Eric Ames’ attractive volume is a meticulous and rich study of the captivating Hagenbeck story which breathes the air of turn-of-the-century colonial culture. Carl Hagenbeck was an entrepreneur who became known as a prolific ethnographic showman and animal trader. In 1907, he opened his Tierpark near Hamburg as an theme park of the exotic with ethnographic performances, men and animals shown in their panoramas of living habitat, and even mechanical rides.

The Tierpark stands in the tradition of world fairs and ethnographic exhibitions, and the reader benefits from the well-structured summary of research already undertaken on this topic. Ames’ focus is on the emergence of a new visual and material culture of entertainment: by carefully staging real people, animals, and objects in a geographically distinct scenery, Hagenbeck conjured up imaginary worlds which, physically and geographically, lay—almost—within the reach of their audiences. The showcases gave the possibility of interacting with the exhibited people and objects while immersing oneself in the foreign world; the effect was thus a personal experience of exoticism. By juxtaposing closeness and distance within the display, he created a heterotopia (Foucault) of imagination and authenticity. Herein lay the Hagenbeck secret of success in entertaining the masses. Only a few years later, the cinema would do something similar with very different means by zooming in on the exotic and abducting the spectator into the world of celluloid.

The books starts with biographical information on the life of Carl Hagenbeck. The first chapter links the culture of collecting with the animal business: both share principles of selecting the curious and the authentic. Ames also discusses the recruitment of performers and their cultural displacement and thus provides insights into nineteenth-century colonial thinking as well as anthropological concepts of race and racism. Chapter 2 explains the geographical logic of the Völkerschau (peoples’ show) with its living habitats. An interesting aspect here is the social border of the habitat. The interaction between (female) spectators and (male) showmen, especially from the Nubian caravan, became at times rather intense. Stories about flirtations and love scenes, even about sexual intercourse, spice up the Hagenbeck sources, and eventually the German Colonial Society felt the need to intervene against the recruitment of German colonial subjects.

Ames’ study is at its best with his treatment of Hagenbeck’s turn to fiction in chapter 3. With the introduction of the Wild West shows around 1890, the emphasis on representation shifted to one on performance and narrative. Now, the shows told and sold a story. Ames rightly points to the special place of the Wild West in the German imagination—the novels by Karl May and especially the Wild West theatre of the Karl May Festspiele still enjoy an immense popularity in Germany. At Hagenbeck’s, the imagination of the audiences, spurred on by figures and stories from the Wild West novels, seem to have preceded the shows’ plots. Hagenbeck had entertainers stand back from the show and observe the audience’s reactions. Their preferences were then included in the plot and the production of future shows was adapted accordingly. To treat the spectator as an active agent of the shows is an innovative approach and one of the many benefits of this chapter.

Chapter 4 is devoted to the unique aesthetics of the Tierpark. In the nineteenth century, the panorama enjoyed particular popularity. Hagenbeck knew how to adapt the panoramic concept to his use and had his naturwissenschaftliches Panorama (natural-scientific panorama) patented. In it, he combined theatrical deep staging with real animals and people. The theme space was not shut away behind barriers but came up close to the spectator and drew him into the action. This immersive effect is beautifully illustrated with a print of the diagram for the best-selling show, “Arctic Sea Panorama,” which includes a spectator with a bowler hat, walking stick, and camera who steps right into the scene. In chapter 5, Hagenbeck’s legacy is linked to the early film culture. By 1913, the Tierpark had been rented by film production companies and after the war, the Decla Film Company wanted to turn the park into a film studio. Ames here draws parallels between the use of the exotic space in films and the park’s theme space.

The framing of theme space in historic context is the book’s main focus. Ames draws attention to continuities and changes, and links his findings to the current discourse on space in the humanities. Hereby, he provides an in-depth and theoretically sound analysis of historical popular culture. His study stands out especially in those parts where he goes beyond sketching the discourse of theme space and takes into account the historical spectator and his interaction with space. Thus he offers insights not only into the creation and management of the Hagenbeck phenomenon but also into its reception.

Ames’ book is elegantly written and provides a compelling sample of the Hagenbeck material and other contemporary sources such as newspaper reports and journals of businessmen and organizers as well as a fine selection of photographic and printed illustrations. To make the material available in English also paves the way for further comparative studies of the topic. All in all, the art of entertaining and satisfying one’s curiosity is splendidly demonstrated in this volume.

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[Review length: 867 words • Review posted on April 20, 2010]