Draft:Die Wunder der Welt

Die Wunder der Welt

Author	Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg
Language	German
Subject	Geography, travel, cultural history
Publisher	Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft
Publication date	1912
Publication place	Germany

Die Wunder der Welt (The Wonders of the World) is an illustrated German-language work by the Austrian travel writer and author Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg. Its full title in the large editions was Die Wunder der Welt. Hervorragende Naturschöpfungen und staunenswerte Menschenwerke aller Zeiten und Länder in Wort und Bild. Zum größten Teil nach eigener Anschauung geschildert. (The Wonders of the World. Outstanding natural creations and awe-inspiring human achievements of all times and countries, described in words and pictures. Mostly based on personal observation.) The work presented notable natural formations and human-made monuments and achievements from different periods and parts of the world in an extensively illustrated format. A major two-volume edition was published by the Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft in Stuttgart, Berlin and Leipzig.

The work drew on material from Hesse-Wartegg's earlier travel books while also incorporating new material. According to the 2017 monograph on Hesse-Wartegg, the book included descriptions of parts of the world that he had not personally visited, including southern Africa. Its approximately 950 pages and nearly 1,000 illustrations gave the work an encyclopedic character.

Publication history

Bibliographical records document an edition of Die Wunder der Welt published by the Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft around 1900. Later bibliographical records also identify the work with the year 1912, while the large two-volume form was issued in subsequent editions.

The work became one of Hesse-Wartegg's most successful publications. The modern scholarly biography of the author describes Die Wunder der Welt as his most successful book and states that it continued to receive new editions until 1937.

The book was also distributed in individual instalments, a common publishing practice of the period. According to the same study, the large work was issued in 34 instalments, allowing readers to acquire the book gradually before arranging for the parts to be bound.

The two-volume edition

The large format of the work is particularly well documented in a 1912 edition issued by the Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft. It comprised two volumes.

Volume	Year	Pages	Illustrations in text	Colour plates
I	1912	VIII + 492	494	14
II	1912	448	462	16

The first volume contained 494 illustrations in the text and 14 colour art plates, while the second contained 462 illustrations and 16 colour art plates. A catalogue description of the 1912 set records the pagination as VIII + 492 pages for Volume I and 448 pages for Volume II.

The same two-volume structure is documented by the Médiathèques of Strasbourg, which records the 1912 Union edition as two volumes with 492 and 448 pages respectively, 494 and 462 illustrations in the text, and 14 and 16 colour plates.

A 1910 catalogue entry records essentially the same two-volume configuration, with VIII + 492 and 448 pages and the same numbers of illustrations and colour plates, showing that the form was already established before the 1912 edition.

Distribution in instalments

The large edition was not restricted to conventional bound volumes. Hesse-Wartegg's biographer states that the publisher also offered the work in 34 separate instalments. Readers could purchase the instalments individually and subsequently have them bound into volumes.

This form of distribution was significant for the accessibility of the work. Rather than requiring the purchase of the complete illustrated set at once, the publication could be acquired gradually.

The Kleine Ausgabe

A shorter one-volume form was later published under the title Die Wunder der Welt. Kleine Ausgabe. The Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records a 1927 edition published in Stuttgart by Union, with Hans Wohlbold as the person responsible for the new selection and revision.

The 1927 Kleine Ausgabe contained VIII + 282 pages, 232 illustrations in the text and four colour art plates. The catalogue record identifies Hans Wohlbold as a contributor and gives the edition as a publication of Union in Stuttgart.

The Kleine Ausgabe therefore represented more than a simple physical division of the original two-volume work: later editions explicitly involved selection and editorial revision. A catalogue record for another edition describes the work as ausgewählt und neu bearbeitet von Hans Wohlbold.

Later revision by Friedrich Huttenlocher

The work was subsequently reorganized and revised again. A later edition was published with the designation neugestaltet von Friedrich Huttenlocher (newly designed/reworked by Friedrich Huttenlocher). The LEO-BW bibliographical record describes this as a one-volume work of VIII + 396 pages.

A catalogue record identifies a 1936 Union edition as Die Wunder der Welt. Großartige Naturwerke u. Kulturschöpfungen aller Länder u. Zeiten, neugestaltet von Friedrich Huttenlocher, with VIII + 398 pages and 378 illustrations.

These editions show that the work continued to be adapted after Hesse-Wartegg's death rather than simply being reprinted in an unchanged form.

Reception and significance

Die Wunder der Welt represented a late form of the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century illustrated geographical and cultural survey. Its subject matter encompassed natural formations and human-made works from different countries and historical periods, while its extensive illustration programme gave it a strongly visual character.

The work also synthesized material from Hesse-Wartegg's earlier travel publications. The 2017 scholarly biography describes it as an extensive, encyclopedic work containing both previously published material and new material, and identifies it as his most successful book.

Its publication history continued well beyond the author's lifetime. According to the modern biography, editions appeared as late as 1937, while surviving bibliographical records document shortened and substantially revised forms by Hans Wohlbold and Friedrich Huttenlocher.

Bibliography

• Andreas Dutz and Elisabeth Dutz, Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg (1851–1918): Reiseschriftsteller, Wissenschaftler, Lebemann, Böhlau, Vienna, 2017.
• Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, Die Wunder der Welt, Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart, Berlin and Leipzig.
• Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg and Hans Wohlbold, Die Wunder der Welt: Kleine Ausgabe, Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart, 1927.

External links

• antikvarium.hu

Category:1912 books Category:German non-fiction books Category:Travel books Category:Geography books Category:Illustrated books