Boy’s and Girl’s Own Empires: Gender and the Uses of the Colonial World in Kaiserreich Youth Magazines

Abstract

This article takes a close look at two youth magazines to illustrate the gendered uses of empire in turn-of-the-century German popular culture. In an era characterized by widespread debate over how to most effectively raise the next generation of Germans, commercial producers of youth media had to balance competing demands. Young readers wanted entertaining content; pedagogues, politicians, and many parents insisted on educational material; and all demanded relevant and current topics. Using empire, producers could address all of these. They directed young Germans’ interest in the exotic world down pedagogically responsible avenues, in the process providing lessons to boys and girls about their respective roles in German society and in the wider world. While the boys' journal examined here (Der gute Kamerad) consistently used the image of a chaotic colonial world to entertain as well as to emphasize independence, manly responsibility, and the civilizing mission, its sister publication (Das Kranzchen) only came around to the value of empire much later. Under the particular influence of the middle class women's movement, the magazine shifted from a tamed colonial world to one that privileged a specifically feminine engagement.