»In the European and German metropolises vestiges of the colonial past and remnants of colonial-racist ideology are engraved in our urban landscapes. Street names call to mind the ›colonial possessions‹ and remind us of formerly occupied spaces, regions, and resources, or have references that discriminate against People of Colour. Even to this day, colonial protagonists are honored with street names and memorials ›that still glorify the colonizers and humiliate the colonized‹ (May Ayim).« Resolution Freedom Roads, 2010
COLONIAL PROTAGONISTS AND CRIMINALS
After the »loss« of the German colonies in 1919, a colonial revisionist movement calling for their restoration gained steam. Streets were named after colonial protagonists and criminals and monuments erected. Colo- nial novels like Hans Grimm’s »Volk ohne Raum« (A Nation without Space) garnered top sales figures. From 1933 on, the various organizations within the colonial movement were amalgamated into the »Reichskolonialbund« (Reichs-Colonial Alliance), part of the National Socialist state.
In the years following World War II, the former German colonies were not debated widely among the general public. Yet the traditions continued unabated in the new Federal Republic of Germany: at the funeral of the colonial veteran Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in 1964, the minister of defense praised the deceased as a model for German youth in his eulogy. With few exceptions, the colonialist names of streets, monuments and military barracks were retained in the fledgling state.
Events like the 1968 destruction of the statue of Hermann von Wissmann in Hamburg thrust Germany’s colonial past back into the public eye. In the following years, a critical view of German colonial history slowly began to take hold. However, at the same time traditions presenting colo- nialism in a positive light continued, and still continue, to be observed. It is only since the 1990s that this colonial nostalgia has been increa- singly and aggressively called into question, with German colonial crimes being broadly discussed. But when colonial street names and monuments are rededicated or renamed in the course of this reappraisal, there is often vehement opposition from certain sections of the public.