Stadtkreis Heidelberg, Alemania
The article explores U. J. Seetzen’s perspective on renegades in the Ottoman Empire in 1802/03, when modernist hierarchies had not yet become an irrefutable truth. For emigrants from Western Europe’s society of estates, the Ottoman Empire still offered opportunities for a fresh start in life, or for refuge. The contribution contextualises the perception of renegades, their motives and attitudes as apparent in Seetzen’s diary entries. He characterises his acquaintances in an unflattering way, employing appropriate topoi, but also sympathises with many of them, and indicates ways of social converting and integrating.