Jürgen Zimmerer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jürgen Zimmerer in May 2019 during a discussion in the ZEIT Forum Wissenschaft about the Humboldt Forum .

Jürgen Zimmerer (born April 14, 1965 in Wörth an der Donau ) is a German historian and Africa scientist . He has been Professor of African History at the University of Hamburg since 2010 and has headed the Research Center Hamburg's (post-) colonial heritage since 2014 . Zimmerer is one of the leading exponents of the so-called continuity thesis, which sees a continuity between the colonial crimes of the German Empire in South West Africa and the Holocaust .

Life

Jürgen Zimmerer studied history, political science and German at the Universities of Regensburg , Oxford and Freiburg i. Br. His academic teachers included Leslie Mitchell , Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann , Judith M. Brown and Terence Osborn Ranger . In 1991 the master's degree at the University of Oxford followed, in 2000 the doctorate in Freiburg / Br. with a work on German colonial rule in Namibia supervised by Wolfgang Reinhard and Christoph Marx . From 2001 to 2002 he was a lecturer in African history at the University of Kiel and from 2002 to 2004 as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Coimbra in Portugal. From 2004 to 2005 he was a research assistant at the University of Duisburg-Essen , from 2005 to 2010 first lecturer and then reader in global history at the University of Sheffield . In 2008 he founded the Sheffield Center for Genocide Studies there, the first of its kind in Great Britain. In 2010, he turned down a professorship at the University of Minnesota / Minneapolis, combined with the post of director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies there, and accepted a professorship for global history (with a focus on Africa) at the University of Hamburg. Zimmerer has been teaching there since the 2010/11 winter semester as the successor to Andreas Eckert .

In 2014 Jürgen Zimmerer became the founding director of the Research Center Hamburg's (post) colonial legacy. He is a member of the Council for Migration , the Association of Historians in Germany , the American Historical Association , the Association of Africanists in Germany , the Military History Working Group and the Research Foundation for Comparative European Overseas History . Zimmerer is a co-founder of the International Network of Genocide Scholars and was its founding president from 2005 to 2017. From 2005 to 2011 he was editor of the Journal of Genocide Research .

Zimmerer is married and has two daughters.

Research priorities

His main research interests are the history of colonialism , postcolonialism , comparative genocide research , the history of the Holocaust , the Cold War and the history of Portugal and the lusophonic world . Along with Dirk Moses, Zimmerer is one of the main representatives of the post-colonial continuity thesis, which assumes the various conditions, lines of force and continuities of colonialism and National Socialism . Hannah Arendt and Aimé Césaire had already pointed out possible lines of reference and connection between colonialism, imperialism and the Holocaust in the 1950s. In 2003 Zimmerer published his first essay on the relationship between colonialism and National Socialism. The aim of the article is the "systematic attempt [...] to portray the National Socialist expansion and occupation policy as colonial". He has the merit of having shown a number of similarities between colonialism and National Socialism and of having brought Germany's colonial past increasingly into academic and political discussions. In addition, he provided new impulses for the discussion about the connection between colonialism, violence and annihilation and reformulated and empirically substantiated the question of the effects of the massacres carried out during the colonial era. According to Zimmerer, the behavior practiced by the colonial rulers was taken as a model and perfected by the National Socialists. According to Zimmerer's thesis, the “crimes of the National Socialists cannot be traced back to the tradition of European colonialism monocausally”, but this is an “important source of ideas”. According to Zimmerer, the suppression of the Herero uprising was “the first German genocide” of the 20th century. He drew a line of genocidal violence from " Windhoek to Auschwitz". The campaign against the Herero and later the Nama was in many ways "paradigmatic for the National Socialist war of annihilation" and "even the murder of the Jews" was "probably not possible" without the colonial preliminary stages. In Zimmerer's view, the colonial example shows “the destructive and inhumane potential in parts of the bureaucratic and military establishment that already showed genocidal traits”. For Michael Brumlik, the “role model function of the German colonial wars” for the National Socialist extermination policy is “becoming increasingly plausible”. On the other hand, Pascal Grosse, Gesine Krüger and Birthe Kundrus and Steffen Klävers have pointed out structural defects in the continuity thesis. The concept of genocide ignored the historical specifics of the Holocaust, structural similarities between colonial intermarriage prohibitions and Nuremberg laws have proven to be too different, or the distinction between colonial racism and anti-Semitism has not been adequately taken into account. Rather, Birthe Kundrus emphasized the structural differences between German colonialism and the Holocaust. There are clear "differences in the underlying racist enemy images and the resulting practice of persecution". In more recent essays, Zimmerer admitted that other strands of tradition such as anti-Semitism , anti-Bolshevism and anti- Slavism also play a role on the way from Windhoek to Auschwitz. In 2011 Zimmerer published twelve essays on this topic from 2001 to 2009 in an anthology. In the foreword, Zimmerer justified the publication of the anthology primarily by wanting to present his arguments in a bundled manner.

With his dissertation on political and administrative history, Zimmerer aims to close the gap in the systematic treatment of “native politics” during German rule in Namibia between 1905 and 1914. For his investigation, Zimmerer not only evaluated the archives of the Reich Colonial Office in the Federal Archives in Berlin-Lichterfelde, but also the archives of the central office of the imperial government, which are only freely accessible on site in Windhoek. He mainly deals with the “native ordinances” issued by the German colonial government in mid-August 1907. Zimmerer has for the first time reconstructed the history of their origins in detail and compared the legal norms set out in the legal texts with legal reality. According to Zimmerer, the aim of these measures was to establish a "racial society of privilege".

In 2004, the colonial war waged by the German Empire against the Herero and Nama in German South West Africa (now Namibia) was celebrated for the hundredth time. On this occasion, Zimmerer and Joachim Zeller published the anthology Genölkermord in Deutsch-Südwestafrika .

In 2001, Étienne François and Hagen Schulze published the three-volume presentation of German places of remembrance . They gave insights into what they consider to be the 121 most important points of reference in the cultural memory of Germans. However, the colonial past was left out. As a consequence, Zimmerer calls for a post-colonial expansion of the view of German (memory) history. The anthology published by Zimmerer in 2013 No place in the sun. Places of remembrance from German colonial history contain a total of 32 essays. With the selection, Zimmerer is pursuing the goal of "representing the (post) colonial world of the Germans in all its breadth". His approach goes far beyond the time of direct colonial rule. Rather, he wants to “explore the historical place of colonialism in German history”.

Contributions to the debate

Jürgen Zimmerer is considered a critic of the Berlin Humboldt Forum , in whose concept he identified a colonial vacancy as early as 2015. In 2017, he criticized what he believed to be the colonial amnesia among the makers there: the colonial objects, the colonial tradition and even the rebuilt city palace would refer to colonialism. In order to relieve the Humboldt Forum, he called for a central memorial and research location in Germany, for which Hamburg, in particular, as the German colonial metropolis, would be considered. In 2018 he repeated his request in the New York Times . For Zimmerer, the post-colonial debates are the “central debates on identity in Europe”.

In the discussion about looted colonial art and post-colonial provenance research , at the 2015 annual conference of the German Museum Association in Essen, he called for the burden of proof for collections from colonial contexts to be reversed due to an extreme power imbalance caused by the colonial situation. Zimmerer was part of the expert group of the German Museum Association , which in 2018/19 developed its guidelines for dealing with collections from colonial contexts.

As one of the first genocide researchers, Zimmerer dealt with the relationship between climate change, collective violence and genocide. He advocated taking environmental change and scarcity of resources seriously as catalysts of violence and coined the term "environmental violence" for this. He was Principal Investigator at the Cluster of Excellence " Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction " (clisap).

Fonts (selection)

Monographs

  • From Windhoek to Auschwitz? Contributions to the relationship between colonialism and the Holocaust (= Periplus studies. Vol. 15). LIT Verlag, Münster 2011, ISBN 978-3-8258-9055-1 .
  • German rule over Africans. State claim to power and reality in colonial Namibia (= Europe - overseas, historical studies. Vol. 10). Lit, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-8258-5047-1 (also: Freiburg (Breisgau), University, dissertation, 2000)

Editorships

  • No place in the sun. Places of remembrance of German colonial history. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2013, ISBN 978-3-593-39811-2 .
  • with Joachim Zeller: Genocide in German South West Africa. The colonial war (1904–1908) in Namibia and its consequences (= highlights of colonial history. Vol. 2). 2nd Edition. Links, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-86153-303-0 .
  • Climate change, environmental violence and genocide. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London a. a, 2015, ISBN 978-1-138-05889-7 .
  • with Dominik J. Schaller, The Origins of Genocide. Raphael Lemkin as a historian of mass violence. Routledge, London 2009, ISBN 0-415-48026-4 .
  • with Michael Perraudin, With Katy Heady: German Colonialism and National Identity (= Routledge Studies in Modern European History. Vol. 14). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, New York et al. 2011, ISBN 978-1-138-86808-3 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Member of the Council for Migration
  2. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: From Windhoek to Auschwitz? Contributions to the relationship between colonialism and the Holocaust. Münster 2011. See: Stephan Malinowski, Robert Gerwarth: The Holocaust as a “colonial genocide”? European colonial violence and the National Socialist war of extermination. In: Geschichte und Gesellschaft 33 (2007), pp. 439–466, here: p. 440 ( online )
  3. ↑ Steffen Klävers: Decolonizing Auschwitz ?. Comparative-Postcolonial Approaches in Holocaust Research. Berlin 2019, p. 223.
  4. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: Holocaust and Colonialism. Contribution to the archeology of genocidal thought. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft Vol. 51 (2003), pp. 1098–1119.
  5. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: Holocaust and Colonialism. Contribution to the archeology of genocidal thought. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft Vol. 51 (2003), pp. 1098–1119, here: p. 1099.
  6. ↑ See the review by Thomas Morlang in: Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift 71 (2012), pp. 408–410, here: p. 409.
  7. ↑ Steffen Klävers: Decolonizing Auschwitz ?. Comparative-Postcolonial Approaches in Holocaust Research. Berlin 2019, p. 132.
  8. ↑ See Stephan Malinowski, Robert Gerwarth: The Holocaust as "colonial genocide"? European colonial violence and the National Socialist war of extermination. In: Geschichte und Gesellschaft 33 (2007), pp. 439–466, here: p. 440 ( online )
  9. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: From Windhoek to Auschwitz? Contributions to the relationship between colonialism and the Holocaust. Münster 2011, p. 171.
  10. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: War, concentration camps and genocide in South West Africa. The first German genocide. In: Jürgen Zimmerer, Joachim Zeller (Ed.): Genocide in German South West Africa. The colonial war (1904–1908) in Namibia and its consequences. Berlin 2003, pp. 45-63.
  11. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: The birth of the "Ostland" from the spirit of colonialism. A post-colonial look at the Nazi policy of conquest and extermination. In: Social.History. Journal for the Historical Analysis of the 20th and 21st Centuries , 2004, pp. 10–43; Jürgen Zimmerer: Holocaust and Colonialism. Contribution to the archeology of genocidal thought. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft Vol. 51 (2003), pp. 1098–1119; Jürgen Zimmerer: War, concentration camp and genocide in South West Africa. The first German genocide. In: Jürgen Zimmerer, Joachim Zeller (Hrsg.): Genocide in German South West Africa. The colonial war (1904–1908) in Namibia and its consequences. Berlin 2003, pp. 45-63.
  12. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: War, concentration camps and genocide in South West Africa. The first German genocide. In: Jürgen Zimmerer, Joachim Zeller (Ed.): Genocide in German South West Africa. The colonial war (1904–1908) in Namibia and its consequences. Berlin 2003, pp. 45–63, here: pp. 62 f .; Jürgen Zimmerer: The birth of the "Ostland" from the spirit of colonialism. A post-colonial look at the Nazi policy of conquest and extermination. In: Social.History. Journal for the historical analysis of the 20th and 21st centuries , 2004, pp. 10–43, here: p. 29.
  13. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: From Windhoek to Auschwitz? Contributions to the relationship between colonialism and the Holocaust. Münster 2011, p. 42.
  14. ↑ Michael Brumlik: The Century of Extremes. In: Irmtrud Wojak, Susanne Meinl (ed.): Genocide and war crimes in the first half of the 20th century. Frankfurt 2004, pp. 19–36, here p. 28.
  15. ↑ Pascal Grosse: What Does German Colonialism Have to Do with National Socialism? A conceptual framework. In: Eric Ames, Marcia Klotz, Lora Wildenthal (eds.): Germany's Colonial Pasts. Lincoln 2005, pp. 115-134; Birthe Kundrus: continuities, parallels, receptions. Considerations on the "colonization" of National Socialism. In: Werkstattgeschichte 43. 2006, pp. 45–62; Brithe Kundrus: From the Herero to the Holocaust? Some comments on the current debate. In: Mittelweg 2005, pp. 82–91; Birthe Kundrus: From Windhoek to Nuremberg? Colonial "mixed marriages" and the National Socialist racial legislation. In this. (Ed.): "Imaginative". German colonialism from a cultural-historical perspective. Frankfurt 2003, pp. 110-131; Gesine Krüger: Overcoming the War and Awareness of History. Reality, interpretation and processing of the German colonial war in Namibia 1904 to 1907. Göttingen 1999, pp. 62–69; Steffen Klävers: Decolonizing Auschwitz? Comparative-Postcolonial Approaches in Holocaust Research. Berlin 2019.
  16. ↑ Steffen Klävers: Decolonizing Auschwitz? Comparative-Postcolonial Approaches in Holocaust Research. Berlin 2019, p. 131.
  17. ^ Birthe Kundrus: From Windhoek to Nuremberg? Colonial "mixed marriages" and the National Socialist racial legislation. In: Birthe Kundrus (Ed.): Imaginative. On the cultural history of German colonialism. Frankfurt am Main: Campus, pp. 110–131, here: p. 111.
  18. ↑ See the reviews of Thomas Morlang in: Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift 71 (2012), pp. 408–410; Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann in: Francia-Recensio 2013/1 ( online ); Stephan Malinowski in: The English Historical Review 128 (2013), pp. 722-724; Karsten Linne in: Journal of History, Vol. 60 (2012), pp. 458–459.
  19. ↑ Cf. on this work the reviews of Jan H. Böttger in: Historische Zeitschrift. 276, 2003, pp. 496-498; Joachim Zeller in: H-Soz-Kult , April 16, 2002, ( online ): Jan-Bart Gewald in: The journal of African history. 46, 2005, pp. 173-175 ( online ); Andreas Eckert in: African Affairs. 102, 2003, pp. 525-526; Tilman Dedering in: South African Historical Journal. 47, 2002, pp. 258-259; Isabel V. Hull in: Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 18, 2004, pp. 503-506; Dirk van Laak in: The Historical-Political Book . 50, 2002, pp. 590-591.
  20. ↑ See the review by Joachim Zeller in: H-Soz-Kult . , April 16, 2002, ( online ).
  21. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: German rule over Africans. State claim to power and reality in colonial Namibia. 2nd, revised edition. Münster et al. 2002, p. 93.
  22. ↑ See the reviews of Horst founder in: Historische Zeitschrift . 279, 2004, pp. 775-776; Birgit Aschmann in: Social.History. NF 20, 2005, pp. 111-113 ( online ); Sonia Abun-Nasr in: The Historical-Political Book. 53, 2005, p. 78.
  23. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: Colonialism and collective identity. Places of remembrance of German colonial history. In: No place in the sun. Places of remembrance of German colonial history. Frankfurt am Main et al. 2013, pp. 9–38, here: p. 13.
  24. ↑ See the reviews of Ina Markova in: sehepunkte 14 (2014), No. 4 [15. April 2014], ( online ); Thomas Morlang: in: H-Soz-Kult , February 11, 2014, ( online ); Ulrich van der Heyden in: Historische Zeitschrift 299 (2014), pp. 816–818; Wulf D. Hund in: Archives for Social History 55 (2015) ( online )
  25. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: Colonialism and collective identity. Places of remembrance of German colonial history. In: No place in the sun. Places of remembrance of German colonial history. Frankfurt am Main et al. 2013, pp. 9–38, here: p. 33.
  26. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: Colonialism and collective identity. Places of remembrance of German colonial history. In: No place in the sun. Places of remembrance of German colonial history. Frankfurt am Main et al. 2013, pp. 9–38, here: p. 10.
  27. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: Humboldt Forum: The Colonial Forgetting
  28. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer: Colonialism is not child's play. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. August 9, 2017, p. 11 ( online )
  29. ↑ John Eligon: Big Hole in Germany's Nazi Reckoning? Its Colonial History In: New York Times , September 11, 2018.
  30. ↑ Difficult legacy Kirsten Dietrich speaks with the colonialism researcher Jürgen Zimmerer . Kulturradio, May 27, 2018.
  31. ↑ Cultural assets from the colonial era - a difficult legacy?
  32. ↑ Guide to dealing with collection items from colonial contexts
  33. ↑ CliSAP Cluster of Excellence
personal data
SURNAME Carpenter, Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Wörth on the Danube