II. Der Wilsonian Moment | ~1920 - Träume von der post-kolonialen Republik

In the organizer's words:

What does democracy have to do with decolonization and what role did Germany play in this? In some states, a development towards democratic structures was successful after independence, but not in others. Different actors intervened in these processes and tried to influence them with narratives, economic and military interventions, but also with support for pro-independence actors.

The event series Dreams of the Post-Colonial Republic. Past and Future of Democracies after Independence Struggles invites you to explore the complex interactions between decolonization and democracy, to critically examine contradictions and to develop alternative perspectives on past and present challenges of democratization after independence processes. It asks both what the post-colonial republic looked like in the utopias that were developed before (formal) independence and what became of it later.

The so-called Wilsonian moment after the First World War heralded the end of a colonial consensus with the idea of the right to self-determination. The European multi-ethnic empires collapsed and elites in countries of the Global South began to establish independence movements.
How did anti-colonial activists in Paris and Hamburg, for example, perceive the democracy of this era? And what became of the young democracies in Eastern Europe?

Speakers:

• Gisela Ewe (University of Hamburg / Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial) will be working on the history of anti-colonial movements in Hamburg, post-colonial remembrance culture and Hamburg's cultural landscape under National Socialism.
• Prof. Dr. Michael Goebel (Freie Universität Berlin) works on topics such as nationalism, migration and cities in the 19th and 20th centuries from a global perspective.
• PD Dr. habil. Steffen Kailitz (Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Research at TU Dresden) researches democratization processes as well as the reasons for the collapse of democracies, variants and legitimation strategies of autocracies and political extremism, in particular right-wing extremism.
• Bebero Lehmann (Documentation Centre and Museum on Migration in Germany (DOMiD) / Decolonize Cologne / Theodor Wonja Michael Library) works on Black German history, anti-colonial resistance and changes of perspective in the culture of remembrance.

Responsible:

Markus Hengelhaupt(markus.hengelhaupt@bsb.hamburg.de).

Cooperation partners:

Giga, Goethe Institute, Bücherhallen Hamburg

German Institute for Global and Area Studies I Leibniz Institute of Global and Area Studies

Goethe Institute Hamburg

Hamburg Book Halls