Friedrich Pollack

Friedrich Pollack is a historian and, since 2018, has been Head of the Department for Cultural Studies at the Sorbian Institute (Sorbisches Institut/Serbski institute) in Bautzen/Budyšin und Cottbus/Chóśebuz. He studied Medieval and Modern History, Sociology and Communication Studies at the University of Leipzig, where he obtained his PhD with a collective biographical study into Sorbian Protestant clergy in the early modern period. His research focuses on historical minority studies as well as Sorbian cultural and social history in the modern era. He is currently conducting research into the exploitation of multi-ethnic regions by the tourist industry in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Tourist:innen drängen sich auf den Spreewaldkähnen im Hafen von Burg/Bórkowy. Abbildung aus: Der Spreewald und seine Sommerfrischen. Cottbus [1929], S. 57, Reproduktion

Background Article

Into the Jungle with the Reichsbahn

Sorbian Images in Spreewald tourism in the early 20th century

The Spreewald, south-east of Berlin, was already a popular local recreation area for city-dwellers in the early 20th century. By including the Sorbian minority in their natural idyll, the tourist industry created an association between them and the consumer’s longing for an exotic escape.