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The journey of Max Pechstein and his young wife, Lotte, to the Palau islands in the South Pacific starting in 1914 was motivated by the desire to escape “all things forced and cultivated.” Although the trip took an unforeseen course as a result of the outbreak of World War I, for Pechstein, this time in the “German South Seas” became a important theme in his art as of 1917 and forms the highpoint of his memoirs. But, to what extent were Pechstein’s ideas of a pristine paradise fulfilled? What did he and his wife actually experience? Max and Lotte’s travel diaries reveal the couple’s different perspectives as well as the discrepancy between ideal and reality.