Martin Dibobe

Martin Dibobe with colleagues from the Berliner Hochbahn, 1902

Berlin memorial plaque on the house, Kuglerstrasse 44, in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg

Martin Dibobe (born October 31, 1876 in Bonapriso , Cameroon , † approx. 1922 in Liberia ?) Was a black train driver in Berlin during the imperial era .

Its original name was Quane a Dibobe . As a child he was baptized by missionaries in the name of Martin Dibobe . Martin Dibobe went to Berlin at the age of 20 to appear at the Berlin trade fair of 1896 as a representative of Cameroon. His task was to portray “everyday African life” in Treptower Park . For six months it was shown together with many other Africans, all of them from the German colonies at the time, as "exhibits". After the exhibition ended, he stayed in Berlin and began an apprenticeship as a locksmith at Conrad Schultz in Strausberg .

At the beginning of 1900 he became engaged to the daughter of his landlord, Helene Noster, and after some difficulties with the German colonial authorities married her in 1902.

In 1902 he took up a position at the Berliner Hochbahn as a train handler, but soon worked his way up to first class train driver. He quickly became a local celebrity in Berlin. He kept in touch with his homeland, Cameroon. After the First World War he campaigned for the recovery of the African colonies of Germany. Martin Dibobe openly sympathized with the Social Democrats and campaigned for equality for Africans. On June 27, 1919, he called for civil rights for all people from the German colonies in a petition . This petition is known in research as the Dibobe petition or the 32-point program. The petition addressed to the Reich Colonial Office included a letter to the Weimar National Assembly, which was signed by seventeen other Afro-Germans.

In 1922 he wanted to return to Africa with his family. To prepare for the move, he traveled alone to Cameroon, which was now under French administration. The French feared he would instigate a pro-German revolt in Cameroon and did not allow him to leave the ship. Dibobe had no choice but to travel on to Liberia. From then on his track is lost. He probably died in Liberia.

A photo of him can be seen in the Hallesches Tor underground station in Berlin , which hangs in the roundabout of the stairwell next to other historical photos.

Martin Dibobe has been commemorating Martin Dibobe since October 31, 2016 - his 140th birthday - on a Berlin plaque on his house at Kuglerstrasse 44 in Prenzlauer Berg . It is the first Berlin memorial plaque for a person of African origin.

Web links

Commons : Martin Dibobe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Article by the Federal Agency for Political Education about African immigration to Germany until 1945 with a photo by Martin Dibobe.
• Susan Djahangard: German Colonial History in Berlin: From Research Object to Train Driver . In: Der Tagesspiegel . October 31, 2016, accessed October 31, 2016 . 
• Black Power in the German Empire at Spiegel Online

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Stefan Gerbing: Afro-German activism. Interventions by colonized people at the turning point of the decolonization of Germany in 1919 . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2010, p. 49 .