The German colonial story

The German colonial history lasted from about 1847 till 1945. The conference in Berlin about Africa was between 1884 and 1885, Africa was divided among the European colonial powers and the German colonies were acquired.

Territorial, they were the third largest colonial empire after the British and French, the fourth largest of the population. The four African colony areas were German Southwest Africa (Namibia), German East Africa (Tanzania, Rwanda & Burundi), Cameroon (today Cameroon and parts of Gabon, Congo, Nigeria, Chad and the Central African Republic) and Togo (today's Togo and eastern Ghana). The borders were drawn arbitrarily, regardless of the populations forced to do forced labor and declared inferior and uncivilized. From 1875 to 1930 people were displayed at people’s show in Germany.

The decades of colonialism hindered the development of the affected countries, destroyed cultural identities and religions and led to power differences, wars, corruption and political instability to the present day.

In Namibia, they caused the first genocide of the twentieth century after the Herero and Nama rioted in 1904 against the German colonial rulers and demanded their land and human rights. Only in 2016 did the German government officially recognize the massacres of the Herero and Nama as genocide. To this day, the restauration obligations to Namibia and the Herrero are being urged today.

In Germany, the colonial era was transfigured and until 1945, the National Socialists dreamed of a new colonial empire in Africa. To this day, street names and monuments are reminiscent of the colonial era. Berlin has begun to replace colonial street names. The majority society, on the other hand, can hardly deals with the reflection of colonial patterns of rule.