Lecture: “Colonialism – the past in the present”

For Monday, December 13, 2021, the SChool of Social Work invited to a lecture in the Barn. Prof. Reinhart Kößler, visiting professor of sociology at the University of Education in Freiburg and former director of the Arnold Bergstraesser Institute, spoke on the topic of "German colonialism – the past in the present". Reinhart Kößler has published various articles on the topic, such as "Völkermord – und was dann? Die Politik deutsch-namibischer Vergangenheitsbearbeitung" (Genocide – and then what? The Politics of German-Namibian Dealing with the Past) (Frankfurt am Main 2017).

Although Germany was officially a colonial power for only about 30 years, this period had a strong influence on its political, economic, and cultural developments. The low level of public awareness in Germany about its former role as a colonial power contrasts with the memories in some of its former colonies. "The lecture will briefly introduce the topic of German colonialism and then focus on the contrast between memories related to the colonial experience in the exemplary case of Namibia," elaborates Prof. Daniel Bendix, on whose initiative Prof. Kößler is visiting Friedensau. "The postcolonial initiatives form another theme of the lecture. Not only current issues such as renaming streets or toppling monuments will be focused on, but also current Namibian-German relations in particular."

It was an internal university lecture in English, Prof. Daniel Bendix moderated.