In the 1950s the German government felt it should pay its Tanzanian soldiers that fought the British in the 1st world war in africa. However they couldn't tell if the people who showed up had actually been their soldiers. So they got a German sergeant to bark drill commands to the men and everyone of them jumped to attention marched in perfect order.
@@olympia5758 the Fed. Rep. Did it till the 90's. Its in the Wiki about the "Askari", maybe you can find some more if you google for " Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck" the famous General of german east-africa.
@@olympia5758 That was the Federal Republic and yes everyone got their money. They handed them broomsticks as a stand in for a rifle to show the German drill and that was proof enough that they have been German soldiers in the past.
@@olympia5758 The communist regime in charge of the portion of Germany occupied by the soviets not only doing that (not even close) but even caring about it? Even bothering to know what that country was and where those people were? Not in a thousand year, of course it was western Germany.
As a Namibian I believe that for bad or worse, history is history. I am also fascinated by the street names, it's basically the same here in Windhoek, we have street names in German, we have so much and despite being part of South Africa far longer, we have inherited a lot more of German culture... I feel like Namibia missed out, instead of using Germans wanting to make right on their past, we asked for money that will do nothing for us instead of asking for knowledge, machinery to help us industrialize. Again, for bad or worse, Namibia is a German creation and I hope for the future for better relations between our two countries...
not really and I'm saying this as a person living in Germany. We did not build Nambia, we stole your natural resources, killed your women and children and basically did what we pleased because Europeans back then were racist pricks. You need to acknowledge that despite us bringing German culture, we weren't at all good for you. Had you asked for industrialisations/machinery, we wouldn't have given it to you. Sorry but European powers were evil and this is the reason why they're as wealthy as they are today. If you ever wonder why the state of Africa as a continent is underdeveloped, it's due to the West and we NEED to DESPERATELY: 1) leave Africa the fuck alone by no longer stealing natural resources like France in Niger and 2) recognising that what we did in all of Africa as disgusting and unnecessary
Interesting to hear. So, what do you think of technological deals like the production of green hydrogen between Germany and Namibia? Greetings from Germany
Besides the South Pacific and Africa, the Germans also had the Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory from 1898 to 1914. They wanted a model colony by copying the UK and acquiring a Chinese harbor to show both the Chinese and the other powers what it means to have effective colonial policy. In 1860, a Prussian expeditionary fleet arrived in Asia and explored the region around Jiaozhou Bay. The following year, the Prussian-Chinese Treaty of Peking was signed. In November 1897, local peasants killed two German priests, and Wilhelm II ordered admiral Otto von Diederichs to respond. Despite occupying all the forts and disabling the telegraph line, Wilhelm II canceled the order and opted for a lease over outright cession. As the territory was not a colony but a lease, and because of its importance to the German navy, it was placed under the supervision of the Imperial Naval Office rather than the colonial office. The impoverished fishing village of Tsingtau was laid out with wide streets, solid housing areas, government buildings, electrification throughout, a sewer system, and a safe drinking water supply, a rarity in large parts of Asia at that time and later. The area had the highest density of schools and highest per capita student enrollment in all of China. During the German period, Tsingtao Brewery was founded in 1903 by an English-German joint stock company, and Tsingtao is still around today, and Qingdao has a thriving beer culture thanks to the Germans.
@@TheKks143 Da ist wohl jemand besonders bereit im Namen des Nationalismus kurz mal die Geschichte des eigenen Landes zu "löschen"... Musst als Kind wohl oft hingefallen sein
Honestly, I don't think so. Yes, it was comparatively short to other topics, but we definitely did talk about that - the interviewed people in the video either forgot about it or didn't pay attention in the first place (I might even suspect, they were deliberately chosen to invoke a certain impression, since they looked also relatively young)
No we had it almost a month, then the maji killing, then very short ww1 and Weimar and then finally every history teachers wet dream: Holocaust and Kommissarbefehl.
Nope. Learned about it...but it was kind of a foodnote between the whole history of Colonisation, which also did what the French and the Brits did. The Dutch kind of slipped through, though....
Yup, the Germans even had colonies in the Pacific! Like German Samoa, which there's actually a love song about a German sailor being rejected by a Samoan girl called "In Honolulu" (the song mentioned both Samoa and Hawaii). German Samoa is the reason why Samoa is separate from American Samoa. Basically, during the second half of the 19th century, German influence in Samoa expanded with large scale plantation operations like coconut and cacao. However, they weren't the only ones interested in the Samoan Islands as the British and the Americans wanted in on the action. Tensions between them led to the First Samoan Civil War, where the Germans and Americans supported rival Samoan factions. After the 1889 Apia cyclone destroyed six of the German and American ships stationed at Samoa, the three countries decided that the counterproductive fighting should cease, and that the original king Laupepa would be restored to the kingship. However, in 1899, there was another civil war. It was then decided under the Tripartite Convention that the archipelago would be divided between the US and the Germans, with the UK withdrawing for concessions in the Solomons. German Samoa remained a thing until 1914 when New Zealanders occupied them with no resistance on behalf of the UK during WWI. NZ would govern them through a League of Nations Class C mandate, and then a UN trust territory until 1962.
Yeah I remember learning that Germany used to hold Samoa as a colony. It was weird to learn as a samoan, because all these other samoans I know who had german last names finally had an explanation lol
@@FlagAnthem yeah that's exactly what happens. I always found it funny that countries like France cried about oppression and occupation by rhe germans during ww2 but immediately went on to oppress their colonies after the end of it (Indochina, Algeria)
@@nickysimi9866 A few years ago (2010s) there was a program on German TV about descendants of Germans of former Deutsch-Neuguinea, who still spoke German as mother tongue! I was really surprised by that. Although the younger people don't do this anymore.
Japan should treat every single one of its victims like Indonesia. They lied about their past, but at least the reparations from investments and cash is useful
Hope Pakistan 🇵🇰 does same to Bangladesh. Although most young Pakistanis are more sympathetic and willing to acknowledge wrongdoing in former East Pakistan
@@itsblitz4437 When Armenian militias were killing Turks and Kurds to create a greater Armenia nobody cared. When Greek army used scorched earth policy in Western Anatolia killing more than a million Turkish civilians for Megali Idea nobody cared. When millions of Muslim minorities got deported from Balkans to Anatolia nobody cared. But when the Muslims (Turks and Kurds) did the same to Christians it became a genocide. When Christians deport Muslims its forced repatriation. When Muslims deport Christians its genocide. I don’t deny any of the horrifying things my countrymen did at the time. But don’t expect us to apologise for revenge. We won’t accept any hypocracy. Also with Kars treaty Turkey promised to defend and rebuild Armenia, but Armenians decided to join Soviets. There are a lot of active Armenian Orthodox Churches in Turkey. But almost no Mosques in Armenia. There are Armenians living in Turkey. No Turks are living in Armenia. Armenians can freely travel and move to Turkey. Turks can’t freely travel and move to Armenia. Turkey started the normalization process with Armenia. Armenian public is still protesting against Pashinyan for normalization with Turkey. To this day Armenia is keeping United Nations recognized of Azerbaijan under invasion. Who is doing more to heal the rift really?
Du bist absolut verblendet und tust mir leid.. Deutsche werden durchgängig manipuliert sich und ihre Geschichte zu hassen. Dabei sollten wir absolut stolz auf unsere Geschichte sein. Wir sind das Land der Dichter und Denker. Ich hab es satt das sich Leute, die nichts tatsächlich von Geschichte wissen, sich anmaßen uns zu erzählen wir sollten alles deutsche verteufeln. Ohne uns würde es die Welt heute nicht geben.. Wir sind heute die Marionetten der Amis und in einer Fake Demokratie. In my opinion, as a historian, nationality and also patriotism is a very important part of our world and of us. I don't think it's a good idea to throw away such a huge and rich identity. Simply because we are not all the same people. I think the basic nationality and country isn't something we made up anymore. There's a reason people were born in certain areas. This unique mentality and the characteristic in the genes are part of us. The behavior as a whole. The fact that you and I are here today is significant that we had a father who had a father and so on.. Until a father definitely stood on the battlefield with armor and probably killed someone too but he was killed too. But before that happened he had a son who had a son before you. That means through all the wars and diseases your bloodline has survived. It's just such a great understanding of the history and culture and tradition that you carry within you from the people who gave everything to keep the blood of their nation and mentality alive that you can't just throw that away. This identity merged with the areas of your country or their countries. I think you can gain strength and understanding from nationality. I'll take myself as an example.. I'm German. I haven't had national thinking for long. But when I developed this patriotic and national thinking, I started to understand my environment better and it helped me. Since the Germans have always had a hard worker mentality and perfectionism in their blood and genes, this motivated me to work just as hard as my ancestors and to achieve something. Because we have so many incredible thinkers and poets, it motivated me to follow in the rich footsteps of my country and history to achieve something just as great. Which may help all societies. I don't think you can just open the borders and let others in. At least those who have completely different backgrounds. I think that patriotism but especially nationalism has a meaning.
@@OscarOSullivan You are completely delusional.. The Germans are consistently manipulated into hating themselves and their history. We don't forget it, it's beaten into us. Also, the German colonies were the best because the Germans actually invested in the colonies... a lot. Build good houses and cities. Now you dare to say that we are not informed enough about our "Bad Bad Devils" German history. To hell with you
@@OscarOSullivanhaha, like we forgot about it. When you go to school and pay at least a little attention in history class, you know this stuff as a german. Also its not like states like namibia wouldnt remind us of it.
One thing that always come to mind for me is what people say about the Holocaust:"Es passierte hier" It happened here. The Holocaust and the Nazis happened here, our Fathers and Grandfathers were involved, people todays germans know. The african Genocide was far away, by an older generation, sometimes even declared as justified. There still is much work to be done and i hope one day know about the crimes in the colonies. Which brings me to another point, Germany was not the only colonial power, thats why other colonial powers had no interest in talking about the Herero, it would suddenly shine a light on their crimes in their colonies...its such a damn hard topic to find a good solution for.
Two very valid points I like to remind people who criticize my ancestors in the UK, about their colonial past is. To begin with we must analyze the levels of injustice committed. While for example the British were not on Humanitarian missions, they did invest in and improve most of the colonies they founded. And I hate to sound insensitive or cavalier about our offences. The fact is, that other powers treated their colonies far worse. Second and much more important, that must always be remembered. The world was a much different place even 100 years ago. We did not hear about Human Rights, until after WWII. Throughout history, rights were a privilege, enjoyed by wealthy and privileged classes. Even White British in the UK were treated terrible through most of history. In North America Blacks in the US were discriminated and enslaved. Mexico and Russia shared a common Surf type system until 1910/1917 respectively, that had the peasants considered property of wealthy estate owners. Contemplate that. Mexicans were enslaved by other Mexicans! While atrocities must be remembered and condemned. The “Guilt” that goes with them, must be tempered, by reality of how the world was even 60 years ago! Every country, society and ethnicity has skeletons in the closet. We must do as the Germans and remember,the past. But let’s all work for a very just, inclusive and prosperous future for all!
@@MichaelReidOttawa "invest in and improve most of the colonies they founded" only so UK can steal more efficiently. The UK gave nothing to its colonies without the guarantee that it would help them steal more from the colonies. Also, while committing genocide on the local population!! Spoken like a true white supremist and genocide denier 🙄😒😒
@@MichaelReidOttawa In particular I guess Singapore & HK have more ambivalent & maybe even more benevolent attitudes towards their former British colonial powers, because they were colonized for their strategic locations for maritime trade rather than for their natural resources, & only the former is non-rivalrous. So the sense of being exploited may have not been as strongly felt in their populations. In particular some people in HK might also think that the alternative to colonialism is rule by mainland China which they may not think is better (though mainland China probably finds it grating that some HK-ers have more benevolant attitudes towards their former colonial power, given how HK was ceded from China to the British via the Opium War). While in Singapore, the gov't probably acknowledges that the city grew significantly faster after being colonised, as the British made it more well-known, attracting immigrants & trade, though it's 2019 commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Sir Stamford Raffles arriving in Singapore was still controversial. After Singapore de-colonized, it also retained the names of places given by the colonial powers e.g. Crawford St, as well as edifices built by it e.g. Sir Stamford Raffles' statue, so as not to appear too nationalistic & scare away foreign investment. In fact the name 'Raffles' may be regarded as a byword for 'excellence' in Singapore, with Raffles Institution (founded by the namesake person) being one of the city's top schools
Another is that you could MEET both violators and violated of the Holocaust in your own lifetime and schools often did invite survivors to give testimony about the atrocities. And also the Colonies did all fall in 1914 and with the disownment it seems like much of the responsibility was also handed on to the new colonial overlords (That did not quite reach the depths of depravity of the Herrero homicide, but did not rule with a soft hand either, massacres galore under british and french rule in many of their posessions)
I actually was taught about German colonialism in secondary school. Pretty sure we watched the exact movie you showed a clip of too. Frankly, I forgot a lot of it, as my history teacher wasn't good at making topics sound as interesting and significant as they are. This video was a nice refresher, and I'm a bit impressed with myself for recognizing some of the events you summarized.
As a German who already knew a lot of our Colonial history, i have to say this is a really good Video. It's absolutely true that the colonial history is overshadowed by Nazi history, just like absolutely all of german history is overshadowed by it. It's like a paradox: dealing so much with Nazi history and being so aware of it makes us unaware of the earlier history. The history of the Kaiserreich seems important ONLY when it's about what happened later, not really what happened during it's time. Most people don't even know how many emperors it had (they think it's 2). And before the Kaisserreich? No German even thinks about this time. There is always so much history to learn, for everyone. You do good and important work with your channel! PS. Yes the change is visible here. More and more people start learning and thinking critical about Germanys colonial time. I think we'll get there 👍
I am not surprised they thought it was two. Practically speaking, there were only two Emperors: the one before 1888 and the one after 1888. Friedrich III was known more for being anybody OTHER than him being Emperor. He has statues everywhere in Germany but all of them commemorate him being a war hero, not as an Emperor...
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 true. And i mean... He didn't really do much as emperor, since he died after 99 days in office and was already unable to speak thanks to his cancer. So it makes sense he is forgotten. Still i think he should be remembered a lot more, since he had enormous potential to actually make a change. His views were pretty libertarian and socialdemocratic. With him the empire might have become more integrated into the International community, because France and Great Britain had sympathies for him and his political views. He wanted to establish a parliament and might have even changed the empire into a parliamentaric monarchy like GB. To think about what could've all be avoided hadn't he became ill... Wilhelm II played a completely different game, and it didn't end well as we know. I think he is a good example of the selective views on history in Germany. In other countries they had many more rulers and remember all of them; in Germany the focus is mostly on the dark parts of history, which is good and understandable, but this way we tend to neglect other parts since they don't seem important in comparison and also because history as a whole has a really negative connotation for the average German. If Friedrich in his short rule had done anything that can be connected to the later rise of national-socialism, I guess everyone in Germany would know who he was.
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 also a funny thing: when i tell people about Friedrich III, they often think i mean the prussian king Friedrich the Great (Friedrich II), because he is the only Friedrich they have heared of😂
Deutsche werden durchgängig manipuliert sich und ihre Geschichte zu hassen. Dabei sollten wir absolut stolz auf unsere Geschichte sein. Wir sind das Land der Dichter und Denker. Ich hab es satt das sich Leute, die nichts tatsächlich von Geschichte wissen, sich anmaßen uns zu erzählen wir sollten alles deutsche verteufeln. Ohne uns würde es die Welt heute nicht geben.. Wir sind heute die Marionetten der Amis und in einer Fake Demokratie. In my opinion, as a historian, nationality and also patriotism is a very important part of our world and of us. I don't think it's a good idea to throw away such a huge and rich identity. Simply because we are not all the same people. I think the basic nationality and country isn't something we made up anymore. There's a reason people were born in certain areas. This unique mentality and the characteristic in the genes are part of us. The behavior as a whole. The fact that you and I are here today is significant that we had a father who had a father and so on.. Until a father definitely stood on the battlefield with armor and probably killed someone too but he was killed too. But before that happened he had a son who had a son before you. That means through all the wars and diseases your bloodline has survived. It's just such a great understanding of the history and culture and tradition that you carry within you from the people who gave everything to keep the blood of their nation and mentality alive that you can't just throw that away. This identity merged with the areas of your country or their countries. I think you can gain strength and understanding from nationality. I'll take myself as an example.. I'm German. I haven't had national thinking for long. But when I developed this patriotic and national thinking, I started to understand my environment better and it helped me. Since the Germans have always had a hard worker mentality and perfectionism in their blood and genes, this motivated me to work just as hard as my ancestors and to achieve something. Because we have so many incredible thinkers and poets, it motivated me to follow in the rich footsteps of my country and history to achieve something just as great. Which may help all societies. I don't think you can just open the borders and let others in. At least those who have completely different backgrounds. I think that patriotism but especially nationalism has a meaning.
Berlin is not the place to remember the colonial past, such a memorial should be in Hamburg. It was mainly merchants from Hamburg that got into the colonial trade and sometimes even individual adventurers started their own colonies, that were later taken over by the state. It is Hamburg were all the ships to Africa and the Pacific departed.
I think whaf also contributes to the holocaust being recognize more is due to the situation after the crime. With the Holocaust, us germans killed our people and neighbours. The Herero and Nama were far away. And the Alliierten (England, france, usa) were doing tribunals not only for important war crimes in Nürnberg, but also for common people in places like Rastatt. We were forced to look at the issue and live with it. With the genocide against Herero and Nama, we just gave the remaining people and land away and nobody cared...
In terms of the Holocaust, its the same within the holocaust. Other groups that were targeted, like gypsies or Homosexuals were completely ignored, the homosexuals at times had to continue their prison sentence for their "crime" even after the end of the holocaust. Its just a sad fact, that neither group, especially sinti and roma don't have a big lobby behind them that actually cares about them or a geopolitical interest to protect them. Its the same with any genocide in the last 150+ years. If you aren't of geopolitical importance or have a lobby, nobody will care. That's why people know about the Jews during WW2, the Armenian Genocide, the Srebrenica and Gaza ethnic cleansings etc. but nobody cares about the Herero and Nama, the darfuri, the yezidi or the east-timor genocide
As a German Namibian, this is a very interesting video. Facing a lot of fallout of what happened here as a younger person, it’s interesting how different things are taught. German history is ever present and continues to play a huge role here. But I find that nobody in Germany really understands why Namibia is so germanized and why certain feelings continue to persist.
You‘re not a „German Namibian“. German Namibians are extinct - which is a good thing. You don‘t want white people influencing the country. Also, there‘s nothing Germanised in Namibia. What you‘re talking about is Dutch. Idk why you don‘t change that stuff.
Maybe we need to have some school exchanges to connect people at a young age and reignite conversation. When I was young, I had zero knowledge about Germany's former colonies and still know precious little about how the colonial past has shaped the modern African nations.
People definitely learn about it is just that they forgot, most germans don´t even know our own history. Unification wars, revolution of 1848, french revolution, prussia, 30 years war, teutonic knights holy roman empire.
I wonder how the genocide was taught there. All Germans were bad and need to feel ashamed, or they make difference between Leutwein(the lenient governor) and Trotha(the genocidal one)? I wrote my thesis about German colonialism at university. So I would say I know quite a lot about the topic, at least the chornology and got a lot of books also which can be primer sources.
Im a german when i was in school 11 years ago we learned a lot about our colonys. Watched documentarys about our race for africa with the brits, the herero wars, the cannibals in papua new guinea and our city in china tsingtao. That stuff always fascinated me.
It is taught in schools but its a relatively short chapter and also taught relatively early, i believe for me it was 7th-8th class? easily forgotten by other parts of history, not even german history but stuff such as the french evolution is taught much more thoroughly. history also isnt a key class and usually has less classes a week than something like mathematics, theres only so much you can squeeze in there during your school time. i know we had colonies but thats about all i know. its not like we hide that part of history, its just other parts of history are more important to teach and require more time. also a small side note: Rammstein has a music video about it called Ausländer where German (and European in General) colonialism is at topic.
@@AbrahamCasillas-t3o wow that's something a colonizer would say. before the British Spain had the biggest colonial empire and committed countless atrocities, there's a reason why the western hemisphere is Spanish speaking and Spanish is the 2nd language with the most native speakers globally. every atrocity Germans committed in the last 150 years, the Spanish have done since they gained power in the 15th centaury
@@magemyst7245 Change of thought, also I am not Spanish! And Spain didn't have colonies, they were called viceroyalties, and the only atrocities the Spanish did were make racial social classes in the viceroyalties, plus nobility, and inquistion! If it weren't for the Spanish there wouldn't have been a Latin America or the Philippines, in fact if it weren't for the Spanish either some other country conquers or colonizes the Americas, either the Indogenous are all almost wiped out or left, or mixed with their conquerors or colonizers! I'm guessing you are from the Philippines huh?
@@magemyst7245 If you really think that the only people who mixed with the Natives of Conquistadores, you are completely wrong, most of them were coming from poor areas of Spain or any other country in the world to seek opportunity, though most of them were Spanish!
The 'rememberance' culture was in good parts forced upon them/us. Also by a vigilant youth, whom had been just sick of their nazi parents - this transformation was fought for, and against all odds. I am really proud of this movement, and reflectively on my parents' generation.
The „rememberance“ culture is used as a dismissive tool against any opposition. It has lost its purpose long time ago. This dismissive tool prevents any real development in Germany.
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was well respected by his African soldiers and he helped and advised the people who would establish the independent nation of Tanzania. He also strongly rejected the Nazi leadership and opposed them using his name for propaganda purposes. He was one of the few people who had great respect for Africans and was in turn well respected by them and who supported their path to independence, it is sad that in modern times his name is being sullied by radical liberals who paint him as an evil colonialist by cherry picking "crimes" he supposedly committed during WW1. WW1 was one of the most brutal wars in History where no side was afraid of committing what we today consider war crimes, it shouldn't be compared to the atrocities the Belgians committed to the native population during Peaceful times.
Years ago, I saw a report on TV about the German past in Togo. The producers managed to find a veteran from the Colonial times. The conversation was full of sporadic German words, mixed into the official language of French. Challenged for some significant memories this chap got up, staggered to an open space and tried to perform a sharp military parade ground march. "Links, links, links - SCHNELLER DU SCHWEINEHUND !" (Left, left, left - faster you bastard !) Smiling, as if he was reciting a praise on his activity. "... great respect for Africans ..."
@@boomerix lol Relativismus.. hahahaha. Die bösen Belgier, ja genau. Damit ist dein schönes Deutschreich natürlich wieder reingewaschen.Alle anderen waren natürlich auch Massenmörder im Krieg und wie dein armer Heinz von und zu Hunzpiek wurden sie ja.alle nur gezwungen. Sagt man das nicht auch über die Wehrmacht? Also die Relativierer, deine braunen Freunde. Lol und drittens der Knaller: wie viel Gutes sie doch für die armen Wilden getan haben. Die waren alle dankbar.
Another excellent presentation. Thank you. Having reviewed the comments thus far, it amazes me how quickly people lose focus of the topic. South west Africa became a South African protectorate under a League of Nations mandate and continued to be a defacto colony of SA until 1990. That entire period could be topical as it is barely mentioned anywhere. The horrors of colonialism, apartheid and of slavery can never be over emphasised. Their pervasive and lasting effects continue through to the present day. These stories need to be highlighted and reparations are only a small part of the process of allowing the descendants to heal and recover.
Great Video, but I think it's also important to mention why the Herero Genocide was/is so downplayed in Germany. In the 50s and 60s there was a push by the Americans and the conservative German government to rearm West Germany due to the cold war. That meant any continuity between imperial Germany and Nazi Germany had to be downplayed, and the Crimes of the Nazis were treated as an aberration instigated only by Hitler and the top Nazi leadership. For example the movie 'Der Untertan' from 1951 was banned for portraying a continuity between Imperial and Nazi Germany and the first and second world war. For that reason a Genocide that in many ways prefigures the Holocaust had to be downplayed. (This is also the reason for the clean Wehrmacht myth.)
That's what I was going to comment in here too. Frankly I was somewhat surprised that the video didn't mention it. However there is one other factor that closely ties with your comment. After WWII, the US and allies had to "rehabilitate" the German image after both the holocaust and the various atrocities they committed in the regions that they occupied. So the way that they "went around" the issue was to show Germany as a civilized nation that went down a dark path. The holocaust and all the all the atrocities performed in occupied Europe (mainly Poland, USSR and the Balkans) were just a unfortunate historical deviation, caused by a cadre of evildoers to took a great nation down the war path. And as you noted they leaned on the pre - WWII history which inevitably contributed to the "clean Wehracht" myth. However close examination of the Imperial history definitely shows the seeds of the National Socialist school of thought including the Herero Wars, the setting up of the Tutsi-Hutu classification in German East Africa and the training of the Ottoman officer class that was involved with Armenia in 1915. Dive too deep into this factor and some really uncomfortable questions start to emerge.
Incredibly good comments here. I knew how a lot in history is interconnected, but I didn't know how far it went in this case. Definitely going to read up on that👌
10:00 what also leaves a very strong impression on the Mahnmal when you think about it are the interactions with other people in it. It's designed in such a way, that it isolates you from others, while at the same time make people appear and disappear quite suddenly. While you're going into it, your isolation grows, while you're sinking deeper and deeper into those giant unpersonal blocks. At first it's a bit like a game. You see people jumping from block to block, there is still live around you. And it's not only totally okay, that those people jump from block to block, it also works so well in reminding you that in the beginning of the political process people took the first steps not that serious. The distances between the blocks grow a bit farther inwards and so nobody really jumps anymore happily from block to block deeper into the Mahnmal happy times vanish more and more... and deeper it goes indeed. The whole Mahnmal is built into a pit and so while you're walking further on you decend more and more into that pit and your horizon raises as are the blocks are also become bigger around you. They're taking away not only your "freedom of view" but also the sounds and almost all signs of live around you. They isolate you, the walkable floor is built from strict hard stones as are the blocks around you. You're only able to walk in straight lines, you can also see in straight lines. Freedom, live, other people... they are mostly gone. And what is left can easily vanish by moving just a few steps to the side, into another way through those blocks. You become so isolated that seeing other people in it feels different. Most are just visible for a short moment, while they move parallel to you somewhere else in the Mahnmal, they appear behind a block and are gone just one or two breaths later. Others are coming your way or are behind you, but usually it's just very few of them. Most people are even drawn to search for more isolation within the Mahnmal than the other way around, so people become relatively scarce. And then, suddenly, someone may just suddenly appear right before you behind a block, often people look a bit surprised for a short moment when that happens, you get used to it, but still it feels different than outside the Mahnmal. People tend to be quieter in there... or it's the stones who swallow up most of the sounds around you. Who knows. When you're living in an oppressive regime I presume that's quite likely how it feels. You're not alone but isolated, everything you do or say might be suddenly and surprisingly seen by someone you didn't know was nearby. And everyone you know or see might vanish just a few steps later. You might or might not see them again, while you're in there... It's such a simple designed place but when you're aware what it is about and think a bit about it while you're there, it actually can give you quite an experience.
You are completely delusional.. The Germans are consistently manipulated into hating themselves and their history. We don't forget it, it's beaten into us. Also, the German colonies were the best because the Germans actually invested in the colonies... a lot. Build good houses and cities. Now you dare to say that we are not informed enough about our "Bad Bad Devils" German history. To hell with you. German Empire was absolutely great.
Well, i can not speak for students of today, but when i was in 10th grade the colonial holdings of the German Empire were a subject. Since it among other things contained the infamous gunboat policy and subsequently adding to the growing conflict between the Colonial Powers. It also included the genocide of the Herero and Nama Peoples during the conflicts between 1904 to 1908. Mind you i attended 10th grade in 2006. Maybe things changed, or my history teacher at the time was more invested into the subject overall.
I really love that this video exists, for it's such an important topic to talk about. I myself didn't know a lot about German colonialism until the first half of this very year, when I learned about it in school. But, and that is the important part, I wouldn't have, if I hadn't chosen to take history class for the last two years of my school life, which many others didn't, wherefore it is great that there are people who convey these messages through easily accessible Internet videos. Although your video makes an important point and is very well made, I'd like to note that there are some things that bugged me concerning the accuracy of your narrative, the biggest, most important and only of them I am going to mention being the black and white/all or nothing thinking, when you say, that, for example, all of Germany really wanted colonies which is just not true in the absolute slightest. Not only were there a lot of politicians, especially from the SAP/SPD, like August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht, who prominently and radically opposed the acquisition of colonies. Colonies were, from the beginning on, always more of a thing of the bourgeoisie and overly proud conservative nationalists. That's not denying the importance of education or the cruelty of the genocide in what we know today as Namibia, the exploitation of locals all over the world or the ignominies of organisations such as the "Wissmann Truppe", but highlighting the importance of differentiating and not trivialising things such as stance, in order to paint a more accurate picture and not give the impression of universality. At the end I'd also like to add that some of the names of these people are absolutely hilarious. I mean, Lothar von Trotha? You can't make that up. A terrible man with a ridiculous name.
Fun fact: the fact that Germany overlooks to be aware of Namibia in colonialism Is the reason why we literally have adolf hitler as politician in Namibia.
8th of May 1918, The Germans attacked the Basters on Sam Khubis near Rehoboth, Namibia. Great video, I learned a lot more than I knew. But it is still sad to see my people aren't discussed in these kinds of videos and essays.
I know Poland has colonized West Ukraine since 1362 and colonized Ukraine and Belarus again in 1920. During ww1 they joined Germany to enter the Carpat mountains and commit genocide against the Orthodox Carpath Rusyens. Then they joined Germany again and colonized Chekoslavakia in 1938. And despite all this, the Soviets gave them parts of Germany in exchange for taking back lands they stole and persecuted.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I'm north african and Africa is a word in our language (Ifri meaning cave) the thing is the first German genoc*de was in Africa but in my country they thaught us that they only copied "assemblement camps" (camp de rassemblement) from the French in North African Algeria. Unlike our jewish cousins we have a darker skin so we don't as much empathy and first and foremost it didn't happen in front of western white european eyes. So nobody gave a damn, and I ain't gonna critcize the West, cuz "thanks to that" our countries banned slavery which was very legal in Arab colonial rule. Both my grannies were slaves but now they be free, of course the West was/is horrible but at least it can recognize its wrong doings unlike them Arab countries... and keep in mind if you're Arab in some north african countries like Mauritania and Morocco you get extra citizen privilege and its marked on your ID so the police gives you extra respect which clearly discrimination Sorry for the long text, I thought it would give some fans of yours some topics to look into, but from my heart I thank you and I hope some Arab content creators can share more thanks to your inspiration, we got just 2 for now Kosay Betar and Nostik but I hope your videos can inspire future ones to come! (ofc i can't cuz im too afraid for my consequences and im not arab just a queer north african)
I hear your sorrow and your ancestor's pain. Morocco was relatively liberal towards some minorities, when I used to work there, back in the late 1980ies and early 1990ies. But others, including Gnaoui and Rifi, had to live on the fringes of society and/or national economy. Even Moroccans considered them as outcasts in their own country. Most imperial powers (and some others) had some form of 'concentration camp', 'camp de regroupement', or 'Konzentrationslager', before and after the German Nazi regime. As cruel and terrifying as these were, they fundamentally differ from the Nazi's abuse of that term to cover up for their ideologically driven, meticulously planned and systematic murder of entire groups of our fellow humans, mostly European Jews. It is a tragic singularity in history that has few, if any, similarities (Stalin and Pol Pot come to mind, but these are other topics). In Namibia, this part of history is still being lively debated, commemorated and lamented. I feel grateful that my Herero and Nama friends do accept me (being German) among us. Namibia is a great place to be!
I feel like a lot of the same things can be said for Japan. People focus a lot on war crimes during WW2, but in reality many of the problems are colonial problems, especially for Korea which was officially annexed to Japan in as early as 1910. WW2 for Japan was a continuous colonial/war effort from Mukden Incident in 1931 all the way to 1945, and even the Mukden Incident can be thought as an extension of prior colonial effort since Japan actually acquired Manchurian railway all the way back in 1905. Talking only about the 2nd Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War misses a lot of context and doesn't really address the real problem that's behind the historic tension between Japan and its neighbors, which is a lot more like a colonial relation.
True, Germany and to a lesser extent Japan had to confront their crimes during the war because that's when they were defeated, but they were not really forced to confront their former colonial history in the same way, especially because they were not defeated by their former colonial subjects but by other colonial powers. Unfortunately, it's hard to think of any colonial power that has really confronted its colonial history. It's common to see people that have a positive view of their imperial past or just not being aware of it.
@@ImperialSublimeEmpire lol name checks out. Both European and non-European colonial powers must face their colonial past. Europe however has the additional baggage of always being arrogant and believing that they somehow have a monopoly on morality. They clearly don't and have no right to be lecturing other nations.
I like this video. But it’s very one sided and not well researched. Germany didn’t forgot its colonial past. Actually it is taught in school , since it is part of the „Lehrplan“ of most states in Germany. I had it in school. You show the holocaust memorial when you should have shown the „ Antikolonialdenkmal“ located in Bremen but also other cities. It’s been there for decades. Of course if you ask a German what they get taught in school they will tell you about the holocaust because they know if a random person with a microphone and the camera comes up, surely they wanna make sure that you don’t think of them as a nazi. And it’s the topic everybody thinks about first. Which doesn’t mean that the colonial past is not taught in school. Also you should have mentioned that Germany is the biggest payer of „Entwicklungshilfen“ to Africa, estimated to have paid around €80 billion in the last 20 years, €4 billion alone in 2020. That’s a lot of money..
True. I learned about german colonial history in a critical way in school in the late 90's. While I was and still am quite a history-nerd, very few of my classmates were interested in it, maybe 3-5 out of 27. Everyone knows about the Holocaust because of its weight. I bet if you'd ask all of my former classmates today, a maximum of 5 would even remember, although they were taught about it.
@@larsengstfeld6744 that’s interesting. I went to school in the late 2000s and it was also taught. I remember we had a task where we had try to use a German perspective on it and what could have been on there mind backthen but it was hard to argument for it because it was just crazy to think about it when your are that young. Another task was where we had to write a poem in the perspective of the people of Namibia. And in that context we talked about the „Völkermord“ / Genocide I still have it on my usb stick lol
@@Halliwell29 I was quite lucky to have had one history teacher from 7th to 9th grade, who started with ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek history and thought continuously and chronologically for three years up until the end of WW2 into the "Nachkriegszeit". I remember him being quite fond of Bismarck and trying to paint the picture that it was the Kaiser who wanted colonies primarily for prestige reasons, and kinda forced Bismarck to conduct those endeavors against his will. Not sure how true that is since I don't care too much about either of them 🙂
Absolutely fantastic work. You really did hit the nail on the head when you said that if any nation is good at coming to terms with the past, it is Germany.
I see a lot of references to the Baltic genocides in the comments, but I can accept that this video is meant to talk about the first genocide commited by the modern state of Germany after unification
Why is it always the Dutch making these Germany-related educational videos? There's a channel exclusively dedicated to discussing the GDR run by a Dutch guy. I know that, per capita, more Dutch people speak English than Germans, but surely its not just a language issue considering Germany's much larger population.
Because people from English speaking countries are very "America-centralized“ like Johnny Harris for example. Most of their videos are about the USA and they don’t really care for the history of other countries.
The only thing i learnt in school about German Colonialism can be summed up as "Yes, Germany also had Colonies" not more. And maybe the meaning behind the Retailer name "Edeka".
Summed up, WW1&WW2 were from a German perspective mainly a European affair and also GIGANTIC in their scale, the death toll is comparatively tiny, the colonies were themselves very small with few German people living there, everything happened an entire continent away and on top of that, the colonies themselves were lost a century ago. Simply put: this issue was & kind of is too small to really gain any traction. Like the video said; the world wars and especially world war 2 essentially cut Germany into a before and and after and the after has so little connection to the before that it might as well have happened on a different planet entirely in the collective awareness of the general public.
Well, also in WWII, Germans were the main killers by far. But in Africa, the French and the Brits compete for that spot. That's the history which is taught in school, and it is largely correct, but has the effect that the history of the Heroros kind of get lost between all the killing everyone else did.
The colonial history has been rather well covered in Germany with lots of info reg the respective atrocities in Namibia, China etc. really not much of a secret
It depends on which state you are from and which school you attended. I have been in real-school in Baden-Württemberg and we glossed over it. We didn't even talk about where these colonies were or why and when they were established or what happened in these colonies. But at least we had 2 years about ancient Greece and Egypt alone!!!
Went to school in NRW and finished school with a focus on history (Abitur Geschichts LK). Finished school about 17 years ago. Never learned anything about german even having colonies until long after i finished school. And the interviews in the video suggest that it is the similiar for a lot of other germans young germans. So maybe people who made different experiences are not representative for many germans.
@marcelroy6034 They already talk extensively about WWII in German schools. What are you on about? Are you saying they should replace the entire history curriculum with JUST that?
9:18 that's not entirely true. I am German and I went to school in Germany in the early 2000s. We DID actually talk about the shameful history of German colonies especially about the genocide of the Hereros. I remember this clearly, because we made posters and presented them in history class. The problem is not that nobody talks about this problem, the problem is that there is NOT ENOUGH talk about this (the curriculum for the subject history only allocates 45 minutes to the genocide, which is too little). Another thing are those street interviews. I can also go to Amsterdam, ask if the Dutch did ever anything wrong, edit the video and voila you have a video that only shows ignorant people.
I was not taught about this in German History class but I held my Abitur (final High school) presentation about something English colonialism related. Then the teacher asked me about German Colonialism in Namibia and I had vaguely heard on TH-cam that there were killing so I gave a response in that vain. When I googled this after the presentation I was shocked to find out that we didn't even cover this horrible truth in the lesson because the Curriculum is so focused on demestic matters
"Germany" did NOT forget its colonial past ! It is even taught in German schools and German universities and remembered in academic discussions in Germany and reasearch papers. I wonder where you get this wrong impression from.....beside that: Germany's colonial history was only 34 years compared to over 300 years of Britains colonial past.....!
we didnt forget it but we arent working it though well, its not mentioned well in school if at all. as the video says its mostly because the classes focus massively on the nazi times
@@ztheo2280 whether"we aren't working it through well" is a matter of opinion. Some people say yes, others say no. I could imagine that the problem is that some schools are short pf teachers and hence fall short of lessons (including history). That is why many schools teach it and some do not (but that is also the case of other subjects). However, the question - or rather statement - was anyway "Why Germany forgot its colonial past". And as you rightly pointed out at the very beginning of your statement "we didnt forget it". And hence, the question / statement of the person who made this bideo and this claim, is wrong.
@@SorrowAvenue Sorry, I should have been clearer: the map of the German Empire used in this video does not include Alsace-Lorraine, nor is the border with Denmark accurate, because it does not include the entirety of the historical province of Schleswig-Holstein (which was larger than the current state of Schleswig-Holstein, incorporating the territory of modern Denmark as far north as Skodborg). I've just noticed that the Danish border on this map isn't the modern border of Germany either, since the entirety of Schleswig is excluded. Here only Holstein is included as part of Germany, so it's an even stranger error than I first thought.
Thank so much for covering this subject. My 4x great grandfather Frederick Thomas Green helped the Herero fight against the Germans. He was given a Herero wife, Ada Maria Green. His Great grandson from that marriage Mburumba Kerina (born Eric Getzen. Kerina is the Herero pronunciation of green) had petitioned the UN for Namibian independence since the 1950s and is the man who gave the Country Namibia it's name.
The capacity of human beings to bring forth such pain and suffering upon their fellow creatures never ceases to amaze and terrify me. I had no idea and the countless examples from recent history make you wonder how much of our collective past was filled with such actions. "Wipe them all out." The only antidote is to teach the value that all human life is deserving of respect, right? Is there some other solution? I don't know but I worry for our future as people who don't seem to know the lessons seek and hold power.
What terrifies me, is the extreme ignorance in the world these days. People listening to extremists like Trump and Balsanaro (Brazil). It seems we are condemned to repeat the past errors! The world is a very ignorant place.
@@MichaelReidOttawa Sadly, I agree. Education, education, education... Ignorance is a natural state, without good education, good teachers, we are dooming our posterity to the poverty of thought and knowledge. Dooming them to the mistakes of our past. It takes a concerted effort to break the cult of ignorance through education and sadly, it does not seem to be a focus of many.
@@MichaelReidOttawa IKR. It seems like the instinct these days, in the US, is to use the education system for indoctrination and less about history, literature, math, and science. Hopefully that's just the media-bubble and not reality, though.
If you take the San tribe as an example and their archaic, vastly different way of life, it's kind of understandable why Germans didn't really see them as the same kind of humans that other Germans or Europeans were to them. They looked completely different and lived in an entirely different environment for a really long time, so naturally they didn't see them as humans the same way wolves don't see coyotes as their own people. The genetic differentiation between subsaharan-Africans and white Europeans is even bigger than the one between wolves and coyotes. So I kind of see it as natural and normal that we have difficulties regarding people different to us as our own people
The arrogance of English speaking countries amaze me. They proclaim German as Nazis by forgetting their own colonial past! Britain did the same thing to its colonies like famine in India and opium war in China et. By the way this video is brilliant no arguments. But what I meant to say is “Before insulting every German think about your ancestors crime”. It relates to all countries which had colonies in past 🇬🇧 🇫🇷 🇧🇪 🇷🇺
English speaking countries? So someone speaking a specific language makes them arrogant and colonizers? I’m just not even going to expand on how ridiculous that is, especially when you are using English. Wait till the English speaking Native Americans (the vast majority of them) hear this… There’s is surely a point to be made about English colonialism, as there is with any other colonial empire past or present. That isn’t a crutch to be used to defend your country’s colonial past. It’s a mark of shame and destruction.
2:48 I noticed a discrepancy in your video. Here you imply Chancellor Bismark sends the lyrics of 'Never Gonna Give You Up' by Rick Astley to Lisbon. However, upon further research into the area, I have found that the song in question dates to 1987, significantly after the fall of the second Reich. This would make the odds of Bismark actually sending such a letter to Lisbon very unlikely. I hope you will rectify the video and update the public about the mishandling of these facts.
another unfortunate event regarding german colonialism is Paul von Lettow vorbecks guerrilla campaign in Tanzania. On the whole an interesting slightly bizarre story, vorbeck and his troops unfortunately robbed civilians for supplies. this, combined with bad harvests and other factors, resulted in Mass famine in the colony
Very nice informative video. Thank you for you work to put this together. I have one critical comment: when you said the cabinet officials were horrified to hear about the extermination, you scoff at them and say "not so much about the locals" and then insinuate they care primarily about a PR disaster and a failed economy, and then bring up your source. BUT those those are only the last 2 points of the colonial department's telegram to the Kaiser, and the first and foremost point states "First it would be a crime against humanity", to which the Kaiser eventually responded to show mercy to the Herero. I believe you should have mentioned these points for the sake of a fair, unbiased, and true history. Otherwise you appear to perpetuate the myth that all leaders in this past and all colonial efforts were fully evil, and lacked any love compared to us today. But knowing the history is not so black and white it would greatly serve humanity to shed light on the gray matters.
Changing names of streets won't do history awareness any good. I would much rather see some context below a street name that will actually tempt me do some research about a person or a place. The way the German government is acknowledging its wrongdoings and reaching out to Namibia for example is something other former colonizers still fail to do.
As an Austrian, I feel the necessity to tell you guys that Austrian culture of remembrance regarding National Socialism is just as strong as Germany's.
I knew a small amount about German colonial history (mostly due to growing up watching "The African Queen" lol) but this really expanded my knowledge. Danke.
As a Namibian it was not the San but the nama people, they share some similarities and are often put in the same language family but they are diffrent. The cause of the herero uprising was that traders gave the hereros loans that they couldnt pay back because of their cattle were dead and the traders ignored the terms of the contracts and demanded more, germany also built a railway through their land claiming land on both sides of the railway that was considered good grazing land.
I minored in German at University and I'm pleased to announce we covered Germany's colonial past extensively! We covered much of what you talked about. I was amazed to learn Audrey Lorde had such an impact on Afro-German civil rights activism. The same time Afro-Germans and Black Americans were making civil rights strides during the same time! Great video
As a German who likes to study history as a hobby, I always find it sad how little we look at history WW2 aside. If I remember correctly in my school time we spend maybe 2 lessons on post unification, pre ww1 Germany. Which is honestly sad. We have so much to learn, both as signs of cautions but also some more posetive aspects
@Nakla Not really?? We basically learned about medieval life in general, the investiture dispute, the reformation, and then went on to the French Revolution and the end of the Empire. Overall I'd say it was a somewhat chronologically "balanced" focus albeit necessarily oversimplified.
@@MyILoveMinecraft Important question: what school / focus and which federal state ( Bundesland )? There can be a lot of differences even in the same school after all.
Humans have been attempting genecide throughout history. The colonial era is when it slowly fell from fasion I think those photos have a lot to do with it. I think young guys are prone to go with their peers to do whatever, but if news gets home they are more likely to feel the shame from their community back there. War stopped being a, what happens on campaign stays among you brothers at arms, type of thing.
The interesting thing about Germany is that forced "We were the bad people and we acknowledge that“ mentality. I don’t want to say that it’s something bad that Germany openly calls it a "genocide“ but to put it into perspective, just a short time after that, there was the so called "Maji-Maji genocide“ in German East Africa. The culprit there wasn’t Lotha von Trotha but Carl Peters and the German colonial authorities killed in that genocide up to 300.000 to 400.000 people which is far more than in the Herero and Namaqua genocide. But nobody talks about that, just because the governments of Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda (the countries which nowadays make up the territory of the former colony of German East Africa) are silent about it.
The highest mountain in Oceania is Mt Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea (PNG), named after the youngest child and second son of Chancellor Bismark. It would seem an odd choice to name the highest peak after the third child, but errors in surveying were made which made the explorers think that it was the fourth highest peak in the Bismarck Range and not the highest. The Bismarck Sea and Bismarck Archipelago (which includes The Solomon Islands as well as PNG) are also named after Chancellor Bismarck. Although in 1914 Australia occupied the German Pacific territories south of the Equator, it retained the use of German currency alongside Australian and U.K. pounds, as everybody on September 1914 thought "it will be all over by Christmas" and the colonies would be returned to Germany at the end of the War. Of course it continued for another 4 years.
People are so weird about Europe's past. I remember seeing a poll that showed that like a good percentage of Dutch people had a positive view on the country's past. And I commented, "It's weird that they will have a positive look on colonialism." And someone replied, "Of course, you would think that, you're black." As if you have to be black to think colonialism is bad. Interactions like that really show me that we need content like this. The amount of ignorance and lack of empathy surrounding the impact of colonialism in Africa is astounding.
The Belgian empire is generally thought about as more of a trading empire than a territorial one. They didn't commit atrocities like the Belgians did, I don't think, nor like those of the British, Germans, and French.
as a german i have to say the school system varies and in bavaria and badem württemberg its the hardest i live in bavaria and we learn everything about german history very thoroughly and we go year by year and the german youth nowadays just doesnt care in the nothern states so thats often forgotten
Yes, in history class just four pages where dedicated to the genocide of the Herero and Nama people. The overwhelming opinion I get in response of this dark past is „we just had colonies for a very short time and there are more important issues“. I hope history class will change and that this genocide won’t be a sidenote anymore
Thanks for the great video! I just want to put one thing right: While most students feel like history is "mostly" about nazism, this is not true at all. It is - of course - a big topic but it probably is mostly the most memorable. History in school also deals with the (very convoluted and probably less catchy) history before and after nazis. The Weimar Republik and the Kaiserreich, the long period without a german nation state etc. I'm not sure if people misremember this but I feel like most germans overemphasize the time spent on the subject.
Yeah it's my biggest gripe with history class in school cause WW2 while very important to learn about takes up too much time in my school it was an entire year just WW2 we where lucky to even remotely having learned a tiny bit about the scramble for Africa and the GDR wich is a real shame (especially for me as an east German) we didn't even had enough time for getting too the Mauerfall
Why are you lying that much ? Its actually a school topic covering AT LEAST half a year history class in 7 th or 8 th grade. I dont know a single person that isnt aware of that.
love ur content brother. I would love it if you made a video on russian colonialism done to eastern europe, central Asia, caucas region and the far east
0:04 street names 0:14 Genocide 0:22 Work hard to keep holocaust memory alive but not colonial 0:44 Germans don't know 1:04 poll data 1:18 changing street names 1:35 overshadowed colonial genocide 1:41 1st genocide 2:40 Bismark 3:40 navy and colonial fever 4:30 carving up Africa 4:50 German colonial territories 5:33 killing locals 5:45 China 6:17 r*pe and kill*ng 6:35 Leave women and children alive 7:15 Extermination order 8:05 concentration camps and dismembering bodies 8:208:25 racial science 8:23 Hindoo 8:44 Crime against humanity - Parliament 9:00 80% die - 1st genocide of 20th century 9:10 not remembered in Germany 9:30 remembering the past - word 10:55 2015 Auschwitz 11:10 82billion in reparations till 2022 11:20 short colonial period 11:50 national socialism 12:15 protest from outside needed 12:30 solution 13:20 decolonize the city 14:30 reparations 15:00 street name 15:20 Berlin can 15:40 Berlin wall east vs west 16:40 jeans
I want to give my own opinion and experience with the subject as a German: The title is partially right, i am German and i have attended two different schools. And the school with the lower teaching level did not teach anything about Germany's colonial past, we did however talk about n*zi Germany in great detail (which is obviously very important), but we were never taught about events like the herero genocide in South-West Africa. However the other school which i attended did cover it with great detail, but the sad part is that this part of our history class was optional to choose because you could choose to not continue the subject or leave the school completly. I think it's good that this part is taught in school, but regardless i think that this should be part of the basic teaching programm for history class.
Why am I only today learning of the terms Sinti and Roma? I suppose it is because I am American. Thanks for sharing. This was astoundingly informative.
When I was in 8th grade I had the luck to meet a survivor. The woman was a Sinti herself and we could ask her questions on her experience in a camp. It was very impactful and it's cruel to me that so many peoples suffering is seemingly forgotten.
As a German, but also generally this video is incredibly well made and valuable, thank you for making it! Apparently my history class was more an exception rather than the norm for German school children/teenagers (I graduated about 10 years ago, for context). I remember learning about colonialism in 9th grade, about the fact that the racial ideology later employed by the Nazis already existed back then.
Big problem with reparation here is that it the victim an crimal roles are tainted. Decendants asking money as compensation for people they never knew from people who never knew the criminals committing the crime is very complex. In WOII criminals and victims were alive and so it was very pure.
No. It isn't tainted at all. At least not by the (and let's get the terms correct) VICTIMS of such atrocities. The money is not being asked for to give to specific individuals but to entire communities. Those communities of Herero and San peoples are FOREVER injured by the genocide committed against them. There is no turning the clock 'off' just because it was 'a long time ago'. Reparations to the Herero and San communities will directly benefit them. If given to the Namibian government, it would be squandered across all of Namibia, thereby watering down the actual effect for those specific communities.
@@ailo4x4Ladies and gentleman. This man right here just single handedly proposed to bankrupt states like Mongolia & Italy, and also Marocco, Turkey and many others. Mate, once the people who are directly involved are all dead, it’s over. Because if we do what you propose, what we end up with is a never ending conflict of „who did it“ based on issues which are quite literally buried in the soil beneath our feet. We all sleep on blood soaked earth. I would recommend you start to figure out a way to live with it unless you wish balance out the wrongs of campaigns by the likes of Ceasar in ancient history. Don’t be so naive.
This is not really forgotten. There is tons of talk about it. The colonial conflict in todays Tanzania was way deadlier btw and yet in the bigger context the german colonial violence was well embedded into a world were everybody and his mother commited similiar or worse crimes. Just think about 1 off the groups effected by the genocide in namibia, the nama. They were eradicated from south africa. Even in Europe ethnic groups were removed in one way or the other, like the circassians in the russian empire. It is seems really weird to me how this is such a popular topic while i never hear about french colonial rule which was the most brutal one at the time. Anyway, i think it is a namibian-german issue and outside nations bringing it up do it for their own reasons like to distract from their crimes.
Meanwhile, German East Africa's education was far superior to that of any other African colony, which was stated by members of the Phelps-Stokes Comission in 1924, 10 years after it became the Tanganyika Territory under British rule.
Indeed, but it took the German Empire quite a while to realise that it better invests sustainably into their colonies. That only really picked up around 1910, and abruptly ended with the beginning of WW I, unfortunately.
Correct. GEA outcompeted GSWA almost throughout, both in terms of contributions to national economy, its overall infrastructure and its numerical "absorption" of settlers. The latter is often overlooked, but colonies offered a kind of societal "security valve" for disenfranchised people.
I think one aspect is that the Colonial time was pretty short. we are talking about 30 years or so, since Germany came late (due to Bismarck being very much against Colonies, smart man he was - the only reason he grabbed some after all was political pressure), and lost its colonies after WWI. So yeah, I remember learning about Colonisation in Africa, but since it was about the whole history of Colonisation, including what the French did, what the Brits did, how they competed with each other, that even what the Dutch, Spanish aso did was kind of an after-thought, never mind what Germany did. It just seems to be a small thing in the bigger picture - though naturally it is not a small thing for the Hereros at all.
German historian/ex-history teacher here. THANK YOU for making this video! In school, we have little time to cover this topic and because there is always not enough time, this topic often gets skipped. The third reich and holocaust however get a lot of time in the lesson plans. This is important, too. But the neglect of the genocide in Africa is a disaster. Renaming the streets is very important and needs to happen in the whole country a lot more. I have visited museums who gave back skulls and bones with a lot of respect and teach visitors about it. Very important I hope more action will follow.
Speaking of crimes from the past, when will Deutschland will be returned their territory from 1914? Soviet crimes live to this day, and…nobody has a problem with it. This guilt doesn't seem to exist in France, for example, which still has some parts of it's colonial empire. SOmehow, that's fine. But no, „Deutschland bad, because funny mustashe man.“ The same points again and again…
1. Germany in WW2 brought an end to Germans living east of the Oder-Neiße line on mass, good luck with that. 2. Yes, other countries did bad things and they should do the same. Other countries doing horrible things doesn't diminish the need for Germans to actively reflect on their history and make sure these events don't reoccur.
I'm sorry to burst your bubble but the "Soviets" only annexed Kalingrad (Königsberg) after WWI because they wanted a port that didn't freeze during winter. Every other part annexed from eastern Germany was annexed by either monarchies or right-wing governments (yes, Poland and Czechia annexed parts of Germany after WWII before being swallowed by the Soviet Union and most history classes skip right from the end of WWII to the begin of the Cold War glossing over everything the happened inbetween).
your "stolen" parts from 1914 where first taken by you during the partition of Poland in 1779-1792. So, we can start arguing "who was there first" dating from 996 but that's really pointless!
@@jolly_39 Poland and Czechia were never parts of Soviet Union, and western borders after the end of WWII where decided by Stalin and Churchill during the Jalta conference, so Poland and Czechia had no say in it...
As a german, we definitely had this topic in history class, 15 years ago in my region, when we as class were around 13-14 years old. But its not really talked about outside of that place.
I went on a Berlin walking tour recently and was amazed that they understood the concept of remembering their historical crimes but did not refer to colonialism. Thank you for this work, I think you presented the issue really well. !!
its because of its almost irrelevant considering how unknown it was to germans themselves but also to europe . we also dont learn about further into the past of germany its just how it is you have limited time to teach
The reality is, people learn about colonialism in school. They just think they weren't taught because they forget it, and that is because it is a very small aspect of the culture that is not constantly reinforced.
These people haven't paid attention in school. We learn all about our colonial history in school. But maybe this is only in Gymnasium, the highest school form and not the rest, I don't know
But everywhere in Europe there's a monument about the holocaust, the school books talk about it casually and say that the Europeans were "heroes", but nothing about the atrocities in Africa and the Americas and neither in Asia... It feel unseasy for me, when I ask about it people tell me is past is done. But the holocaust is not past and done? 300 years are more forgotable than 10~20?
This video theoretically deals with the topic of the German colonial past, but in fact one may get the impression that it was created only to raise the topic of the Herero and Namuqua Genocide, because it does not discuss the entire issue objectively. German colonialism in Africa ended with World War I, Germany fought three war campaigns against the Allies in Africa, and one of them deserves attention. This is something related to the East African Campaign, namely, the topic of Lettow-Vorbeck and the Aksarys. This is quite an extraordinary story and one of the most positive episodes in German history. Lettow-Vorbeck was almost the German equivalent of Lawrence of Arabia. His Askarys were natives trained like Germans and treated as equals to Germans, while the colonial soldiers of the Allied countries were ill-treated in their armies. This made Lettow-Vorbeck's army very effective and many natives from the Allied army defected to Lettow-Vorbeck's side. So the Germans could be proud of this episode.
![เปิด อาณาจักร หมื่นล้าน "สาระตั้ม" l [Nickynachat]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/3XE0nPF4YkQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Fun fact: the first German governor of South West Africa was Heinrich Göring, father of….
father of Albert Göring, an unfathomably based individual.
@@VaishnavENK Who had not so based older brother, Hermann :D
@@Hadar1991oh the one with two but small balls?
@@VaishnavENK Sad to read his wikipedia. He suffered for his brothers crimes.
@@VaishnavENKAlbert was good man
In the 1950s the German government felt it should pay its Tanzanian soldiers that fought the British in the 1st world war in africa. However they couldn't tell if the people who showed up had actually been their soldiers. So they got a German sergeant to bark drill commands to the men and everyone of them jumped to attention marched in perfect order.
Which German government? The Federal Republic or the DDR? Also, did those soldiers get that money? I'd love to read to article about this.
@@olympia5758 the Fed. Rep. Did it till the 90's. Its in the Wiki about the "Askari", maybe you can find some more if you google for " Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck" the famous General of german east-africa.
Do you have any source?
@@olympia5758 That was the Federal Republic and yes everyone got their money. They handed them broomsticks as a stand in for a rifle to show the German drill and that was proof enough that they have been German soldiers in the past.
@@olympia5758 The communist regime in charge of the portion of Germany occupied by the soviets not only doing that (not even close) but even caring about it? Even bothering to know what that country was and where those people were?
Not in a thousand year, of course it was western Germany.
As a Namibian I believe that for bad or worse, history is history. I am also fascinated by the street names, it's basically the same here in Windhoek, we have street names in German, we have so much and despite being part of South Africa far longer, we have inherited a lot more of German culture... I feel like Namibia missed out, instead of using Germans wanting to make right on their past, we asked for money that will do nothing for us instead of asking for knowledge, machinery to help us industrialize.
Again, for bad or worse, Namibia is a German creation and I hope for the future for better relations between our two countries...
not really and I'm saying this as a person living in Germany. We did not build Nambia, we stole your natural resources, killed your women and children and basically did what we pleased because Europeans back then were racist pricks. You need to acknowledge that despite us bringing German culture, we weren't at all good for you. Had you asked for industrialisations/machinery, we wouldn't have given it to you. Sorry but European powers were evil and this is the reason why they're as wealthy as they are today. If you ever wonder why the state of Africa as a continent is underdeveloped, it's due to the West and we NEED to DESPERATELY: 1) leave Africa the fuck alone by no longer stealing natural resources like France in Niger and 2) recognising that what we did in all of Africa as disgusting and unnecessary
Rather than seeking to develop, you're looking to Germans who absolutely don't care. Lol.
Well right now we have othere Problemes but in the future we could maybe make a Deal.
Interesting to hear. So, what do you think of technological deals like the production of green hydrogen between Germany and Namibia?
Greetings from Germany
If you're interested in the german way of doing things i would suggest karl marx, he has a good solution to those money problems you mentioned
Besides the South Pacific and Africa, the Germans also had the Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory from 1898 to 1914. They wanted a model colony by copying the UK and acquiring a Chinese harbor to show both the Chinese and the other powers what it means to have effective colonial policy. In 1860, a Prussian expeditionary fleet arrived in Asia and explored the region around Jiaozhou Bay. The following year, the Prussian-Chinese Treaty of Peking was signed. In November 1897, local peasants killed two German priests, and Wilhelm II ordered admiral Otto von Diederichs to respond. Despite occupying all the forts and disabling the telegraph line, Wilhelm II canceled the order and opted for a lease over outright cession.
As the territory was not a colony but a lease, and because of its importance to the German navy, it was placed under the supervision of the Imperial Naval Office rather than the colonial office. The impoverished fishing village of Tsingtau was laid out with wide streets, solid housing areas, government buildings, electrification throughout, a sewer system, and a safe drinking water supply, a rarity in large parts of Asia at that time and later. The area had the highest density of schools and highest per capita student enrollment in all of China. During the German period, Tsingtao Brewery was founded in 1903 by an English-German joint stock company, and Tsingtao is still around today, and Qingdao has a thriving beer culture thanks to the Germans.
my supreme leader i honestly didnt expect you to pop up under any geography & history educational video
I'm so sorry great leader kim jung un that America still has put your powerful country under brutal sanctions
Tried the beer once, its quite alright! Wasnt this intervention you mentioned the first use of marine infantery? Or am i misremembering stuff there?
：００
HRE, Charlemagne…
I'm a 17 year old German and at school our colonial atrocities have been discussed almost as long as ww1
Leider. Das sollte man aus dem Lehrplan rausnehmen.
Bruder was @@TheKks143
@@TheKks143 Bist du auf dem Kopf gefallen??
I'm a 30 year old German and at school colonialism has been discussed, but not focussed on the German colonies.
@@TheKks143 Da ist wohl jemand besonders bereit im Namen des Nationalismus kurz mal die Geschichte des eigenen Landes zu "löschen"... Musst als Kind wohl oft hingefallen sein
Am I the only one who literally got taught about the German colonies and the genocide in school?
Honestly, I don't think so. Yes, it was comparatively short to other topics, but we definitely did talk about that - the interviewed people in the video either forgot about it or didn't pay attention in the first place (I might even suspect, they were deliberately chosen to invoke a certain impression, since they looked also relatively young)
Na but it’s more fun to do street interviews with random citizens when most people on the planet barley remember anything from their history classes.
No we had it almost a month, then the maji killing, then very short ww1 and Weimar and then finally every history teachers wet dream: Holocaust and Kommissarbefehl.
I had that 15 years ago i school. A Realschule.
Nope. Learned about it...but it was kind of a foodnote between the whole history of Colonisation, which also did what the French and the Brits did. The Dutch kind of slipped through, though....
Yup, the Germans even had colonies in the Pacific! Like German Samoa, which there's actually a love song about a German sailor being rejected by a Samoan girl called "In Honolulu" (the song mentioned both Samoa and Hawaii). German Samoa is the reason why Samoa is separate from American Samoa. Basically, during the second half of the 19th century, German influence in Samoa expanded with large scale plantation operations like coconut and cacao. However, they weren't the only ones interested in the Samoan Islands as the British and the Americans wanted in on the action. Tensions between them led to the First Samoan Civil War, where the Germans and Americans supported rival Samoan factions.
After the 1889 Apia cyclone destroyed six of the German and American ships stationed at Samoa, the three countries decided that the counterproductive fighting should cease, and that the original king Laupepa would be restored to the kingship. However, in 1899, there was another civil war. It was then decided under the Tripartite Convention that the archipelago would be divided between the US and the Germans, with the UK withdrawing for concessions in the Solomons. German Samoa remained a thing until 1914 when New Zealanders occupied them with no resistance on behalf of the UK during WWI. NZ would govern them through a League of Nations Class C mandate, and then a UN trust territory until 1962.
Yeah I remember learning that Germany used to hold Samoa as a colony. It was weird to learn as a samoan, because all these other samoans I know who had german last names finally had an explanation lol
I have the awful suspicion some countries learn about other's colonies just to water down their sins
@@FlagAnthem yeah that's exactly what happens. I always found it funny that countries like France cried about oppression and occupation by rhe germans during ww2 but immediately went on to oppress their colonies after the end of it (Indochina, Algeria)
They had Nauru as well, with its then plentiful phosphates deposits.
@@nickysimi9866 A few years ago (2010s) there was a program on German TV about descendants of Germans of former Deutsch-Neuguinea, who still spoke German as mother tongue! I was really surprised by that. Although the younger people don't do this anymore.
I wish Japan would take note. Even from a purely cynical, practical perspective... this just fosters so much respect for the German people.
Japan should treat every single one of its victims like Indonesia. They lied about their past, but at least the reparations from investments and cash is useful
@@3dcomrade that's a lot of victims though?
Hope Pakistan 🇵🇰 does same to Bangladesh. Although most young Pakistanis are more sympathetic and willing to acknowledge wrongdoing in former East Pakistan
Lol, no back bone.
The kaffirs killed german people and they paid the price.
@@itsblitz4437 When Armenian militias were killing Turks and Kurds to create a greater Armenia nobody cared. When Greek army used scorched earth policy in Western Anatolia killing more than a million Turkish civilians for Megali Idea nobody cared. When millions of Muslim minorities got deported from Balkans to Anatolia nobody cared. But when the Muslims (Turks and Kurds) did the same to Christians it became a genocide. When Christians deport Muslims its forced repatriation. When Muslims deport Christians its genocide. I don’t deny any of the horrifying things my countrymen did at the time. But don’t expect us to apologise for revenge. We won’t accept any hypocracy.
Also with Kars treaty Turkey promised to defend and rebuild Armenia, but Armenians decided to join Soviets. There are a lot of active Armenian Orthodox Churches in Turkey. But almost no Mosques in Armenia. There are Armenians living in Turkey. No Turks are living in Armenia. Armenians can freely travel and move to Turkey. Turks can’t freely travel and move to Armenia. Turkey started the normalization process with Armenia. Armenian public is still protesting against Pashinyan for normalization with Turkey. To this day Armenia is keeping United Nations recognized of Azerbaijan under invasion. Who is doing more to heal the rift really?
For me as a German this video gives me a new perspective, this video is so valuable.
Thank you so much and I‘d love even more content about Germany 🇩🇪
DDR content dropping soon!
@@ThePresentPast_At least they are starting to remember it to a degree now
Du bist absolut verblendet und tust mir leid.. Deutsche werden durchgängig manipuliert sich und ihre Geschichte zu hassen. Dabei sollten wir absolut stolz auf unsere Geschichte sein. Wir sind das Land der Dichter und Denker. Ich hab es satt das sich Leute, die nichts tatsächlich von Geschichte wissen, sich anmaßen uns zu erzählen wir sollten alles deutsche verteufeln. Ohne uns würde es die Welt heute nicht geben.. Wir sind heute die Marionetten der Amis und in einer Fake Demokratie.
In my opinion, as a historian, nationality and also patriotism is a very important part of our world and of us. I don't think it's a good idea to throw away such a huge and rich identity. Simply because we are not all the same people. I think the basic nationality and country isn't something we made up anymore. There's a reason people were born in certain areas. This unique mentality and the characteristic in the genes are part of us. The behavior as a whole. The fact that you and I are here today is significant that we had a father who had a father and so on.. Until a father definitely stood on the battlefield with armor and probably killed someone too but he was killed too. But before that happened he had a son who had a son before you. That means through all the wars and diseases your bloodline has survived. It's just such a great understanding of the history and culture and tradition that you carry within you from the people who gave everything to keep the blood of their nation and mentality alive that you can't just throw that away. This identity merged with the areas of your country or their countries. I think you can gain strength and understanding from nationality. I'll take myself as an example.. I'm German. I haven't had national thinking for long. But when I developed this patriotic and national thinking, I started to understand my environment better and it helped me. Since the Germans have always had a hard worker mentality and perfectionism in their blood and genes, this motivated me to work just as hard as my ancestors and to achieve something. Because we have so many incredible thinkers and poets, it motivated me to follow in the rich footsteps of my country and history to achieve something just as great. Which may help all societies. I don't think you can just open the borders and let others in. At least those who have completely different backgrounds. I think that patriotism but especially nationalism has a meaning.
@@OscarOSullivan You are completely delusional.. The Germans are consistently manipulated into hating themselves and their history. We don't forget it, it's beaten into us. Also, the German colonies were the best because the Germans actually invested in the colonies... a lot. Build good houses and cities. Now you dare to say that we are not informed enough about our "Bad Bad Devils" German history. To hell with you
@@OscarOSullivanhaha, like we forgot about it. When you go to school and pay at least a little attention in history class, you know this stuff as a german. Also its not like states like namibia wouldnt remind us of it.
One thing that always come to mind for me is what people say about the Holocaust:"Es passierte hier" It happened here. The Holocaust and the Nazis happened here, our Fathers and Grandfathers were involved, people todays germans know. The african Genocide was far away, by an older generation, sometimes even declared as justified. There still is much work to be done and i hope one day know about the crimes in the colonies. Which brings me to another point, Germany was not the only colonial power, thats why other colonial powers had no interest in talking about the Herero, it would suddenly shine a light on their crimes in their colonies...its such a damn hard topic to find a good solution for.
Two very valid points I like to remind people who criticize my ancestors in the UK, about their colonial past is.
To begin with we must analyze the levels of injustice committed. While for example the British were not on Humanitarian missions, they did invest in and improve most of the colonies they founded. And I hate to sound insensitive or cavalier about our offences. The fact is, that other powers treated their colonies far worse.
Second and much more important, that must always be remembered. The world was a much different place even 100 years ago. We did not hear about Human Rights, until after WWII. Throughout history, rights were a privilege, enjoyed by wealthy and privileged classes.
Even White British in the UK were treated terrible through most of history. In North America Blacks in the US were discriminated and enslaved.
Mexico and Russia shared a common Surf type system until 1910/1917 respectively, that had the peasants considered property of wealthy estate owners. Contemplate that. Mexicans were enslaved by other Mexicans!
While atrocities must be remembered and condemned. The “Guilt” that goes with them, must be tempered, by reality of how the world was even 60 years ago!
Every country, society and ethnicity has skeletons in the closet. We must do as the Germans and remember,the past. But let’s all work for a very just, inclusive and prosperous future for all!
@@MichaelReidOttawa "invest in and improve most of the colonies they founded" only so UK can steal more efficiently. The UK gave nothing to its colonies without the guarantee that it would help them steal more from the colonies. Also, while committing genocide on the local population!!
Spoken like a true white supremist and genocide denier 🙄😒😒
@@MichaelReidOttawa In particular I guess Singapore & HK have more ambivalent & maybe even more benevolent attitudes towards their former British colonial powers, because they were colonized for their strategic locations for maritime trade rather than for their natural resources, & only the former is non-rivalrous. So the sense of being exploited may have not been as strongly felt in their populations. In particular some people in HK might also think that the alternative to colonialism is rule by mainland China which they may not think is better (though mainland China probably finds it grating that some HK-ers have more benevolant attitudes towards their former colonial power, given how HK was ceded from China to the British via the Opium War). While in Singapore, the gov't probably acknowledges that the city grew significantly faster after being colonised, as the British made it more well-known, attracting immigrants & trade, though it's 2019 commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Sir Stamford Raffles arriving in Singapore was still controversial. After Singapore de-colonized, it also retained the names of places given by the colonial powers e.g. Crawford St, as well as edifices built by it e.g. Sir Stamford Raffles' statue, so as not to appear too nationalistic & scare away foreign investment. In fact the name 'Raffles' may be regarded as a byword for 'excellence' in Singapore, with Raffles Institution (founded by the namesake person) being one of the city's top schools
Another is that you could MEET both violators and violated of the Holocaust in your own lifetime and schools often did invite survivors to give testimony about the atrocities.
And also the Colonies did all fall in 1914 and with the disownment it seems like much of the responsibility was also handed on to the new colonial overlords (That did not quite reach the depths of depravity of the Herrero homicide, but did not rule with a soft hand either, massacres galore under british and french rule in many of their posessions)
There is no solutions. People did all sorts of terrible things to each other all over the world. That is the past and focus on the present and future.
I actually was taught about German colonialism in secondary school. Pretty sure we watched the exact movie you showed a clip of too. Frankly, I forgot a lot of it, as my history teacher wasn't good at making topics sound as interesting and significant as they are. This video was a nice refresher, and I'm a bit impressed with myself for recognizing some of the events you summarized.
As a German who already knew a lot of our Colonial history, i have to say this is a really good Video. It's absolutely true that the colonial history is overshadowed by Nazi history, just like absolutely all of german history is overshadowed by it. It's like a paradox: dealing so much with Nazi history and being so aware of it makes us unaware of the earlier history. The history of the Kaiserreich seems important ONLY when it's about what happened later, not really what happened during it's time. Most people don't even know how many emperors it had (they think it's 2). And before the Kaisserreich? No German even thinks about this time.
There is always so much history to learn, for everyone. You do good and important work with your channel!
PS. Yes the change is visible here. More and more people start learning and thinking critical about Germanys colonial time. I think we'll get there 👍
this isnt rue before the kaiser rech is regularly though about jsut not in a whole german sense yknow
I am not surprised they thought it was two. Practically speaking, there were only two Emperors: the one before 1888 and the one after 1888. Friedrich III was known more for being anybody OTHER than him being Emperor. He has statues everywhere in Germany but all of them commemorate him being a war hero, not as an Emperor...
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 true. And i mean... He didn't really do much as emperor, since he died after 99 days in office and was already unable to speak thanks to his cancer. So it makes sense he is forgotten. Still i think he should be remembered a lot more, since he had enormous potential to actually make a change. His views were pretty libertarian and socialdemocratic. With him the empire might have become more integrated into the International community, because France and Great Britain had sympathies for him and his political views. He wanted to establish a parliament and might have even changed the empire into a parliamentaric monarchy like GB. To think about what could've all be avoided hadn't he became ill... Wilhelm II played a completely different game, and it didn't end well as we know.
I think he is a good example of the selective views on history in Germany. In other countries they had many more rulers and remember all of them; in Germany the focus is mostly on the dark parts of history, which is good and understandable, but this way we tend to neglect other parts since they don't seem important in comparison and also because history as a whole has a really negative connotation for the average German. If Friedrich in his short rule had done anything that can be connected to the later rise of national-socialism, I guess everyone in Germany would know who he was.
@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 also a funny thing: when i tell people about Friedrich III, they often think i mean the prussian king Friedrich the Great (Friedrich II), because he is the only Friedrich they have heared of😂
Deutsche werden durchgängig manipuliert sich und ihre Geschichte zu hassen. Dabei sollten wir absolut stolz auf unsere Geschichte sein. Wir sind das Land der Dichter und Denker. Ich hab es satt das sich Leute, die nichts tatsächlich von Geschichte wissen, sich anmaßen uns zu erzählen wir sollten alles deutsche verteufeln. Ohne uns würde es die Welt heute nicht geben.. Wir sind heute die Marionetten der Amis und in einer Fake Demokratie.
In my opinion, as a historian, nationality and also patriotism is a very important part of our world and of us. I don't think it's a good idea to throw away such a huge and rich identity. Simply because we are not all the same people. I think the basic nationality and country isn't something we made up anymore. There's a reason people were born in certain areas. This unique mentality and the characteristic in the genes are part of us. The behavior as a whole. The fact that you and I are here today is significant that we had a father who had a father and so on.. Until a father definitely stood on the battlefield with armor and probably killed someone too but he was killed too. But before that happened he had a son who had a son before you. That means through all the wars and diseases your bloodline has survived. It's just such a great understanding of the history and culture and tradition that you carry within you from the people who gave everything to keep the blood of their nation and mentality alive that you can't just throw that away. This identity merged with the areas of your country or their countries. I think you can gain strength and understanding from nationality. I'll take myself as an example.. I'm German. I haven't had national thinking for long. But when I developed this patriotic and national thinking, I started to understand my environment better and it helped me. Since the Germans have always had a hard worker mentality and perfectionism in their blood and genes, this motivated me to work just as hard as my ancestors and to achieve something. Because we have so many incredible thinkers and poets, it motivated me to follow in the rich footsteps of my country and history to achieve something just as great. Which may help all societies. I don't think you can just open the borders and let others in. At least those who have completely different backgrounds. I think that patriotism but especially nationalism has a meaning.
Berlin is not the place to remember the colonial past, such a memorial should be in Hamburg. It was mainly merchants from Hamburg that got into the colonial trade and sometimes even individual adventurers started their own colonies, that were later taken over by the state. It is Hamburg were all the ships to Africa and the Pacific departed.
I think whaf also contributes to the holocaust being recognize more is due to the situation after the crime. With the Holocaust, us germans killed our people and neighbours. The Herero and Nama were far away. And the Alliierten (England, france, usa) were doing tribunals not only for important war crimes in Nürnberg, but also for common people in places like Rastatt. We were forced to look at the issue and live with it. With the genocide against Herero and Nama, we just gave the remaining people and land away and nobody cared...
Just say that the difference is killing black people in Africa and then doing the same thing to white people years later in Europe
In terms of the Holocaust, its the same within the holocaust. Other groups that were targeted, like gypsies or Homosexuals were completely ignored, the homosexuals at times had to continue their prison sentence for their "crime" even after the end of the holocaust. Its just a sad fact, that neither group, especially sinti and roma don't have a big lobby behind them that actually cares about them or a geopolitical interest to protect them. Its the same with any genocide in the last 150+ years. If you aren't of geopolitical importance or have a lobby, nobody will care. That's why people know about the Jews during WW2, the Armenian Genocide, the Srebrenica and Gaza ethnic cleansings etc. but nobody cares about the Herero and Nama, the darfuri, the yezidi or the east-timor genocide
As a German Namibian, this is a very interesting video.
Facing a lot of fallout of what happened here as a younger person, it’s interesting how different things are taught. German history is ever present and continues to play a huge role here.
But I find that nobody in Germany really understands why Namibia is so germanized and why certain feelings continue to persist.
You‘re not a „German Namibian“. German Namibians are extinct - which is a good thing. You don‘t want white people influencing the country.
Also, there‘s nothing Germanised in Namibia. What you‘re talking about is Dutch. Idk why you don‘t change that stuff.
Maybe we need to have some school exchanges to connect people at a young age and reignite conversation. When I was young, I had zero knowledge about Germany's former colonies and still know precious little about how the colonial past has shaped the modern African nations.
People definitely learn about it is just that they forgot, most germans don´t even know our own history. Unification wars, revolution of 1848, french revolution, prussia, 30 years war, teutonic knights holy roman empire.
I wonder how the genocide was taught there. All Germans were bad and need to feel ashamed, or they make difference between Leutwein(the lenient governor) and Trotha(the genocidal one)? I wrote my thesis about German colonialism at university. So I would say I know quite a lot about the topic, at least the chornology and got a lot of books also which can be primer sources.
They teach us that we must be sorry for being German. There is no space for understanding cultural relations with other people.
Im a german when i was in school 11 years ago we learned a lot about our colonys. Watched documentarys about our race for africa with the brits, the herero wars, the cannibals in papua new guinea and our city in china tsingtao. That stuff always fascinated me.
It is taught in schools but its a relatively short chapter and also taught relatively early, i believe for me it was 7th-8th class? easily forgotten by other parts of history, not even german history but stuff such as the french evolution is taught much more thoroughly. history also isnt a key class and usually has less classes a week than something like mathematics, theres only so much you can squeeze in there during your school time. i know we had colonies but thats about all i know. its not like we hide that part of history, its just other parts of history are more important to teach and require more time.
also a small side note: Rammstein has a music video about it called Ausländer where German (and European in General) colonialism is at topic.
As a dutch can u made video about dark past about dutch colonialism?
Did quite a few on Dutch colonialism already, check out the backlog!
Dutch and germans: We are bad colonisers, please see our dark past!!!
Spain: If you stay still they won't notice you...
@@AbrahamCasillas-t3o wow that's something a colonizer would say. before the British Spain had the biggest colonial empire and committed countless atrocities, there's a reason why the western hemisphere is Spanish speaking and Spanish is the 2nd language with the most native speakers globally. every atrocity Germans committed in the last 150 years, the Spanish have done since they gained power in the 15th centaury
@@magemyst7245 Change of thought, also I am not Spanish! And Spain didn't have colonies, they were called viceroyalties, and the only atrocities the Spanish did were make racial social classes in the viceroyalties, plus nobility, and inquistion! If it weren't for the Spanish there wouldn't have been a Latin America or the Philippines, in fact if it weren't for the Spanish either some other country conquers or colonizes the Americas, either the Indogenous are all almost wiped out or left, or mixed with their conquerors or colonizers! I'm guessing you are from the Philippines huh?
@@magemyst7245 If you really think that the only people who mixed with the Natives of Conquistadores, you are completely wrong, most of them were coming from poor areas of Spain or any other country in the world to seek opportunity, though most of them were Spanish!
The 'rememberance' culture was in good parts forced upon them/us. Also by a vigilant youth, whom had been just sick of their nazi parents - this transformation was fought for, and against all odds. I am really proud of this movement, and reflectively on my parents' generation.
As an American, I'm hoping a similar culture is developing here. We're sick of our boomer parents. (And their fascism)
The „rememberance“ culture is used as a dismissive tool against any opposition. It has lost its purpose long time ago. This dismissive tool prevents any real development in Germany.
@@williambrasky3891don't you dare to ever compare boomers to the WW2 era Italy.
tf you mean fascism@@williambrasky3891
@@kingpredator117"kingpredator117" ok bro
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was well respected by his African soldiers and he helped and advised the people who would establish the independent nation of Tanzania.
He also strongly rejected the Nazi leadership and opposed them using his name for propaganda purposes.
He was one of the few people who had great respect for Africans and was in turn well respected by them and who supported their path to independence, it is sad that in modern times his name is being sullied by radical liberals who paint him as an evil colonialist by cherry picking "crimes" he supposedly committed during WW1.
WW1 was one of the most brutal wars in History where no side was afraid of committing what we today consider war crimes, it shouldn't be compared to the atrocities the Belgians committed to the native population during Peaceful times.
Years ago, I saw a report on TV about the German past in Togo. The producers managed to find a veteran from the Colonial times. The conversation was full of sporadic German words, mixed into the official language of French. Challenged for some significant memories this chap got up, staggered to an open space and tried to perform a sharp military parade ground march. "Links, links, links - SCHNELLER DU SCHWEINEHUND !" (Left, left, left - faster you bastard !) Smiling, as if he was reciting a praise on his activity. "... great respect for Africans ..."
@@boomerix lol Relativismus.. hahahaha. Die bösen Belgier, ja genau. Damit ist dein schönes Deutschreich natürlich wieder reingewaschen.Alle anderen waren natürlich auch Massenmörder im Krieg und wie dein armer Heinz von und zu Hunzpiek wurden sie ja.alle nur gezwungen. Sagt man das nicht auch über die Wehrmacht? Also die Relativierer, deine braunen Freunde. Lol und drittens der Knaller: wie viel Gutes sie doch für die armen Wilden getan haben. Die waren alle dankbar.
Another excellent presentation. Thank you.
Having reviewed the comments thus far, it amazes me how quickly people lose focus of the topic.
South west Africa became a South African protectorate under a League of Nations mandate and continued to be a defacto colony of SA until 1990. That entire period could be topical as it is barely mentioned anywhere.
The horrors of colonialism, apartheid and of slavery can never be over emphasised. Their pervasive and lasting effects continue through to the present day. These stories need to be highlighted and reparations are only a small part of the process of allowing the descendants to heal and recover.
Marxist detected opinion rejected
Great Video, but I think it's also important to mention why the Herero Genocide was/is so downplayed in Germany.
In the 50s and 60s there was a push by the Americans and the conservative German government to rearm West Germany due to the cold war. That meant any continuity between imperial Germany and Nazi Germany had to be downplayed, and the Crimes of the Nazis were treated as an aberration instigated only by Hitler and the top Nazi leadership. For example the movie 'Der Untertan' from 1951 was banned for portraying a continuity between Imperial and Nazi Germany and the first and second world war. For that reason a Genocide that in many ways prefigures the Holocaust had to be downplayed. (This is also the reason for the clean Wehrmacht myth.)
Thank you for that insight!
That's what I was going to comment in here too. Frankly I was somewhat surprised that the video didn't mention it. However there is one other factor that closely ties with your comment.
After WWII, the US and allies had to "rehabilitate" the German image after both the holocaust and the various atrocities they committed in the regions that they occupied. So the way that they "went around" the issue was to show Germany as a civilized nation that went down a dark path. The holocaust and all the all the atrocities performed in occupied Europe (mainly Poland, USSR and the Balkans) were just a unfortunate historical deviation, caused by a cadre of evildoers to took a great nation down the war path. And as you noted they leaned on the pre - WWII history which inevitably contributed to the "clean Wehracht" myth.
However close examination of the Imperial history definitely shows the seeds of the National Socialist school of thought including the Herero Wars, the setting up of the Tutsi-Hutu classification in German East Africa and the training of the Ottoman officer class that was involved with Armenia in 1915. Dive too deep into this factor and some really uncomfortable questions start to emerge.
+
Incredibly good comments here. I knew how a lot in history is interconnected, but I didn't know how far it went in this case. Definitely going to read up on that👌
man no army is clean so a "Clean Wehrmacht myth" doesnt even makes sense
10:00 what also leaves a very strong impression on the Mahnmal when you think about it are the interactions with other people in it. It's designed in such a way, that it isolates you from others, while at the same time make people appear and disappear quite suddenly.
While you're going into it, your isolation grows, while you're sinking deeper and deeper into those giant unpersonal blocks. At first it's a bit like a game. You see people jumping from block to block, there is still live around you. And it's not only totally okay, that those people jump from block to block, it also works so well in reminding you that in the beginning of the political process people took the first steps not that serious. The distances between the blocks grow a bit farther inwards and so nobody really jumps anymore happily from block to block deeper into the Mahnmal happy times vanish more and more... and deeper it goes indeed.
The whole Mahnmal is built into a pit and so while you're walking further on you decend more and more into that pit and your horizon raises as are the blocks are also become bigger around you.
They're taking away not only your "freedom of view" but also the sounds and almost all signs of live around you. They isolate you, the walkable floor is built from strict hard stones as are the blocks around you. You're only able to walk in straight lines, you can also see in straight lines. Freedom, live, other people... they are mostly gone. And what is left can easily vanish by moving just a few steps to the side, into another way through those blocks.
You become so isolated that seeing other people in it feels different. Most are just visible for a short moment, while they move parallel to you somewhere else in the Mahnmal, they appear behind a block and are gone just one or two breaths later.
Others are coming your way or are behind you, but usually it's just very few of them. Most people are even drawn to search for more isolation within the Mahnmal than the other way around, so people become relatively scarce.
And then, suddenly, someone may just suddenly appear right before you behind a block, often people look a bit surprised for a short moment when that happens, you get used to it, but still it feels different than outside the Mahnmal. People tend to be quieter in there... or it's the stones who swallow up most of the sounds around you. Who knows.
When you're living in an oppressive regime I presume that's quite likely how it feels. You're not alone but isolated, everything you do or say might be suddenly and surprisingly seen by someone you didn't know was nearby. And everyone you know or see might vanish just a few steps later. You might or might not see them again, while you're in there...
It's such a simple designed place but when you're aware what it is about and think a bit about it while you're there, it actually can give you quite an experience.
Never thought about it that way. Chilling but fitting description.
Didn’t know about this story! It’s great that there are such high quality channels covering our past. Thank you Present Past🙇♂️
The reason the German colonial empire was forgotten about is it didn't last very long it was destroyed in world war 1
You are completely delusional.. The Germans are consistently manipulated into hating themselves and their history. We don't forget it, it's beaten into us. Also, the German colonies were the best because the Germans actually invested in the colonies... a lot. Build good houses and cities. Now you dare to say that we are not informed enough about our "Bad Bad Devils" German history. To hell with you.
German Empire was absolutely great.
Its part of the Curriculum but Nazis are far more dominant.
possibly
Well, i can not speak for students of today, but when i was in 10th grade the colonial holdings of the German Empire were a subject. Since it among other things contained the infamous gunboat policy and subsequently adding to the growing conflict between the Colonial Powers. It also included the genocide of the Herero and Nama Peoples during the conflicts between 1904 to 1908. Mind you i attended 10th grade in 2006. Maybe things changed, or my history teacher at the time was more invested into the subject overall.
I really love that this video exists, for it's such an important topic to talk about.
I myself didn't know a lot about German colonialism until the first half of this very year, when I learned about it in school. But, and that is the important part, I wouldn't have, if I hadn't chosen to take history class for the last two years of my school life, which many others didn't, wherefore it is great that there are people who convey these messages through easily accessible Internet videos.
Although your video makes an important point and is very well made, I'd like to note that there are some things that bugged me concerning the accuracy of your narrative, the biggest, most important and only of them I am going to mention being the black and white/all or nothing thinking, when you say, that, for example, all of Germany really wanted colonies which is just not true in the absolute slightest. Not only were there a lot of politicians, especially from the SAP/SPD, like August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht, who prominently and radically opposed the acquisition of colonies. Colonies were, from the beginning on, always more of a thing of the bourgeoisie and overly proud conservative nationalists. That's not denying the importance of education or the cruelty of the genocide in what we know today as Namibia, the exploitation of locals all over the world or the ignominies of organisations such as the "Wissmann Truppe", but highlighting the importance of differentiating and not trivialising things such as stance, in order to paint a more accurate picture and not give the impression of universality.
At the end I'd also like to add that some of the names of these people are absolutely hilarious.
I mean, Lothar von Trotha? You can't make that up. A terrible man with a ridiculous name.
Fun fact: the fact that Germany overlooks to be aware of Namibia in colonialism
Is the reason why we literally have adolf hitler as politician in Namibia.
8th of May 1918, The Germans attacked the Basters on Sam Khubis near Rehoboth, Namibia. Great video, I learned a lot more than I knew. But it is still sad to see my people aren't discussed in these kinds of videos and essays.
People talk about 30 years of german colonisation in africa but not about 123 years of colonization in poland.
True
I know Poland has colonized West Ukraine since 1362 and colonized Ukraine and Belarus again in 1920. During ww1 they joined Germany to enter the Carpat mountains and commit genocide against the Orthodox Carpath Rusyens. Then they joined Germany again and colonized Chekoslavakia in 1938. And despite all this, the Soviets gave them parts of Germany in exchange for taking back lands they stole and persecuted.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I'm north african and Africa is a word in our language (Ifri meaning cave) the thing is the first German genoc*de was in Africa but in my country they thaught us that they only copied "assemblement camps" (camp de rassemblement) from the French in North African Algeria. Unlike our jewish cousins we have a darker skin so we don't as much empathy and first and foremost it didn't happen in front of western white european eyes. So nobody gave a damn, and I ain't gonna critcize the West, cuz "thanks to that" our countries banned slavery which was very legal in Arab colonial rule. Both my grannies were slaves but now they be free, of course the West was/is horrible but at least it can recognize its wrong doings unlike them Arab countries... and keep in mind if you're Arab in some north african countries like Mauritania and Morocco you get extra citizen privilege and its marked on your ID so the police gives you extra respect which clearly discrimination
Sorry for the long text, I thought it would give some fans of yours some topics to look into, but from my heart I thank you and I hope some Arab content creators can share more thanks to your inspiration, we got just 2 for now Kosay Betar and Nostik but I hope your videos can inspire future ones to come! (ofc i can't cuz im too afraid for my consequences and im not arab just a queer north african)
I hear your sorrow and your ancestor's pain. Morocco was relatively liberal towards some minorities, when I used to work there, back in the late 1980ies and early 1990ies. But others, including Gnaoui and Rifi, had to live on the fringes of society and/or national economy. Even Moroccans considered them as outcasts in their own country.
Most imperial powers (and some others) had some form of 'concentration camp', 'camp de regroupement', or 'Konzentrationslager', before and after the German Nazi regime. As cruel and terrifying as these were, they fundamentally differ from the Nazi's abuse of that term to cover up for their ideologically driven, meticulously planned and systematic murder of entire groups of our fellow humans, mostly European Jews. It is a tragic singularity in history that has few, if any, similarities (Stalin and Pol Pot come to mind, but these are other topics).
In Namibia, this part of history is still being lively debated, commemorated and lamented. I feel grateful that my Herero and Nama friends do accept me (being German) among us. Namibia is a great place to be!
I feel like a lot of the same things can be said for Japan.
People focus a lot on war crimes during WW2, but in reality many of the problems are colonial problems, especially for Korea which was officially annexed to Japan in as early as 1910. WW2 for Japan was a continuous colonial/war effort from Mukden Incident in 1931 all the way to 1945, and even the Mukden Incident can be thought as an extension of prior colonial effort since Japan actually acquired Manchurian railway all the way back in 1905.
Talking only about the 2nd Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War misses a lot of context and doesn't really address the real problem that's behind the historic tension between Japan and its neighbors, which is a lot more like a colonial relation.
True, Germany and to a lesser extent Japan had to confront their crimes during the war because that's when they were defeated, but they were not really forced to confront their former colonial history in the same way, especially because they were not defeated by their former colonial subjects but by other colonial powers. Unfortunately, it's hard to think of any colonial power that has really confronted its colonial history. It's common to see people that have a positive view of their imperial past or just not being aware of it.
Many non-European colonial powers must face their colonial past (🇯🇵,🇹🇷,🇵🇰, etc)
@@ImperialSublimeEmpire lol name checks out. Both European and non-European colonial powers must face their colonial past. Europe however has the additional baggage of always being arrogant and believing that they somehow have a monopoly on morality. They clearly don't and have no right to be lecturing other nations.
@@crypticTV what’s wrong with my name?!?😂
I like this video. But it’s very one sided and not well researched. Germany didn’t forgot its colonial past. Actually it is taught in school , since it is part of the „Lehrplan“ of most states in Germany. I had it in school. You show the holocaust memorial when you should have shown the „ Antikolonialdenkmal“ located in Bremen but also other cities. It’s been there for decades. Of course if you ask a German what they get taught in school they will tell you about the holocaust because they know if a random person with a microphone and the camera comes up, surely they wanna make sure that you don’t think of them as a nazi. And it’s the topic everybody thinks about first. Which doesn’t mean that the colonial past is not taught in school. Also you should have mentioned that Germany is the biggest payer of „Entwicklungshilfen“ to Africa, estimated to have paid around €80 billion in the last 20 years, €4 billion alone in 2020. That’s a lot of money..
True. I learned about german colonial history in a critical way in school in the late 90's. While I was and still am quite a history-nerd, very few of my classmates were interested in it, maybe 3-5 out of 27. Everyone knows about the Holocaust because of its weight. I bet if you'd ask all of my former classmates today, a maximum of 5 would even remember, although they were taught about it.
@@larsengstfeld6744 that’s interesting. I went to school in the late 2000s and it was also taught. I remember we had a task where we had try to use a German perspective on it and what could have been on there mind backthen but it was hard to argument for it because it was just crazy to think about it when your are that young. Another task was where we had to write a poem in the perspective of the people of Namibia. And in that context we talked about the „Völkermord“ / Genocide I still have it on my usb stick lol
@@Halliwell29 I was quite lucky to have had one history teacher from 7th to 9th grade, who started with ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Greek history and thought continuously and chronologically for three years up until the end of WW2 into the "Nachkriegszeit".
I remember him being quite fond of Bismarck and trying to paint the picture that it was the Kaiser who wanted colonies primarily for prestige reasons, and kinda forced Bismarck to conduct those endeavors against his will. Not sure how true that is since I don't care too much about either of them 🙂
I went to school in the 2010s in Lower Saxony. We didn't learn anything about colonialism except what the British and Spanish did.
Absolutely fantastic work. You really did hit the nail on the head when you said that if any nation is good at coming to terms with the past, it is Germany.
I see a lot of references to the Baltic genocides in the comments, but I can accept that this video is meant to talk about the first genocide commited by the modern state of Germany after unification
If you want to go further back, there is also some data leading to the theory that Neanderthals were genocided by Homo Sapiens tribes in Europe.
🤓
@@jonobidonofanas3677🤡
@@jonobidonofanas3677😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 youre so fucking funny
The Reich was led by Prussia was an extension of Prussian power
How is the comparison wrong when the head of the snake is the same?
Why is it always the Dutch making these Germany-related educational videos? There's a channel exclusively dedicated to discussing the GDR run by a Dutch guy. I know that, per capita, more Dutch people speak English than Germans, but surely its not just a language issue considering Germany's much larger population.
Because people from English speaking countries are very "America-centralized“ like Johnny Harris for example. Most of their videos are about the USA and they don’t really care for the history of other countries.
When Germany realizes that abolishing itself will also come to be seen as another ultimate form of reparations, it will be a sad but predictable day.
Tell me you are a fascist without telling me you are a fascist
The only thing i learnt in school about German Colonialism can be summed up as "Yes, Germany also had Colonies" not more. And maybe the meaning behind the Retailer name "Edeka".
Summed up, WW1&WW2 were from a German perspective mainly a European affair and also GIGANTIC in their scale, the death toll is comparatively tiny, the colonies were themselves very small with few German people living there, everything happened an entire continent away and on top of that, the colonies themselves were lost a century ago.
Simply put: this issue was & kind of is too small to really gain any traction. Like the video said; the world wars and especially world war 2 essentially cut Germany into a before and and after and the after has so little connection to the before that it might as well have happened on a different planet entirely in the collective awareness of the general public.
Well, also in WWII, Germans were the main killers by far. But in Africa, the French and the Brits compete for that spot. That's the history which is taught in school, and it is largely correct, but has the effect that the history of the Heroros kind of get lost between all the killing everyone else did.
The colonial history has been rather well covered in Germany with lots of info reg the respective atrocities in Namibia, China etc. really not much of a secret
It depends on which state you are from and which school you attended. I have been in real-school in Baden-Württemberg and we glossed over it. We didn't even talk about where these colonies were or why and when they were established or what happened in these colonies. But at least we had 2 years about ancient Greece and Egypt alone!!!
@@Isaidggfivetimes perks of a federal education system. Egyptian and Greek history has been the safe space in school ever since the II WW 😃
@@IsaidggfivetimesI covered it all in depth in BW high school. Just thank your ineffective teacher.
Went to school in NRW and finished school with a focus on history (Abitur Geschichts LK). Finished school about 17 years ago. Never learned anything about german even having colonies until long after i finished school.
And the interviews in the video suggest that it is the similiar for a lot of other germans young germans.
So maybe people who made different experiences are not representative for many germans.
@marcelroy6034 They already talk extensively about WWII in German schools. What are you on about? Are you saying they should replace the entire history curriculum with JUST that?
9:18 that's not entirely true. I am German and I went to school in Germany in the early 2000s. We DID actually talk about the shameful history of German colonies especially about the genocide of the Hereros. I remember this clearly, because we made posters and presented them in history class. The problem is not that nobody talks about this problem, the problem is that there is NOT ENOUGH talk about this (the curriculum for the subject history only allocates 45 minutes to the genocide, which is too little).
Another thing are those street interviews. I can also go to Amsterdam, ask if the Dutch did ever anything wrong, edit the video and voila you have a video that only shows ignorant people.
We also had that topic in school. He only asked people in Berlin and I guess it’s commonly known that the education in Berlin isn’t the best…
@@Tobi-ln9xr We did so too. (Brandenburg)
@@Tobi-ln9xrToo much decadence there I believe :)
@@Tobi-ln9xr I did attend school in Berlin
I was not taught about this in German History class but I held my Abitur (final High school) presentation about something English colonialism related. Then the teacher asked me about German Colonialism in Namibia and I had vaguely heard on TH-cam that there were killing so I gave a response in that vain. When I googled this after the presentation I was shocked to find out that we didn't even cover this horrible truth in the lesson because the Curriculum is so focused on demestic matters
"Germany" did NOT forget its colonial past ! It is even taught in German schools and German universities and remembered in academic discussions in Germany and reasearch papers. I wonder where you get this wrong impression from.....beside that: Germany's colonial history was only 34 years compared to over 300 years of Britains colonial past.....!
we didnt forget it but we arent working it though well, its not mentioned well in school if at all. as the video says its mostly because the classes focus massively on the nazi times
“i wonder where you get this wrong impression” bruh i guess from the mfs he was interviewing 😭
I didn't learn about it at all in school. Only Holocaust.
Ich auch @@useless_name
@@ztheo2280 whether"we aren't working it through well" is a matter of opinion. Some people say yes, others say no. I could imagine that the problem is that some schools are short pf teachers and hence fall short of lessons (including history). That is why many schools teach it and some do not (but that is also the case of other subjects). However, the question - or rather statement - was anyway "Why Germany forgot its colonial past". And as you rightly pointed out at the very beginning of your statement "we didnt forget it". And hence, the question / statement of the person who made this bideo and this claim, is wrong.
Some Germans might not know about their former colonies but you forgot to put Alsace-Lorraine in the borders of Imperial Germany...
And Schleswig-Holstein.
@patavinity1262 Schleswig-Holstein is apart of Germany and one of sixteen states. Unless you meant historical map he used, in which I stand corrected.
@@SorrowAvenue Sorry, I should have been clearer: the map of the German Empire used in this video does not include Alsace-Lorraine, nor is the border with Denmark accurate, because it does not include the entirety of the historical province of Schleswig-Holstein (which was larger than the current state of Schleswig-Holstein, incorporating the territory of modern Denmark as far north as Skodborg).
I've just noticed that the Danish border on this map isn't the modern border of Germany either, since the entirety of Schleswig is excluded. Here only Holstein is included as part of Germany, so it's an even stranger error than I first thought.
Thank so much for covering this subject. My 4x great grandfather Frederick Thomas Green helped the Herero fight against the Germans. He was given a Herero wife, Ada Maria Green. His Great grandson from that marriage Mburumba Kerina (born Eric Getzen. Kerina is the Herero pronunciation of green) had petitioned the UN for Namibian independence since the 1950s and is the man who gave the Country Namibia it's name.
Thanks for sharing!
... he then went on to fight for independence of Zimbabwe...
The capacity of human beings to bring forth such pain and suffering upon their fellow creatures never ceases to amaze and terrify me. I had no idea and the countless examples from recent history make you wonder how much of our collective past was filled with such actions. "Wipe them all out."
The only antidote is to teach the value that all human life is deserving of respect, right? Is there some other solution? I don't know but I worry for our future as people who don't seem to know the lessons seek and hold power.
What terrifies me, is the extreme ignorance in the world these days. People listening to extremists like Trump and Balsanaro (Brazil). It seems we are condemned to repeat the past errors!
The world is a very ignorant place.
@@MichaelReidOttawa Sadly, I agree. Education, education, education... Ignorance is a natural state, without good education, good teachers, we are dooming our posterity to the poverty of thought and knowledge.
Dooming them to the mistakes of our past.
It takes a concerted effort to break the cult of ignorance through education and sadly, it does not seem to be a focus of many.
@@x--. unfortunately it’s not valued
@@MichaelReidOttawa IKR. It seems like the instinct these days, in the US, is to use the education system for indoctrination and less about history, literature, math, and science. Hopefully that's just the media-bubble and not reality, though.
If you take the San tribe as an example and their archaic, vastly different way of life, it's kind of understandable why Germans didn't really see them as the same kind of humans that other Germans or Europeans were to them. They looked completely different and lived in an entirely different environment for a really long time, so naturally they didn't see them as humans the same way wolves don't see coyotes as their own people. The genetic differentiation between subsaharan-Africans and white Europeans is even bigger than the one between wolves and coyotes. So I kind of see it as natural and normal that we have difficulties regarding people different to us as our own people
Germany forgot its colonial past in order to focus on its colonial future
The arrogance of English speaking countries amaze me. They proclaim German as Nazis by forgetting their own colonial past! Britain did the same thing to its colonies like famine in India and opium war in China et. By the way this video is brilliant no arguments. But what I meant to say is “Before insulting every German think about your ancestors crime”. It relates to all countries which had colonies in past 🇬🇧 🇫🇷 🇧🇪 🇷🇺
YES
Totally agree
💯
English speaking countries? So someone speaking a specific language makes them arrogant and colonizers?
I’m just not even going to expand on how ridiculous that is, especially when you are using English.
Wait till the English speaking Native Americans (the vast majority of them) hear this…
There’s is surely a point to be made about English colonialism, as there is with any other colonial empire past or present. That isn’t a crutch to be used to defend your country’s colonial past. It’s a mark of shame and destruction.
Aren’t you doing exactly what you are telling people not to do? Insulting entire nations of people for their colonial pasts?
2:48 I noticed a discrepancy in your video. Here you imply Chancellor Bismark sends the lyrics of 'Never Gonna Give You Up' by Rick Astley to Lisbon. However, upon further research into the area, I have found that the song in question dates to 1987, significantly after the fall of the second Reich. This would make the odds of Bismark actually sending such a letter to Lisbon very unlikely. I hope you will rectify the video and update the public about the mishandling of these facts.
another unfortunate event regarding german colonialism is Paul von Lettow vorbecks guerrilla campaign in Tanzania. On the whole an interesting slightly bizarre story, vorbeck and his troops unfortunately robbed civilians for supplies. this, combined with bad harvests and other factors, resulted in Mass famine in the colony
same goes for the british btw.
Very nice informative video. Thank you for you work to put this together. I have one critical comment: when you said the cabinet officials were horrified to hear about the extermination, you scoff at them and say "not so much about the locals" and then insinuate they care primarily about a PR disaster and a failed economy, and then bring up your source. BUT those those are only the last 2 points of the colonial department's telegram to the Kaiser, and the first and foremost point states "First it would be a crime against humanity", to which the Kaiser eventually responded to show mercy to the Herero. I believe you should have mentioned these points for the sake of a fair, unbiased, and true history. Otherwise you appear to perpetuate the myth that all leaders in this past and all colonial efforts were fully evil, and lacked any love compared to us today. But knowing the history is not so black and white it would greatly serve humanity to shed light on the gray matters.
Changing names of streets won't do history awareness any good. I would much rather see some context below a street name that will actually tempt me do some research about a person or a place. The way the German government is acknowledging its wrongdoings and reaching out to Namibia for example is something other former colonizers still fail to do.
As an Austrian, I feel the necessity to tell you guys that Austrian culture of remembrance regarding National Socialism is just as strong as Germany's.
What a sad thing to read I thought austria was more based.
I knew a small amount about German colonial history (mostly due to growing up watching "The African Queen" lol) but this really expanded my knowledge. Danke.
As a Namibian it was not the San but the nama people, they share some similarities and are often put in the same language family but they are diffrent. The cause of the herero uprising was that traders gave the hereros loans that they couldnt pay back because of their cattle were dead and the traders ignored the terms of the contracts and demanded more, germany also built a railway through their land claiming land on both sides of the railway that was considered good grazing land.
Heinrich Heine wrote a lot about this. Worth studying.
I minored in German at University and I'm pleased to announce we covered Germany's colonial past extensively! We covered much of what you talked about. I was amazed to learn Audrey Lorde had such an impact on Afro-German civil rights activism. The same time Afro-Germans and Black Americans were making civil rights strides during the same time! Great video
As a German who likes to study history as a hobby, I always find it sad how little we look at history WW2 aside. If I remember correctly in my school time we spend maybe 2 lessons on post unification, pre ww1 Germany. Which is honestly sad. We have so much to learn, both as signs of cautions but also some more posetive aspects
🤣 You are funny
We spend YEARS on the Holy Roman Empire and only a very tiny amount on WW2
Hell Germany past WW2 was just 2 weeks
@Nakla Not really?? We basically learned about medieval life in general, the investiture dispute, the reformation, and then went on to the French Revolution and the end of the Empire. Overall I'd say it was a somewhat chronologically "balanced" focus albeit necessarily oversimplified.
@@Nakla I never even got 1 lesson on the HRE had to read about that myself
@@MyILoveMinecraft Important question: what school / focus and which federal state ( Bundesland )?
There can be a lot of differences even in the same school after all.
@@Arcaryon Realschule in lower saxony followed by 3 years gymnasium in Westphalica.
Humans have been attempting genecide throughout history. The colonial era is when it slowly fell from fasion I think those photos have a lot to do with it. I think young guys are prone to go with their peers to do whatever, but if news gets home they are more likely to feel the shame from their community back there. War stopped being a, what happens on campaign stays among you brothers at arms, type of thing.
If germany is remembering , turk is denying
each country has its shit to clean
@@FlagAnthem One of the reasons I'm so proud of my country (patriotic even). We don't try to hide our blood stains anymore
Every other country is denyig its bloody past like america for example
In the eyes of the World germany is the only bad country in history
Every other country is denyig its bloody past like america for example
In the eyes of the World germany is the only bad country in history
Thank you so much for your educating video. It’s so important that history is repeatedly told so it won’t be forgotten or ignored
The interesting thing about Germany is that forced "We were the bad people and we acknowledge that“ mentality. I don’t want to say that it’s something bad that Germany openly calls it a "genocide“ but to put it into perspective, just a short time after that, there was the so called "Maji-Maji genocide“ in German East Africa. The culprit there wasn’t Lotha von Trotha but Carl Peters and the German colonial authorities killed in that genocide up to 300.000 to 400.000 people which is far more than in the Herero and Namaqua genocide. But nobody talks about that, just because the governments of Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda (the countries which nowadays make up the territory of the former colony of German East Africa) are silent about it.
The highest mountain in Oceania is Mt Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea (PNG), named after the youngest child and second son of Chancellor Bismark. It would seem an odd choice to name the highest peak after the third child, but errors in surveying were made which made the explorers think that it was the fourth highest peak in the Bismarck Range and not the highest. The Bismarck Sea and Bismarck Archipelago (which includes The Solomon Islands as well as PNG) are also named after Chancellor Bismarck. Although in 1914 Australia occupied the German Pacific territories south of the Equator, it retained the use of German currency alongside Australian and U.K. pounds, as everybody on September 1914 thought "it will be all over by Christmas" and the colonies would be returned to Germany at the end of the War. Of course it continued for another 4 years.
the map of germany is wrong, Elsaß-Lothringen is not shown as part of germany
I needed this Video. Thank you!
People are so weird about Europe's past. I remember seeing a poll that showed that like a good percentage of Dutch people had a positive view on the country's past. And I commented, "It's weird that they will have a positive look on colonialism." And someone replied, "Of course, you would think that, you're black."
As if you have to be black to think colonialism is bad.
Interactions like that really show me that we need content like this. The amount of ignorance and lack of empathy surrounding the impact of colonialism in Africa is astounding.
That last sentence ^^
I just read one of the replies to the top comment, someone called a colonial figure "based" very annoying reading that.
no, but you're more likely to think so if your black
The Belgian empire is generally thought about as more of a trading empire than a territorial one. They didn't commit atrocities like the Belgians did, I don't think, nor like those of the British, Germans, and French.
@@KingArthurWs Reread your comment.
Because you never hear black people criticize their colonial last!
as a german i have to say the school system varies and in bavaria and badem württemberg its the hardest i live in bavaria and we learn everything about german history very thoroughly and we go year by year and the german youth nowadays just doesnt care in the nothern states so thats often forgotten
Yes, in history class just four pages where dedicated to the genocide of the Herero and Nama people. The overwhelming opinion I get in response of this dark past is „we just had colonies for a very short time and there are more important issues“. I hope history class will change and that this genocide won’t be a sidenote anymore
Thanks for the great video! I just want to put one thing right: While most students feel like history is "mostly" about nazism, this is not true at all. It is - of course - a big topic but it probably is mostly the most memorable. History in school also deals with the (very convoluted and probably less catchy) history before and after nazis. The Weimar Republik and the Kaiserreich, the long period without a german nation state etc. I'm not sure if people misremember this but I feel like most germans overemphasize the time spent on the subject.
The billions of reparations paid each year to the former colonies and all the museums about the colonies makes me think: Germany did not forget.
I'm happy they didn't ask Portuguese about it, or most people would say they were proud, I feel.
Yeah it's my biggest gripe with history class in school cause WW2 while very important to learn about takes up too much time in my school it was an entire year just WW2 we where lucky to even remotely having learned a tiny bit about the scramble for Africa and the GDR wich is a real shame (especially for me as an east German) we didn't even had enough time for getting too the Mauerfall
Why are you lying that much ? Its actually a school topic covering AT LEAST half a year history class in 7 th or 8 th grade. I dont know a single person that isnt aware of that.
Even in the USA. It’s like the only history they make you learn over and over and over. When other country’s did the same thing in the past.
love ur content brother. I would love it if you made a video on russian colonialism done to eastern europe, central Asia, caucas region and the far east
might very well do that!
@@ThePresentPast_ looking forward to it 🙂
I love when ive watched all of someone else's video. Harris Johnny. Then I watch these. I notice the much more clear version here.
Dit was veel goed gedaan. Dank je.
0:04 street names
0:14 Genocide
0:22 Work hard to keep holocaust memory alive but not colonial
0:44 Germans don't know
1:04 poll data
1:18 changing street names
1:35 overshadowed colonial genocide
1:41 1st genocide
2:40 Bismark
3:40 navy and colonial fever
4:30 carving up Africa
4:50 German colonial territories
5:33 killing locals
5:45 China
6:17 r*pe and kill*ng
6:35 Leave women and children alive
7:15 Extermination order
8:05 concentration camps and dismembering bodies
8:20 8:25 racial science
8:23 Hindoo
8:44 Crime against humanity - Parliament
9:00 80% die - 1st genocide of 20th century
9:10 not remembered in Germany
9:30 remembering the past - word
10:55 2015 Auschwitz
11:10 82billion in reparations till 2022
11:20 short colonial period
11:50 national socialism
12:15 protest from outside needed
12:30 solution
13:20 decolonize the city
14:30 reparations
15:00 street name
15:20 Berlin can
15:40 Berlin wall east vs west
16:40 jeans
What about the other African colonies, in West, central and east Africa? How was the condition in these countries? 🇹🇬🇨🇲🇹🇿🇷🇼🇧🇮?
I held a presentation about Germany South-West in middle school. It was very interesting to learn :)
I want to give my own opinion and experience with the subject as a German:
The title is partially right, i am German and i have attended two different schools.
And the school with the lower teaching level did not teach anything about Germany's colonial past, we did however talk about n*zi Germany in great detail (which is obviously very important), but we were never taught about events like the herero genocide in South-West Africa.
However the other school which i attended did cover it with great detail, but the sad part is that this part of our history class was optional to choose because you could choose to not continue the subject or leave the school completly.
I think it's good that this part is taught in school, but regardless i think that this should be part of the basic teaching programm for history class.
Why am I only today learning of the terms Sinti and Roma? I suppose it is because I am American.
Thanks for sharing. This was astoundingly informative.
When I was in 8th grade I had the luck to meet a survivor. The woman was a Sinti herself and we could ask her questions on her experience in a camp. It was very impactful and it's cruel to me that so many peoples suffering is seemingly forgotten.
Roma people are more commonly referred to as Gypsy, but that's seen as derogatory by many people
As a German, but also generally this video is incredibly well made and valuable, thank you for making it!
Apparently my history class was more an exception rather than the norm for German school children/teenagers (I graduated about 10 years ago, for context). I remember learning about colonialism in 9th grade, about the fact that the racial ideology later employed by the Nazis already existed back then.
No, we also learned about that in school. I guess it’s commonly known that the education in Berlin isn’t the best.
@@Tobi-ln9xr that might actually the reason why! Habe in NRW Abi gemacht und da war das definitiv Teil des Curriculums
No one gonna talk about the fact he rickrolled us at 2:50?
He got me too
Big problem with reparation here is that it the victim an crimal roles are tainted. Decendants asking money as compensation for people they never knew from people who never knew the criminals committing the crime is very complex. In WOII criminals and victims were alive and so it was very pure.
No. It isn't tainted at all. At least not by the (and let's get the terms correct) VICTIMS of such atrocities. The money is not being asked for to give to specific individuals but to entire communities. Those communities of Herero and San peoples are FOREVER injured by the genocide committed against them. There is no turning the clock 'off' just because it was 'a long time ago'. Reparations to the Herero and San communities will directly benefit them. If given to the Namibian government, it would be squandered across all of Namibia, thereby watering down the actual effect for those specific communities.
@@ailo4x4Ladies and gentleman. This man right here just single handedly proposed to bankrupt states like Mongolia & Italy, and also Marocco, Turkey and many others.
Mate, once the people who are directly involved are all dead, it’s over. Because if we do what you propose, what we end up with is a never ending conflict of „who did it“ based on issues which are quite literally buried in the soil beneath our feet.
We all sleep on blood soaked earth.
I would recommend you start to figure out a way to live with it unless you wish balance out the wrongs of campaigns by the likes of Ceasar in ancient history. Don’t be so naive.
Im 24 and we talked about the herrero genocide very extensively. I never had the impression that it is forgotten, good video
This is not really forgotten. There is tons of talk about it. The colonial conflict in todays Tanzania was way deadlier btw and yet in the bigger context the german colonial violence was well embedded into a world were everybody and his mother commited similiar or worse crimes. Just think about 1 off the groups effected by the genocide in namibia, the nama. They were eradicated from south africa. Even in Europe ethnic groups were removed in one way or the other, like the circassians in the russian empire.
It is seems really weird to me how this is such a popular topic while i never hear about french colonial rule which was the most brutal one at the time. Anyway, i think it is a namibian-german issue and outside nations bringing it up do it for their own reasons like to distract from their crimes.
I live in South Africa and have family in Namibia. I hope to visit Windhoek sometime soon👍
Merci!
One of the most honorable Germans in this history is General Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck respected by friend and foe
Meanwhile, German East Africa's education was far superior to that of any other African colony, which was stated by members of the Phelps-Stokes Comission in 1924, 10 years after it became the Tanganyika Territory under British rule.
Indeed, but it took the German Empire quite a while to realise that it better invests sustainably into their colonies. That only really picked up around 1910, and abruptly ended with the beginning of WW I, unfortunately.
@@arvidsfar1580 and GEA was a one of a kind project, which wasn't put in place elsewhere.
Correct. GEA outcompeted GSWA almost throughout, both in terms of contributions to national economy, its overall infrastructure and its numerical "absorption" of settlers. The latter is often overlooked, but colonies offered a kind of societal "security valve" for disenfranchised people.
The maps you used were mostly wrong. You always forgot Alsace Lorraine, which belonged to germany, and sometimes also Nordschleswig.
I think one aspect is that the Colonial time was pretty short. we are talking about 30 years or so, since Germany came late (due to Bismarck being very much against Colonies, smart man he was - the only reason he grabbed some after all was political pressure), and lost its colonies after WWI. So yeah, I remember learning about Colonisation in Africa, but since it was about the whole history of Colonisation, including what the French did, what the Brits did, how they competed with each other, that even what the Dutch, Spanish aso did was kind of an after-thought, never mind what Germany did. It just seems to be a small thing in the bigger picture - though naturally it is not a small thing for the Hereros at all.
German historian/ex-history teacher here. THANK YOU for making this video!
In school, we have little time to cover this topic and because there is always not enough time, this topic often gets skipped. The third reich and holocaust however get a lot of time in the lesson plans. This is important, too. But the neglect of the genocide in Africa is a disaster. Renaming the streets is very important and needs to happen in the whole country a lot more.
I have visited museums who gave back skulls and bones with a lot of respect and teach visitors about it. Very important I hope more action will follow.
Speaking of crimes from the past, when will Deutschland will be returned their territory from 1914? Soviet crimes live to this day, and…nobody has a problem with it.
This guilt doesn't seem to exist in France, for example, which still has some parts of it's colonial empire. SOmehow, that's fine.
But no, „Deutschland bad, because funny mustashe man.“ The same points again and again…
1. Germany in WW2 brought an end to Germans living east of the Oder-Neiße line on mass, good luck with that.
2. Yes, other countries did bad things and they should do the same. Other countries doing horrible things doesn't diminish the need for Germans to actively reflect on their history and make sure these events don't reoccur.
I'm sorry to burst your bubble but the "Soviets" only annexed Kalingrad (Königsberg) after WWI because they wanted a port that didn't freeze during winter. Every other part annexed from eastern Germany was annexed by either monarchies or right-wing governments (yes, Poland and Czechia annexed parts of Germany after WWII before being swallowed by the Soviet Union and most history classes skip right from the end of WWII to the begin of the Cold War glossing over everything the happened inbetween).
@@jolly_39they annexed Königsberg in WW2
your "stolen" parts from 1914 where first taken by you during the partition of Poland in 1779-1792. So, we can start arguing "who was there first" dating from 996 but that's really pointless!
@@jolly_39 Poland and Czechia were never parts of Soviet Union, and western borders after the end of WWII where decided by Stalin and Churchill during the Jalta conference, so Poland and Czechia had no say in it...
As a german, we definitely had this topic in history class, 15 years ago in my region, when we as class were around 13-14 years old.
But its not really talked about outside of that place.
I went on a Berlin walking tour recently and was amazed that they understood the concept of remembering their historical crimes but did not refer to colonialism. Thank you for this work, I think you presented the issue really well. !!
its because of its almost irrelevant considering how unknown it was to germans themselves but also to europe . we also dont learn about further into the past of germany its just how it is you have limited time to teach
The reality is, people learn about colonialism in school. They just think they weren't taught because they forget it, and that is because it is a very small aspect of the culture that is not constantly reinforced.
A much needed video! Respect!
These people haven't paid attention in school. We learn all about our colonial history in school.
But maybe this is only in Gymnasium, the highest school form and not the rest, I don't know
It was all about the Holy Roman Empire
Curriculum highly depends on the Bundesland and school forms, yes.
Nein auch auf der Realschule lernt man das.
But everywhere in Europe there's a monument about the holocaust, the school books talk about it casually and say that the Europeans were "heroes", but nothing about the atrocities in Africa and the Americas and neither in Asia... It feel unseasy for me, when I ask about it people tell me is past is done. But the holocaust is not past and done? 300 years are more forgotable than 10~20?
This video theoretically deals with the topic of the German colonial past, but in fact one may get the impression that it was created only to raise the topic of the Herero and Namuqua Genocide, because it does not discuss the entire issue objectively. German colonialism in Africa ended with World War I, Germany fought three war campaigns against the Allies in Africa, and one of them deserves attention. This is something related to the East African Campaign, namely, the topic of Lettow-Vorbeck and the Aksarys. This is quite an extraordinary story and one of the most positive episodes in German history. Lettow-Vorbeck was almost the German equivalent of Lawrence of Arabia. His Askarys were natives trained like Germans and treated as equals to Germans, while the colonial soldiers of the Allied countries were ill-treated in their armies. This made Lettow-Vorbeck's army very effective and many natives from the Allied army defected to Lettow-Vorbeck's side. So the Germans could be proud of this episode.
no.
@@DisOcean8 Why did you think so?
Germany: I am so sorry about the holocaust
Namibia: what about me
Germany: we didn’t do anything to you
Namibia: what no