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“Colonized Body,” “Oriental Machine”: Debating Race, Railroads, and the Politics of Reconstruction in Germany and East Africa, 1906–1910

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Bradley D. Naranch
Affiliation:
Johns Hopkins University

Extract

The years 1906–1910 were a period of crisis and unstable consensus in German colonial history. In contrast to the debates of the previous two decades following Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's 1884 decision to establish overseas protectorates, colonial discourse in Germany after 1905 shifted decisively away from abstract considerations of the desirability of colonies for economic and imperialist expansion to focus on the more practical matters of colonial policy and long-term developmental reform. Indeed, given the fact that by 1905 the German colonial empire covered a sprawling expanse of land six times the size of the German state, including territories in Africa, the South Pacific, and a naval base (Tsingtao) on the coast of China, the enormous challenges of managing its far-flung and costly possessions were becoming increasingly difficult to meet. For better or for worse, the Kaiserreich had become a de facto colonial power, and German society was increasingly and uncomfortably being forced to recognize the hazards and burdens of its fledgling global empire.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 2000

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References

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10. Iliffe's models of “a white man's country” and “a land of free Negro peasants” effectively highlights the economic and racial dimensions of the debate but fails to link the localized power struggles in the colony with the larger debates in Germany. Smith argues for an enduring divide between “settlement colonialism” (Lebensraum) and “economic colonialism” (Weltpolitik), ideologies that characterized German colonial debate from the 1850s until the rise of Nazism. His overarching theoretical framework remains too homogenous a model for understanding the complexity of issues introduced during 1906–1910 that distinguished them from the previous and post-1919 debates over German colonialism. Koponen, varying Smith's models, describes the opposing camps as “nationalist” and “capitalist.” These terms, however, obscure the fact that Dernburg and Rechenberg also pursued nationalist aims and tend to conflate under the category “capitalist” groups with very different notions of German colonial identity. Renate Nestvogel has suggested two dominant colonial models based on the “English” system of passive rule exemplified in British India and the more confrontational “Boer” model adopted in Southwest Africa. While Nestvogel rightly emphasizes the degree to which Germany policymakers relied upon the programs of more experienced colonizing states, her comparative terminology obscures the procedural and conceptual differences between German, British, and Boer strategies of colonization. See Nestvogel, and Rainer, Tetzlaff, eds., Afrika und der deutsche Kolonialismus: Zivilisierung zwischen Schnapshandel und Bibeltunde (Berlin, 1987)Google Scholar. Other historians, like Schiefel, rely upon accepted colonial typologies used in Wilhelmian Germany of “trading colony,” “settler colony,” and “plantation colony.” The limitations of such economically-oriented categories in expressing the complex nexus of national, imperial, and racial issues that characterized colonial discourse, however, were evident even to contemporaries.

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13. This shift in colonial policy from violent forms of extraction of raw materials and exploitation of indigenous inhabitants to a more moderate course of infrastructural improvements, technological advance, and encouragement of local forms of production is part of what Koponen has called “the developmental imperative.” Although such a shift in policy led to some improvements in colonial East Africa, he argues, the goal of German developmental initiatives was ultimately a more sophisticated and efficient form of exploitation, one which provided a basic model for development after 1919 for the British and later the postindependence Tanzanian state. See Koponen, , Development, 168–77.Google Scholar

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20. Die Stenographischen Berichte zu den Verhandlungen des Reichstages, Bd. 5,128. Sitzung, 28 November 1906, 3961–62.

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43. Glassman, Bald, and Koponen all provide detailed information on the structural weaknesses of German colonial rule in East Africa. On the formation of the colonial state in East Africa, see esp. Koponen, , Development, 94143.Google Scholar

44. Schulthess' Europäischer Geschichtskalender 49 (1908), 32.Google Scholar

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47. A close but highly competitive friend of Dernburg, Rathenau also accompanied him on his tour of German Southwest Africa in 1908. See Bongard, , Staatssekretär Dernburg in British- und Deutsch-Süd-Afrika (Berlin, 1908)Google Scholar. His tendency to upstage Dernburg during the trips earned him the title, the “Colonial Undersecretary. See Wilderotter, Hans, “Die Neue Ära: Walther Rathenau im Umkreis der ‘Weltpolitik,’” in: Die Extreme berühren sich: Walther Rathenau, 1867–1922, ed. idem, (Berlin, 1993).Google Scholar

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49. Kölnische Zeitung, 13 August 1907, no. 844, 2nd morning ed., 1.

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61. Schulthess' Europaischer Geschichtskalender, 49.

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68. Dernburg to Voith, BHA R 1001 RKA 120, 10–17.

69. As they had done during the scandal-plagued years of the 1890s, German newspapers played an essential role in increasing the general level of awareness of the affairs in the colonies after the massive uprisings in East and Southwest Africa. Telegraphed reports of Dernburg's journey were printed several times a week in many newspapers, and longer accounts, printed approximately every two to three weeks, often appeared on the front page in the Berliner Morgenpost, Tägliche Rundschau, Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, Kölnische Zeitung, Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten, and Generalanzeiger Düsseldorf und Elberfeld. The reports of Zimmermann, who worked for the Wolff Telegraph Bureau, were published in a variety of newspapers, including the Hamburger Nachrichten and the Deutsche Kolonialzeitung. To my knowledge, there exist no recent studies of the role of the media as a popularizer of empire in Germany comparable to John MacKenzie's groundbreaking work for the British Empire. See MacKenzie, , Propaganda and Empire: The Manipulation of British Public Opinion 1880–1960 (Manchester, 1984)Google Scholaridem, , Imperialism and Popular Culture (Manchester, 1993).Google Scholar

70. On the role of the colonial traveler as narrator, see Pratt, , Imperial Eyes, chap. 5.Google Scholar

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75. Koponen, , Development, 277–81.Google Scholar

76. Verhandlungen des Reichstages, Bd. 231, 125. Sitzung, 18 March 1908, 4069–71.

77. Zimmermann, , Mit Dernburg, 89.Google Scholar

78. Verhandlungen des Reichstages, Bd. 235, 125. Sitzung, 18 March 1908, 4033. See also ibid., Bd. 231, 126. Sitzung, 19 March 1908, 4116–18; ibid., Bd. 235, 215. Sitzung, 27 February 1909, 7210, and Markmiller, , Erziehung, 5788Google Scholar; Koponen, , Development, 321440.Google Scholar

79. Verhandlungen des Reichstages, Bd. 235, 214. Sitzung, 26 February 1909, 7176.

80. Detlef Bald has described the “master-race mentality” and social Darwinist sentiments prevalent among the settlers' interest groups in German East Africa, in Bald, , Deutsch-Ostafrika, 7174, 127–28, 139–40Google Scholar, and the statements of Liebert on “Aryan racial consciousness,” 113–14. For examples of social Darwinist rhetoric in the Reichstag, compare the comments of National Liberal Goller, Verhandlungen des Reichstages, Bd. 235, 214. Sitzung, 26 February 1907, 7189–90. Examples of social Darwinist theory among German colonial publicists include: Hans, Zache, “Deutsch-Ostafrika,” in Deutschland als Kolonialmacht: Dreissig Jahre deutsche Kolonialgeschichte, Kaiser-Wilhelm Dank: Verein der Soldatenfreunde (Berlin, 1914), 85Google Scholar; Waldemar, Schütze, “Farbe gegen Weiss in Afrika,” Zeitschrift für Kolonialpolitik, Kolonialrecht und Kolonialwirtschaft (Berlin, 1906)Google Scholar. For more general readings on the usage of social Darwinism in imperial Germany, see Koch, W. H., Der Sozialdarwinismus: Seine Genese und sein Einfluss auf das imperialistische Denken (Munich, 1973)Google Scholar; Alfred, Kelly, The Descent of Darwin: The Popularization of Darwinism in Germany, 1860–1914 (Chapel Hill, 1981).Google Scholar

81. Arendt, Otto, “Die Eingeborenenfrage im Hinblick auf die wirtschaftliche und politische Entwicklung unserer tropischen Kolonien,” Zeitschrift für Kolonialpolitik, Kolonialrecht und Kolonialwirtschaft 7 (07 1908): 528–44.Google Scholar

82. Verhandlungen des Reichstages, Bd. 235, 214. Sitzung, 26 Februrary 1909, 7172.

83. Schulthess' Europäischer Geschichtskalender, 41–42; Bongard, , Die Studienreise, 74Google Scholar; Toeppen, , “Staatssekretär Dernburg und die Wünsche der Pflanzer,” Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger, 4 October 1907, 1st ed., 1.Google Scholar

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85. Schroeter, Helmut and Ramaer, Roel, Die Eisenbahnen in den einst deutschen Schutzgebieten: Damals und heute (Krefeld, 1993).Google Scholar

86. Arendt's phrase is from a Reichstag speech: Verhandlungen des Reichstages, Bd. 228, 46. Sitzung, 4 May 1907, 1413. For details on the railroad debates, see the articles in the Tägliche Rundschau: Jaeger, Fritz, “Zur ostafrikanischen Eisenbahnfrage,” 27 08 1907, 399Google Scholar and Wagner, Rudolf, “Ein ostafrikanisches Eisenbahnmonopol?” 13 09 1907, 429.Google Scholar

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88. Verhandlungen des Reichstages, Bd. 231, 124. Sitzung, 4027–30. Additional details can be found in Schiefel, , Dernburg, 9299Google Scholar; Koponen, , Development, 297314.Google Scholar

89. Otto, Jöhlinger, “Dernburg im Lichte der Presse,” Koloniale Rundschau: Monatsheft für die Interessen unserer Schutzgebiete und ihrer Bewohner 1 (1910): 444–53Google Scholar. The Koloniale Rundschau was one of the few colonial journals to support Dernburg on a regular basis. The Deutsche Kolonialzeitung's stance was more ambiguous, publishing articles in support of and against Dernburg with relative frequency. One of the most extreme cases in which a former supporter of Dernburg became his bitter enemy after the Studienreise is Maximilian Harden's. Compare his early, flowing praise of Dernburg in Die Zukunft 56, 57, and 58 (see n. 19) with his harsh, sarcastic assessment of Dernburg's Studienreise, ibid., 62 (1908): 410–14. Among the few pamphlets in support of Dernburg's reforms published anonymously, perhaps an indication of the personal dangers of allying too closely with Dernburg: Africanus, Minor, Dernburg's Programm: Ein Wendepunkt im Schicksal Deutsch-Ostafrikas oder ein Negerland unter deutscher Flagge? (Berlin, 1908).Google Scholar

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93. Iiffe, , Tanganyika under German Rule, 47Google Scholar. According to Spellmeyer's calculations (Spellmeyer, , Deutsche Kolonialpolitik, 111Google Scholar ) 26 Reichstag delegates had visited one or more of the German colonies by December 1908. Paasche had been to East Africa in the summer of 1908, Liebert was governor of the colony from 1896–1906, and Arendt had served there as medical surgeon.

94. Verhandlungen des Reichstages, Bd. 231,124. Sitzung, 17 March 1908. 4042–43; ibid., 125. Sitzung, 18 March 1908, 4071–72, ibid., 127. Sitzung, 20 March 1908, 4143.

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