Colonial Worlds - Mapping Colonialism in the German Hinterland

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Bernd-Stefan Grewe
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2015 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 270384142

This project investigates the historical and cultural relevance of colonialism for the German society. To which extent did colonialism affect social live in colonializing countries? Our intention is to map German colonialism in its home country and to judge its relevance up to today. The central hypothesis is that colonialism had a long-term and ongoing impact not only on the former colonies, but also in the metropolis including its hinterland. The focus is on the different social milieus that can best be studied in towns. Here the relevance of colonialism for everyday world of its inhabitants that belonged to different social milieus (Lepsius) becomes visible. Talking about colonial worlds stresses that these groups imagined the colonized and colonialism in very different ways. According to their professional background, they were related in very divergent ways with the outer world and possessed very different knowledge and experiences. This had an strong impact on their ideas of the social and political order. Thus we will study three dimensions of colonialism: First the real and specific relations of Germans living in the German province with the colonies; second their imaginations and third their normative concepts on colonies and colonized people. These dimensions will be followed in three different studies: The first study investigates manifestations of colonialism all along the political and social spectrum of a German city: To which extent was the thinking and political action of the working class, the Catholic milieu and the liberal bourgeois milieu of a university town marked by colonialism? Second, several local institutions linked to colonialism will be studied. Here knowledge about the colonies and the colonized were collected, arranged and presented to a broader public. A special focus will be on ethnological collections and museums. A third study analyses how the post-colonial society dealt with its colonial heritage in its political and symbolic dimension. What to do with the material and symbolic remains of colonialism in the 21st century?

• DFG Programme: Research Grants