German Colonialism and National Identity

Juergen Zimmerer is Professor of History at the University of Hamburg in Germany. His areas of research and publication include German Colonialism, Genocide Studies, the Holocaust and African and Global History.Michael Perraudin is Professor of German at the University of Sheffield, and has previously taught at Trinity College, Dublin, and the University of Birmingham. His research focus is on 19th-century German literature, especially that of the Biedermeier/Vormärz, and its social and political contexts. His books include Literature, the ‘Volk’ and the Revolution in Mid-19th-Century Germany (Oxford: Berghahn, 2000) and Formen der Wirklichkeitserfassung nach 1848. Deutsche Literatur und Kultur vom Nachmärz bis zur Gründerzeit in europäischer Perspektive (co-edited with Helmut Koopmann, Bielefeld: Aisthesis, 2003). He has also published numerous articles on 19th- and 20th-century literary authors.

"This volume offers a snapshot of the variety of activities, research areas, research interests, and approaches emerging in the field of postcolonial studies with regard to Germany and the German colonial legacy. The twenty-two articles are all remarkably short, concrete, and informative; several afford insights into larger research projects." – Florian Krobb, National University of Ireland, Maynooth"This broadly based, clearly structured, and highly integrated essay collection constitutes an excellent overview of the central points of the growing scholarly discourse on Germany's colonial past. The volume provides a well-focused snapshot of contemporary German colonialism studies and could ideally serve both as a reader for college or university courses on these matters or an orientation guide for scholars new to the field." - Hans J. Rindisbacher, The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms

• Introduction. German Colonialism and National Identity. Michael Perraudin and Jürgen Zimmerer Section A. Colonialism from before the Empire Chapter 1. Imperialism, Race, and Genocide at the Paulskirche: Origins, Meanings, Trajectories. Brian Vick Chapter Two. Time, Identity and Colonialism in German Travel Writing on Africa, 1848-1914. Tracey Dawe Chapter 3. Gray Zones: On the Inclusion of "Poland" in the Study of German Colonialism. Kristin Kopp Section B. Colonialism and Popular Utterance in the Imperial Phase Chapter 4. The War that Scarcely Was: The Berliner Morgenpost and the Boxer Uprising. Yixu Lü Chapter 5. Boy’s and Girl’s Own Empires: Gender and the Uses of the Colonial World in Kaiserreich Youth Magazines. Jeffrey Bowersox Chapter 6. Picturing Genocide in German Consumer Culture, 1904-1910. David Ciarlo Chapter 7. The Visual Representation of Blackness during German Imperialism around 1900. Volker Langbehn Chapter 8. Colonialism and the Simplification of Language: Germany’s Kolonial-Deutsch Experiment. Kenneth Orosz Section C. Colonialism and the End of Empire Chapter 9. Fraternity, Frenzy, and Genocide in German War Literature, 1906-1936. Jörg Lehmann Chapter 10. Colonial Heroes: German Colonial Identities in Wartime, 1914-1918. Michael Pesek Chapter 11. Crossing Boundaries: German Women in Africa, 1919-1933. Britta Schilling Chapter 12. Abuses of German Colonial History: The Character of Carl Peters as Weapon for völkisch and National-Socialist Discourses: Anglophobia, Anti-Semitism and Aryanism. Constant Kpao Sarè Chapter 13. "Loyal Askari" and "Black Rapist"--Two Images in the German Discourse on National Identity and their Impact on the Lives of Black People in Germany, 1918-1945. Susann Lewerenz Section D. German Colonialism in the Era of Decolonization Chapter 14. (Post-) Colonial Amnesia? German Debates on Colonialism and Decolonization in the Post-war Era. Monika Albrecht Chapter 15. Denkmalsturz. The German Student Movement and German Colonialism. Ingo Cornils Chapter 16. Vergangenheitsbewältigung à la française: Post-Colonial Memories of the Herero Genocide and 17 October 1961. Kathryn Jones Chapter 17. The Persistence of Fantasies. Colonialism as Melodrama on German Television. Wolfgang Struck Section E. Local Histories, Memories, Legacies Chapter 18. Communal Memory Events and the Heritage of the Victims. The Persistence of the Theme of Genocide in Namibia. Reinhart Kössler Chapter 19. The Genocide in "German South-West Africa" and the Politics of Commemoration--How (Not) to Come to Terms with the Past. Henning Melber Chapter 20. The Struggle for Genocidal Exclusivity. The Perception of the Murder of the Namibian Herero (1904-08) in the Age of a New International Morality. Dominik J. Schaller Chapter 21. Narratives of a "Model Colony": German Togoland in Written and Oral Histories. Dennis Laumann Chapter 22. Suspended between Worlds? The Discipline of Germanistik in sub-Saharan Africa. Arndt Witte