Post #624592 by TikiTomD on Sat, Feb 11, 2012 7:19 AM

Fascinating stuff, bigbrotiki, particularly those personal connections...

When you next go museum touring, consider adding the Regional Museum of Neubrandenburg to the itinerary...

While sifting through German web pages in search of Dr. Funk, I came across an oddity with the Google translator... as soon as I thought I’d hit pay dirt amongst German text and invoked the translator, the apparent reference just evaporated with the translation. After a couple of these experiences, I realized what was going on: Dr. “Funk” was translated as Dr. “radio” :)

Continuing with the historical connections, Dr. Funk befriended the renowned German ethnologist, Dr. Augustin Krämer. In his definitive two-volume work on Samoan culture, The Samoa Islands, Dr. Krämer expressed his gratitude to Dr. Funk and his Samoan wife in the preface of Volume I...

The images from this book are interesting and may be found on this web site, though they are a bit grainy. Much better are those in the eBook, among the most expensive of eBooks that I’ve ever come across.

Sven Mönter’s 2010 PhD thesis at the University of Auckland, “Dr. Augustin Krämer: A German Ethnologist in the Pacific” suggests that Dr. Funk was quite the social butterfly...

Krämer certainly enjoyed the company of Dr. Funk and his Samoan wife Senitima,
whom he described as “liebenswürdig” (“charming”).38 It was certainly through his
friendship with Dr. Funk and his wife that Krämer made contact with a variety of
Samoans and Europeans alike. Among them was Apia’s most famous European
inhabitant, the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, who was a close friend of
Funk.39

38 Augustin Krämer Die Samoa-Inseln: Entwurf einer Monographie mit besonderer Berücksichtigung
Deutsch-Samoas, Herg. Mit Unterstützung der Kolonialabteilung des Auswärtigen Amts, Stuttgart: E.
Schweizerbart, 1902, Vol. I, p. 7. See also Krämer’s diaries, which reveal that he was indeed a frequent visitor to the Funk’s house. He also accompanied Dr. Funk on a number of trips around the island, see
Krämer’s diaries held at the Linden-Museum.

39 See Booth & Mehew, eds. The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson: Volume Seven: September 1890 –
December 1892, p. 408, where it is stated that Stevenson remarked in relation to Dr. Funk: “it would
never do [good] to quarrel with the doctor – and the doctor, though he tipples a little and gabbles much, is a good man whom I respect”. See also Burgoyne’s article “Going ‘Troppo’ in the South Pacific: Dr Bernhard Funk of Samoa 1844-1911”, pp. 11-13. Krämer’s diaries and writings illustrate that Krämer,
at least, had contact with Stevenson’s relatives, Mrs. Strong and Lloyd Osborne, see Krämer Hawaii,
Ostmikronesien und Samoa, p. 56; as well as his diaries, held at the Linden-Museum.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s quoted remark (“he tipples a little and gabbles much”) suggests that Dr. Funk would be quite at home in Tiki Central... wonder what his screen name would be and what forum he would most frequent?

We also have Sven Mönter to thank for an illuminating thesis on a “a bizarre South Pacific colony of German vegetarian nudist sun-worshippers who lived on coconuts” written about in this 2006 New Zealand Herald article...

That’s a group worthy of a Darwin Award nomination...

-Tom