Brown babies

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As brown babies (English "brown babies", Danish: brune børn, German and half-breed children ), after the end of World War II, born of German mothers crew children with African-American called fathers.

From the end of the war, the so-called fraternization ban initially applied, which sanctioned sexual relationships between soldiers of the US Army and German women; but this was canceled in October 1945. In 1948, racial segregation in the US Army was also lifted, which previously would also have opposed an Afro-American-German connection:

"... the marriage between a Negro and a white person is considered to be contrary to the interests of the service, as it would cause a social problem on return to the United States."

- General Office of the Chief of Staff, August 24, 1945

The approximately 4,800 children that arose from the Afro-American-German relations were exposed to hidden and open discrimination in the occupation zones and later in the young Federal Republic - as were their unmarried mothers, who were often referred to as “negro whores”, “American sluts” or fallen girls were insulted.

Both German and US institutions worked to dissolve the relationship, which was perceived as scandalous. The soldiers of the US Army were often transferred to distant places or sent to the Vietnam War. They were advised to abandon their German partners and children. The youth welfare offices , who were the legal guardians of the officially fatherless children, urged the mothers who did not have sole parental authority to give their children to special homes for mixed-race children and later to give them up for adoption . When the first children started school in 1952, the "problem of negro children" was increasingly noticed by the public:

  • The German film Toxi (1952) addressed the situation of 'Brown Babies' in melodramatic form for the first time .
  • the following was discussed in the Bundestag in 1952:

“A special group among the children of the occupation are the 3,093 negro hybrids, who represent a human and racial problem of a special kind. ... The responsible bodies of the independent and official youth care have been thinking about the fate of these mixed race children for years, to which the climatic conditions in our country are not appropriate. It has been considered whether it might not be better for them to be taken to their fathers' homeland. ... This mixed race question will therefore remain an internal German problem that will not be easy to solve. ... When they start school, not only does a new phase of life begin for the mixed race children, but they also enter a new living space from their previous isolation. They are noticeable because of their colourfulness ... Let us therefore endeavor to grant the half-breeds not only legal but also human equality in Germany! ... I mean, we would have the opportunity here to pay off part of the guilt that National Socialism placed on the German people through its racial conceit. "

- Luise Rehling (CDU), Bundestag debate on March 12, 1952

In fact, instead of efforts to integrate, “problem solving” was preferred in that the child was taken away from the illegitimate mother who had no custody and placed in a special “ home for mixed-race children ” - or given up for adoption. The majority of the children were sent to the USA, Denmark and other European countries, such as B. Sweden and Holland adopted. As soon as the mother signed a consent form for anonymous adoption, she no longer had any rights in relation to her child and was prevented from ever researching or contacting her child.

Hundreds of the "Brown Babies" were taken in by African American adoptive parents in the USA. Part of such efforts to put the children in a supposedly “more appropriate” environment was the so-called Brown Baby Plan , initiated by Mabel A. Grammer, a member of the Afro-American , a Mannheim-based magazine for African American US soldiers Journalist. At least 50 children were adopted by US African American families through this plan.

2,000 to 3,000 Afro-German children were placed in Denmark for adoption. Tytte Botfeldt in cooperation with Anna Lorenzen (Hamburg), Lise Nissen, Frøken N. and the Schleswig Women's Service brokered these German children to Danish married couples from 1956 to 1965, from 1964 against existing Danish law. The adoptive parents were not screened for eligibility. Until her death, Mrs. Botfeldt was of the opinion that every child in Denmark would be better off, no matter where they went. In the Brems family, which became famous in Denmark, three of the nine adopted children were tortured to death within two years.

As adults, many of these children felt the need to find and get to know their biological parents.

Today the right to know one's parentage also belongs to the right of personality .

literature

  • Tina Campt, Pascal Grosse: "Mischlingskinder" in post-war Germany: On the relationship between psychology, anthropology and social politics after 1945. In: Psychologie und Geschichte. Vol. 6, Issue 1/2 (September 1994), pp. 48–78 (PDF)
  • Yara-Colette Lemke Muniz de Faria: Between care and exclusion. Afro-German "occupation children" in post-war Germany. Berlin 2002.
  • Yara-Colette Lemke Muniz de Faria: Germany's 'Brown Babies' Must Be Helped! Will You ?: US Adoption Plans for Afro-German Children, 1950–1955. In: Callaloo. Volume 26, No. 2, Spring 2003, pp. 342-362.
  • Joachim Schröder: Subject: illegitimate German colored mixed race children. In: Martin Spetsmann-Kunkel (Hrsg.): Against the mainstream: Critical perspectives on education and society. Waxmann, Münster 2009, pp. 176-201.
  • Amalie Linde, Amalie Kønigsfeldt, Matilde Hørmann-Pallesen: Børneimporten o.O. 2013, ISBN 978-87-7467-136-7 . (Danish)

Documentation

  • Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story (documentary, 102 min, USA 2010, director: Regina Griffin; website )
  • Brown Babies - Germany's lost children (documentary, 45/52/60 min, Germany 2010, director: Michaela Kirst , first broadcast: September 14, 2011)

Art and literature

Larissa Boehning's debut novel "Lichte fabrics" was published in 2007. The protagonist Nele Niebuhr searches America for the man who made her grandmother pregnant in Berlin in 1946 and then disappeared forever.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "... the marriage between a Negro and a white person is considered against the best interest of the service [since] a marriage of a Negro and a white foreign person would create a social problem upon return to the United States." NA, RG 338, EUCOM, Secretary, General Office of the Chief of Staff, Confidential, Hq. IX Air Force Service Command, Policy No. 47 on Marriage of Colored Soldiers and White Women, 24 August 1945. Quoted in: Lemke Muniz de Faria: Germany's 'Brown Babies' Must Be Helped! Will you? In: Callaloo. 26/2 (2003), p. 345, footnote 10
  2. ↑ Lemke Muniz de Faria: Germany's 'Brown Babies' Must Be Helped! Will you? In: Callaloo. 26/2 (2003), p. 344: 4,776 out of a total of 67,770 children of occupation soldiers.
  3. ↑ Negotiations of the German Bundestag, Stenographic Reports, 1st Legislative Period, Volume 10, 198th Meeting on March 12, 1952, Item 10 of the Agenda, pp. 8505ff.
  4. ^ Schröder: Subject: illegitimate German colored mixed race children. 2009, p. 182.
  5. ↑ Børneimporten, p. 10.
  6. ↑ Børneimporten, p. 9.
  7. ↑ Børneimporten, p. 23 and p. 133
  8. ↑ Børneimporten, p. 189.
  9. ↑ www.arte.tv ( Memento of the original from July 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arte.tv
  10. ↑ Download on planet-schule.de
  11. ↑ 1st edition. Eichborn, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8218-0737-9 .