On 9 and 10 February 2026, the conference “Challenges for History Didactics in Addressing German Colonialism: Perspectives and Approaches for Historical Learning” will take place at the Institute of Political Science at RWTH Aachen University.

The event is organized by the Department of Social Sciences Education at RWTH Aachen University in cooperation with the working group “World and Global Historical Perspectives in History Education” of the Conference for History Didactics.

All on-site places have already been filled – we are delighted by the high level of interest! Registrations to participate via Zoom are very welcome at: kolonialgeschichte-nrw@ipw.rwth-aachen.de

Besides the following events, additional tour dates are available upon request.

20 Jan
Curator-led tour of the exhibition. Participation fee: €5, reduced €3. Limited number of participants. Meeting point at 4:00 pm in the museum foyer. Led by Johannes Jansen. More information here.

24 Jan
Public guided tour of the exhibition. Participation fee: €5, reduced €3. Limited number of participants. Meeting point at 4:00 pm in the museum foyer. More information here.

28 Jan
Film screening and discussion led by Cactus Young Theatre in Münster. As part of the special exhibition “Colonialism Focus Exhibition,” a special film screening will take place on Wednesday, 28 January at 6:00 pm at the Münster City Museum. In the museum cinema, all interested visitors are invited to watch a 30-minute documentary about an exciting theatre exchange with Münster’s partner city Tamale in Ghana. More information here.

29 Jan
Reading and discussion with Mirrianne Mahn about her debut novel Issa (2024, Rowohlt Verlag). An event in the accompanying program of the “Colonialism Focus Exhibition,” organized by the City of Münster and the University of Münster at the Münster City Museum. Admission free (starts at 6:00 pm). More information here.

3 Feb
Study Day in the Colonialism Focus Exhibition. Four-hour workshop for school classes (secondary level and above), led by history students from the University of Münster. Registration required. Starts at 10:00 am. More information and registration here.

4 Feb
Study Day in the Colonialism Focus Exhibition. Four-hour workshop for school classes (secondary level and above), led by history students from the University of Münster. Registration required. Starts at 10:00 am. More information and registration here.

5 Feb
Study Day in the Colonialism Focus Exhibition. Four-hour workshop for school classes (secondary level and above), led by history students from the University of Münster. Registration required. Starts at 10:00 am. More information and registration here.

6 Feb
Workshop “History in Four Paintings – Colonialism and Its Legacy.” This interactive workshop offers the opportunity to discuss German colonialism and its lasting consequences through four paintings by artist Naseer Alshabani. Led by Serge Palasie (Eine Welt Netz NRW). Starts at 4:00 pm. Registration required. More information here.

7 Feb
Public guided tour of the exhibition. Participation fee: €5, reduced €3. Limited number of participants. Meeting point at 4:00 pm in the museum foyer. More information here.

How can colonial history be meaningfully addressed in the classroom? What challenges arise in light of today’s political and social climate? What types of sources related to colonialism can be found in municipal archives in North Rhine-Westphalia? 

This workshop explores these and other questions from both a historical and didactic perspective. Focusing on present-day challenges in engaging with Germany’s colonial past, the session highlights the potential of inquiry-based learning in local archives and discusses regional approaches to colonial history. Example materials will be drawn from the Iserlohn City Archive.

Titled “Post-Colonial Legacies – On the Engagement with German Colonialism in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia,” Nicole explored how current debates around Germany’s colonial past in North Rhine-Westphalia relate to similar discourses in other federal states and to national-level discussions. She also contextualized her survey of the current public attention cycle within a post-colonial legacy that spans more than a hundred years of German colonial history.

The subsequent discussion proved particularly enriching, sparking a lively exchange about the similarities and differences between German and Austrian memory cultures.

Curated by Prof. Dr. Sarah Albiez-Wieck (Professor of Non-European History at the University of Münster), Dr. Johannes Jansen (Coordinator of the research network Colonial History, Historical Culture, and Political Education), and Dr. Barbara Romme (Director of the City Museum Münster), the project explores historical and contemporary perspectives on colonialism through various exhibition formats. One part of the exhibition traces how colonialism has been viewed in Münster over time, with object displays developed in collaboration with history students from the University of Münster since 2023. Another section presents findings from a representative population survey on attitudes toward Germany’s colonial past, juxtaposed with voices from the Münster community. A dedicated dialogue space highlights local and regional civil society initiatives addressing colonialism and offers visitors the opportunity to engage with a small library, an art project, and an empowerment section.

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.