Negotiations between the German and Namibian governments, initiated in 2015, regarding the crimes committed by German Empire troops against (Ova)Herero and Nama in what was then German South-West Africa, culminated in May 2021 with the recognition of the events as genocide and an acknowledgment of historical and moral responsibility by the German federal government.

In the same year, long-simmering cultural-historical controversies surrounding the Humboldt Forum and the handling of ethnological collections reached a peak. These debates are not confined to traditional print media but also unfold in digital spaces, in university seminars, as well as in schools or in family contexts. Civil society initiatives in various locations have begun to independently trace the traces of Germany’s colonial past ‘on-site.’ Engagement with the colonial past often manifests in the redesign of monuments or street names. Against this backdrop, cultural institutions are grappling with their own history and developing formats to make the colonial past visible and debatable.

Led and moderated by Dr. Laura Büttgen, the event examined the effects of German colonial rule and its ongoing impacts on today’s society. Prof. Dr. Henning Melber, renowned political and African studies scholar, opened the event with a lecture on German colonial history and its enduring shadows, inspired by his recently published monograph The Long Shadow of German Colonialism: Amnesia, Denialism and Revisionism .

Melber, who arrived in Namibia as a teenager and joined SWAPO, emphasized the need for a decolonization process that critically engages with this history. In the following roundtable discussion, representatives from academia and postcolonial initiatives, including Kaya de Wolff, Jephta U. Nguherimo, and Serge Palasie, discussed the necessity of and obstacles to comprehensive decolonization. The subsequent lively discussion with the audience highlighted the complexity of the colonial past, its influence on current societal structures, and the ongoing need for education and dialogue about colonial violence history.

Three experts in the field - Prof. Dr. Johannes Meyer-Hamme, Dr. Sahra Rausch, and Dr. Philipp Erdmann - joined the project team to discuss project theory and the exploratory design of various survey lines. The workshop particularly focused on refining item development. Discussions included intersections between social psychology and history didactics, the relationship between historical knowledge and expressed attitudes, and challenges in item construction - not least when capturing historical interpretation patterns and the ongoing impact of colonial structures in the present.

Prof. Stefanie Michels (Düsseldorf), Prof. Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst (Cologne), and Dr. Fabian Fechner (Hagen) presented findings and research desiderata on the colonial pasts of Westphalia and the Rhineland, advocating for the reception of recent works from African and Asian research communities. Prof. Rosemarijn Hoefte's (Leiden) contribution strongly emphasized Oral History as an approach to capture post-colonial memory. Tom Kenis (Hasselt) and Dr. Mathilde Leduc-Grimaldi (Tervuren) provided insights into the museum's engagement with colonial heritage in the Netherlands and Belgium, also addressing current public struggles for interpretation surrounding the colonial past. The final panel discussion with Prof. Benedikt Stuchtey (Marburg), Dr. Kokou Azamede (Lomé), Dr. Caroline Authaler (Bielefeld), and Dr. Sarah Rausch (Jena) dissected the methodological assumption of "multiperspectivity" in colonial historiography and also addressed potential networking opportunities for ongoing colonial legacy projects across various federal states. The lively conversational atmosphere and the exchange that lasted well into the evening demonstrated the ongoing need for research and discussion on the colonial history "on-site."

A detailed report on H-Soz-Kult reflects on the conference.