This work is the German-American Festschrift for 1992 Quincentenary Jubilee of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492, and focuses especially on the German role in the discovery and early settlement of the New World. It brings together essays published by German and German-American scholars since 1892 dealing with German map makers early German books about America, the image of the New World, and the first settlements in North and South America in which Germans were involved. The work serves to illuminate the German dimension for the Columbian Quincentenary, and is intended as the German-American contribution to this historic event. This book is written in German.