Janne Lahti's collection is a very timely publication, considering the recently renewed debate on German colonialism in general and the relationship between colonial genocide and the Holocaust in particular (ignited by the publication of Dirk Moses’ essay “The German Catechism” in the online forum Geschichte der Gegenwart in May 2021). The genocidal violence of settler colonial expansion and the question whether or not the U.S. served as a role model for Nazi policies and practices in East Europe often takes center stage in these debates. Simultaneously, these debates raise fundamental questions about the (potential) moral implications of comparison in general and as a historiographical method in particular. German and United States Colonialism in a Connected World addresses both subjects to varying extent, thereby bringing much-needed complexity and nuance to the table.
Much of this achievement stems from, firstly, Lahti's decision to conceptualize Germany and the United States as “relational empires,” which “were entangled with each other and the world via an assemblage of multidirectional connections arising from diverse and intricate human actions, manifesting multiple voices, engaging numerous sites, and traversing great distances” (2). Secondly, he brings together twelve chapters to explore different aspects of this assemblage, grouping them into three sections, namely Portabilities, Passages, and Parallels, thereby focusing on key aspects of this entangled history: the transfer of ideas, the circulation of policies and practices, as well as a comparison between American and German articulations of race and gender. In addition, two concluding commentaries by Andrew Zimmerman and Sebastian Conrad reflect on methodological questions raised by the volume's chapters and contextualize German and U.S. imperialism from the perspective of global history.
Many chapters are closely intertwined, not just on the methodological level. Five of the twelve contributions, for example, explore the multiple dimensions of the role-model function of the American frontier for the development of plans for German colonization of East Europe before and during National Socialism. Gregor Thum reconstructs how Friedrich List's “Danubian dreams were inspired by the American frontier” (29) during his years in exile. Robert Nelson looks into how Max Sering, the “godfather of ‘inner colonization’” (51), aimed at adapting the “Homesteading model of North America” (42) for his political purposes and that of the Prussian Settlement Commission. Jens-Uwe Guettel traces the ideas of eastward settlement expansion back to early nineteenth century and the debates at the Frankfurt Parliament in 1848–1849, noting that “‘the East’ played only a negligible role” in these debates, which instead were more concerned about “trans-Atlantic spaces” and emigration (112). Comparing labor regimes in the Prussian eastern provinces (Silesia, Posen, West and East Prussia) and German Southwest Africa, Dörte Lerp also identifies the U.S. as a point of reference, especially with regard to the Prussian settlement scheme. Edward Westermann, in his comparison of colonial rhetoric and the ways in which it contributed to the development and implementation of military strategies in the American West (1850–1890) and in the Nazi East (1939–1945), detects “intriguing parallels” (279) in American and Nazi “public and military discourse” (278), namely the “extensive use of annihilationist rhetoric” (292).
All five of these chapters show that the United States were an important point of reference in the thinking of German colonial activists and in German colonial practice, but they also point to the limits of American influence: List's geopolitics and Sering's settlement plans became particularly effective only with the popularization of (previously fringe) positions of the radical right during the Weimar Republic. Borrowing from the U.S. repertoire of colonial practices and measures, such as the “use of tin disks instead of paper documents,” according to Lerp, can indeed be regarded as “a clear reference to older surveillance systems, in particular to the badges that slaves and freedmen were forced to carry in some North American cities in the eighteenth century” (144), but it represented only one borrowing among many. Closer references can be found looking at the immediate neighboring colonies such as Russia or the Cape Colony. Westermann, finally, stresses a fundamental difference in implementing the annihilationist rhetoric in the American West and the Nazi East. Whereas U.S. policies ultimately aimed at the assimilation of Native Americans, albeit by force and eventually resulting in genocide, the war in the East lacked the threadbare veneer of the colonial “civilizing mission.” Nazi “racial and ideological imperatives . . . explicitly freed soldiers and SS and police forces from any legal responsibilities or restraints with respect to Slavs and Jews” (293).
Other chapters of Lahti's volume focus on topics less often mentioned when thinking about U.S.-German connections, namely the transfer and implementation of colonial technologies in German “Schutzgebiete” such as the railroad (Tracey Reimann-Dawe) or irrigation systems (Jeannette Eileen Jones). Others examine the similarities and interconnectedness of presentations and practices of articulating race and gender. In this vein, Volker Langbehn compares “visual depiction of Chinese” (205) in German and U.S. satire magazines around 1900 and A. Dana Weber examines representations of masculinities in modern theatrical adaptations of Karl May novels. Both authors stress the key role of cultural imaginations in disseminating and perpetuating racist stereotypes and gender norms, by now a staple in the historiography of empires. However, both present surprising results from their respective case studies: Langbehn shows how, although the U.S. and the Kaiserreich were closely interconnected by a transnational eugenics movement and a shared common vocabulary of racial imagery, American and German caricatures “reflected political interests” (222) specific to each political and colonial context, namely Chinese immigration to California and German Weltpolitik. Weber, in turn, demonstrates that, in contrast to the homoerotic and fluid literary depictions of May's most prominent heroes, Old Shatterhand and Winnetou, popular “dramatizations” (245) of his novels re-introduced heteronormativity into their portrayal on stage. Simultaneously, however, the very same productions undermine the image of the “Wild West [as] unquestionably patriarchal” by casting women in breeches and introducing additional and more active female characters (246).
The volume also contains essays that investigate actors beyond the respective colonial metropoles, both in a socio-political and in a geographical sense. Eriks Bredovskis explores the colonial imagination and experiences of Paul Behnke, Captain of the SMS Falke (Bussard-class cruiser) on his voyage to the Pacific Northwest in 1894. Lahti and co-author Michelle Moyd compare the ways and means by which “Apache soldiers (‘scouts’) in the US West (Arizona and New Mexico) and African soldiers (askari) in the colonial army of German East Africa” (254) were involved in colonial violence as well as their motivations. In a strikingly nuanced analysis, Lahti and Moyd demonstrate that for both groups, issues of masculinity are key to understanding why they chose to ally themselves with U.S. or German colonialism. For Apache scouts and Askari soldiers alike, joining the colonial army allowed them to live an idealized masculinity (warrior/soldier) while providing for their families, thereby upholding traditional standards of “manhood within the domestic spheres and kinship networks” (254), albeit within very different relationships of power.
Readers who have already studied the history of the political, social, cultural, and economic interrelationships between the United States and Germany in the long 19th century will recognize much in Lahti's anthology, especially since all contributions look into this entangled history from the German side of the Atlantic, following the flow of ideas and practices in one direction only. Nonetheless, the volume has much to offer, as proven experts present essays based on their own research, which demonstrate the complexity of the subject. For those who are just getting started on the topic, the volume offers an excellent introduction to key topics and arguments in current debates.
