Slavery in Germany

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Ignatius Fortuna, living as a slave in Germany behind his mistress, Franziska Christine von Pfalz-Sulzbach (18th century)

Under slavery in Germany various phenomena of abduction and enslavement of people on German soil are combined at different times. The existence of slavery in Germany has long been denied, as there was no positive slave law in Germany at any time . Nevertheless, according to recent research, there have been cases of slavery within the framework of the Atlantic slave trade on German soil. The extent and effects of these phenomena were researched at the University of Bremen as part of a research project The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and its Slaves with funding from the European Research Council . Whether or not Nazi forced labor during the Nazi era can also be viewed as a form of slavery is controversial.

Forced labor , forced prostitution and modern forms of debt bondage are punished in the 21st century as crimes against personal freedom (§§ 232 ff. StGB ). They belong to the cross-border manifestations of organized crime .

history

middle Ages

As early as the 9th century, there was evidence of a brisk trade in Slavic prisoners of war who were sold to slave traders in the Caliphate of Córdoba . According to the Belgian historian Charles Verlinden , trade was mostly in the hands of Jewish merchants : Ludwig the Pious (813–840) had granted them the right to domestic slave trade in the Franconian Empire . During Henry I's Slav campaigns in 928/929 , the defeated men were slain, women and children were enslaved. The usual route by which slaves were exported from East Germany to the Muslim cultural area led either via Venice and the sea route or by land via Koblenz and Verdun , where many of them were made eunuchs , and on through France to Arles . The Israeli historian Michael Toch , on the other hand, denies the thesis that Jews predominated in the medieval slave trade. It was due to anti-Jewish polemics, to the erroneous identification of slave ownership with the slave trade and through the Hebrew language , in which slaves and servants were referred to by the same word. According to Toch, there was no professional slave trade in Germany until the 10th century, at most from the "acquisition of mostly Slavic slaves as servants for domestic use".

In the High Middle Ages , slave hunts played a role in connection with the German settlement in the east : real raids were carried out against pagan Balts and Slavs . The centers of the German slave trade were Regensburg and Prague . With the Christianization of the Slavic regions and the Baltic States, the large-scale long-distance trafficking in Central Europe came to an end.

Participation in the transatlantic slave trade

German traders were already active as buyers and sellers in the early days of the Atlantic slave trade. Often the participation of the German traders in the slave trade was hardly visible because the ships used did not sail under the German flag.

Already in 1582 the Welsers committed themselves to deliver 4,000 African slaves to Hispaniola and undertook a total of 45 slave transports in the following years up to 1536. Other well-known merchant families from Germany, such as the Fugger and the Ehinger, were also involved in the slave trade. In 1682 a trading company was founded under Elector Friedrich Wilhelm in Berlin, which had a branch for the slave trade in what is now Ghana and on the island of St. Thomas . It is estimated that up to 17,000 Africans were sold into slavery on the Caribbean islands by this Brandenburg-African Company (BAC).

German merchants also let slaves work for themselves on plantations abroad and also kept house slaves in their homes in other European countries. From 1660 to 1830, around a thousand wholesalers from Germany lived in the three important ports of colonial trade, Cadiz , Bordeaux and London , all of whom were directly or indirectly involved in the plantation economy. The Hamburg wholesaler Carl von Schimmelmann became one of the richest people in Europe through the slave trade, among other things.

After the ban on the slave trade by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which was enforced by Great Britain , the Royal Navy repeatedly brought up Hamburg sailors in the 1820s and 1830s who wanted to illegally import slaves to Brazil . It was not until 1837 that Hamburg joined the treaty to abolish slavery.

In the Holy Roman Empire

On German soil itself, foreign people were treated as property of Germans during the time of the Holy Roman Empire and were sold or given away. The change from one owner to another took place frequently, without the word slave or slave was officially used. Yet it is precisely this treatment of people as realizable property that is at the core of slavery. While it was sometimes assumed that people who were abducted in this way and regarded as property were individual cases, especially in port cities or at princely courts, we now know that the practice of slavery was widespread throughout Germany. Selling slaves in Germany was probably attractive, as the selling prices were up to three times higher than if they were resold in the colonies . It can be assumed that the spread of the illegal practice of selling serfs even without land made the sale of slaves appear acceptable to large parts of society. Among the well-known keepers of slaves in Germany is Friedrich Wilhelm I, who ordered “ Moorish boys ” from England for his court and was also delivered. The fact that German traders had experienced the practice of slavery abroad as legal and supported by law certainly contributed to its spread on German soil. Carl von Schimmelmann bought a “ Negro boy ” in the Antilles for the Duchess of Mecklenburg and had him sent to Lübeck . These were non-institutional kidnappings by seafarers or shipowners who brought individual slaves with them from their voyages. The historian Michael Zeuske speaks of a "captain's trade" in this context.

Again and again, the people who were abducted and sold as slaves were children who had been sold on the African slave markets at a very young age and were brought to Germany as gifts. A well-known example is Ignatius Fortuna , who was abducted to Germany between the ages of five and seven and who was kept in the Imperial Monastery of Essen as a so-called Kammermohr . Christian groups, such as the Moravian Brethren, also brought Africans to Germany. These were officially exempted by baptism and some of them were able to achieve high offices in German society. Others, on the other hand, were still regarded as legal property by Germans and accordingly had no freedom of choice as to where and how they wanted to live.

Another clear case of slavery and trafficking in a slave in the area of ​​the then German Empire is evidenced by a court case from 1790 in which a certain Franz Wilhelm Yonga sued against the sale from one master to another. A sales contract that was submitted to the court contains the wording "Negro slave" and clearly names a transfer of ownership from a certain Franz Christian zu Borries to Count Leopold zur Lippe . The court officially confirmed the slave status.

There are also examples that Germany saw slavery as incompatible with Christianity. In 1684, for example, a Muslim from North Africa or the Ottoman Empire , who had been given the name Rudolf, was sold by one Jew to another at the Easter mass . He fled to a church and shouted loudly for help. Duke Rudolf August von Braunschweig then bought him, had him baptized and took him into his service under the name "Rudolf August Mohr". From 1783, 28 people of African descent lived as free subjects in the Principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel , who had been brought with them by participants in the American War of Independence .

In the German colonial empire

Although the fight against slavery was a central factor in the justification of German colonial acquisitions, it was not forbidden in the German colonies . The German colonial masters referred to their own house slaves using disguise such as serfs , and the continuing slavery was played down as a “local tradition”. In German East Africa in particular , the abolition of slavery would have collapsed the local economy, where a tenth of the population were slaves and remained so. Since slavery was considered uncivilized, the German authorities introduced other forms of forced labor and personal bondage.

The German colonial administration maintained friendly relationships with local slave traders such as the Tippu-Tip in Zanzibar . As Paul Kayser , the head of the colonial department in the Foreign Office , had to admit in 1894, weapons had been delivered to the Kingdom of Dahomey and in return slaves had been given for use in the German colony of Cameroon .

In the time of National Socialism

In the Nuremberg trial of the main war criminals of the Nazi era, the enslavement of people was one of the central allegations. Fritz Sauckel and Albert Speer, among others, were convicted for this. Hans Frank had already spoken openly in 1939 about using people from Poland as slaves in principle. By the end of 1940, 1.5 million prisoners of war Poles, French, English and Dutch were used for forced labor. Some Nazi forced laborers use the word slave as a self-designation in their memories . At least eight million people were forced to work in Germany in autumn 1944, either as forced laborers or as prisoners of war. 2.8 million of them were citizens of the Soviet Union .

In the compensation processes of the 1990s, the term slaves was applied specifically to the subgroup of concentration camp inmates who did work. Since the goal was not primarily the exploitation of labor, but ultimately the destruction of people, the use of the term is controversial here. The sociologist Wolfgang Sofsky also denies that forced labor in the concentration camps can be called slavery, as it clearly differs from the practice of slavery in the American southern states, for example : It is characterized by the fact that the slaves were the private property of the slave owners , one represented real economic value for them and their concern was not terror , but work performance. This was different in the concentration camps. The historian Marc Buggeln argues against choosing American slavery as a textbook case, narrowing the complexity of the phenomenon too far, and advocating further global historical comparisons. There is much to be said for calling forced labor in the concentration camps a form of slavery.

Modern forms of slavery in Germany

Today slavery takes different forms around the world. While there is no legally recognized ownership of people in Germany, many people in Germany live in situations of exploitation that they cannot leave due to massive threats, violence, other types of coercion, deception or abuse of power and which are therefore comparable to slavery are. In the Global Slavery Index , the number of people living in such circumstances is estimated at 167,000 for 2016. 536 people were identified by police as victims of human trafficking . Most of these victims were in the area of ​​exploitation through forced sexual services . 96 underage victims were among them. In addition, the area of labor exploitation was noteworthy, especially the construction industry and the hospitality industry , as well as work in private households. In addition, forced marriages are also seen as a form of modern slavery. There are no reliable figures in this area, but one can assume at least 50 to 60 cases per year in Germany.

According to Dietmar Roller from the International Justice Mission Germany, the behavior of people in Germany is currently helping to maintain conditions similar to slavery in other countries. This ranges from consumer behavior, which tacitly tolerates or even requires the exploitation of food producers in forced labor, to targeted sexual exploitation via the Internet.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Legal history: German slaves against their masters. In: Legal Tribune Online . Retrieved June 11, 2020 .
  2. ^ German Slavery. Retrieved June 20, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Charles Verlinden: Was Medieval Slavery a Significant Demographic Factor? In: Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 66, Heft 2 (1979), pp. 153–173, here pp. 154–161.
  4. ↑ Michael Toch: The Jews in the Medieval Empire (= Encyclopedia of German History , Volume 44). 3rd edition expanded to include a supplement. de Gruyter-Oldenbourg, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-78098-7 , p. 97 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  5. ↑ Michael Zeuske : Handbook History of Slavery. A global story from the beginning until today . De Gruyter, New York / Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-11-055884-5 , pp. 138, 517, 581 f., 596, 818 a. ö. (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  6. ↑ Slave trade - what did Germany have to do with it? Retrieved June 19, 2020 .
  7. ^ Klaus Weber : Germany, the Atlantic slave trade and the plantation economy of the New World (15th to 19th century) . In: Journal of Modern European History 7, Issue 1: Europe, Slave Trade, and Colonial Forced Labor (2009), pp. 37–67, here p. 53.
  8. ^ Christian Degn: The Schimmelmanns in the Atlantic triangular trade. Profit and conscience . Wachholtz, Kiel 1974, p. 201.
  9. ^ Klaus Weber: Germany, the Atlantic slave trade and the plantation economy of the New World (15th to 19th century) . In: Journal of Modern European History 7, Issue 1: Europe, Slave Trade, and Colonial Forced Labor (2009), pp. 37–67, here p. 52.
  10. ^ Rebekka von Mallinckrodt: Negotiated (in) freedom . Slavery, serfdom and the transfer of knowledge within Europe at the end of the 18th century. In: University of Bremen (Ed.): History and Society . tape 43 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017, ISSN  2196-9000 , p. 347-380 ( uni-bremen.de [PDF]).
  11. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Handbook History of Slavery. A global story from the beginning until today . De Gruyter, New York / Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-11-055884-5 , pp. 570 f. (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  12. ^ Heike Raphael-Hernandez: German entanglements in the transatlantic slave trade. In: From Politics and Contemporary History (APuZ). December 4, 2015, accessed June 20, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Rebekka von Mallinckrodt: Just released: Slaves in Germany / Sklaven in Deutschland 2018 . ( academia.edu [accessed June 20, 2020]).
  14. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Handbook History of Slavery. A global story from the beginning until today . De Gruyter, New York / Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-11-055884-5 , p. 571 (accessed from De Gruyter Online).
  15. ^ Anne Kuhlmann-Smirnov: Black Europeans in the Old Kingdom. Trade, migration, farm . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2014, p. 148.
  16. ↑ Horst founder: "God wants it". A crusade movement at the end of the 19th century . In: History in Science and Education 28 (1977), pp. 210-224.
  17. ↑ Michael Zeuske: Handbook History of Slavery. A global story from the beginning until today . De Gruyter, New York / Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-11-055884-5 , p. 46 (accessed via De Gruyter Online).
  18. ^ Sebastian Conrad : German colonial history . Beck, Munich 2012, pp. 55-60.
  19. ^ Winfried Speitkamp : German Colonial History . Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, p. 58
  20. ^ Klaus Weber: Germany, the Atlantic slave trade and the plantation economy of the New World (15th to 19th century) . In: Journal of Modern European History 7, Issue 1: Europe, Slave Trade, and Colonial Forced Labor (2009), pp. 37–67, here pp. 52 f.
  21. ↑ Forced labor in the Third Reich. In: MDR.de . Retrieved June 29, 2020 .
  22. ↑ "Slave Labor": Was Nazi Forced Labor Slavery? Forced labor 1939–1945. Memories and history. September 23, 2011, accessed June 20, 2020 .
  23. ↑ Nazi forced labor: slaves of the Hitler dictatorship. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . Retrieved June 29, 2020 .
  24. ^ Cord Pagenstecher: Terms: foreign workers - forced laborers - slave laborers. Retrieved June 20, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Wolfgang Sofsky: The order of terror. The concentration camp . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1993
  26. ↑ Marc Buggeln: Were concentration camp prisoners slaves? Possibilities and Limits of Comparisons and Global-Historic Approaches In: International Review of Social History 53, Issue 1 (2008), pp. 101–129 ( online , accessed June 30, 2020).
  27. ^ Germany: Global Slavery Index. Retrieved June 13, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Slavery on the street. In: Deutsche Welle (DW). August 23, 2018, accessed June 19, 2020 .