Otto TetensDiary & Notes

From the archive, the Übersee-Museum has digitized holdings that provide information about the context of the collections beyond the collections themselves.

Topography, animals, plants and medicinal resources in Samoa 1902

The majority of the Übersee Museum’s Samoa collection comes from the papers of Otto Tetens, who lived on the island of Upolu in the southwest Pacific Ocean from 1902 to 1905. In addition to his work for the Königliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (Royal Society of Sciences in Göttingen), Tetens collected ethnographic objects and made records of people’s daily lives as well as flora and fauna. The Übersee Museum owns a total of six of these volumes, which are of great ethnological, natural history and historical relevance: The texts provide researchers today with information on how life on the islands has changed over the last 100 years.

The volumes were digitized, and the English and German texts were transcribed and translated. The records can be browsed and searched via the DFG-viewer of the Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG = German Research Foundation). Additionally, you can download a PDF of the digitized pages including the transcriptions. The German original texts can be found on the German version of this website.

Diary – June through December 1902

A diary by Otto Tetens from the period June 12, 1902 to December 14, 1902 is kept in the Übersee Museum. Here you can find the digitized version of the diary including transcription. English translations of the transcriptions can be found on our English-language website.

Please note that some of the terms used in this publication date back to the colonial era or are outdated for other reasons and are therefore no longer used by us today.

Read book in DFG Viewer
PDF (digital copy/transcription, not WCAG compliant)
PDF (texts only, not WCAG compliant)

Samoa topography

These sources contain a detailed listing of settlements and familial leaders in Samoa. Here you can find the digitized version of the notes including transcription.

Search file in DFG Viewer

Samoan nutritious plants

This source contains information about food plants. Here you can find the digitized version of the notes including transcription.

Search file in DFG Viewer

Samoan medicinal plants

This resource contains information about medicinal plants and their use in diseases. Here you can find the digitized version of the notes including transcription.

Search file in DFG Viewer

Beschreibung meiner Fischsammlung (Description of my fish collection)

Here you can find the digitized version of the notes including transcription.

Search file in DFG Viewer

Beschreibungen der großen Fischarten von Samoa (Descriptions of the big fish species of Samoa)

Here you can find the digitized version of the notes including transcription.

Search file in DFG Viewer

Brief Tetens an Prof. Schauinsland (Letter from Tetens to Prof. Schauinsland)

The letter contains a detailed listing of Otto Tetens’ ethnographic collection. Here you can find the digitized version of Otto Tetens’ letter to the director of the Übersee Museum, Hugo Schauinsland, including transcription.

Search file in DFG Viewer

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