Deutschlands verdrängte Kolonialvergangenheit - Reihe Gästezimmer

In the organizer's words:

In November 2024, the exhibition "History(s) of Tanzania", developed in close cooperation with the National Museum of Tanzania and communities from Tanzania, opened at the Humboldt Forum.

The consequences of oppression, exploitation and violence continue to have an impact to this day. During colonialism, thousands of cultural belongings were brought to Germany. The Ethnological Museum in Berlin houses more than 10,000 'objects' from present-day Tanzania. The exhibition "History(s) of Tanzania" uses various narratives, perspectives and cultural belongings to show the centuries-long interdependencies of present-day Tanzania. A particular focus is on the period of colonial oppression through wars and exploitation.

Previously, a visit to the Maji Maji Museum in Songea by Federal President Steinmeier in 2023 had made a wider public aware of the boundless violence of German colonial rule. The forms of violence in the colonial context of East Africa (1885 to 1918) went beyond guerrilla tactics and the scorched earth policy. They claimed hundreds of thousands of civilian victims.

Global historian Tanja Bührer describes decisive battles throughout the entire colonial period in "German East Africa", from the Battle of Rugaro in 1891 to the Maji Maji Wars of 1905-1908. She describes how African warring parties took the initiative to attack the foreign invaders and places them in the wider context of European expansion in the fin de siècle. Her book "Colonial Wars in East Africa 1885 - 1914" was published in November 2025.

The exact schedule of the event will be published here at the beginning of January.

Participants

Tanja Bührer studied history and philosophy at the University of Bern, where she completed her doctorate in 2008 with a thesis on German colonial security policy and colonial troops. This was followed by positions as senior assistant for modern history and contemporary history and as a lecturer in migration history at the University of Bern, as well as deputy professorships at the Universities of Rostock, Potsdam and LMU Munich. Mobility grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) have taken her to HU Berlin, the University of Dar es Salaam, the Oxford Centre for Global History, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), the German Historical Institute London (GHIL) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), among others, as a visiting scholar. In 2019, she completed her habilitation at the Faculty of Philosophy and History at the University of Bern with a thesis entitled "Intercultural Diplomacy and Empire in an Age of Global Reforms and Revolutions".

In addition, since April 2022 she has headed the sub-project "Illegitimate Violence in the French and Austrian Military during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars (1789-1815)" in the DFG Research Group "Military Cultures of Violence - Illegitimate Military Violence from the Early Modern Period to the Second World War".

Main research interests: Colonial and global history with a regional focus on East Africa and South Asia (18th-20th centuries), transnational history of Great Britain, Germany and France (18th-20th centuries), intercultural history of diplomacy, history of violence and military history, history of migration.

Frank Reichherzer is since 2024: Co-project leader of the Volkswagen Foundation-funded project "Greening Military? On the transformation of the armed forces against the backdrop of the security policy 'turning point' and 'climate crisis'". Since 2018, he has been project manager of the lead topic "Military and Violence" as part of the Agenda 2028 of the ZMSBw Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr. Since 2015, he has been working as a research associate in the research area Military History until 1945 at the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr, Potsdam

2013-2014 he was a fellow at the International Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities Work and Life Course in Global Historical Perspective (re:work)

In 2011, he completed his doctorate at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen with the thesis: "Alles ist Front!" Military Science and the Bellification of Society from the First World War to the Cold War"

2007-2014 he was a visiting scholar at the Universities of Bologna, Rennes II and Paris Sorbonne

2007-2014 he was a research assistant at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Institute of History, Department of History of Western Europe and Transatlantic Relations

2005-2007 he was a research associate at the SFB 437 "War Experiences. War and Society in the Modern Era". Project area War Experiences and Sciences, Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen

1998-2005 he studied Modern and Contemporary History, Political Science and General Rhetoric at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the University of Florence

Fields of work and research projects: Temporality, war and the military, violence research war and the military, history of ideas of war; military history of the 20th century; Second World War; "Cold War", sciences and war.

- free of charge

- Duration: 60 min

- from 12 years

- Language: German

- Location: Mechanical arena in the foyer

- Part of: Guest room