The Comforts of Provincialism
The History and Future of Colonial Memory in Germany
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8240902 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Fabian Krautwald (0000-0002-7780-8388, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 179-202 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | New German Critique (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0094-033X • E-ISSN: 1558-1462 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/0094033x-12158854 |
| OpenAlex | W7131671058 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 23 |
This article analyzes some of the historical causes for contemporary disputes in Germany over the commensurability of colonial violence and the Holocaust, which have once again intensified after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. It argues that opposition to the use of colonial analogies by former German colonies such as Namibia to describe the situation in Israel-Palestine as well as resistance to the inclusion of German colonialism into official public memory reflect a long-standing, comfortable provincialism among politicians, historians, and the wider public in understanding Germany’s colonial past. Similar to their approach to the murder of European Jews during the Cold War, Germans have tended to filter the history of colonialism through narrow concerns with shifts in German sovereignty since the First World War. To overcome this provincialism, the article advocates including the history of colonialism in the country’s public memory and drawing on insights from African history to shift how we speak about and research the colonial past
Colonialism · Genocide · German · Opposition (politics) · The Holocaust · German Colonialism and Identity Studies · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Religion, Theology, History, Judaism, Christianity
Colonial Paradigms of Violence
Present Pasts
Einführung. Die deutsche Geschichtswissenschaft, „der“ Postkolonialismus und die Frage des Antisemitismus nach dem 7. Oktober
Israel in Africa
Palestinian Non-Violent Resistance and the Apartheid Analogy
Why Is the Shoah Called ‘the Shoah’ or ‘the Holocaust’? On the History of the Terminology for the Nazi Anti-Jewish Campaign
The ambiguity of colonial international law
Germany and reparations
The Development of African Historical Studies in East Germany; An Outline And Selected Bibliography
Germany and Namibia
Genocide and the Politics of Memory in the Decolonisation of Namibia
The Jewish Question in the German Question
| Highly cited | No |
|---|