Latest / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History / Bismarck's Colonial Gambit: Germany's African Empire
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've covered a lot of Bismarck — the constitution, the welfare state, the anti-socialist laws. But there's one corner of his legacy that feels almost like a footnote in the standard telling, even though it shaped the 20th century in terrible ways: Germany's brief colonial empire. Luna: Right, because Germany only had colonies for about thirty years, didn't it? Lucas: Roughly 1884 to 1918. And Bismarck himself was famously skeptical. He once said the whole colonial business was 'not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier.' But then, suddenly, he called the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, which carved up Africa among European powers, and Germany walked away with four main territories: Togo, Cameroon, German South-West Africa — today's Namibia — and German East Africa, which is Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and a bit of Mozambique. Luna: Why the change of heart? That's a pretty dramatic flip. Lucas: For one listener who supports this show and keeps it ad-free — and if you'd like to join them, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo — for that listener, the answer is partly about domestic politics. Bismarck was facing pressure from colonial lobbyists, people like Carl Peters, who founded the Society for German Colonization. He also wanted to play Britain and France off against each other diplomatically. Colonies were a bargaining chip. And there was a genuine popular imperialist mood — the 'place in the sun' rhetoric. Luna: Yeah, the public seemed to get excited about it, even if Bismarck wasn't personally sold. Lucas: Exactly. So the Berlin Conference is this remarkable moment where Bismarck positions himself as the 'honest broker' mediating between the European powers, but he also secures German claims. The conference established the principle of 'effective occupation' — you had to actually control a territory to claim it, not just plant a flag. But the carve-up was done without any African representation. And the borders they drew — straight lines on a map — are still causing trouble today. Luna: Who were the key figures on the ground, the ones actually doing the claiming? Lucas: Gustav Nachtigal is a big one. He was an explorer and a doctor, and he became the Reichskommissar for West Africa. In 1884, he raised the German flag in Togo and Cameroon, essentially signing treaties with local chiefs — often under dubious circumstances. In East Africa, Carl Peters was the driving force. He was ruthless, famously brutal. He'd sign 'protection treaties' with chiefs who didn't really understand what they were signing, then claim the territory for his colonization society. The German government eventually took over his claims. Luna: And then things got violent fast, didn't they? Lucas: Absolutely. In German South-West Africa, the Herero and Nama peoples revolted against German rule in 1904. The German response was genocidal. General Lothar von Trotha issued the Vernichtungsbefehl — the extermination order — against the Herero. He drove them into the Omaheke Desert, poisoned waterholes, and set up concentration camps on Shark Island. By 1908, about 80% of the Herero and 50% of the Nama had been killed. It is widely considered the first genocide of the 20th century. Luna: And this happened under Bismarck's successors, but the colonial structure he set up enabled it. Lucas: Exactly. Bismarck had left office by 1890, so he wasn't directly responsible for the genocide. But the colonial administration he created allowed it. The military culture of the Kaiserreich, the racial ideology, the lack of civilian oversight — it all fed into the brutality. There was also the Maji Maji Rebellion in German East Africa from 1905 to 1907, where the German response killed hundreds of thousands through a combination of military action and deliberate famine. Luna: The scale of it is staggering, and yet it's not as well-known as other colonial atrocities. Lucas: Partly because the German colonial period was so short. After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles stripped Germany of all its colonies. They were mandated to Britain, France, Belgium, South Africa, and Japan. So the colonial era didn't last long enough to become part of the national identity the way it did for Britain or France. But the memory hasn't gone away. Namibia still negotiates with Germany over reparations and the return of human remains taken for 'scientific' study. In 2021, Germany officially recognized the Herero and Nama genocide and pledged over a billion euros in development aid, though many survivors' groups say it's not enough. Luna: And there's the cultural legacy too — the colonial-era buildings in places like Windhoek, the street names, the museums... Lucas: Right. And also the 'Mittelafrika' dream — the idea of a continuous German colonial empire from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. That was a driving force for German expansionism, and it didn't really die until 1918. So when we think about Bismarck's legacy, we have to include this chapter — the one he didn't really want, but that he nevertheless set in motion. Luna: It's a sobering reminder that even reluctant steps into colonialism can have devastating consequences. Lucas: Exactly. And it's a part of German history that's still being reckoned with, both at home and in the former colonies.