Abstract. – This article is an attempt to make a critical assessment of the cultural-anthropological value of some main texts of the early German explorer, naturalist, and ethnographer of Sumatra and Java, Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn (1812–1867). His ethnographical description of the Batak Lands, at a time when they were still independent in the 1840s, has been quite influential for the further course of the region’s history (especially in relation to Christianization). This evaluation shows that Junghuhn produced valuable ethnographic descriptions as well as contradictory and biased interpretations of culture. [Sumatra, Java, Batak, Javanese, colonization, Christianization, history of anthropology]