German Student Movement & German Colonialism

8/16/2019 German Student Movement & German Colonialism

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Denkmalsturz. The German Student Movement and German Colonialism

Dr Ingo Cornils, University of Leeds

Published in: Michael Perraudin / Jürgen Zimmerer (eds.), German Colonialism and National Identity, pp. 197-212, New York: Routledge 2010, ISBN: 978-0-415-96477-7

1. Introduction

Toppling monuments and statues is a highly symbolic and political act.1[1] We remember the

elation of the crowds in Moscow, Warsaw and East Berlin when statues of Lenin where

pulled down after the fall of Communism, and of course the globally televised fall of Saddam

Hussein’s statue in Baghdad in 2003. ‘Denkmalsturz’, both a violent and catharticdemonstrative act against official representations of former rulers, dictators and conquerors,

signifies a public protest against once widely accepted (or enforced) interpretations of their

influence and power, and a massive change in perception of their historical significance.

In the context of German colonialism, we can date the beginnings of such a change in

perception to the late 1960s, when the German Student Movement identified the glorification

of former colonial ‘heroes’ in monuments and statues as a manifestation of German attitudes

of superiority and ruthlessness against other races that had led, in their view, to the

catastrophe of the Holocaust. The students believed that by attacking this ‘Verkö rperung des

arischen Herrenmenschentums’2[2] in direct action, they could unmask the West German

establishment as heirs to Nazism and contribute to a ‘Bewußtseinswandel’ that would lead to

solidarity with the struggle of liberation movements in the Third World and a revolution

against a perceived deeply ingrained deference to authority at home.

In this paper, I will focus on the toppling of the statue of colonial officer Hermann von

Wissmann (1853 - 1905) by radical students at the University of Hamburg in 1967/68. I will

explore the debate surrounding this event, personal memories of participants, the influence of

the ‘Hamburg School’ of historians around Fritz Fischer, the ideological background of the

1[1] Cp. Winfried Speitkamp (Hg.), Denkmalsturz. Zur Konfliktgeschichte politischerSymbolik . Göttingen: Vandenhoeck / Ruprecht 1997

2[2] Peter Schütt, Der Denkmalssturz, die tageszeitung , 7 August 1992,http://www.taz.de/pt/1992/09/07/a0223.1/textdruck

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students that led to this Denkmalsturz, and the reactions of the state and the public at the

time.

While this event may be seen as merely a footnote in the history of protest actions during the

student rebellion of the 60s, I will show how it has become part of cultural memory through

the works of Uwe Timm, one of Germany’s foremost contemporary writers. Not only did

Timm include the Wissmann episode in Heißer Sommer (1974), one of the best literary

representations of the German Student Movement: as ‘engaged writer’, he has continued to

influence the debate on Germany’s militaristic past and its effect on the German psyche to the

present day.

I will conclude with an unexpected turn the story of the Wissmann statue has taken in

2004/2005: in a striking intervention, the artist Jokinen unearthed the statue from its hiding

place of 30 years in the basement of the Sternwarte in Hamburg Bergedorf and exhibited it in

Hamburg harbour, inviting a public debate on how we should deal with our colonial history,

thus fulfilling the students’ demand for an open debate in the ‘public sphere’.

2. Hermann von Wissmann – from hero to hate-figure

Until the late 1960s, Hermann von Wissmann (1853-1905) was generally remembered in

West Germany as a pioneering ‘Afrikaforscher’,3[3] on a par with Heinrich Barth (1821-

1865) and Gustav Nachtigal (1834-1885). Streets were named after him, ‘Corpsstudenten’

drank beer to remember him, and children read about his encounters with elephants and

lions.4[4] He twice crossed the African continent from Luanda to Zansibar, and added to the

knowledge of the upper Congo River basin. He was feted for the ‚courageous’ way in which

he dealt with a rebellion of Arabian slave traders, ‘pacified’ the tribes of Eastern Africa, and

set up nature reserves and game parks.

3[3] The standard Wissmann biography is Alexander Becker et. al., Hermann von Wissmann. Deutschlands größter Afrikaner. Sein Leben und Wirken unter Benutzung des Nachlasses,Berlin 1911. For a short introduction from a modern perspective see Thomas Morlang,‚“Finde ich keinen Weg, so bahne ich mir einen.“’, in: Ulrich van der Heyden / JoachimZeller (Hg.) , „…Macht und Anteil an der Weltherrschaft“. Berlin und der deutsche

Kolonialismus, UNRAST-Verlag, Münster 2005.

4[4] Hans Lehr, In den Wildnissen Afrikas und Asiens. Jagderlebnisse von Hermann vonWissmann, Klein Verlag, Lengerich 1958. This ‚Kinder - und Jugendbuch’ was reprinted in1970.


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What was conveniently forgotten was the fact that as military commander and later as

imperial commissioner in Deutsch-Ostafrika (today’s Tanzania),5[5] Wissmann brutally

suppressed an uprising against the new colonial power and employed a ‘scorched earth’ tactic

that caused widespread famine and disease amongst the indigenous population. With a budget

of 2 Million Reichsmark voted for by the Reichstag in January 1889, he formed and

commanded a ‘Schutztruppe’ of 1000 Askaris. These native mercenaries had been recruited

mainly from Mozambique and the Sudan, the rationale being that they had little in common

with the population they were ‘protecting’ and would thus have little compunction in

suppressing them.

Wissmann and his troop fought numerous battles against local tribes who resisted the theft of

their land and cattle and the introduction of forced labour. On Wissmann’s orders, the Askaris

murdered, pillaged, and torched the villages. Whilst the public at home was fed a string of

lies about what was happening on the ‘black continent’ with descriptions of Wissmann as a

gentle civilizing factor, disturbing news about the brutality of colonial rule eventually

reached the German Empire, but only the social democrats under August Bebel and Wilhelm

Liebknecht openly protested against the systematic exploitation of the Africans.6[6]

From 1895 to 1896, Wissmann was governor of Deutsch-Ostafrika. His legacy was the

introduction of a ‘Hüttensteuer’, which caused serious unrest and eventually led to the Maji-

Maji-uprising (1905 – 1907), during which more than 100,000 Africans lost their lives.7[7]

Due to ill health, Wissmann retired after only 9 months, and returned to Germany where he

wrote several books, including a handbook ‘Zur Behandlung des Negers’.8[8] Following his

death in 1905, several statues of ‘Deutschlands größter Afrikaner’ were commissioned by the

Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft to serve as focal points for identification with Germany’s

global ambitions, and to establish a myth of national success. At the consecration of the

5[5] Jürgen Herzog, Geschichte Tansanias, Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin1986, pp.44ff

6[6] Winfried Speitkamp, Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte, Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, p.139

7[7] Cp. Bartholomäus Grill, ‘Eine deutsche Hölle’, in: Die Zeit , No. 27/2005, 30.06.2005;Claus Kristen, Die Taktik der ‚verbrannten Erde’. Die Folgen der deutschenKolonialherrschaft in Ostafrika, in: analyse & kritik – Zeitschrift für linke Debatte und Praxis/ Nr.503 / 17 February 2006, www.akweb.de/ak_s/ak503/15.htm

8[8] In: Hermann von Wissmann, Afrika: Schilderungen und Rathschläge für den Aufenthalt

und den Dienst in den deutschen Schutzgebieten, Berlin 1895

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statue in Daressalam in the spring of 1909 that later ended up in Hamburg, Wissmann was

described as ‘eine wahre Herrschernatur, geboren, Mensch und Tier zu zügeln’.9[9]

The statue portrays Wissmann as a heroic figure, at his feet a black Askari, looking up to his

master and draping the imperial flag over a dead lion. The symbolism is crass: the colonial

ruler, measuring 2.60 m in height, towers over the Askari, measuring 1.70 m in height. The

‘Löwe von Afrika’ was to command respect from his subjects, as the inscriptions on the

plinth reminded the observer in German, Arabic and Swahili:

Gouverneur von Wissmann / Unser Herr von früher / Er hat die Küste beruhigt

/ Und uns auf den richtigen Weg gewiesen / Unser Sultan war Wissmann / Der

mit dem 40fachen Verstande / Er war ein Mann des Vertrauens / Wir hatten

ihn alle lieb / Er ist nicht mehr in der Welt, / Der Besitzer der Tapferkeit im

Kriege, / Schauet hin auf das Denkmal, / Damit Ihr Euch an ihn

erinnert.“10[10]

After the end of World War I and the loss of all German colonies, the Wissmann statue in

Daressalam was dismantled and taken to London as a war trophy. However, in 1921 the

British Government listened to the pleas of the German colonial movement, and the statue

was shipped to Hamburg. Here, at the former ‘gateway to the German colonies’, in front of

the main building of the former Hamburger Kolonialinstitut that had become Hamburg

University in 1919, the statue was consecrated in 1922 as a reminder of ‘Germany’s glorious

colonial past’ and as an admonition to all Germans to win back their former colonies.

While the cult around Wissmann served the integration of a small community of colonial

revisionists who felt excluded from official politics during the Weimar Republic,11[11] with

the advent of National Socialism the statue became the focus of a new movement for

‘Lebensraum’. Indeed, Wissmann served as a popular example amongst conservative

9[9] Winfried Speitkamp, Der Totenkult um die Kolonialheroen des Deutschen Kaiserreiches,in: zeitenblicke 3 (2004), Nr.1 (09.06.2004), p.1

10[10] Speitkamp, Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte, p.120/121

11[11] Speitkamp, Der Totenkult …, p.13


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fraternities and NS student groups, and the Nazis saw a reinvigorated colonial policy as an

ideal instrument for the ‘Weckung und Förderung der kriegerischen Instinkte’.12[12]

After World War II, the newly formed Federal Republic of Germany did not, in marked

contrast to the GDR, pull down all colonial monuments and statues. Indeed, in the case of the

Wissmann statue in Hamburg that had been knocked off its plinth during a bombing raid, it

was put up again in 1949, but generally forgotten or ignored.13[13] This state of affairs

began to change in the 1960s. In 1961, students at Hamburg University demanded the

removal of the ‘Konquistadoren’ from the campus, arguing that the statue was not likely to

impress their fellow black students from Africa, but the rector refused. The German writer

Siegfried Lenz, a student at Hamburg University in the early 60s, remembers that they felt

embarrassed by and an ‘ironic detachment’ towards the statue in such a prominent

position.14[14] This refusal of identification with Germany’s colonial past increased when

more and more students became politicized during the protests against the Vietnam War and

began to support the various liberation movements in the Third World. Wissmann was not

only seen as outmoded, but as a representative of an authoritarian tradition that had become

intolerable.15[15]

3. Denkmalsturz in den Köpfen

Several aspects came together to make the Wissmann statue the focus of attention. Firstly,

students at Hamburg University were taught by a number of historians who had radically

12[12] Autorenkollektiv Allgemeiner Studentenausschuss (ASTA) an der UniversitätHamburg, Das permanente Kolonialinstitut. 50 Jahre Hamburger Universität , Hamburg1969, p.25

13[13] Speitkamp, Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte, pp.173/174

14[14] Joachim Zeller, Kolonialdenkmäler und Geschichtsbewußtsein. Eine Untersuchung derkolonialdeutschen Erinnerungskultur , IKO – Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation,Frankfurt 2000, p.207

15[15] In a letter to the author, Karl Heinz Roth, a medical student and member of theHamburg SDS at the time, declared: „ Wir haben das Denkmal damals als junge Studierendegestürzt, weil wir in seinem Schatten nicht atmen und studieren konnten. Wir wollten eineWelt ohne faschistische und kolonialistische Kontinuitäten, auch und gerade im Bereich derHochschule und der Wissenschaft.“


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broken with the established view of recent German history. Secondly, the ideologists of the

SDS (Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund) quickly recognized that in the context of the

debate about liberation movements in the Third World, Germany’s colonial past was an

excellent example to demonstrate the ‘evil machinations’ of capitalism. Thirdly, the fact that

Hamburg University as an institution stood by this ‘symbol of oppression’, thus allowing a

comparison between institutional heavy-handed action on campus and Wissmann’s heavy-

handed rule in Africa, made it the perfect target for direct action.

The ‘Hamburg School’16[16] of historians around Fritz Fischer taught that National

Socialism had not just been a ‘historical accident’ brought about by the radical Hitler

movement, but was in fact a direct consequence of Germany’s imperialistic ambitions in the

19th century. In Griff nach der Weltmacht (1961), Fischer had argued that the rush for

colonies had been motivated by the imperial government’s wish to turn attention away from

internal social problems, and that its ambition to gain ‘einen Platz an der Sonne’ had created

a complex web of forces – ‘nicht zum wenigsten materielle Faktoren’17[17] - that had led to

the outbreak of WW I.

Controversially, he wrote:

Die deutschen Kriegsziele sind im Kern nicht erst eine Antwort auf während

des Krieges bekanntgewordene Ziele der Gegnermächte oder ein Ergebnis der

Kriegssituation der ‘belagerten Festung’ und der Blockade; sie sind aus den

zumindest seit 1890 wirksamen Antrieben, etwa in der Flotten-, Stützpunkt-,

Kolonial-, Orient-, Balkan- und europäischen Wirtschaftspolitik und aus der

politischen Gesamtsituation zu verstehen, wie sie sich, in erster Linie als Folge

der deutschen Politik, seit 1904 bzw. 1907 in der sogenannten ‚Einkreisung’

ergab, die Deutschland zu sprengen versuchte.18[18]

16[16] Cp. Volker Berghahn, Ostimperium und Weltpolitik – Gedanken zur Langzeitwirkungder ‘Hamburger Schule’, in: geschichte.transnational , 13.04.2006,http://geschichte.transnational.clio-online.net/forum/2006-04-001

17[17] Fritz Fischer, Griff nach der Weltmacht , Düsseldorf 1961, p.11

18[18] Fischer, p.12 (emphasis IC)

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Such straight talk electrified the students who had generally grown up with the myth that the

national state and the army had been blameless in the catastrophe of the Third Reich.19[19]

At the end of the 1960s, the historians around Fischer focused on Germany’s colonial past

from a number of socio-economic perspectives and explored the relationship of economic

interests, social structures and administrative systems in the colonies.20[20] Their findings,

according to Karl Heinz Roth, one of the instigators of the Wissmann-Denkmalsturz, were

‘devoured’ by the students.21[21]

The SDS’ analysis of the colonial/imperial tradition has to be seen against the events in Third

World countries in the 1960s that, in its view, appeared to herald the rapid decline of

capitalism. From the Cuban revolution to the Vietnam War and the Cultural Revolution in

China, the Third World appeared to be breaking its chains and emancipating itself from the

rule of its former colonial masters. Rudi Dutschke, the charismatic leader of the SDS and

figurehead of the student movement, argued in February 1968 that any radical opposition had

to be understood in global terms, that it was the mass movement of the underprivileged

around the world that would define the character of the revolution they were working

towards. Citing Frantz Fanon’s ‘Die Verdammten dieser Erde’ (published in German in

1966), he warned that the hoped-for independence of former colonies would merely turn into

new dependence and exploitation unless the existing capitalist system was overthrown.22[22]

Indeed, Dutschke described the protests against the 1964 visit to West Germany of Moise

Tschombe (the president of the separatist Republic of Katanga in Congo) in 1964 as ‘the start

19[19] Cp. Heinz Bude, Das Altern einer Generation. Die Jahrgänge 1938-1948, Suhrkamp,Frankfurt 1997

20[20] E.g. Helmut Böhme, Deutschlands Weg zur Großmacht : Studien zum Verhältnis vonWirtschaft und Staat während der Reichsgründungszeit 1848-1881. K&W, Köln 1966;

Helmut Bley, Kolonial-herrschaft und Sozialstruktur in Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika, 1894-1914,Leibniz Verlag, Hamburg 1968

21[21] In a letter to the author, Roth writes: „Die Wissmann-Aktion stand selbstverständlichim Vietnam-Kontext, aber zur selben Zeit erschienen auch schon die ersten kritischenhistorischen Studien zur deutschen Kolonialherrschaft aus dem Umfeld Fritz Fischers, unddie haben wir verschlungen.“

22[22] Rudi Dutschke, Die geschichtlichen Bedingungen für den internationalenEmanzipationskampf (Rede auf dem Internationalen Vietnam-Kongreß in West-Berlin,Februar 1968), in: R.D., Geschichte ist machbar , Wagenbach, Berlin 1980, S.105-121


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of our cultural revolution [the anti-authoritarian campaign], in which all the previous values

and norms of the Establishment were brought into question’.23[23]

Another example for the link the SDS saw between the ‘struggle in the metropoles’ and the

‘struggle on the periphery’ was the violent protest of 2000 demonstrators against the

conferral of the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels on the Senegalese President and

writer Leopold Sedar Senghor on 22 September 1968 in Frankfurt. While the public reaction

was generally negative and student leaders such as Hans-Jürgen Krahl and Daniel Cohn-

Bendit were put on trial for breach of the peace, the gesture was appreciated by students back

in Senegal. 24[24]

4. Wissmann falls

On 8 August 1967, the Hamburg SDS announced that they would pull down the ‘Schandmal’.

In a flyer distributed widely on campus and in the city, the student group drew a link between

colonial ‘pacification’ in Wissmann’s days, the Indian wars in North America, and the

Vietnam War that was escalating at the time:

Wißmann besorgte um 1885 in den Gebieten südlich des Kilimandscharo ein

Geschäft, das heute in Innerafrika vom Kongo-Müller oder in Vietnam von

General Westmoreland versehen wird. Der Kolonialismus benutzt heute wie

damals dieselben Mittel. […] Die WISSMÄNNER sind noch immer unter uns,

stürzen wir wenigstens ihre DENKMÄLER!25[25]

A different flyer, entitled ‘Ein Wissmann stürzt selten allein!’, by an Aktionskomitee ‘Die

Köpfe rollen’, announced a celebration that evening at the Amerikahaus which would

23[23] Nick Thomas, Protest Movements in 1960s West Germany, Berghahn, Oxford 2003,

p.94. See also Gretchen Dutschke, Wir hatten ein barbarisches, schönes Leben, K&W, Köln1996, pp.60-61

24[24] Wolfgang Kraushaar, Frankfurter Schule und Studentenbewegung , Band 1, Chronik, p.28. At the trial against the ‚ringleaders’ on 21 October 1969, a representative of theSenegalese Student Congress declared: „Wir waren sehr froh, daß die Frankfurter Studentendamals mit der Demonstration ihre Solidarität mit den Studenten in Senegal bewiesen haben.Die Preisverleihung für den senegalesischen Staatspräsidenten Senghor war eine Schande fürAfrika und für Deutschland. Ibid., p.468

25[25] Zeller, Kolonialdenkmäler und Geschichtsbewusstsein, p.208


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celebrate ‘the 18th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the fall of

the Wissmann statue, the victory of the Vietcong, the struggle of the liberation movements in

Latin America and the social revolution in Africa’.26[26]

Thus the scene was set and maximum media attention guaranteed (two camera crews were on

hand to record the event),27[27] but when the students attempted to pull down the statue that

had already been sprayed with red paint, the police intervened and arr ested five ‘ringleaders’.

A second attempt in the night of 26/27 September 1967 was successful,28[28] but the statue

was put back on its plinth by the Department for Higher Education in Hamburg. The students

did not give up, though, and, following a vote organized by the student union, Wissmann was

pulled down in the night to 1 November 1968. The next day students carried the statue to the

refectory in triumph. This time, the University administration decided to avoid any further

damaging confrontations, and removed the statue to the Sternwarte Bergedorf for storage.

For the instigators of the ‘action’, the Denkmalsturz was a defining moment in their life. Not

only was the ‘Tabubruch’ experienced as an exhilarating moment of emancipation and

fun,29[29] the subsequent trial brought new opportunities to rail against ‘the system’ and

challenge authoritarian institutions. Peter Schütt, who lost his job as research assistant at the

University because of his involvement, recalls the tumultuous scenes at the Auditorium

Maximum where the trial had been transferred to due to the great public interest. When the

26[26] Lutz Schulenburg (Hrsg.), Das Leben ändern, die Welt verändern!, Edition Nautilus,Hamburg 1998, p.79

27[27] The film maker Theo Gallehr had followed the preceding debates and caught thehappening on celluloid. His documentary film ‚Landfriedensbruch’ was produced by the

Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), but not broadcast. It stayed in the archives until 1988, whenit was broadcast to mark the 20th anniversary of the student revolt on NDR3.

28[28] In a letter to the author, Karl Heinz Roth recalls how a group of students had

‘prepared’ the scene to ensure that the statue would definitely fall this time: “Wissmannwurde 1967 zweimal angegangen, zuerst als Happening, was zu Festnahmen undStrafverfolgung führte. Wir haben uns dann dadurch ‚gerächt’, dass wir ein zweites‚Happening’ ankündigten, bei dem wie beim erstenmal Wissmann symbolisch eine Leine umden Hals geworfen werden sollte. In der Nacht zuvor haben wir aber die Beine angesägt unddie zentrale Stellschraube gelockert, sodass das Denkmal zur Verblüffung aller beim erstenZug am Seil umstürzte. Die Verwirrung war so groß, dass die Polizeieinheiten ‚vergaßen’, dieSeilzieher wie beim erstenmal festzunehmen. Die ‚Happening’- Leute wussten natürlichnichts von unserer kleinen Aktionsgruppe.“

29[29] Zeller, p.212


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presiding judge asked the defendants’ expert witness Helmut Bley: “Wollen Sie denn das

ganze Kolonialzeitalter in Bausch und Bogen verdammen?” Bley, to great applause,

suggested that it wasn’t yet judgment day and neither the colonial epoch nor the

Denkmalstürzer should be dismissed out of hand.30[30]

The trial turned into a complete farce when an art historian, asked whether the portrayal of

the Askari really was as discriminating as the students claimed, stated that in colonial times

Africans tended to be portrayed ‘im vorzivilisatorischen Stadium paradiesischer Unschuld

und Nacktheit’. This was the clue for four female comrades to strip off in front of the judge

and sing ‘Wir sind die Eingeborenen von Trizonesien’, earning them a night in jail. 31[31]

The media, particularly the newspapers of the Springer publishing house that was engaged in

a bitter war of words with the students, were up in arms, criticizing the ‘vandals’ for

besmirching the memory of a ‘great German’ who had brought peace and civilization to the

Africans. Letters from enraged citizens lambasted the action against the statues of Wissmann

and Hans Dominik (1870-1910, another officer of the Schutztrup pe) as “kindische

Lynchjustiz an zwei deutschen ‚Afrikanern’”.32[32] One particular flyer distributed at

Hamburg University at the end of October 1968 by the ‘Aktion zur Rettung des

Deutschtums’, entitled ‘Ostafrika ist deutsch’, is indicative of the strong feelings awakened

by the Denkmalsturz amongst conservative Germans.33[33] With the headline ‘Wieder

schlugen ultralinke Radikalinskis zu!’, the text rails against the defendants ‘die im

30[30] Peter Schütt, Der Denkmalssturz , ibid. Helmut Bley, currently Professor of AfricanHistory in Hannover, has continued to influence the debate to the present day. Cp. especiallyhis thesis that ‘the patterns of colonial thoughts were frozen in the pre 1914 mood’ (Paper

presented during the 2004 VAD Conference: www.vad-ev.de. See also his book Namibiaunder German Rule, Lit Verlag, Münster 1997, which argues ‘how the roots of Germantotalitarianism stem from the colonial period, and how the abuse of the Africans provided the

roots of the abuse of the Jews’. Bley’s view is echoed in Volker Berghahn’s recent study Europe in the era of the two World Wars, Princeton 2006, pp.15-25.

31[31] The five defendants were found guilty and sentenced to prison, but the amnesty forminor offences during the student revolt declared by Willy Brandt’s new government in 1969came in force before they had to start their terms.

32[32] Die Welt , 2 November 1968

33[33] Reprinted in: Autorenkollektiv Allgemeiner Studentenausschuss (ASTA) an derUniversität Hamburg, Das permanente Kolonialinstitut , p.239

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vergangenen Jahr versuchten, unsere Afrikaeroberer zu schänden und jetzt gerechten Strafen

entgegensehen’, and their lack of patriotism:

Wie eine Epidemie scheint die Brut des Bösen sich zu verbreiten. Jahrzehnte

deutscher Ehre und Tradition wurden in den Schmutz gezogen.

The students are characterised as ‚schlitzäugige Unichinesen’, ‚Dreckschleuderer’,

‚Abschaum der Gesellschaft’, and ‚langhaarige Schmutzfinken’. The flyer concludes:

‚Landgraf werde hart! Gott lebt, Dominik lebt, Wissmann lebt, Che ist tot!’

Both the student flyers and the ‘Ostafrika ist deutsch’ flyer reflect the entrenched positions

and combative language in this confrontation. Part of the SDS tactic was to provoke and taunt

their opponents into unmasking themselves as the unreformed Nazis they believed them to

be.34[34] The ‘Aktion zur Rettung des Deutschtums’ obliged, but it is the official reaction to

the Denkmalsturz, the heavy-handedness of the police, the unsympathetic attitude of the

judge and the harsh sentences that reveal the extent to which Germany’s colonial past was

still perceived as a positive achievement.

Partly as an attempt to explain their action, partly to further drive home the message that the

University of Hamburg was controlled by an ‘altnazistische Fraktion’, a number of students

collaborated to write a book about the many links the city and the University had with the

colonial movement in the past, and the extent to which research at the University was

integrated into ‘neokoloniale Verwertungs- bedingungen’ in the present. Das permanente

Kolonialinstitut , published in 1969 to coincide with the official celebrations on occasion of

the 50th anniversary of the University, argues that Wissmann had served ‚imperialistischen

Kapitalinteressen’, and that as long as the statue was allowed to stand it would be seen as

‚Symbol des Streben Deutschlands zur Weltmacht’. The University’s history as

‘Kolonialinstitut’ with the brief to prepare German officials for their tour of duty in the

colonies, and the scientific support it gave to business to make optimum use of colonial goods

was seen as a collusion of notionally independent thinkers with the dark forces of

imperialism. While the authors base their polemic on ‘forgotten’ facts (some of them deeply

disturbing, for example the continued employment of former Nazis after 1949), it is obvious

34[34] A famous example is the incident at the Rektoratsfeier in Hamburg in November 1967,when neatly dressed students unfurled a banner in front of the procession that read ‘Unter denTalaren der Muff von 1000 Jahren’. One of the professors was so incensed that he shouted:“Sie gehören alle ins KZ!” Cp. Autorenkollektiv Allgemeiner Studentenausschuss (ASTA) ander Universität Hamburg, Das permanente Kolonialinstitut , p.29


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that their investigation into the University’s role in the colonial ‘system’ served their own

political agenda. They saw themselves as an avant-garde and ‘progressive force’ in the fight

against capitalism, and ‘spun’ the events to fit their particular view. Thus the authors

triumphantly conclude:

Fünfzig Jahre lang hat sich nun die Hamburger Wissenschaft voll in den

Dienst kolonialer und neokolonialer Ausbeutung stellen lassen, und ehernen

Ausdruck dieser Tatsache verliehen bis vor kurzem die bronzenen Standbilder

von Dominik und Wissmann im Garten der Hamburger Universität, bis sie –

eine tägliche, zynische Beleidigung unserer afrikanischen Kommilitonen –

von fortschrittlichen Studenten beseitigt wurden. Dieser Denkmalsturz hat als

unmißverständlicher Ausdrucks des Willens aller fortschrittlichen Kräfte der

Hamburger Universität zu gelten, die den Einsatz der bürgerlichen

Wissenschaft zur planmäßigen Ausbeutung der Völker der Dritten Welt nicht

dulden können.35[35]

5. Denkmalsturz remembered

In reality, the students’ action was soon forgotten. With the Wissmann statue safely stored

out of harms way, the fragmentation and ultimate demise of the German Student Movement

in 1969, and a new social liberal coalition government in place, this is where the story would

have ended, had it not been for the writer Uwe Timm, who included the Wissmann episode in

his novel Heißer Sommer (1974). The protagonist, the student Ullrich Krause, moves from

Munich to Hamburg and becomes involved in the protests organised by the SDS. Krause is an

‘average’, alienated young man, initially out seeking a good time, but, like many others,

politicised by the death of the student Benno Ohnesorg on 2 June 1967 and the realisation

that his claustrophobic childhood under the shadow of his father who still adores Hitler and

the authoritarian atmosphere in the Universities he attended both have their roots in his

country’s past. Timm places Krause right in the middle of the Denkmalsturz: it is through his

eyes that we witness the ‘exemplarische Aktion’.36[36] Krause takes part in distributing

35[35] Autorenkollektiv Allgemeiner Studentenausschuss (ASTA) an der UniversitätHamburg, Das permanente Kolonialinstitut , p.39

36[36] Uwe Timm, Heißer Sommer (1974), dtv, Munich 1998, p.143 (hereafter: HS)


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flyers, and is instrumental in pulling the statue down. Whilst he is tightening the rope around

Wissmann’s head, he remembers how he used to imagine being a colonial explorer as a child:

Als Junge hatte er einmal zum Geburtstag ein Buch bekommen. Sein Vater

hatte es, wie er damals extra betonte, mit einiger Mühe in einem Antiquariat

aufgetrieben: Haia Safari. Von Lettow-Vorbeck. Ullrich hatte es in wenigen

Tagen verschlungen und sich vorgestellt, wie er mit einem Trupp ihm treu

ergebener Askari die Engländer in die Flucht schlug. Einige Wochen hatte er

mit den anderen Jungen zusammen in dem Unkraut der Trümmerfelder Haia

Safari gespielt. Aber es kam immer wieder zu Streitereien, weil niemand die

Askari spielen wollte. (HS 148)

Krause is psychologically torn between the elation of the collective action, his hatred and his

fear. He follows the student slogan ‘Macht kaputt was euch kaputtmacht’ and relishes the

thought ‚diesen Dreck einfach umreißen, das Krachen, das Klatschen’, thinking that

afterwards everything would be different. But there is also intense fear as he realizes both the

import of the transgression they are committing right in front of the police and the potential

consequences. (HS 149)

Timm’s text allows the reader to experience the Denkmalsturz from the perspective of the

students, with a physical immediacy that no documentary or historical account can supply:

‘Das Metall war kalt gewesen’, ‘Alle klatschten, schrieen und liefen durcheinander’ (HS

150). But he also interprets the event: when Wissmann has fallen to the ground, the narrator

comments: ‚Der Askari blickte in einen Himmel, der jetzt von Wissmann befreit war’. Timm

expertly conveys the dialectic of the utopian moment of emancipation: On the one hand,

Krause is deeply afraid when he hears the sirens and sees the flashing blue lights of the police

cars (HS 150), a reaction that parallels exactly what was intended by the statue in Daressalam

in the first place. On the other hand, the narrator suggests that the act of toppling this

representation of colonial power and authority has made a difference: ‘Er hatte das Gefühl, an

einem entscheidend wichtigen Ereignis teilgenommen zu haben.’ (HS. 152) What the

significance was is left for the reader to decide.

Twenty-seven years later, Uwe Timm included the Wissmann episode in another novel, Rot

(2001).37[37] This time, though, the event is remembered with much less enthusiasm. The

37[37] See my ‘Long Memories. The German Student Movement in Recent Fiction’, in:German Life and Letters, Issue 56:1, January 2003, Blackwell, 2003, pp. 89-101


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protagonist Thomas Linde, a former 68er who works as a funeral orator, has inherited a pack

of explosives from his deceased former comrade Aschenberger and is tasked with blowing up

the Siegessäule in Berlin on the day of the move of the German government from Bonn to

Berlin as a sign of protest against, as Aschenberger interpreted it, the continuation of the

country’s imperialistic and militaristic tradition. Just like the Wissmann statue, the

Siegessäule is described as a ‘Klops’38[38] that needs to come down. Visiting the

Siegessäule, Linde reflects on the apparent failure of his generation to effect any lasting

change.

Linde realises that Aschenberger has chosen him to carry out his plan because they had both

taken part in the Wissmann Denkmalsturz back in 1968. He visits Krause, now an upright

citizen and himself a ‘colonist’ in the ‘Neue Länder’. As a mixture of penance for his

bourgeois existence and lingering loyalty to the cause, he maintains an archive of socialist

literature of the APO (extra-parliamentary opposition) in his spare time. As the former

revolutionaries walk down memory lane, they realize how much perceptions have changed,

after all:

Wir waren unserer Zeit voraus. Jetzt will doch keiner mehr an die glorreiche

deutsche Kolonialzeit erinnert werden. Heute würden sie das Denkmal von

Amts wegen abtragen lassen, still und heimlich. So ändern sich die Zeiten.

Und die moralischen Wertungen. (R 329)

If this assessment is correct, and given the overt failure of the German Student Movement to

change ‘the system’ through protest in the streets, we need to ask ourselves wha t process has

changed moral perceptions in the intervening years. In Timm’s case, I would argue that his

own commitment to the ‘long march through the institutions’ had a lot to do with it. He

followed up on his interest in Germany’s colonial past with a solid piece of research that

culminated with his description of the genocide perpetrated by German soldiers in Deutsch-

Südwestafrika in Morenga (1978) and his volume of photographs from German colonial

times, Deutsche Kolonien (1981).

6. The ideas of ‘68

38[38] Uwe Timm, Rot , Kiepenheuer&Witsch, Köln 2001, p.103 (hereafter: R)


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Timm was not the first novelist to write about the genocide in Southwest Africa: Thomas

Pynchon had devoted chapters to the massacre of the Herero both in V (1963) and Gravity’s

Rainbow (1973), and asked the question whether there was a connection between this

genocide and the Holocaust less than 40 years later. But for a German author to tackle this

topic was a very different matter. Moreover, Timm’s Morenga not only reflects his

generation’s break with the traditions of their fathers, but also the escalation of the

confrontation that had occurred after the demise of the student movement. Whilst the

majority of students had ‘moved on’, many, like Timm himself, had joined communist

groups, and a small minority had turned to guerrilla warfare against the state. Thus we find

both the ‘ideas of ‘68’ and the new vocabulary of the ‘armed struggle’ of the Red Army

Faction reflected in the narrative of the veterinarian Gottschalk who is intrigued and

fascinated by the culture of the Herero, but realizes that with his colonial mindset it will be

impossible for him to ever fully identify with them. Given that we have already heard about

Morenga today, I will limit myself to a few observations that link the book to Hamburg and

1968.

The first thing I ought to mention is Timm’s continued reliance on the ideas and jargon of

‘68. The protagonist is told by the land surveyor Wenstrup who eventually deserts their unit

that he must learn ‘den aufrechten Gang’, a metaphor often used by the SDS.39[39].

Gottschalk feels that their campaign resembles 'gegen Windmühlen kämpfen’ (M 376), a

clear reference to the guerilla tactics used by the Hama.40[40] The exposure to the alien

culture prompts Gottschalk to question the rules governing his own life, again a significant

aspect of the ideas of ’68, just as their anarchistic aspiration, 'die schlafenden Verhältnisse

39[39] Uwe Timm, Morenga (1978), dtv, München 2005, p.65 (hereafter: M)

40[40] Peter Horn argues: „Es ist die in einem Guerillakrieg wie dem Namakriegaufscheinende Möglichkeit, eine weit überlegene Staats- und Heeresmaschinerie zu besiegen,die die Achtundsechziger faszinierte, wie sie ja auch von anderen Guerillakriegen und densüdamerikanischen Stadtguerillas träumten. […] Was die Achtundsechziger an den Namasfaszinierte, das Nomadentum einer Guerillatruppe.“ Peter Horn, Haschisch und Klicks.Afrika als utopischer Ort der 68er Generation und Uwe Timms Roman Morenga, in: LeoKreutzer / David Simo (Hrsg.), Weltengarten. Deutsch-Afrikanisches Jahrbuch fürInterkulturelles Denken, Revonnah Verlag, Hannover 2004, p.80


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zum Tanzen zu bringen’ (M 427) and, perhaps most significantly, their belief in an

‘interkulturelle Utopie’.41[41]

Hamburg is not only the harbour from which Gottschalk sets out on his journey to Africa. In

a passage about the history of the Molotov cocktail, Timm links the colonial past with the

recent past, that of the revolutionary moment in 1968 when students debate whether to use

the weapon in their protest against the Vietnam War:

Achtzig Jahre später in Hamburg, in einem Keller, gegenüber dem

Philosophenturm gelegen, behauptete ein zugewucherter Typ namens

Treptow, Student der Mathematik, im brüllenden Gelächter der anderen

Revolutionäre, daß genauso genommen sein Großvater der Erfinder der

Mollys sei, den man, nach einer Diskussion über die Anwendung von Gewalt

gegen Sachen, in das Konsulat der Vietnam-Killer zu schleudern sich

entschlossen hatte, wobei der Name Molly nicht von Molotov-Cocktail

komme, sondern von Moloch, wie sein Großvater dieses Renngemisch

genannt habe, das dieser alte Chauvinist aber nicht den Eingeborenen verraten,

sondern dem deutschen Heer angedient habe. Schon damals habe sich aber die

Interessenverzahnung von Staat, Kapital und Militär gezeigt, denn die

Erfindung sei vom Heereswaffenamt nicht weiter verfolgt worden, weil die

Lobby vom Kanonen-Krupp interveniert habe. […] Außerdem habe man wohl

zu Recht befürchtet, dass diese Waffe, die jeder herstellen konnte, in die

Hände der Unterdrückten käme. Denn mit dem Molly in der Hand, kommst du

leicht durch jede Wand. (M 312)

In this seemingly humorous anecdote that does not make much sense unless one has also read

Heißer Sommer , we notice a step change in the attitude of the students. In the same ‘Keller’

where the revolutionaries had planned the Denkmalsturz, students are now willing to take

more drastic measures. Their political analysis is simplistic, and the playful slogan ‘mit dem

Molly in der Hand’ indicates how low the threshold to violence has beco me.

Timm has summed up his own conclusions from his Morenga project in the preface to

Deutsche Kolonien in 1981. He notes that the Africans had tended to live in classless

societies, which had been a constant challenge to their colonial masters who realised that

41[41] Cp. Dirk Göttsche, Der neue historische Afrika-Roman: Kolonialismus aus postkolonialer Sicht, in: German Life and Letters 56:3 July 2003, p.268


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unless there was greater competition for resources amongst the Africans, very little profit

would be made. Timm comments:

Dies […] ist typisch für die Ideologie der Kolonisatoren. Sie entspringt dem

ökonomischen Denken und wird von einem fraglosen Überlegenheitsgefühl

bestimmt, das sich wiederum im technischen Fortschrittsglauben gründet. So

wird für den Kolonisator jede andere Lebensform zum schlechthin Anderen,

Fremden, Primitiven, ohne dass er überhaupt in der Lage wäre, diese andere

Kultur in ihrer Eigenart als reich und kompliziert zu verstehen.42[42]

There is a clear link between the moral outrage of the students against the Wissmann statue

and the outrage Timm feels against the treatment of the colonized as children who need to

learn the German virtues of punctuality, order and diligence. In fact, it was these ’German

virtues’ that the 68er generation rebelled against.

7. New perceptions

By writing about German colonialism in a sustained way, Timm has contributed to the

change in perception that the 68ers had set out to achieve. Today, he is widely acknowledged

for his contribution.43[43] In tune with many other intellectuals, writers, broadcasters,

educators and activists of his generation, he is still involved in the ‘long march’ of his

generation to put their ideas on the political and cultural agenda in modern Germany.44[44]

Indeed, during the era of the Red-Green coalition government from 1998 to 2005, former

42[42] Uwe Timm, Deutsche Kolonien, AutorenEdition (1981), Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln

2001, p.10. The book itself contains mostly images of the colonized, and challenges theviewer to see German occupation through their eyes.

43[43] Cp. Paul Michael Lützeler, ‚Erfahrung und postkolonialer Blick: Zu Romanen vonTimm, Born und Grass’, in: Axel Dunker (Hrsg.), (Post-) Kolonialismus und Deutsche

Literatur. Impulse der angloamerikanischen Literatur- und Kulturtheorie, Aisthesis Verlag,Bielefeld 2005, pp.219-250.

44[44] One such ‘marcher’ is Gerhard Seyfried, the cartoonist of the 68er generation. He hasrecently published two books that deal with Germany’s past. The first was Herero (Eichborn,Frankfurt 2003), the second Der schwarze Stern der Tupamaros (Eichborn, Frankfurt 2004).


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68ers had gained political power and dominated, arguably, the ‘Kulturkampf’ about the

interpretation of Germany’s past.45[45]

Thus, the public apology to Hama and Herero given by the German minister for economic aid

and development in 2004 can be interpreted as a consequence of the student protest of the late

1960s, and a reflection of changed attitudes in Germany.46[46] Heidemarie Wieczoreck-

Zeul, born in 1942, is a 68er herself and was known as ‘die rote Heidi in the 1970s. 47[47]

Not only was she the first German politician who openly acknowledged her country’s guilt

for the ‘Völkermord’, she also talked about the ‘kolonialen Wahn’ which had opened the

door for violence, discrimination, racism and destruction in Germany’s name. Like Foreign

Minister Joschka Fischer (another 68er) two years before, she stopped short of promising

compensation,48[48] but she did announce a significant increase in economic aid.49[49]

A highly visible consequence of the renewed interest in Germany’s colonial past was the

three-part documentary Die Deutschen Kolonien, shown on the Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen

(ZDF), Germany’s second public broadcasting channel.50[50] In this high-profile production,

broadcast at prime time in November 2005,51[51] the focus was firmly on the profits the

45[45] Ingo Cornils, Successful failure? The impact of the German Student Movement on theFederal Republic of Germany, in: Stuart Taberner / Frank Finlay (eds.), Recasting German

Identity. Culture, Politics and Literature in the Berlin Republic, pp. 105-122, Rochester:Camden House 2002

46[46] Deutschland entschuldigt sich für Kolonialverbrechen, Der Spiegel online 15 August2004, http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-313373,00.html

47[47] Wieczoreck-Zeul recently made the headlines with her assessment of Israel’s attack onLebanon as ‘totally unacceptable’. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2106677,00.html

48[48] Bartholomäus Grill, Aufräumen, aufhängen, niederknallen!,

http://www.zeit.de/2004/33/herero-Kurzfassung

49[49] See also an interview with Wieczoreck-Zeul: ‘Ich fand, es war an der Zeit’, in:Weserkurier , 26 Sept 2004,http://www.bmz.de/de/presse/reden/ministerin/rede20040926.html

50[50] See http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/26/0,1872,2372506,00.html

51[51] The book accompanying the series written is Gisela Graichen / Horst Gründer, Deutsche Kolonien. Traum und Trauma, Ullstein, Berlin 2005. An incensed readercommented on amazon.de:

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-313373,00.htmlhttp://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-313373,00.htmlhttp://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-313373,00.htmlhttp://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2106677,00.htmlhttp://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2106677,00.htmlhttp://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2106677,00.htmlhttp://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2106677,00.htmlhttp://www.zeit.de/2004/33/herero-Kurzfassunghttp://www.zeit.de/2004/33/herero-Kurzfassunghttp://www.bmz.de/de/presse/reden/ministerin/rede20040926.htmlhttp://www.bmz.de/de/presse/reden/ministerin/rede20040926.htmlhttp://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/26/0,1872,2372506,00.htmlhttp://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/26/0,1872,2372506,00.htmlhttp://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/26/0,1872,2372506,00.htmlhttp://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/26/0,1872,2372506,00.htmlhttp://www.bmz.de/de/presse/reden/ministerin/rede20040926.htmlhttp://www.zeit.de/2004/33/herero-Kurzfassunghttp://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2106677,00.htmlhttp://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2106677,00.htmlhttp://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,druck-313373,00.html


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German companies were hoping to make, and on the suffering and misery of the colonised:

‘für viele Einheimische beginnt damit ein Alptraum’; ‘deutsche Prügel-Kultur’; ‘Wilhelm II.

vertritt eine neue, säbelrasselnde Politik’; etc.

Gisela Graichen, one of the authors of the series, stresses that it was her intention to narrate

‘typical stories of real people’‚ and to ‘observe closely’. She concludes:

Vielleicht können wir durch die Beschäftigung mit der Kolonialgeschichte

eines erreichen: Dass wir genau hingucken, unter die Oberfläche von

Legenden schauen, aus welcher Ecke auch immer sie kommen mögen, dass

wir verstehen, dass es immer auch um Begegnung und Austausch geht, dass

keine Kultur ‚besser’ ist als die andere, nur anders.52[52]

One could go on: the recent spate of books on Germany’s colonial past,53[53] the continued

interest in postcolonial studies (in spite of occasional criticism that ‘banging the colonial

drum’ prevents us from looking towards the future), the plethora of exhibitions, lectures and

conferences, 54[54] all confirm the impression that the debate about Germany’s colonial past

has entered a new phase. My final example brings us back to the Wissmann Denkmal, and an

unexpected new chapter in its history.

In diesem großzügig gestalteten Buch […] sezieren die Autoren die deutscheKolonialgeschichte, die im Wesentlichen 1884-1918 stattfand. Nun weiß ichnicht, was Sie unter Kolonialgeschichte erwarten, ich dachte neben demMilitärischen an Erforschung, Aufbau einer Infrastruktur, Schulen,Finanzierung, Plantagen, Medizin, einen Albert Schweitzer, das GoetheInstitut, globalen Handel, persönliche Schicksale. Jedoch nicht so dasAutorenteam. Sie berichten auf 500 Seiten vornehmlich über Kriege undLandraub, Kriegsverbrechen, Unterdrückung, Zwangsarbeit, Prügelstrafe undPeitschenexzesse, und natürlich Völkermord und Rassismus. Kein

Negativaspekt wird ausgelassen, während positive Dinge und Erfolge kaum

angesprochen werden. Obwohl die Kolonien in der NS-Zeit nur noch einHirngespinst waren, ist dieser Zeit ein überraschend großer Teil gewidmet.

52[52] Gisela Graichen, Deutsche Kolonien – Traum und Trauma,http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/22/0,1872,2383862,00.html. Graichen back’s up herargument by referring to Uwe Timm’s Deutsche Kolonien, quoting the passage mentioned on

p.18 of this paper

53[53] The catalogue of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists hundreds of titles from 2000

54[54] Cp. Deutschland postcolonial: http://www.deutschland-postkolonial.com/aktionen.html

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/22/0,1872,2383862,00.htmlhttp://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/22/0,1872,2383862,00.htmlhttp://www.deutschland-postkolonial.com/aktionen.htmlhttp://www.deutschland-postkolonial.com/aktionen.htmlhttp://www.deutschland-postkolonial.com/aktionen.htmlhttp://www.deutschland-postkolonial.com/aktionen.htmlhttp://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/22/0,1872,2383862,00.html


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8. The afrika-hamburg project

From October 2004 to November 2005, the citizens of Hamburg had the opportunity to come

face to face with the Wissmann statue once again. As part of a series of events ‘Vom Togokai

zum Tanzaniapark - Hamburg postkolonial’,55[55] the artist Jokinen, after enlisting the

support from the University of Hamburg, the Denkmalschutzamt, the Kulturbehörde and the

Kunstkommission, exhibited the statue on the Überseebrücke in Hamburg. Her aim was to

create a ‘Nachdenkmal-Raum’, to explore the ‘(post-)koloniale Mentalitätsgeschichte’ of this

‚artefact trouvée’, to engage with and break up the ‘persistent myths’ surrounding Wissmann

in particular and the city’s involvement in colonialism in general, and to give the citizens of

Hamburg a forum to debate how they wished to deal with this aspect of their past.

Intended as a participatory event, the ‘künstlerische Dekonstruktion’56[56] of the statue in an

unfamiliar and yet fitting environment right at the harbour that had handled most of

Germany’s colonial trade was just one element of the project. Thus the installation of the

statue in a public space that invited passers-by to stop, to view a selection of photographs of

the statue’s history and perhaps to engage in a debate on public representations of power was

complemented by a large copper plaque on the plinth that referred viewers to the project

website.57[57]

Here, visitors could express their opinions and pick up threads from previous discussions.

About 800 contributions are preserved in the archive, which reflect not only the great interest

generated by the project but a wider controversy that had started in the 1990s with a debate

about the ‘Ehrenmal für die gefallenen Soldaten des 2. hanseatischen Infanterie -Regimentes

76’58[58] and flared up again in 2003 with the reinstallment of a colonial monument from

55[55] www.hamburg-postkolonial.de

56[56] Gernot Knödler, Denkmäler am Pranger, in: die tageszeitung , 21.2.2006, http://www.taz.de/pt/2006/02/21/a0268.1/textdruck

57[57] www.afrika-hamburg.de. For a critical review of the website see Larissa Förster:http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/id=127&type=rezwww

58[58] The monument carries the inscription ‚Deutschland muß leben, und wenn wir sterbenmüssen’. A ‚Gegendenkmal’ designed by Austrian sculptor Alfred Hrdlicka ( of which onlytwo out of four sections have been produced) challenges the viewer to reflect on theconsequences of such a sentiment.

http://www.hamburg-postkolonial.de/http://www.hamburg-postkolonial.de/http://www.hamburg-postkolonial.de/http://www.taz.de/pt/2006/02/21/a0268.1/textdruckhttp://www.taz.de/pt/2006/02/21/a0268.1/textdruckhttp://www.afrika-hamburg.de/http://www.afrika-hamburg.de/http://www.afrika-hamburg.de/http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/id=127&type=rezwwwhttp://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/id=127&type=rezwwwhttp://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/id=127&type=rezwwwhttp://www.afrika-hamburg.de/http://www.taz.de/pt/2006/02/21/a0268.1/textdruckhttp://www.hamburg-postkolonial.de/


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1938 on the grounds of the former Lettow-Vorbeck army barracks on initiative of a ‘Jenfelder

Kulturkreis’.59[59] Provoked by articles that described Wissmann as

‘Kolonialverbrecher’,60[60] numerous messages argue that Wissmann’s actions have to be

seen in the context of his time and that the organizers are part of a left-wing conspiracy bent

on destroying German identity. This group clearly feels provoked by what they see as an

‘Instrumentalisierung der Geschichte’ by the ‘current elites’.61[61]

In a section entitled ‘Abstimmung’, visitors were encouraged to vote on what should happen

to the Wissmann statue in future. More than 5600 votes were cast, with 95% indicating that it

should not be returned to storage but publicly exhibited in some form. Opinions differ though

as to how this vote should be interpreted. Jokinen herself believes that she has the mandate to

continue with her plan to gather all existing colonial statues and create a ‘Park Postkolonial’

in Hamburg Harburg that would allow viewers to remember the past and seek reconciliation

with the descendents of the colonised.62[62] Revisionists on the other hand believe that the

vote indicates that we have reached a ‘state of normality’: „Wißmann gehört dort wieder hin,

wo ihn Linksradikale gestürzt haben: in den Garten der Hamburger Universität.”63[63]

In any case, the time does not seem ripe for either option. The Wissmann statue was returned

to storage in November 2005 and on 23 February 2006, the Hamburg senate decided against

Jokinen’s plan, for the time being.

9. Conclusion

Joachim Zeller believes that the ‚geschichtspolitische Deutungskämpfe’ as described in this

paper may contribute to a permanent shift in perception of our past:

59[59] Vergl. Heiko Möhle, Gedenken um zu Vergessen. Vergangenheitspolitik am Beispieldes "Tansania-Parks", http://www.ewnw.de/debatten/kolonialismus/tansania_park__1. Seealso http://www.afrika-hamburg.de/tanzaniapark.html

60[60] Jonas Berhe, Geschichte dekodieren, in: die tageszeitung , 29. September 2004

61[61] Hans-Joachim von Leesen, Kampf gegen die Vergangenheit, in: Junge Freiheit ,21.Mai 2004

62[62] http://www.afrika-hamburg.de/parkd.k.html

63[63] Jochen Arp, ‚Schmelzt ihn ein’. Linke Gruppen möchten Wissmann-Denkmalentfernen, in: Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung 11. März 2006, http://www.webarchiv-server.de/pin/archiv06/1020060311paz12.htm

http://www.ewnw.de/debatten/kolonialismus/tansania_park__1http://www.ewnw.de/debatten/kolonialismus/tansania_park__1http://www.ewnw.de/debatten/kolonialismus/tansania_park__1http://www.afrika-hamburg.de/tanzaniapark.htmlhttp://www.afrika-hamburg.de/tanzaniapark.htmlhttp://www.afrika-hamburg.de/tanzaniapark.htmlhttp://www.afrika-hamburg.de/parkd.k.htmlhttp://www.afrika-hamburg.de/parkd.k.htmlhttp://www.afrika-hamburg.de/parkd.k.htmlhttp://www.webarchiv-server.de/pin/archiv06/1020060311paz12.htmhttp://www.webarchiv-server.de/pin/archiv06/1020060311paz12.htmhttp://www.webarchiv-server.de/pin/archiv06/1020060311paz12.htmhttp://www.webarchiv-server.de/pin/archiv06/1020060311paz12.htmhttp://www.webarchiv-server.de/pin/archiv06/1020060311paz12.htmhttp://www.webarchiv-server.de/pin/archiv06/1020060311paz12.htmhttp://www.afrika-hamburg.de/parkd.k.htmlhttp://www.afrika-hamburg.de/tanzaniapark.htmlhttp://www.ewnw.de/debatten/kolonialismus/tansania_park__1


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[...] wenn zutrifft, […] dass im Kontext einer globalisierten Weltordnung die

Geschichte des Kolonialismus sich als Meistererzählung durchsetzen und

andere, in Konkurrenz dazu stehende Erzählungen der Moderne - etwa die des

Fortschritts oder die des Holocaust - ablösen könnte, dann erscheinen die

Denkmalinitiativen, und seien es auch nur Einzelaktionen mit lokaler

Wirkung, in einem neuen Licht.64[64]

I am skeptical whether we have reached that stage yet. The current dominant view of

colonialism as ‘a tale of slavery, plunder, war, corruption, land-grabbing, famines,

exploitation, indentured labour, impoverishment, massacres, genocide and forced

resettlement’65[65] is challenged by neoconservative historians who argue that colonialism

wasn’t such a bad thing after all. A much greater challenge to serious engagement with our

colonial past appears to lie in the general apathy surrounding the debate outside academic

circles. 5000 votes over 14 months in a city of 2 million inhabitants do not really indicate a

deep involvement. Perhaps people tire of endlessly looking backward and apologizing for the

crimes of their forefathers,66[66] perhaps Winfried Speitkamp is right when he observes that

the memory of our colonial past, in spite of all the recent activity, is still marginal at

best.67[67] Similarly, Uwe Timm has begun to doubt the effectiveness of literature for social

change, at least in the short term:

Ich überschätze die Möglichkeit der Literatur, Bewußtsein zu verändern, nicht.

Sie ist äußerst begrenzt. Das habe ich nicht immer so gesehen. Früher, also

beim Schreiben von Heißer Sommer und Morenga, war ich überzeugt,

64[64] Joachim Zeller, (Post-)Koloniale Momumente. Denkmalinitiativen erinnern an dieimperiale Übersee-Expansion Deutschlands, http://www.afrika-hamburg.de/denkmal5.html

65[65] Priyamvada Gopal, ‘The story peddled by imperial apologists is a poisonous fairytale’,

in: The Guardian, 28 June 2006, p.30

66[66] Cp. Sidney Tarrow, Banging the Post-Colonial Drum: George Steinmetz’s ImaginedEuropean Studies, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ces/pub/Tarrow_june03.html and, inresponse: George Steinmetz, Drums in the Postcolonial Night,http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ces/pub/Steinmetz_june03.html

67[67] Speitkamp, Deutsche Kolonialgeschichte, p.186. He certainly has a point when heargues that the glaring omission of the colonies in the three volumes of Etienne Francois /Hagen Schulze (Hg.), Deutsche Erinnerungsorte, Munich 2001, indicates that they have no

place in the collective memory of the Federal Republic.

http://www.afrika-hamburg.de/denkmal5.htmlhttp://www.afrika-hamburg.de/denkmal5.htmlhttp://www.afrika-hamburg.de/denkmal5.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/ces/pub/Tarrow_june03.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/ces/pub/Tarrow_june03.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/ces/pub/Tarrow_june03.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/ces/pub/Tarrow_june03.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/ces/pub/Tarrow_june03.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/ces/pub/Tarrow_june03.htmlhttp://www.columbia.edu/cu/ces/pub/Tarrow_june03.htmlhttp://www.afrika-hamburg.de/denkmal5.html


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Literatur habe eine wichtige Bedeutung bei einer Veränderung der

Gesellschaft zu mehr Gerechtigkeit, Gleichheit und Freiheit. Heute denke ich,

dass ein wesentliches Kennzeichen von Literatur darin liegt, überflüssig zu

sein.68[68]

If this is the case, then we will have to wait for Wissmann’s next return. An

alternative is to laugh at his representation as ‘Herrenmensch’, and think of him at a

rave in the Congo, sharing a pipe of cannabis with the natives.69[69]

68[68] Uwe Timm, Erzählen und kein Ende, K&W, Köln 1993, S.106/107

69[69] Hermann vonWissmann, African high life 1888: breit unter deutscher Flagge im Namen des Kaisers Wilhelm durchs Haschischparadies = Bei den bekifften Bena Riamba inLubuku, Pieper und die Grüne Kraft, Löhrbach 2000

German Student Movement & German Colonialism

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