The collections of the Five Continents Museum, formerly State Museum of ethnology Munich, also include a number of objects presented to the Bavarian crown in 1910 by one of the highest dignitaries from the Samoan islands in the Pacific, the high chief Tupua Tamasese Lealofi. How did this come about? Between 1895 and 1911 several groups ofmostly high-ranking Samoans travelled to Germany with ethnic shows (Völkerschauen). They were always accompanided by 2 German impresarios, the brothers Fritz and Carl Marquardt, who also sold ethnographic objects from Samoa. The Samoa Collection of the Five Continents Museum largely derives from this source. For the German public the ethnic shows provided entairtainment as well as a possibility to fulfil their longing for exotic worlds. The Samoan visitors, on the other land, also has their own aims in travelling to Germany. This book is dedicated to creating a detailed reconstruction of all aspects of the Samoan ethnic shows and searches for evidence of both german and samoan perspectives.
