Bismarck Archipelago, Neuhannover, Scharnhorst... have you ever heard of these places? Guess what: none of these places are in Germany - on the contrary, they are all very, very far away.
You may have noticed that the GroKo coalition agreement of 2018 mentions the reappraisal of German colonialism for the very first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. But it mainly refers to the African colonies. However, other areas were also part of the German colonial empire, and we're going to take a look at them now:
kiautschou / 膠州, Pinyin Jiāozhōu
The Chinese region of Kiautschou became part of the so-called German protectorate in 1898, 14 years after the colonization of the African territories. The Kaiser urgently needed a naval base in the greater East Asian region and wanted to turn Kiautschou into a preview colony that would show the people, both locally and in this country, how valuable German colonies could be for the domestic economy. The bay and its harbor were therefore of great strategic importance.
The conquest of Kiautschou was not carried out with weapons, as was usually the case, but was purchased from the Chinese Empire with the help of a lease agreement. However, this did not mean that it was free of violence. This treaty was one of many so-called "unequal treaties" imposed on China by the Germans.
Of 190k inhabitants, just under 4300 were German. A 100-strong protection force was also stationed there.
German New Guinea:
In 1899, the German Empire appropriated several island groups in the Pacific Ocean. "German New Guinea" initially comprised
- "Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land" on New Guinea,
- more than 200 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago:
New Hanover
New Mecklenburg
New Pomerania
as well as Palau, the Caroline Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Solomon Islands and the Marshall Islands.
"German New Guinea" is a prime example of the fact that colonialism was primarily economically motivated. The desire for conquest did not come from the government, but from entrepreneurs such as Johann Godeffroy from Hamburg.
The seizure was preceded by years of economic preparations and disputes with the other colonial powers, especially England. In 1880, for example, the "German Trading and Plantation Company of the South Sea Islands" was founded in Hamburg.
The so-called "German South Seas" was the fourth largest colony at around 250,000 km2, with a total of 9 mission stations and 16 schools.
After the First World War, the New Guinea mainland was ceded to Australia. Papua New Guinea has existed as an independent state since 1975.
The other island groups first went to Japan before they too gradually became independent states and republics from the 1980s and 1990s onwards.
German Samoa:
A short time later, in 1900, "German Samoa" followed. Four islands in the west of the country fell victim to German colonialism. This corresponds to an area of around 2600 km2. Of the 35,000 people living there at the time, around 300 were German. There was no special SThe police force was stationed here, but there were still 2 missions and 2 schools.
After the end of the war 1918 German Samoa became a British-New Zealand colony, gained independence in 1962 and has officially been called the "Independent State of Samoa" since 1997.
As in all colonies, German thinking and behavior was based on highly racist ideologies. The people living there were degraded with the help of exaggerated caricatures on postcards and in the press, as well as insulting terms, and were often played off against each other on the ground in order to make the colonization process more efficient.
The gold mark was used as currency throughout the Oceanian colonies; in the state of Samoa, people still pay with the "tala" today. However, the Germans not only brought their "values", goods and visions with them, but also numerous diseases.
As in Africa, Europe divided up islands and parts of land among itself and, where deemed necessary, also used weapons and violence. Resistance on the part of the indigenous populations was usually less brutal, but nevertheless resulted in so-called punitive expeditions. These served the purpose of intimidation, namely through excessive violence, giving lessons and making an example of, for example, people who did not follow the "rules" of the Germans.
Of course, many goods and objects were violently stolen in the course of the punitive expeditions. Many of the looted treasures and objects, as well as human remains, are still stored in German museums today.
But of course, this is only a rough overview. The respective histories of the individual regions, islands and people are of course sometimes very entangled and complex.
By the way: some of the former German colonies are still in colonialist power relations today, e.g. the Mariana Islands, Guam and the eastern part of Samoa ("American Samoa") are still territorial territories of the USA.
Did you already know all this? Which facts do you find surprising?