A colonial war memorial in Berlin – Germany
City Tours
Joachim Zeller, 2024
Colonial monuments were erected in various German cities. The design and erection of a colonial war memorial was also discussed in Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century. The aim was to create an identity-forming symbol of the German colonial movement that would also express the imperial claim of the German Empire.
As a result of disagreements over the design of the monument and the start of the war in 1914, the memorial project in Berlin was not realized - but 20 years later it was implemented in a modified form in Bremen.
This text is an edited excerpt from the book “Berlin. A post-colonial metropolis.”
References:
Schneidewind, Ernst: Glossen zum Wettbewerb um das Kolonialkrieger-Denkmal oder die neueste Berliner Denkmals-Katastrophe, in: Die Kunstwelt, 3. Jg., 1914, S. 653-664.
Speitkamp, Winfried: Kolonialherrschaft und Denkmal. Afrikanische und deutsche Erinnerungskultur im Konflikt, in: Wolfram Martini (Hrsg.): Architektur und Erinnerung, 2000, S. 165-190.
Zeller, Joachim: Kolonialdenkmäler und Geschichsbewußtsein. Eine Untersuchung der kolonialdeutschen Erinnerungskultur, 2000.
Stationen
Presenting the drafts
Initiative and location of the monument
Contradiction and criticism
A colonial monument in Bremen