The world empire of the Germans

Das Weltreich der Deutschen is a German documentary from Broadview TV from 2010 and the title of the book about the film. The colonial history of the German Empire in Wilhelminism is shown . The series combines documentation with game scenes. Directed by Sebastian Dehnhardt , Ricarda Schlosshan and Manfred Oldenburg . The co-producer is ZDF, represented by the editor of contemporary history, Guido Knopp . The historian Horst Gründer acted as scientific advisor .

It was first broadcast on April 6, 2010 (Part 2: April 13 and Part 3: April 20, 2010).

Parts

The documentary series consists of three parts:

• Part 1: "Headhunting in East Africa"
• Part 2: "Storm over Southwest"
• Part 3: "Adventure South Seas"

Head hunting in East Africa

The film covers everything from Hans Meyer's ascent of Kilimanjaro on October 6, 1889 in the German colony of German East Africa to a commemoration of the first ascent in the period after Tanzania's independence.

Then the story of the German colony German East Africa is told from the brutal occupation of the area by Carl Peters in 1884, who is characterized in the film as a racist "Hang-Peters". The coexistence between Africans and Germans was characterized by violence and fear. In the following, the story of the German settlement is told based on the couple Tom and Magdalene von Prince . Tom von Prince comes to East Africa as an officer in the German protection force. The uprising of the Wahehe under their chief Chief Mkwawa (an "extremely capable strategist", a "black Napoleon") is linked to the fate of the couple, insofar as Tom is commissioned by Prince to suppress the uprising. Finally the rebellion is put down. The film also tells of the Maji Maji uprising , which is reconstructed through the reenactment of the battle of Mahenge , among other things . The documentation spans the arc up to the loss of the German colony in the First World War . The film ends in a conciliatory way, insofar as positive aspects of German colonial policy (dentist, language, small progress) are shown. The film ends with film scenes that were created during a celebration on the occasion of the ascent of Kilimanjaro. At the "African" event, a plaque for Hans Meyer will also be unveiled.

The many game scenes are occasionally supplemented by landscape shots, historical photos and a few short historical film recordings. The historian Horst Gründer , the Africanist Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst , the African politician Sengondo Mvungi , the Tanzanian historian Paul Msemwa and the descendants of protagonists at the time all have their say as “contemporary witnesses” . This is what Lettow-Vorbeck's great-nephew Christian von Lettow-Vorbeck said about the guerrilla tactics that his great-uncle used to defend the colony during the First World War. Edmund Mkwawa, one of Mkwawa's grandsons, is allowed to comment on his grandfather's uprising.

Storm over southwest

The basic structure of the film is similar to the previous part (pioneering act, colonial war, reappraisal). But he goes into the peculiarities of South West Africa , today's Namibia .

The film begins with the possession by the Bremen businessman Adolf Lüderitz . After initial hesitation, the Reich government decided to place the arbitrary acquisition of the merchant under the "protection of the German Reich". According to the historian Festus Tjikuua, the "protection agreements" concluded with the locals should be viewed as doubtful, since the signatories did not always understand their scope. The advertisement for the protected area Deutsch-Südwest as a settlement colony is described, which is reconstructed from the records of the emigrant couple Else and Gustav Sonnenberg. Today's members of the Herero tribe , Christian Zeraeua and Alfons Maharero, describe the increasing conflicts between the African tribal ancestors and the Germans due to the competition for pastureland, the dependence on German traders and the unjust justice. The attempt to negotiate in Berlin by the chief's son Friedrich Maharero, which was recreated in the film , remained largely without consequences. The conversation with Wilhelm II is not recorded. The beginning of the Herero uprising in January 1904 is shown using the Sonnenberg family. Gustav Sonnenberg, like 123 other male Germans, was murdered by the Herero. Women and children, including Else Sonnenberg (1879–1967), on the other hand, were expressly spared and cared for by the Herero. Soon after her return to Germany, she published her experiences under the title How it went on the Waterberg .

With the help of computer simulation, the film depicts the later battle on the Waterberg , in which 35,000 Herero including women, children and cattle sought refuge from the protection force under Lothar von Trotha . The successor Gustav-Adolf von Trotha describes the extermination order issued by Trotha to the Herero as "foolish" in the film. The contemporary and Schutztruppe officer Victor Franke is cited as an example of rejection from within his own ranks ("Farce of the worst kind").

The Africanist Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst defines Trotha's order to drive the Herero into the Omaheke desert as genocide . The historian Horst Gründer, however, speaks of differentiation. The order was revoked when it became known in the German Empire, recalled by Trotha and his policy rejected as unchristian. The film closes with the reconciliation meeting between Herero relatives and family members of the von Trothas in Namibia.

Adventure South Seas

The third part of the documentation deals with the South Seas as a projection surface for European fantasies of paradise , which encountered the cultural reality of the native islanders. The ritual cannibalism of the indigenous people of Papua New Guinea is emphasized as a special contrast between the cultures .

The German dropout August Engelhardt serves as an example of the longing for freedom from the constraints of home . His inclination to nudism and vegetarianism is cited as the reason for moving to German New Guinea and retreating to his own island, Kabakon . There he founded a community of "the first German hippies ". The members of the colonial administration are also seen in the film as revealing compared to the conditions in Germany, which is illustrated by the party scenes with the emancipated half-Samoan Emma Kolbe ( Queen Emma ) and the mixed marriage of the governor Albert Hahl . According to the interviewed researcher Hermann Hiery , this informality is due, among other things, to the southern German-influenced, non-Prussian composition of the administrative apparatus. The opposite pole is Father Matthäus Rascher, a German missionary on the island of Neupommern in the Bismarck Archipelago . Rascher is portrayed as a rigorous fighter against promiscuity among the islanders. The murder of the Father and his nuns on August 13, 1904 shows the consequences of the European missionary zeal. The role of Wilhelm Solf as the former governor of Deutsch-Samoas occupies a middle position between the positions of Engelhardt and Rascher . Once respected by the locals for his moderate colonial policy, after his return to Germany he advocated racial segregation in the German colonies by means of marriage ordinance. The historian Horst Gründer interprets this as Solf's attempt to protect Samoan women in particular from attacks. Nevertheless, there were German-Samoan children, which is shown by interviews with today's descendants.

literature

Books about the film:

• Guido Knopp : The German Empire. About colonial dreams, wars and adventures. Pendo, Munich et al. 2010, ISBN 978-3-86612-251-2 ; Revised paperback edition. (= Piper. 6489). Piper, Munich et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-492-26489-1 ).

Further reading:

• Gisela Graichen , Horst Founder : German colonies. Dream and Trauma (= Ullstein. 36940). Unabridged edition, 1st edition. Ullstein, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-548-36940-2 .
• Horst founder: History of the German colonies (= UTB 1332). Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 1985, ISBN 3-506-99369-0 (6th, revised and expanded edition. Ibid 2012, ISBN 978-3-8252-3639-7 ).

Web links

• The empire of the Germans in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Info at broadview.tv

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information from ZDF, April 6, 2010 (offline)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
2. ↑ Information from ZDF, April 6, 2010 (offline)  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
3. ↑ verlag-uwe-krebs.de: Books on the Herero uprising. Press reports , accessed February 10, 2011
4. ↑ az.com.na: Flashbacks to Waterberg 1904 - testimony from Else Sonnenberg ( memento from August 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) , accessed on February 10, 2011
5. ↑ The book was reissued in 2004 under ISBN 3-932030-28-1 .
6. ↑ Video Das Weltreich der Deutschen - Backstage: Tümmel vorm Grünen  in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on January 26, 2014. (offline)
7. ↑ Storm over southwest
8. ↑ Video Das Weltreich der Deutschen - Backstage: FKK im Paradies  in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on January 26, 2014. (offline), Interview on problems with the cinematic representation of the Sun Order nudists with director Sebastian Dehnhardt
9. ↑ Video Adventure South Seas  in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on January 26, 2014. (offline)