During the 2019/2020 winter semester and the 2020 summer semester, Media Studies and Media Art/Media Design students at the Bauhaus-Universität devoted themselves to Weimar's colonial history. Under the motto »Decolonize Weimar!«, an interactive map, a virtual city tour and several podcasts have been created that critically examine the history and continuity of colonial racism in Weimar. The results were compiled on the project website and are available to the general public.
The interactive map of Weimar developed by the »Decolonize Weimar!« project group offers a virtual tour through the city's eventful colonial history with (to begin with) 15 stations. Supplementary texts and podcasts open up the spectrum of Weimar's colonial geography – from restaurants and cinemas to the City Palace – and also place Weimar's colonial activities in a larger national and international context. Knowledge that is often suppressed or even forgotten becomes visible again, and the project makes it clear that Weimar's place in German colonial history is not merely marginal. On the contrary, Weimar was one of the capitals of the early German colonial movement.
The anti-colonial city map of Weimar created by the students is also smartphone compatible, meaning that anyone interested can comfortably explore Weimar and its colonial history virtually from home, and also be guided and informed by the map during a real city walk.
The project, which critically examines racism, is far from complete, explains project manager Dr. Julia Bee: »From a de-colonial perspective, nothing has been said yet about Goethe's ›Divan‹, the Albert Schweitzer Foundation, the missionary association... about so many places in Weimar's cityscape. And last but not least, many things have not yet been remembered, even in Weimar, busts of colonial racism are still present. We'll keep at it — feel free to join us and get in touch!«
You can contact the project group via their website.
Since July 2020, members of the »Decolonize Weimar!« project group have been offering guided tours of Weimar's city centre. The last anti-colonial city tour took place on October 3 as part of the Intercultural Week Weimar, in which the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar took part for the first time this year.
The approximately three-hour tour began at the Weimar City Museum, which once served as publisher and businessman Friedrich Justin Bertuch’s (1747–1822) publishing house, workshop and headquarters of his »Landes-Industrie-Comptoir«, built in 1791. Here, project manager Dr. Julia Bee pointed out the issue of, on the one hand the lack of engagement of the City Museum with Weimar's colonial history and, on the other hand, the role of the publisher Bertuch in the dissemination of colonial ideas. The »Picture Book for Children«, one of Bertuch's most successful publications, disseminated images of the colonial world in the German-speaking world and thus contributed to the idea of a German colonial empire. The tour group of 15 then moved on to the house at Herderplatz 3, where the hat dealer Adolph had a portrait bust of Paul Kruger (1825–1904), president of the Boer Republic Transvaal, mounted in 1902. The bust, which still overlooks Herderplatz today, bears witness to the widespread identification with the Boers in the Boer War at the beginning of the 20th century and colonial partnerships in the »Scramble for Africa«. Next stop was the former Scherffs Lichtspielhaus in Marktstrasse 22, where several »ethnographic« films were shown during the Weimar Republic, such as Hans Schomburgk's »Im Deutschen Sudan«. Included in lectures on the German colonies, these films conveyed racist ideas and introduced the German population to the idea of colonial expansion. Afterwards, the tour continued to the former delicatessen shop of Gustav Giesel Am Markt 22, one of the many colonial goods stores in the city, where participants learned about Weimar's involvement in the global colonial goods trade and the exploitative trade relations that still exist today. The tour ended at the Weimar City Palace, where Dr. Julia Bee told the group about the colonial enthusiasm of Carl Alexander and his wife Sophia von Oranien-Nassau. Shortly after 1870, they pursued the idea of founding colonies and supported prominent participants of German colonialism, such as the so-called Africa explorer Gerhardt Rohlfs and colonial racist Carl Peters.
If you would like to join the »Decolonize Weimar« project group on a colonial search for evidence through Weimar, you will have the opportunity to do so on December 1, 2020, at 10:45 am. More information and all additional dates can be found on the »Decolonize Weimar!« project website. School classes, seminars and study groups can also register here and arrange anti-colonial city tours.
»Decolonize Weimar!« website:
https://decolonize-weimar.org/
Radio report about »Decolonize Weimar!« on Radio Lotte:
https://www.radiolotte.de/radio/decolonize-weimar-dekoloniale-karte-und-stadtrundgaenge-we-34137.html
Contact and further Information:
Jun. Prof. Dr. Julia Bee
Junior Professorship for Image Theory
Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Faculty of Media
Bauhausstraße 11
Room 228
99423, Weimar, Germany
Tel.: 0049 (0) 3643 / 583799
E-mail: julia.bee[at]uni-weimar.de
Changes from color to monochrome mode
contrast not active
Changes the background color from white to black
Darkmode not active
Elements in focus are visually enhanced by an black underlay, while the font is whitened
Feedback not active
Halts animations on the page
Animations active
