Michael Galea takes a look at life in Malta in 1892, as narrated by German teachers in a book published almost 130 years ago.

Julius Rodenberg, together with Justine and Alice Rodenberg, set forth on a trip to Malta in the late 1890s. They sailed with the Italian steam ship Asia (Capt. G. B. Ruffo) from Genoa.

Julius described the highlights of that journey in a book entitled Eine Fruehlingsfahrt nach Malta mit Ausfluegen in Sicilien (A trip to Malta in spring with excursions in Sicily), which was published in Berlin in 1893.

Following the route to Naples, and making 12-hour stops in Calabria, Messina and Syracuse, the Rodenbergs disembarked in Malta on April 25, 1892.

All three of them were teachers by profession.

Under a glorious spring sky, they made their way to Valletta. They saw a woman wearing a long, wide cloak of black silk.

“We thought she was a nun but we soon saw a second, a third, and then in the main street, more of them,” Julius wrote in the book.

The coachman explained that they were wearing a woman’s traditional costume, called faldetta. 

They stayed at the Imperial Hotel (134, Strada Santa Lucia). Here they came across three languages: the name of the street was in Italian, while the hotel’s name was in English, and the hotel owner was a certain Ellul, which in Hebrew means the calendar month of September.

The main street of Valletta was Strada Reale with its shops, clubs, casinos and government offices. Strada Mercanti was the street of the businessmen.

Valletta reminded the visitors of the cities in southern Italy but here, the palaces of the Order lent more splendour to the city.

English was the language of the establishment, Italian of the courts, business and society. But Maltese was generally spoken at home by people of rank, children and lower class folk. Preaching and church service was conducted in Maltese.

It is wrong to think that Maltese literature did not exist back then; weekly and monthly magazines in Maltese were in circulation, while folksongs and proverbs were not wanting.

Performances of Maltese drama were given every Sunday at the Teatro Manoel.

During the Rodenbergs’ stay, the amateur company Società Filodrammatica Maltese presented the  Recita straordinaria in vernacolo (play in the vernacular), the Zimina, an original comedy by the excellent Maltese buffo Carmelo Camilleri. The reading of cultured people was Italian, both for newspapers and books.

As teachers, the Rodenbergs noted with interest that there were 230 government primary schools in Malta, with 70 male and female teachers, an inspector and a director of public instruction.

Notwithstanding busy sea traffic, except for businessmen and those in transit, few were the visitors to the island.

A great nuisance and vexation to the Rodenbergs, perhaps greater than in any Italian city, was begging.

Weekly and monthly magazines in Maltese were in circulation

“No doubt, the upper circles of society of the island have the best European education, indeed, relatively better than elsewhere, when one takes into consideration the many languages: Italian, English, French, besides the local Maltese.”

There were several private and international institutes, colleges and schools, foremost among which were the Lyceum and the University.

The Maltese passionately loved music. There were 22 philharmonic societies. Valletta itself had its Grosse Oper koenigliches Opernhaus (great royal opera house).

The governor was also commander of the troops and was the highest authority. His title was ‘His Excellency’ and his office was in the former Palace of the Grandmasters.

The Rodenbergs were deeply impressed with a visit to the Order’s church (duomo) of St John and its flooring, consisting of spectacular mosaic tombstones.

Julius recalled the Auberge d’Allemagne, seat of the Grand Bailiff, prince of the Holy Roman Empire, which once stood in Piazza Celsi (now Independence Square). The auberge was, some 50 years before, demolished to give place to a protestant church, which reminded the Rodenbergs of home with its high and elegant steeple. 

Julius also wrote that one got a clear idea of the city when one walked along its bastions from the Barracca Superiore or Upper Barracca in English.

One day, the visitors made their way along a rough road to the medieval fortress city of Città Vecchia (Mdina). Julius noted that one of its Aragonese-Sicilian rulers called it “das bemerkenswerthe Juwel seiner Krone” – il gioiello notabile della sua Corona (the remarkable jewel of his crown), so that it was called Città Vecchia or Notabile.

Julius described the empty streets, the baroque cathedral, the palaces of prelates, a ‘Seminarium in Convicte’ … it was a small city which equals a distinctive habitus of an archbishop. 

Julius noted that Das Naufragio di S.Paolo Apostolo (St Paul Shipwrecked) was a national feast and that the Maltese bishops dated back to the year of the shipwreck in AD 58 (AD 60).

There was an English dispensary and a police station in every village.

The Rodenbergs went to Krendi – a name derived from Arabic or the Maltese word ‘tekred’ meaning to destroy – traces of a terrible earthquake that must have happened centuries before their visit still survived.

A man from the village who accompanied the Rodenbergs took them to a place called Makluba from the word ‘takleb’ (das Unterste zu oberstkehren). Legend has it that on this site once stood a city but the people, like those of Sodom and Gomorrah, were punished for their sins. However, Julius believed that it was the ground that gave in. Near the deep ravine stood a small church dedicated to St Matthew which survived unscathed and in memory of which every year a volkfeast (people’s festival) was celebrated​.

Then suddenly, as if from nowhere, came a second man, muscular, bearing a thick beard, in shirt sleeves carrying two large keys in his hand. He greeted them with the words: “Big stones, big stones”.

Both men had by now mentioned the Saracenes but, in fact, the big stones dated back to the Phoenicians. The megaliths were the ruins of Ġebel Kim (Ħaġar Qim), i.e. Sacred Stones (“Steine der Anbetung”). It seemed the man with the keys was the owner of those prehistoric ruins. Some 40 years before, Dr Cesare Vassallo, a well known antiquary in Malta, had unearthed that temple of Ġebel Kim.

On April 27, the Rodenbergs boarded the small steam ship Gleneagles (Master E. Tagliaferro), which used to ply regularly once a week to Syracuse to bring English mail.

As the Rodenbergs were early on board, and no food was provided, they asked the ship’s boy to fetch them a lunch from ashore , which they consumed “mit gutem appetit” (with a good appetite). They bade farewell to the terraced houses and fortifications of Valletta.

As the ship sailed out of harbour, it started rolling incessantly (“Unaufhoerlich rollte das Schiff”).

Their visit to Malta was over.