cloth binding. Black lettering with gilt title on front cover.

Reisen eines Deutschen in England im Jahre 1782 (English: Journeys of a German in England in 1782) is a travel memoir by German author Karl Philipp Moritz. Moritz was a young scholar and Anglophile traveling to England for the first time. His journey was approximately two months during June and July 1782 and began in London where he saw famous sights, attended the theatre and watched sessions of Parliament. He then set out on foot for Richmond, stopping at Oxford, Derby, Leicester, Peak Cavern and Northampton and back to London. The book was written as a series of letters to Moritz’s friend at home and is in two equal parts, the first in London, the second walking about.

The first edition was published in Germany in 1783 with a second improved edition in 1785. In 1795 an English translation of the second edition was published as Travels, chiefly on Foot, through several parts of England in 1782, described in Letters to a Friend. It contained many errors and was attributed to the daughter of Charles Godfrey Woide (1725–1790), who himself is described in Chapter 5 “Information and entertainment”. Despite its flaws, it became the standard translation of the 19th and early 20th centuries. A new translation was published in 1965 by Reginald Nettel and is now the standard English edition. It was republished by Eland As Journeys of a German in England: A Walking Tour of England in 1782 (1983, new edition 2009).

In deciding to complete his journey on foot, Moritz was met with a rude reception. The Inclosure Acts had forced England’s peasants to become employees of land-owners, and those who could not find employment became the “wandering poor” – thus anyone seen walking along the road was identified as a beggar or a thief. For this reason, Moritz experienced considerable problems finding room and board, and was even run out of some villages, simply for arriving in town on foot.

Karl Philipp Moritz (Hameln, 15 September 1756 – Berlin, 26 June 1793) was a German author, editor and essayist of the Sturm und Drang, late enlightenment, and classicist periods, influencing early German Romanticism as well. He led a life as a hatter’s apprentice, teacher, journalist, literary critic, professor of art and linguistics, and member of both of Berlin’s academies.

Moritz was born into impoverished circumstances in Hameln in 1756. After receiving a scanty schooling, he was apprenticed to a hat maker. After distressful attempts to gain a living, he caught the attention of a patron in Hanover and entered a gymnasium; however, he soon accepted an engagement as actor under Ekhof at Gotha, failing in which he returned to study (1776) at Erfurt; but tiring again he joined the Herrnhuter (Moravian Church) at Barby, and studied theology at Wittenberg (1777); then taught philanthropy at the Potsdam military orphanage, soon again to take to wandering.

Teaching in Berlin, he made a reputation as writer, preacher and poet, and went to England. Then he became professor at the gymnasium at Berlin (German: Köllnisches Gymnasium). Next he tried editing the Vossische Zeitung to make it proletarian, but failed. Later he travelled to Italy (1786) where he met Goethe, and on his return to Germany he took up residence as Goethe’s guest at Weimar. Duke Karl August helped him join the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and in 1789 Moritz became a professor of antiquities at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. Among his students were Ludwig Tieck, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder and Alexander von Humboldt. He was an avid admirer of Jean Paul, and befriended Moses Mendelssohn, and Asmus Jakob Carstens.