Book review: Otto Tutschke’s journey to Palestine
Otto Tutschke from Friedersdorf at Zittau may not be very well known, other than personalities like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alexander von Humboldt or Friedrich Schiller. Still exactly this Otto Tutschke did something extraordinary at his time: he travelled from his home Oberlausitz to Palestine in the year 1895. The book “Reiseerinnerungen aus drei Erdteilen – insbesondere aus Palästina” tells the story of priest Tutschke and his adventures. We owe this affectionate, detailed and entertaining rework of Tutschkes records to the couple Uwe and Daniela Kahl.
Next to the diary-like journey memory of Tutschke the book consists of numerous contemporary pictures with interesting presentations of famous buildings, shots of locals and of Otto Tutschkes family. On every page of the book it becomes clear how much dedication it took the Kahls to bring all the information together. So much enthusiasm for this topic spills over the reader.
Tutschke travels from his home town via train to Klagenfurt and from there to Triest. He then takes a steamship to Corfu and further to Lebanon. His next destination is the seaport of Haifa. He then spends most of the time in today’s Israel and Palestine. As a priest of course he visits all the famous holy places and churches. He vastly describes the people and their living conditions and sometimes compares them to the glory of the past.
His travel descriptions sometimes seem to transcends time and space, i.e. when he mentions that each passengers has to undergo medical examination upon arrival at Corfu. All things considered the book is readable for everybody who is interested in the region on the one hand. On the other people who haven’t been there so far might want to double-check Tutschkes notion of the area.
