Collective Amnesia and Continuous Anti-Black Racism in Germany: How the Colonial Past, and a Reluctance to Come to Terms With It, Causes Daily Difficulties and why Historical Learning Alone Does not Help. An Essay

Abstract

The colonial past and the postcolonial present are still marginalized topics in Germany. Our school system, universities, teacher education, but also general society and government decisions are all complicit in this. In our essay, we discuss some very recent examples to show how current racism against Black People and People of Colour (BPoC) in Germany is connected to the past that we have not dealt with.