Abstract
This paper reviews the entry "Zigeuner" in thirty editions of general encyclopaedias in the German language between 1819 and 1986. The entries were found to be largely repetitive, stereotyped, and much of the "information" plainly fictive. While the homogeneity of "Gypsies" is concluded explicitly in almost all these editions, there is a chronological variation in the stereotypes. The entries exhibit both racism and romanticism, both fear and fascination. On the whole it seems that what are supposed to be facts about "Gypsies" were and still are more often than not facts about their social environments.
How to Cite
Rao, A. & Casimir, M. J., (1993) “A Stereotyped Minority”, Ethnologia Europaea 23(2), 111-124. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/ee.1212