Book dossier

Deutsche Herrschaft uber Afrikaner: staatlicher Machtanspruch und Wirklichkeit im kolonialen Namibia

by J urgen Zimmerer, Anthony Mellor-Stapelberg

Although it lasted only thirty years, German colonial rule dramatically transformed South West Africa. The colonial government not only committed the first genocide of the twentieth century against the Herero and Nama, but in their efforts to establish a “model colony” and “racial state,” they brought about even more destructive and long-lasting consequences. The author provides an indispensable account of Germany's colonial utopia in what is present-day Namibia, showing how the highly rationalized planning of Wilhelmine authorities ultimately failed even as it added to the profound immiseration of the African population.