Schwarz und Deutsch sein

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

In this course, we will engage with texts and films that focus on Black German experiences in Germany in the 20th and 21st century. Germany still often considers itself as a homogenous and predominantly white country, even though diverse cultures have always been part of the German nation as well – and not only since the first migrant workers moved to former West Germany in the decades after WWII. Black people, for instance, have been part of the German population long before Germany acquired colonies in Africa and in the Pacific in the late 19th century. For instance, in the first half of the 18th century, Anton Wilhelm Amo was an African philosopher who completed dissertations at the Universities of Halle and Wittenberg where he eventually also became an instructor. While German colonial practices shaped the encounters with Black people in the latter half of the 19th century, in first half of the 20th century, it would be the major historical and political shifts in Germany that would impact Black lives in multiple ways: While Black people, such as Josephine Baker, would come to work and live in Germany after WWI, the rise of right-wing nationalism and racism also wanted to remove these Black lives. This double movement of embracing and rejecting Black people would continue also after WWII, when African American GIs were seen as heroes, liberating concentration camps and helping to rebuild German towns, while their partners and children experienced social shaming. In the former GDR, the situation was not that different: Sharing communist ideals, East Germany pursued connections with African states, including Angola, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. Yet, racial equality within the borders of the GDR was not a given. Only in the 1980s, the descendants of the generation of “occupation babies” founded an Afro-German movement that still exists today. After looking more in-depth into the history of Black Germans, we will primarily focus on the representation of Black German experiences in various textual and visual media in the 20th and 21st century. We will read and watch works by Black German, white German, and African American authors, including poems, short stories, autobiographies, and a graphic novel. In engaging with these works, the goal of this course is not just to simply acknowledge the presence of Black Germans, but to question the construction of race, its intersections with gender and class, and how the idea of Blackness in Germany shifted during the past 150 years due to social, historical and political changes. Through close readings of different literary genres and films, students will be able to hone their interpretative skills. Via structured classroom discussions and oral presentations students will have the opportunity to further advance their spoken German. Three short papers and a final paper will help students to develop their writing skills, using an advanced academic-level style.