The myth of a "clean Schutztruppe"

The event will take place at Miriam-Makeba-Hall of the "Berlin Global Village", Am Sudhaus 2 in 12053 Berlin.

German colonial rule was characterized by military violence, coercion, racial hierarchies and economic exploitation. To this day, these experiences continue to shape cultures of remembrance, family histories and public debates in societies formerly subjected to German colonial rule. Among the central actors of this violent regime were the so-called “Schutztruppen”, the German colonial armed forces.

Just as the narrative of the “clean Wehrmacht” long obscured the brutality of the Wehrmacht’s warfare and the involvement of its soldiers and officers in atrocities of the Nazi regime, the myth of a “clean Schutztruppe” continues to persist in Germany today. The event explores how such narratives concealed colonial violence and obstruct processes of remembrance, historical reckoning and political responsibility.

Focusing on Tanzania and Cameroon, the discussion will examine different perspectives on colonial violence, local forms of remembrance and their political interpretations in the present. A central premise of the discussion is that colonial rule cannot be understood as a closed chapter of history, but rather as a history with ongoing social, symbolic and institutional consequences both here and there.

How are military violence and remembrance interconnected? What role do academic research, civil society initiatives and state institutions play? And what forms of historical reckoning, remembrance and political responsibility are possible today - and what do descendants expect from these processes?

With

• Dr. Nancy Rushohora, archaeologist and heritage scholar, Tanzania 
• PhD Bulami Edward Fonyuy, cultural anthropologist, restitution advocate and author, Cameroon 
• Dr. Christian Stachelbeck, Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr
• Dr. Dr. Matthias Häussler, Institute for Diaspora and Genocide Studies, Ruhr University Bochum

Moderator: Prof. Dr. Teresa Koloma Beck, Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg / University of the Bundeswehr Hamburg



The event is organised independently in the context of the research project “German Military in Colonial Operations, 1880–1918: A Continuum of Violence” at the Bundeswehr Centre of Military History and Social Sciences in Potsdam. 
 

contact:
Clara Müller
mueller@boell.de 

professional contact:
Maria Kind 
kind@boell.de