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Fernweh is a German word which describes the aching desire to see places far from one's own home.^[1][2][3]

The first use of Fernweh in English was in the 1902 book The Basis of Social Relation by Daniel Garrison Brinton. In the book, he described Fernweh as a "deep desire or ache to travel or a goading restlessness."^[1]

The word is attributed to Prince Pückler-Muskau,^[4] who used the word repeatedly in his widely read travel narratives from 1835 onwards.^[5] The word is formed by analogy with the older word "Heimweh" (homesickness). In Pückler's autobiography of 1843, he states: "Pückler says somewhere in his writings that he never suffers from homesickness, but rather from wanderlust."^[6] It became commonplace, especially in poetic and scholarly language. In the 20th century, the term was adopted into advertising language in connection with tourism. The artificial creation of "wanderlust" through images and depictions of distant countries became a significant global economic factor.^{[citation needed]}

A comparable, somewhat older word is Wanderlust. Alternative neologisms such as "stork or crane feeling" did not gain widespread acceptance. In 1873, it was stated: "Professor Dr. Erdmann [...] describes this characteristic migratory urge with the name of the stork or crane feeling. Prince Pückler-Muskau gives it the equally descriptive name of Fernweh."^[7] For comparable animal behaviors, "wandering instinct" or "Zugunruhe" are preferred, referring to the outwardly visible behavior, while "Fernweh" is almost always used in reference to humans. Specifically German neologisms such as "heimsweh," "wanderlust," or "fernweh," with their connotations, do not always have exact equivalents in other cultures and therefore play a role in German as a foreign language^[8]

Fernweh