Kammermohr

Kammermohr (or Hofmohr) was a German-speaking term since the 18th century for a court servant of black skin colour, which had by that time long been a common feature in European courts.[1]

Portrait of the Countess Palatine Francisca Christina of Sulzbach with her "Kammermohr" Ignatius Fortuna, by Johann Jakob Schmitz, Cologne 1772
Sophie Amalie of Lüneburg, queen of Denmark, with her hand upon her Kammermohr, 17th-century.

History

People of black skin colour from the Orient, Africa and America have often been taken to Europe as valets during the time of Colonialism. This became common in the 16th-century and continuted to be fashionable until the early 19th-century. The term Kammermohr was first used as an official term in a court protocol in 1747 in Saxon.

The splendidly decorated Kammermohr, often in livery, served a ruler, church dignitaries or wealthy merchants as an exotic object of prestige and as a status symbol, showcasing their wealth and luxury lifestyle. Above all, however, the valets symbolized the worldwide relations of their employer.

Notable examples
gollark: Imagine implying that the existence of one issue means you should just ignore all less bad ones.
gollark: Well, he does do a bunch of combat sports.
gollark: Is that *actually* 41 minutes?
gollark: I can probably type faster than I can... dictate at a computer, since while theoretically speech is faster than my typing, speech to text is inaccurate so I'd probably need to go back and revise things a lot.
gollark: Both equally unreadable, typing is far superior.

See also

References
  1. Atlantic understandings: essays on European and American history in honor of Hermann Wellenreuther (in German). LIT Verlag. 2007. p. 88. ISBN 978-3825896072.
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