German colonialism defines much but not all of how we encounter Black people in Central Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. As the German government turned westward and across the Atlantic to take over regions of Africa, the first permanent Black communities arrived into German-speaking Europe as a result of their conquering. After the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865, African Americans also began to visit Central Europe in waves. Some came to study at university and to find others who would support the cause of racial advancement in the United States; others came to practice their artistry as musicians and to find new consumers as entertainers. Here we find the origins of black popular culture in Central Europe, and a growing and sustained interest in fettering out (and conquering) the Black diaspora.
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Black German experiences
The Berlin Negro colony (1882)
A Cameroonian apprentice in Langenau (ca. 1888)- A Spectacular Baptism in St Ottilien (1889)
- Gustav Sabac el Cher: A Prussian love story (1890)
- “One of them from Cameroon” (1891)
- The gravestone of a Cameroonian prince (1891)
- Alfred Bell and Etuman come to Germany (1891)
- Robert Albert Mathis on trial for speaking to white women (1893)
- Cameroon in Berlin and German letters from Cameroon (1897)
- Gustav Sabac el Cher sues for racist slander and wins (1908)
- Dark livelihoods (1902)
- Letter from a “savage” (1908)
- Karl Atiogbe offers a word for his Black brothers (1908)
- Karl Kraus, “The Negro” (1913)
African-American connections
- An enslaved American tours Germany (1850s)
- Images of the Fisk Jubilee Singers in the German press (1877-1878)
- The Fisk Jubilee Singers’ Songbook (1878)
- German concert review of the Fisk Jubilee Singers (1878)
- DuBois, The New Fatherland (1888)
- Will Marion Cook studies music in Germany (1887)
- First biennial gathering of Negroes in Germany (1895)
- Mary Church Terrell on the progress of colored women (1904)
- Fears of African Americans in Hamburg (1908)
- Getting a musical education in Germany (1909)
Representations in culture
- Fipps the Ape outsmarts an African (1879)
- The progress of civilization in the Congo (1884)
- “Ten Little Negroes” (1885)
- The stereotype of the “pants-wearing Negro” (1886)
- Depicting Feirefiz in the age of empire (1888)
- Thomas Mann uses blackface minstrels to denigrate commercial entertainments (1900)
- Kladderadatsch mocks the civility of colonial rule (1903)
- Peter Moor goes to Southwest Africa (1906)
- Selling coffee with caricatures (1906)
- Kubi speaks into a phonograph (1908)
- Anxiety over well-dressed Africans (1911)
- The tale of the friendly Moor and the suspicious peasant (1912)
- Advertising mission projects in East Africa (before 1914)
People shows
- Reactions to the visit of Samson Dido to Germany (1886)
- A “people show” in Berlin (1896)
- The First German Colonial Exhibition (1896)
- Photographs at the First German Colonial Exhibition (1896)
- A Conversation with J. C. Bruce (1896)
- Souvenir of the Togo-Mandingo Troupe from West Africa (ca. 1904)
- Schnitzler, “Andreas Thameyer’s Last Letter” (1913)
Defining and debating race
- Eugen Fischer on miscegenation (1913)
- Gobineau on the inequality of races (1853)
- Franz Boas on African achievements and how to challenge racism (1906)
- Leo Frobenius uses “negritude” to attack the pretensions of western civilization
Politics
Colonial politics
- Treaty of protection with chiefs of the Cameroon coast (1884)
- The Berlin Congo Conference: Laying the ground rules for conquering Africa (1884)
- Colonialism under the flag of the Electorate of Brandenburg (1886)
- Order of Lothar von Trotha to the Herero people (1904)
- The Akwa people petition the Reichstag (1905)
- The defense of Mpundu Akwa (1905)
- The Akwa trial (1906)
- Commentary on the case of Mpundo Akwa (1906)
- Elolombe ya Kamerun (1908)
- A colonialist complains about Black musicians in the Prussian army (1909)
- Legal expert on the administration of colonial justice (1910)
- The campaign against Mpundo Akwa (1912)
- Law for the natives (1912)
Mixed marriages, miscegenation, citizenship
- Shaming women for interracial liaisons (1900, 1907)
- The role of the female colonist (1905)
- The trouble with pen pals (1918)
- Letter, Carl Becker to Governor Schuckmann (1909)
- Karl Kraus on Interracial Relationships (1912)
- German citizenship law defined by descent (1913)
- Degeneration (“Verkafferung”) (1920)
Black Central Europe 