Reisen nach Jerusalem

With what expectations, ideas and presuppositions did Germans travel to Israel or rather the Holy Land in the period from the 1950s to the 1970s, and how were their interpretations of the traveled space shaped? West German group trips by Christian organizations between traditional trips to the Holy Land and modern forms of tourism were exposed to a wide variety of influences. The analysis of patterns of interpretation focuses on the change in religiosity in the Federal Republic, dealing with the past of the Holocaust, the Middle East conflict that has escalated in various crises and wars, and attributions to what is foreign and what is familiar. Three forms of travel are examined as examples: pilgrimages, study trips and voluntary services and thus the range of Christian travel by Germans to Israel and the "Holy Land" is shown.