author
Arnold von der Passer
1851–1917
Best known for a striking early science-fiction novel, this German writer imagined a future Europe seen through the eyes of a traveler from a powerful African state. He also worked under a pseudonym, which gives his small body of work an extra air of mystery.
1 Audiobook
Mene tekel! Eine Entdeckungsreise nach Europa
by Arnold von der Passer
About the author
Arnold von der Passer was the pen name of Franz L. Hoffmann (1851–1917), a German engineer and writer. The reference sources available for him are brief, but they consistently connect the name Arnold von der Passer with Hoffmann and identify him as the author of the 1893 novel Mene tekel! Eine Entdeckungsreise nach Europa.
That book is the work he is best remembered for today. It is a speculative, future-looking story that reverses familiar nineteenth-century colonial perspectives by imagining a strong African state and a ruined Europe. Because of that unusual angle, the novel still stands out to readers interested in early utopian and science-fiction writing.
Very little biographical detail appears to be easily confirmed from the sources found here beyond his dates, his profession, and his pseudonym. Even so, his reputation has lasted through this one inventive novel, which keeps his name alive in discussions of early German-language speculative fiction.