Chinas Ketteler-Denkmal – Das (Nach-)Leben eines deutschen Kolonialdenkmals im 20. und frühen 21. Jahrhundert

Weis A (2020)


Publication Language: German

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Journal

Publisher: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht Verlage

Series: Historische Anthropologie

Book Volume: 28

Pages Range: 332-353

Journal Issue: 3

DOI: 10.7788/HIAN.2020.28.3.332

Abstract

Colonial Germany erected numerous monuments during (but especially in the wake of) its short period of expansion into Africa, Asia, and Oceania. When the Treaty of Ver-sailles abruptly ended this period, these monuments, among which one commemorated the plenipotentiary Clemens Baron von Ketteler (1853–1900), who had fallen by the hands of the so-called ‘Boxers’ during the war in China, were left behind in the former colonies, or – in this case – in a so-called ‘half-colony’. After a heyday of colonial revivalism in the 1920s and 1930s, they were mostly understood as forgotten ‘remains’ and commonly disappeared from the Eurocentric narratives of German Colonialism. However, this perspective undermines their constant entanglements with local as well as trans-national histories. The history of China’s Ketteler-monument is one of power, appropriation, and silencing, with multiple meanings and understandings. Therefore, the paper argues that the current perspectives on the former Ketteler-monument, as presented in academic research so far, should be expanded by broadening the time frame and following the history of the monument up until today, by consulting Chinese sources and by incorporating its ‘after-’ and ‘social-life’ into the analysis.

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How to cite

APA:

Weis, A. (2020). Chinas Ketteler-Denkmal – Das (Nach-)Leben eines deutschen Kolonialdenkmals im 20. und frühen 21. Jahrhundert. Historische Anthropologie, 28(3), 332-353. https://doi.org/10.7788/HIAN.2020.28.3.332

MLA:

Weis, Andreas. "Chinas Ketteler-Denkmal – Das (Nach-)Leben eines deutschen Kolonialdenkmals im 20. und frühen 21. Jahrhundert." Historische Anthropologie 28.3 (2020): 332-353.

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