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Anna-Jo Weier and Yann LeGall, 2024

Walther Rathenau (1867-1922), son of the founder of the electrical company AEG, was an influential industrialist and politician of the Weimar Republic. Throughout his life, he was the target of hateful anti-Semitism, intensified after his appointment as Foreign Minister in 1922. On 24 June 1922, nationalist anti-Semitic terrorists assassinated him.

In Rathenau's biographical accounts, his role as economic advisor to Berhard Dernburg, former State Secretary of the Imperial Colonial Office (henceforth Reichskolonialamt), is little known. In 1907 and 1908, they travelled together to the colonies German East Africa and German South West Africa, as well as British colonial territories.

Rathenau kept diaries on both journeys. In addition to these primary sources, correspondence and official reports that he wrote for Chancellor Bülow provide insights into his perception of the people, the landscapes and the twists and turns of the journey. Even though he criticised the brutal oppression of local populations, Rathenau was not opposed to colonialism. He spoke out in favour of the economic exploitation of African territories and racial segregation.

This article contextualises these two voyages and sheds light on Rathenau’s critical views on German colonialism and the impact of these two voyages for his career up until World War I.

Stationen

Before the first journey: A context of reform in colonial affairs

Arrival in East Africa

On expedition

Plantations and farming: An exploitative agricultural economy

The first report

Two colonial powers coming together

Voyage to South and Southwest Africa

Minerals and colonial extractivism

Denkschrift über Deutsch-Südwest

Political career, anti-semitism and assassination

Start