Theodor Wonja Michael

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Theodor Wonja Michael (born January 15, 1925 in Berlin ; † October 19, 2019 in Cologne ) was a German actor , journalist , official of the Federal Intelligence Service and contemporary witness of National Socialism .

Life

Theodor Wonja Michael was born in Berlin in 1925 as the youngest son of the Cameroonian colonial migrant Theophilius Wonja Michael and his German wife Martha (née Wegner). He had three siblings: James (* 1916), Juliana (* 1921) and Christiana.

When his mother died in 1926, he grew up as a half-orphan with foster parents who ran a Völkerschau and employed him there as an extra from 1927, when he was two years old . In 1934 his father died and the siblings were separated. Although he graduated from elementary school in 1939, he was unable to begin training due to the Nuremberg Race Laws . He initially worked as a porter in a Berlin hotel, but was dismissed due to a complaint from a guest about his skin color. His German citizenship was revoked and he became stateless . He was not drafted into the Wehrmacht because of the color of his skin. His living he earned as a circus performer and as an extra in colonial films of UFA . By 1942, around 100 colonial films were made on behalf of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda , which glorified the German colonial era . The films were shot in Germany with black actors and offered black Germans and African migrants employment and protection from persecution. Prisoners of war were also used. Theodor Wonja Michael was clear about the intention of the films: “We were the Moors that you needed. For us it was a question of our existence. ”He also played a minor role in the film Münchhausen (with Hans Albers and others). In 1943 he was committed to forced labor and was interned in a labor camp near Berlin until he was liberated by the Red Army in May 1945 .

After 1945 he worked as a civilian employee in the US occupation forces and took on roles as an actor. He made up the Abitur and studied a. a. Political science in Hamburg and Paris with a degree in economics. Ralf Dahrendorf was one of his academic teachers . He then worked as a journalist and became editor-in-chief of the magazine Afrika-Bulletin . Also he was u. a. Government advisor to the SPD and lecturer for the German Foundation for International Cooperation .

In 1971 he began a career in higher service with the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). By the time he retired in 1987, he had become a government director as a civil servant . According to his own statements, with his work for the BND he was also the first black man in a career in the higher service in Germany. He remained silent about his area of ​​responsibility at the BND until the end.

In addition, he repeatedly took on qualified acting roles in theater, film, television and radio and mastered puppetry.

He didn't find his siblings Juliana and James until the 1960s. He later lived in Cologne, started a family and was an active member of the black German community.

On the occasion of the publication of his autobiography, in which he dealt in particular with his identity as an Afro-German , he had numerous television appearances, including a. in the programs Das Blaue Sofa and Markus Lanz .

In 2018 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon for his commitment as a contemporary witness.

Fonts

  • Theodor Michael: Being German and black too. Memories of an Afro-German. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-423-26005-3 .

literature

  • Fatima El-Tayeb: Black Germans. The Discourse on “Race” and National Identity 1890-1933 . Campus, 2001.
  • Rowan Philp: German of Color. Theodor Michael, Teaching Slavery's Lessons Anew . In: Washington Post Online . October 23, 2000, p. C01 .

Movies

  • John A. Kantara : Blues in black and white - four black German lives. (Documentary, Germany, 1999)
  • Annette von Wangenheim: Pages in the dream factory - Black extras in German feature films. (Documentary, Germany, 2001)
  • Susanne Lenz-Gleißner , Jana Pareigis , Adama Ulrich: Afro.Deutschland (Documentary, Germany, 2017)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John A. Kantara : Black and German too. In: Zeit Online . April 23, 1998. Retrieved October 22, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Theresa Authaler: African German in Nazi films: "Distinguishing features: Negro". In: one day . October 9, 2013, accessed October 22, 2019 .
  3. ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): A life against racism - On the death of Theodor Wonja Michael | DW | 10/22/2019. Retrieved on March 17, 2020 (German).
  4. ↑ Theodor Michael was the penultimate black witness of the Nazi era - in an interview he once took stock of his life. October 23, 2019, accessed March 17, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Jean-Pierre Ziegler: On the death of Theodor Wonja Michael: The penultimate witness. In: Spiegel Online . October 21, 2019, accessed October 21, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Melahat Simsek: Experienced stories: Theodor Wonja Michael. (mp3 audio, 9.9 MB, 21:43 minutes) In: wdr.de. December 1, 2013, accessed October 22, 2019 . Theodor Michael: Being German and black too - memories of an Afro-German. In: dtv.de. Retrieved October 22, 2019 (publisher information).
  7. ↑ Obituaries. In: Der Spiegel , October 26, 2019, p. 133.
  8. ↑ Theodor Michael awarded the Federal Order of Merit ... we congratulate you! In: dtv.de. Retrieved October 28, 2019 (publisher information).
  9. ^ Annette von Wangenheim: The race issue is still firmly embedded in people's minds. (pdf, 3.3 MB) In: The African Courier. December 7, 2013, p. 43 , accessed on October 22, 2019 (English, review).
  10. ↑ Filmography: Pages in the dream factory - Black extras in German feature films. In: annettevonwangenheim.de. June 15, 2015, accessed October 22, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Michael, Theodor Wonja
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor, journalist and contemporary witness of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 19th October 2019
Place of death Cologne