanophone tradition of engagement with mountains. The selected texts span over 450 years, ranging from the early modern period to the postmodern era, and encompass several discursive modes of the mountain experience including geographical descriptions, philosophical meditations, aesthetic deliberations, and autobiographical climbing narratives. Well-known figures covered in this translational sourcebook include Conrad Gessner, Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, G.W.F. Hegel, Alexander von Humboldt, Georg Simmel, Leni Riefenstahl, and Reinhold Messner. Each text is accompanied by a critical introduction that places the translated text within a broader cultural context. The dual translational-interpretational approach offered in this volume is intended to stimulate new international and interdisciplinary dialogue on the cultural history of mountains and mountaineering.

SEAN IRETON is Associate Professor of German in the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Missouri.

CAROLINE SCHAUMANN is Professor and Chairperson of German Studies at Emory College, GA.

SEAN FRANZEL is Professor of German at the University of Missouri.

SETH PEABODY is Assistant Professor of German at Carleton College, MN.