In the late 19th century, a recurring complaint in Germany was that the Reich had a relatively small colonial empire compared to other nations, especially the United Kingdom.[34] As a result, "Indianthusiasm" served as a sort of Handlungsersatz-an untranslatable term meaning a surrogate for an action that substitutes for real power.[34] Many of the colonial adventure stories in 19th century Germany had as their theme "stories of sexual conquest and surrender, love and blissful domestic relations between colonizer and colonized, set in colonial territory, stories that made the strange familiar and the familiar 'familial'".[35] A recurring theme of "Indianthusiasm" suggested that German immigrants would be act in a morally superior manner towards the indigenous population of North America than the "Anglo-Saxon" powers of Great Britain, Canada, and the United States; this theme also promoted the idea that Germans held a genuine interest in Native American culture that other Europeans lacked.[34]

lol Germans disappointed that they missed out on r*ping their way across the New World and fantasizing that they would be gentler than the Anglos.