German-speaking travelers of the XVIII-XIX centuries in the Crimea.

Abstract

The annexation of Crimea to the Russian Empire in 1783 is one of the most significant dates in the history of the Russian state. The unexplored lands of the Russian Empire aroused great interest not only among its rulers, but also among a large number of foreigners, including German-speaking travelers. Among them were writers, scientists, geographers, naturalists, encyclopedists. Among the foreign researchers of the Crimean nature, not a few Germans were observed. Germans appeared in the Crimea as early as 1805. In Simferopol county they found such colonies as: Neizatz, Friedenthal, Rosenthal (Wirtenbergers), in Feodosia County – Heilbrunn, Sudak and Herzenberg. In the same year, the Swiss colony of Zurichtal appeared on the territory of the Crimean peninsula, and later, in 1811, another German colony, Kronental. The subject of the study are German-speaking travelers who visited the Crimea in the period XVIII-XIX. Despite numerous studies conducted in various periods, not only by domestic but also by foreign scientists, there are currently no historical and linguistic works of a German-speaking travelogue about the Crimea. The authors of the German - language travelogue about Crimea as informants can be divided into categories: a) chronology b) pragmatics. Due to the fact that Crimea has a unique and diverse nature, the region was often explored in the 18th and 19th century, not only by Russian researchers who had to expand Catherine II's knowledge about her state, but also by scientists of German origin. The region was explored by the Kippen family, Peter Simon Pallas, Moritz von Engelhart, Friedrich Parrott, Biberstein, and Karl Gablitz.