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Ying Guo, 2024

Together with Bremen and Lübeck, the city of Hamburg opened a consulate in Canton in 1829 and another in Shanghai in 1852. With the two Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860) waged between China on the one hand and Great Britain, France and other European states on the other, the colonial powers gained access to several Chinese harbours. They also enforced the free import of opium, territorial cessions and numerous other restrictions on Chinese sovereignty. Overall, Western influence in China increased. This also included Christian missionary work. In 1898, the German Empire forced the Qing government to sign a lease agreement for Qingdao (‘Tsingtau’) in the province of Shandong.

Tsingtau was transformed from a fishing village into a very modern city by the standards of the time. However, discrimination and oppression were the order of the day. At the turn of the century, an anti-imperial resistance began. The Yìhétuán Yùndòng (‘Movement of Associations for Justice and Harmony’ (義和團運動)) took action against the colonial influence of Christian missionaries and representatives of Western states in Shandong province. The colonial powers labelled this movement the ‘Boxer Rebellion’, which was brutally suppressed in 1900 by a military corps of soldiers from eight countries under the German high command of Alfred von Waldersee.

The German Empire then lost ‘its’ colony in China during the First World War. As the ‘gateway to the world’, Hamburg was also involved in this history. The following stops highlight some of the places associated with German colonialism in China.

Stationen

“Boxer Rebellion” and “Hunnenrede” by Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Alfred Graf von Waldersee

Honored colonial soldiers

Looted cultural assets

The Chinese “atonement mission” in Potsdam

Colonial goods from China

Chinese voices and protests

The "Chinese Quarter" in Hamburg

The Last Port

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