Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Bildungsreise
(641 words)

A Bildungsreise was a form and convention of travel that became increasingly important in Western Europe from the 17th century on; scholars have generally characterized it as “bourgeois” [5]. Given the pragmatic multifunctionality of lengthy expensive stays abroad, it represented a cultural archetype realized more in published Reiseberichten (Travel literature) and especially in the Bildungsroma​n than in actual travel.

The term denotes the phenomenon of an increasingly individualized form of a long stay abroad, which was cultivated by the upper so…

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Grosser, Thomas, “Bildungsreise”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_017660>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160907



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