Building Up and Tearing Down the Myth of German Colonialism: Colonial Denkmale and Mahnmale after 1945

Abstract

In 1967, and again in 1968,West German students attempted to topple a Hamburg memorial to Hermann von Wissmann, founder of the German colonial armed force, the Schutztruppe. These efforts reflected the students’ views on the continuing legacies of colonialism and imperialism in West Germany and around the world. After the second, successful attempt to tear down Wissmann’s likeness, the memorial went into storage, an apparent victory for the students. Yet, despite the attention that the authorities, the media, and the public gave these events, little seemed to change. Indeed, it was not a new understanding of Wissmann or the colonial past that prevented the memorial’s immediate return, but rather pragmatism and political expediency. And Wissmann remained, remembered in other memorials and by streets bearing his name, including one in Hamburg. Moreover, in 2005 the Wissmann statue returned, dragged out of storage by the Africa-Hamburg Project in order again to address the problem of remembering colonialism. However, while students in 1968 tore down a memorial in order to protest against contemporary Western colonialism and imperialism, the organizers of its return hoped to create a new memory of the German colonial past and to underscore Hamburg’s shameful role in that history.