Global histories a student journal

Placing German in the City: Postkolonial’s Tour in the African Quarter Authors: Christian Jacobs & Paul Sprute

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/GHSJ.2019.341

Source: Global Histories, Vol. 5, No. 2 (November 2019), pp. 110-117. ISSN: 2366-780X

Copyright © 2019 Christian Jacobs & Paul Sprute

License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publisher information: ‘Global Histories: A Student Journal’ is an open-access bi-annual journal founded in 2015 by students of the M.A. program Global History at Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. ‘Global Histories’ is published by an editorial board of Global History students in association with the Freie Universität Berlin.

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Contact information: For more information, please consult our website www.globalhistories.com or contact the editor at: [email protected].

Placing German Colonialism in the City: Berlin Postkolonial’s Tour in the African Quarter

by CHRISTIAN JACOBS & PAUL SPRUTE Christian Jacobs & Paul Sprute | Placing German Colonialism in the City VI - 2 - 2019 111 | Global Histories: a student journal After decades of neglecting a few subway stops away from the ’s history of colonial rule and apparently more central sites of Berlin’s ambitions, the German public – from (colonial) history, such as the Reichstag the national to the local level – finds or the world-renowned Museum Island itself increasingly often exposed to opposite to which the historical city the challenge of dealing with its (post) palace is currently being reconstructed. colonial past and present. In Berlin Berlin Postkolonial, an association and beyond, activists and some established by activists from Germany critical historians have confronted and former German colonies in 2007, hesitant and quite often ignorant organizes guided tours through this P l a c i n g G e r m C o s t h y

| institutions, politicians, or citizens neighborhood of unassuming housing with the need to begin working blocks in the former working-class through this aspect of Germany’s district of .

a u l S p r t e history. They have pointed to wider The Afrikanisches Viertel implications and continuities beyond owes its name to its street signs – all the time period between 1884 - the related to former German colonies year of the Berlin Conference as an or colonialists in . The streets important moment for the division were designated prior to the First of the African continent between World War when Carl Hagenbeck

C h r i s t a n J c o b & P European imperial interest - and planned to build a in the nearby 1919 - when the . Similar to his was forced to give up its colonies zoological garden in , - not only overseas but also within Hagenbeck wanted to display both Germany itself. The comparative animals and humans from the German brevity and sudden abortion of this colonies. Exhibiting “exotic” humans era of formal colonial rule abroad as uncivilized was a common practice have frequently been used as in at the time, helping to arguments to diminish its historical legitimize colonial empires in the relevance, especially compared to metropoles.2 While Hagenbeck’s plans Nazi rule and the Holocaust as the were not realized due to the First World central turning point of Germany’s War, the street names selected during history in the twentieth century.1 the planning process remained in One of the most striking place. examples of underexposed colonial On the tour through the connections in Berlin’s cityscape is neighborhood, the activists of Berlin the so-called Afrikanisches Viertel, Postkolonial stop at specific streets the African Quarter (Figure 1); just and explain the historical background of their names. This way, the tour can recount Germany’s colonial past 1 For the recent debates on German colonialism and its legacy see: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte no. 40-42 (2019) “Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte,” 30 September 2019; Britta 2 Anna Dreesbach, “Colonial Exhibitions, Schilling, Postcolonial Germany: Memories of ‘Völkerschauen’ and the Display of the ‘Other’,” Empire in a Decolonized Nation (Oxford: Oxford European History Online (Mainz, 2012), https:// University Press, 2014). d-nb.info/1043575553/34.

112 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 Christian Jacobs & Paul Sprute FROM | Placing German Colonialism in the City

FIGURE 1 Map of the African Quarter. Courtesy of Kyle Riffe. and address prevailing structures SWAKOPMUND TO LÜDERITZ: of colonial ideology within German THE HISTORICAL IMPLICATIONS society. Moreover, the tour guides OF THE STREET NAMES explain the efforts Berlin Postkolonial has made in the last decade to change The tour starts at the subway Germany’s politics of memory, not least station Afrikanische Straße, right by pushing for the street names to next to Swakopmunder Straße. be changed. Thus, the tour is a good Swakopmund, today a port in opportunity to discuss the role of civil Namibia, used to be one of the main society activists in promoting debates entry points in Germany’s most about the colonial past in Germany. important settler colony. With the help of legal tricks and discriminatory laws German settlers acquired more

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 113 and more land, leading to conflict Nachtigal who was appointed special with indigenous peoples under commissioner of the German Empire increasing economic and social in West Africa in 1884. In the next pressure. In 1904, both the Herero two years, he integrated Togoland, and Nama people started a rebellion Lüderitzland (later German South attacking German settlements, West Africa) and into the in reaction to which the German German Empire as protectorates. government sent General Lothar von Thus, Nachtigal’s mission marked Trotha with additional troops to crush the beginning of the official German the revolt. The German strategy was presence in Africa and he was P l a c i n g G e r m C o s t h y

| aimed at exterminating the Herero portrayed as a heroic founding and Nama: Forced into the desert, figure in the German public. In thousands died of thirst while those order to mark a departure from this

a u l S p r t e who survived were imprisoned in glorification of the German presence concentration camps where every in Africa, Berlin Postkolonial has second prisoner died. urged the district council to rename Even though generals had Nachtigalplatz. officially articulated the extermination The square is crossed by of the Herero and Nama people Petersallee which has officially

C h r i s t a n J c o b & P as the goal of the campaign, no been named after Hans Peters, a German government acknowledged German politician and member of the events as genocide until 2015. a resistance group during the Third Today, Germany has still not officially Reich, since 1986. However, the apologized to the victims. While street was originally dedicated to Herero and Nama representatives Carl Peters who acquired 12,000 have pushed the Federal Republic to square kilometers of land in East do so for a long time, the matter has Africa in 1884, signing treaties with become a topic of debate within the African chiefs who did not share the German wider public only in the last colonialists’ understanding that such decades, as part of a larger trend of treaties legitimized direct colonial rediscovering the German colonial rule. The lands were declared past.3 German East Africa and Peters was From Swakopmunder Straße appointed to rule the colony as the tour of Berlin Postkolonial turns the imperial commissioner. Peters’ into Togostraße, walking down to the notorious brutality and cruelty was square Nachtigalplatz. It is named later scandalized by members after the colonial scientist Gustav of the Reichstag, leading to his dismissal. Even though the street is officially named after another 3 For the current position of the German Foreign Peters nowadays, Berlin Postkolonial Office see: Auswärtiges Amt, “Addressing has argued that this solution is Germany’s and Namibia’s Past and Looking for the Future,” 1 July 2019, https://www. inadequate in the environment of the auswaertiges-amt.de/en/aussenpolitik/ Afrikanisches Viertel. This tendency regionaleschwerpunkte/afrika/-/1991702.

114 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 C h r i s t a n J c o b & P a u l S p r t e | P l a c i n g G e r m C o s t h y

FIGURE 2 to incidentally raw egg from his window at Mnyaka Flag of the German Colonial Office hoisted deny the Sururu Mboro, our tour guide in Volkspark Rehberge, colonial (fortunately missing him). Mboro Berlin 2019. Photo: Hauke Jacobs. character of the took the opportunity to share that Afrikanisches the tours are frequently disturbed Viertel by introducing a by people blocking the few benches decontextualized street name is available for seating or yelling at echoed in the one street named after the tour groups. It is obvious that a the Second World War, Ghanastraße, significant portion of local residents celebrating independence in a do not accept the presence of neighborhood set up to serve the critical perspectives on the history of opposite purpose. ‘their’ district and its links to German Next, the tour turns to walk colonialism. through the “” garden colony After this incident, our tour (Kleingartenkolonie) that was until ended on the other side of the recently called “Dauerkolonie Togo” community garden, in Lüderitzstraße. – a ‘permanent colony’. In both Adolf Lüderitz was a German the garden allotments “Togo” and merchant who in 1883 acquired the the nearby gardens in Volkspark first German territories in today’s Rehberge the open glorification Namibia – basing his claims to of German colonialism is strikingly large swathes of territory on the common: signs label gardens as preposterous proposition that German protectorates or colonies German miles were the basis of his while some garden owners hoist contract with Nama Captain Josef- flags of the German Empire (Figure Fredericks II – instead of the much 2). Walking through the community more common (and for Lüderitz garden “Togo,” a resident threw a inconveniently) shorter English ones.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 115 Berlin Postkolonial has advocated for argument for historical justice, Berlin the renaming of this street as well. Postkolonial initiated this decision. Most importantly, its persistent activism has kept the question on THE AFRICAN QUARTER AS the agenda for years, showcasing AN EXAMPLE FOR POLITICAL and eventually overcoming political ACTION? inertia. The interest in hundreds After years of political debate of these tours offered in the and campaigning in favor of and Afrikanisches Viertel also indicates 4 P l a c i n g G e r m C o s t h y

| against taking action, during which the demand for historical knowledge local politicians and societal actors and reflection within society. often failed to come to a consensus, However, the frequent harassment

a u l S p r t e the district council finally decided in by residents equally shows how the 2018 to change three of the street debate is rejected by many insisting names in Afrikanisches Viertel. In on keeping their postal address, or the future, Lüderitzstraße will honor simply spouting colonial ideology. Cornelius Frederiks, a Nama chief While the patience and who fought German colonial troops persistence of activists has had

C h r i s t a n J c o b & P during the genocide; Nachtigalplatz concrete results in the Afrikanisches will be named after the Bell family, Viertel, where three very dubious which took a leading role in the anti- figures will no longer be publicly colonial resistance movement in honored, it should also be kept in today’s Cameroon; Petersallee will mind that similar campaigns in slightly be divided and named after Anna less clear-cut cases, such as the Mungunda, an activist for Namibian renaming of Mohrenstraße (“Moors’ independence in the middle of the Street”) in Berlin’s center,5 have 20th century, while the other part will been in vain so far. Yet, whether it is commemorate the Maji-Maji war, a successful in its concrete demands major anti-colonial rebellion in the or not, such activism has surely German colonies in East Africa. catalyzed larger trends to establish Long prevailing tendencies to critical perspectives on Germany’s ignore the colonial character of colonial past and elevate it to the Afrikanisches Viertel, or to just become a more official concern. kick the can down the road, have The activities of groups therefore reached their end in this like Berlin Postkolonial also show case. By putting the issue on the how effective it is to localize and political agenda and making an concretize the political objectives of

4 For a theoretically informed treatment of this debate, please see: Susanne Förster et 5 “Mohrenstraße” in Stadt Neu Lesen (Berlin: al., “Negotiating German Colonial Heritage Berliner Entwicklungspolitischer Ratschlag, in Berlin’s Afrikanisches Viertel,” Journal of 2016), http://eineweltstadt.berlin/publikationen/ Heritage Studies 22 no. 7 (2016): 515-529. stadtneulesen/mohrenstrasse/.

116 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 C h r i s t a n J c o b & P memory culture.6 In Berlin, the debate over the repatriation of specific objects from museums has picked up speed, further exemplifying this notion. With it, the German debate has moved on from cases of violence a u l S p r t e and malice personified in Lüderitz, Nachtigal and Peters, presenting | the opportunity to discuss more P l a c i n g G e r m C o s t h y complex and systemic issues of unequal relations or epistemological hierarchization. Here, the debate surrounding the legitimacy of museum collections of colonial artifacts serves as an important test case. It remains to be seen how successfully activism around these issues reaches the wider public and how it can be influenced and accompanied by the work of academics. With the aforementioned city palace under reconstruction, in which most of Berlin’s overseas museum collections will be exhibited, this ongoing debate has already found its symbolic center.7

6 Three other locales of less-established post-colonial interest in Berlin, namely the streets named after anti-colonial activists in the former socialist part of the city, the “Thai Park” as a meeting place for Berlin’s South East Asian community and the Museum for Natural Studies are discussed in the Podcast series “Decolonization in Action,” hosted by Edna Bonhomme and Kristyna Comer of the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science, https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/research/ projects/decolonization-action. 7 See: Graham Bowley, “A New Museum Opens Old Wounds in Germany,” New York Times, 12 October, 2018, https://www.nytimes. com/2018/10/12/arts/design/humboldt-forum- germany.html; AfricAvenir International e.V., ed., “No Humboldt 21!. Dekoloniale Einwände gegen das Humboldt-Forum, Berlin 2017”; For the larger debate on restitution see. Felwine Sarr; Benedicte Savoy: Restituer le Patrimoine Africain (: Philippe Rey, 2018).

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