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Migrant Activists and Cultural Spaces of Anticolonialism in Weimar Berlin
Fredrik Petersson
2024, Journal of Labor and Society
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29 pages
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Abstract
Weimar Berlin was an anticolonial metropolis in the interwar period. After the ending of the Great War in 1918, Berlin developed into a hotbed of political activism, culminating in 1933 with the Nazi Party's ascendancy to power, having migrants from the colonial and semi-colonial world arriving, living and working in the city. In this spatial and temporal setting established individuals, holding different national and cultural backgrounds, networks that overlapped with the political milieu of pacifism, socialism and communism in Germany. In some cases this resulted in anticolonial articulations that explicitly fused politics with culture. By mapping and locating these anticolonial articulations in Weimar Berlin, drawing inspiration from theoretical concepts on space and place, the essay analyze the spatial setting of anticolonial politics and culture, and how this constituted an articulated resistance against colonialism and imperialism, performed at theaters, in film, music, or curricular activities. The essay is based on archival research conducted in Berlin, Moscow and Stockholm.
Key takeaways
AI
Weimar Berlin served as a pivotal hub for anticolonial activism from 1919 to 1933.
The event 'Koloniale Welt in Flammen!' on March 4, 1928, fused culture with political agitation against colonialism.
Approximately 5000 colonial migrants resided in Berlin during the 1920s, influencing anticolonial movements.
Cultural expressions of anticolonialism intertwined with communist networks, fostering solidarity and activism.
The rise of the Nazi Party in 1933 marked the decline of these vibrant anticolonial cultural spaces.
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Journal of Labor and Society (2024) 1–29
Migrant Activists and Cultural Spaces of
Anticolonialism in Weimar Berlin
Fredrik Petersson | ORCID 0000-0001-5743-9389
Department of History, Faculty of Arts, Abo Akademi University,
Tuomiokirkontori 3, Turku 20500, Finland
[email protected]
Received 28 March 2023 | Accepted 3 January 2024 |
Published online 12 March 2024
Abstract
Weimar Berlin was an anticolonial metropolis in the interwar period. After the ending of
the Great War in 1918, Berlin developed into a hotbed of political activism, culminating
in 1933 with the Nazi Party’s ascendancy to power, having migrants from the colonial
and semi-colonial world arriving, living and working in the city. In this spatial and
temporal setting established individuals, holding different national and cultural
backgrounds, networks that overlapped with the political milieu of pacifism, socialism
and communism in Germany. In some cases this resulted in anticolonial articulations
that explicitly fused politics with culture. By mapping and locating these anticolonial
articulations in Weimar Berlin, drawing inspiration from theoretical concepts on space
and place, the essay analyze the spatial setting of anticolonial politics and culture, and
how this constituted an articulated resistance against colonialism and imperialism,
performed at theaters, in film, music, or curricular activities. The essay is based on
archival research conducted in Berlin, Moscow and Stockholm.
Keywords
anticolonialism – Communist International – culture – migrant activists –
transnational Weimar Berlin
Published with license by Koninklijke Brill nv | doi:10.1163/24714607-bja10151
© Fredrik Petersson, 2024 | ISSN: 2667-3657 (print) 2471-4607 (online)
2 petersson
1 Introduction
Berlin is not a German city, it is international. It could be anywhere,
even in the clouds. The people have no foothold there, no roots
Dagens Nyheter (1928)
Weimar Berlin was a city that witnessed colonial interconnections that reached
across imagined and real borders, a locale and setting that assisted greatly in
creating anticolonial political identities and diverse cultural articulations
over time. One of the most creative events that fused all of the above was the
dramatic event “Koloniale Welt in Flammen!” (translated as “The Colonial World
in Flames!”), which took place at the theater Piscator-Bühne at Nollendorfplatz
on March 4, 1928, in Berlin. The event combined political, intellectual, and
cultural articulations that explicitly declared resistance against colonialism and
imperialism. The official organizer of the event was the German section of the
international anti-imperialist organization, the League Against Imperialism
and for National Independence (lai, 1927–1937). Set at a ticket price of
Deutschmark 1.50, having pre-sales for the event administered through the
lai’s office at 24 Friedrichstrasse and other “affiliated organizations” such as
the World Youth League Rodrian at Scharnweberstrasse 8, the Viva Bookstore at
Kleine Alexanderstrasse 28, and “Fackelstuben” at Klosterstrasse 62, “Koloniale
Welt …” began at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and delivered what it set out to
be, namely, a vivid display that fused cultural articulations with aggressive
political agitation against colonialism.1 The peculiarity of “Koloniale Welt …”
is notable for several reasons. Not only was it political in scope and intent, it
also succeeded in linking together the political credo of anticolonialism with
cultural practices such as theater, music, and visual images. The main reason
why – which shall be addressed further in this essay – was to explore various
methods that could enhance and explicitly demonstrate solidarity with the
struggle against “colonial oppression” in, for example, Indonesia, India, and
China.2 One segment during “Koloniale Welt …” made all this abundantly clear.
Besides delivering political reports and music from Southeast Asia, a 15-minute-
long theatrical play “Slavery is abolished!” (“Sklaverei ist abgeschafft!”) was
presented on stage. The Japanese actor, Koreya Senda, who had arrived in
Berlin 1927 and belonged to Piscator-Bühne’s acting group, had a role in the
1 Russian State Archive for Socio-Political History (rgaspi, Moscow) 542/1/28, 23, “Koloniale
Welt in Flammen!”, Piscator-Bühne. Theater am Nollendorf-Platz, Berlin, 4 March 1928.
2 rgaspi 542/1/28, 23, “Koloniale Welt in Flammen!”, Berlin, 4 March 1928.
10.1163/24714607-bja10151 | Journal of Labor and Society (2024) 1–29
migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 3
play. While rehearsing and preparing for the play, the well-known German
director, Erwin Piscator, instructed Senda to do the following on stage: remain
standing in a fixed position and shout repeatedly “[W]hat’s with the dawdling!
Jerk!” while the drama of the play vividly unfolded the horrors of slavery
(Kändler et al., 1987: p. 409).
The Piscator-Bühne was well-known for its avant-gardist and politically fused
dramas in the 1920s and had earned a reputation that reached beyond Berlin
and Germany. For Erwin Piscator the theater functioned as a forum to fulfil his
ambition to not merely use it as a venue to perform “art”, but rather, it was a
venue for “political activity”. Piscator believed that by utilizing groundbreaking
stage techniques for its time, new sensations and experiences could be created
for the audience. This involved, for example, the use of film, moving images,
or by deploying revolving stage floors. All of this created a sensation of “total
theater”, in Piscator’s own words, and would instill in the audience a feeling of
being caught in a suggestive state. This meant they should feel that they either
found themselves located in a rural or agrarian landscape or seated among
thousands of people and being part of a collective. Piscator invested a great
deal of energy to realize the creation of “total theater”, considering it to be “a
full-scale serious project” (Svenska Dagbladet, 1927).
“Koloniale Welt …” answered Piscator’s desire to perform “total theater”.
Moreover, the event turned out to be an inventive protest against colonialism.
In the context of Weimar Berlin, the social scenery and political setting of the
city provided a logical cultural backdrop. Whether we perceive “Koloniale Welt
…” as an isolated and peculiar episode, in fact it was not unique. The event
bore witness to multiple anticolonial developments taking place in Berlin in
the Weimar era and corresponds to the view of historian Richard Bodek, in
his study of proletarian performance in Weimar Berlin, that the histories of
Weimar culture and politics were interconnected and overlapped each other
(Bodek, 1997: p. 3).
What needs to be further addressed is how performances and cultural
expressions of anticolonialism, forged in a political setting, constituted a part
of the proletarian performance scene in Weimar Berlin. This concerns above
all how resistance against colonialism and imperialism was increasingly
expressed in newspapers, published books and pamphlets, at public protest
meetings and strikes, and in film or theater in the interwar period 1918–1939
(Young, 2001: p. 162). This essay addresses why, how, and where political and
cultural activities against colonialism were conceived and enacted in Berlin.
This involves a clarification of and an analysis on how these ideas were
transferred to a public context and, moreover, it traces the locations where
these events took place. To do so, a major concern is to identify important
Journal of Labor and Society (2024) 1–29 | 10.1163/24714607-bja10151
4 petersson
actors in Berlin who were involved either in supporting or creating something
that can be categorized as cultural resistance against empire, colonialism,
and imperialism. Why did Berlin function as a place for organizing resistance
against colonialism and imperialism? Where and how did this take place in the
city? The active communist networks that permeated Berlin played a central
role in enabling the development of these activities.3 In this communist
setting a microcosm of overlapping networks in the city landscape emerged,
represented by individuals, associations, organizations, and the German
Communist Party (kpd). These were, in turn, connected with the central
authority of the Communist International (Comintern, 1919–1943) and its
headquarters in Moscow. In fact, as Karl Schlögel writes in Das Russische Berlin,
Berlin functioned as the “Org-Welt” and “Global Village” of the Comintern in the
1920s (Schlögel, 2007: pp. 192–196). However, all this came to an abrupt end with
the ascendancy to power of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
(nsdap, better known as the Nazi Party) after Adolf Hitler’s appointment as
Reich Chancellor on January 30, 1933, which in turn demarcated the formal end
of the Weimar Republic and Germany’s societal struggle to save its democratic
constitutional framework (Striefler, 1993; Steiner, 2005: p. 602).
The main argument made here is the following: cultural anticolonial
activism in Berlin was preceded and shaped by concurrent political agendas
that emphasized resistance against colonialism and imperialism. Hence,
the political culture of anticolonialism functioned as a contextual gateway,
which galvanized cultural activities against colonialism and imperialism
through theater, film, and educational activity. It should be noted that the
main purpose here is not to cover each and every aspect, case or episode that
took place in Berlin, but rather, it is to analyze how and why these types of
cultural practices were developed and utilized for political reasons. In its
crudest form, this involves an assessment of historical patterns that provided
the opportunity to express anticolonial ideas through cultural discourses. This
requires an examination of what “culture” might constitute, which, in line with
Monica Black’s (2010: p. 3) definition of “culture”, relates to the understanding
of systems, meanings, mores, norms, symbols, customs and practices,
representations, and sensibilities, and how they were formed and changed over
time. Black’s definition implies that “a culture” of anticolonialism was already
in existence. However, when it comes to how and why anticolonialism was
enunciated in a cultural context in Berlin, it was not that simple. Instead, the
3 Similar approaches have been undertaken in the study of other places and cities during the
interwar period, see, for example, Boittin (2010) and Goebel (2015).
10.1163/24714607-bja10151 | Journal of Labor and Society (2024) 1–29
migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 5
political discourse of anticolonialism developed over time and was decisive for
the spatial development of anticolonial cultural activities.
This article analyses a broad range of sources to establish an understanding
of the locations of anticolonial cultural practices in Berlin, including posters,
leaflets, advertisements, information in anticolonial publications and the
daily press, letters and information flowing to and from Berlin to Comintern
headquarters in Moscow, and the memoirs of participants.4 Public venues
such as theaters and open plazas, the showing of film, musical performances,
political and public demonstrations, and curricular activity, tell us how and
why anticolonialism was not only political in scope and intent, but became
a cultural practice in some cases, with the two forms of activity frequently
overlapping with each other depending on the circumstances. Recent research
has suggested that this could be seen as an expression of “aesthetics”; meaning,
where artistic articulations point to something that is elusive and embodies
an irruptive persistence that cross both historical and spatial boundaries (Lee,
2020: p. 12). “Aesthetic”, in the context of culture and anticolonialism in Weimar
Berlin, therefore relates essentially to the translation of an understanding of
the colonial world and colonial oppression to a localized setting in Berlin.
The book Berliner Begegnungen. Ausländische Künstler in Berlin 1918 bis 1933
(Kändler et al., 1987), was typical of this process and it remains a vivid account
that captures Weimar Berlin’s cultural milieu. Despite the book’s biased
nature, authorized and published under the supervision of “Akademie der
Künste der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik”, it should be seen as a source
that highlights the encounters of foreign artists who visited or lived in Berlin
between 1918 and 1933. As the title of the book implies – “Berlin encounters”
– the city provided a setting that made it possible to stage events that fused
politics with culture. The principal argument of the book was that the German
communist movement deliberately fused art and culture with politics and that
Berlin, as the capital of the Weimar Republic, thereby became a “center for
European politics, science and art as much as the city provided a cultural scene
for the labor movement” (Kändler et al., 1987: pp. 5–19).
Weimar Berlin represented one of several nodes in Europe for anticolonial
movements in the interwar period and functioned as one of several havens for
colonial migrants in the western world, which, over time, turned into a pivotal
4 The empirical material in this essay is located in the following archives and collections:
Russian State Archive for Social and Political History (rgaspi, Moscow); Stiftung Archiv
der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der ddr im Bundesarchiv, Zentrales Parteiarchiv
(sapmo-ba zpa, Lichterfelde); Hans Piazza collection (hpc, Berlin); Leibniz-Zentrum
Moderne Orient (zmo, Berlin); and the collection of newspapers at Kungliga biblioteket
(Royal Library) in Stockholm, Sweden.
Journal of Labor and Society (2024) 1–29 | 10.1163/24714607-bja10151
6 petersson
political and organizational center for anticolonial movements between 1919
and 1933. Above all, in Berlin anticolonial movements of different characters
existed, all pursuing similar or divergent objectives and representing diverse
national backgrounds. Berlin’s locale is also crucial from a methodological
perspective. In a first step, the aim here is to map out locations and the location
of anticolonial cultural activities in Berlin. Secondly, to see whether the
sources disclose a historical narrative about these places. Cultural geographer
Tim Cresswell (2004: p. 7) writes that locale implies the “material setting for
social relations”. Based on political geographer John Agnew’s concept of place
as a “meaningful location”, Cresswell describes locale as a place where “people
conduct their lives as individuals, as men or women”, and that places always
have a physical form. The sources allow us to pinpoint specific addresses that
experienced anticolonial cultural events in Berlin, performed by migrant
activists from the colonies, or from other parts of the world. Maps represent,
for example, sources that retrospectively visualize spaces that no longer exist.
In 1929, the “Exhibition, Fair and Travelers’ Office of the City of Berlin” issued
a detailed map of the city’s geography, produced by the company “Pharus-
Verlag”, which makes it possible to understand Berlin as “a time and a place”
(Schlögle, 2016: pp. 63–66).5
This article covers primarily the years 1925 to 1932. The reason for this is
because of the political impact of the Hands Off China campaign in 1925, and
the somewhat dismal celebration of “Colonial Day” in Berlin 12 December 1932,
two events that serve as crucial demarcations in time and space. It has been
suggested, however, that the artistic freedom in Weimar Berlin came to an end
earlier than 1932. Peter Jelavich’s cultural study of radio and film in the Weimar
era concludes that culture and art was extensively curbed in 1931 due to the
sudden increase in censorship and prohibition. This suggest that one should
not perceive Hitler’s appointment as Reich Chancellor on 30 January 1933,
as the definite demarcation for artistic freedom as it had evidently already
ended (Jelavich, 2006: pp. 240–241). Yet, I would like to propose that cultural
anticolonialism somehow managed to survive to some degree throughout
1932. Even though Berlin’s political landscape was characterized by violence
and street conflict, carried out by the left (communists) and the right (the Nazi
Party) (see, for example, the in-depth narrative in Walther (2020)), anticolonial
movements maintained some level of activism, despite all hardship.
5 For the Pharus-Verlag map, published in 1929, see: https://berliner-stadtplansammlung.de
/index.php/karten/einzelblaetter/item/5992-pharus-plan-berlin (accessed 19 October 2022).
10.1163/24714607-bja10151 | Journal of Labor and Society (2024) 1–29
migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 7
2 The Colonial Locale in Weimar Berlin
The kpd’s official party organ, Die Rote Fahne, stated that roughly 5000 colonial
migrants with an African or Asian background either lived or visited Berlin
during the 1920s. This figure should be seen as a rather sketchy and ambiguous
estimation. However, it was later mentioned in Babette Gross’s biography
of her partner, the German communist propagandist and organizational
entrepreneur, Willi Münzenberg, where she wrote that Berlin and “the Weimar
Republic generously offered asylum to the colonial liberation struggle”.
Gross mentioned that hundreds of Chinese students conducted studies at
universities in Berlin; the Chinese nationalist organization Kuomintang had
a bureau in the city; and that well-known anticolonial activists, such as the
Indian revolutionary Manabendra Nath Roy and the Vietnamese Nguyen Ai
Quoc (later known as Ho Chi Minh), either passed through, visited, or lived
for shorter periods in Berlin before continuing their travels to other pivotal
anticolonial metropoles such as Moscow, Paris, London, Hamburg, or New
York (Gross, 1967: p. 197; Martin and Alonzo, 2004).
Migrant anticolonial spaces existed in parallel with the public and political
spheres of the socialist and communist movement in Berlin, two outspoken
opponents as they combated one another to become popular mass parties
in the Weimar Republic. In this political space, the former gained more
influence and popularity over the latter. Eric D. Weitz (1998) writes that public
spheres became “more intense and more openly contested in Weimar”. This
was a reaction to what has been described as the development of “classical
modernity” in the interwar period, but also to the numerous strikes,
demonstrations, party campaigns, and armed rebellions erupting across
Germany in 1918–1919, which created the framework within which political
culture and activism was conducted in the Weimar Republic. While struggling
in the streets, the kpd simultaneously found itself largely excluded from its
preferred arena in the workplace. The German communist movement was
therefore forced to find other political and cultural spaces to forge activism
including, for example, sport leagues, radio clubs, choirs, the trade unions,
associations, and organizations.
One contextual aspect is important here, namely that the Weimar Republic
was “born in defeat” as a consequence of the Versailles peace treaty in 1919,
resulting in (amongst several things) Germany being deprived of its so-called
“African protectorates” (another term used for colonies and adopted as a
result of the Berlin Conference in 1884–1885) in Cameroon, Togo, German
Southwest Africa (now Namibia) and German East Africa (now Tanzania),
as well as in the South Pacific and the Middle East. This turned Weimar
Journal of Labor and Society (2024) 1–29 | 10.1163/24714607-bja10151
8 petersson
Germany into a post-imperial nation, inhabited by a postcolonial population
with a postcolonial mentality. Weimar Germany can therefore be seen as of
having been forced, according to Jan C. Jansen and Jürgen Osterhammel’s
interpretation, to adjust itself to an “imperial past”, which for Germans had an
“impact on their self-image and identity” (Jansen and Osterhammel, 2017: p.
12). This could express itself in two forms: either in a longing by some Germans
to regain lost colonies, or by them becoming protesters against colonialism
and imperialism. These two camps evolved into powerful political discourses
that permeated the Weimar Republic, with Berlin representing a central focus
of these public debates. In April 1928 Münzenberg declared at a meeting with
the lai Executive Committee that it was not difficult to stir up anticolonial
reactions in Germany. The reason was simple, suggested Münzenberg:
Germany no longer possessed any colonies and, moreover, government
agencies, such as the Ministry of the Interior and Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign
Department), did not seem to pay attention to the lai’s activities.6 In fact,
Münzenberg had a rather remote understanding of the factual situation, given
the continual surveillance that was carried out by Berlin’s Reich Commissar
for Surveillance and Public Order of the lai and its International secretariat
in Berlin. Hans Jäger, the leader of the German lai section, offered a different
view in 1932 after having observed how the political discourse had changed
over time in Germany since 1928. Jäger’s conclusion, in comparison to
Münzenberg’s detached understanding of the political situation in Germany,
stated that it was “extraordinarily difficult” to pursue any kind of activity, and
it was futile to organize large scale propaganda campaigns anymore.7 Jäger’s
conclusion mirrors Monica Black’s contention that, as Berlin entered the 1930s,
it resembled a sick and dying city, ending effectively as the Nazi Party achieved
total political control in February 1933 (Black, 2010: pp. 1, 3 and 66).
Colonial networks in Berlin, originating with migrants from Africa, Asia,
and the Middle East, overlapped with each other as their members lived
side-by-side while adjusting themselves to ideologies such as socialism,
anarchism, pacifism, and communism. Not all were outspoken anticolonial
activists, though some explicitly defined themselves as such. Colonial migrant
groups were additionally not homogenous. Instead, the backgrounds of
their members were diverse while living in Berlin, working as journalists,
actors, students, travelers, sojourners, or activists. Outsiders visiting the city,
6 rgaspi 542/1/25, 44, Protokoll der Sitzung des Exekutiv Komitees der Liga gegen
Imperialismus, Berlin, 28 April 1928.
7 sapmo-ba zpa R1507/279/10, 88, Betrifft: Durchsuchung der Räume der “Liga gegen den
Imperialismus”, Berlin, to Minister des Innern, Berlin, 19 August 1932.
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migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 9
for example journalists of the foreign press, did not describe this milieu in
flattering terms. Even though no explicit reference was made to cultures of
a colonial origin or race, the jazz ensemble “Chocolate Kiddies”, for example,
was described as of having stirred up attention, with one critic stating that
“now I understand the true nature of jazz” because it was performed by a
group who had “musical sensibility and the humor of the body”, that is to say,
they were black musicians. This comment referred to the notion that “never
could a cultural people” possess any of the above (Aftonbladet, 1925). Similar
statements were put in print with the depiction of the notorious nightclub
the “Wild West Bar” in Berlin, which featured an African American jazz band
that performed under the slogan “[I]t is American, and American is modern”.
Even though the jazz music scene had an extensive presence in Berlin, this
nonetheless reflected how views about the supposedly “primitive character of
the Negro” as the “new, unspoiled race” appeared in print and circulated in
media. According to a journalist from a Swedish daily paper, one should not
miss out on visiting and spend a couple of joyous hours at “the Negro chapel” at
the “Wild West Bar” and “drink cocktails for a reasonable price”. However, the
journalist noted that even “the Negroes got tired of abusing the piano, banjo
and the drums, and then you found yourself located at Potzdamer Platz again”
(Dagens Nyheter, 1931; Weitz, 2007: pp. 49, 51).
The colonial influx in Berlin was very evident in the city landscape, yet
at the same time it was representative of a global community that in some
cases used anticolonialism to question the persistent system of colonialism
and imperialism. It is logical to assume that anticolonial migrant activists in
Berlin adopted daily strategies in order to adapt to the locale of the place. In
reference to Jennifer Anne Boittin’s study of anti-imperialism and feminism
in interwar Paris, colonial migrants constructed “strategies for coping with
metropolitan life” as they built communities within the city limits (Boittin,
2010: p. xviii). The meaning of “community” is crucial here. Robbie Aitken and
Eve Rosenhaft’s use of the term, as outlined in Black Germany (2013), fits the
context of cultural anticolonialism in that colonial migrant communities in
Berlin were shaped by “the materialities of neighborhood, daily experiences of
face-to-face communication” and access to anticolonial networks (Aitken and
Rosenhaft, 2013: pp. 6–7). Anticolonial networks were established and became
either interlocked or overlapped with local or global networks, thus enabling
colonial migrants to create meeting spaces for informal or formal get-togethers
and discussions.
The “Global Village” of Comintern was essential in this respect because
overlapping communist networks were active and covered the entirety of
Berlin. These networks were either national or international in scope and
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intent, but even more they were in a majority of cases connected to Comintern
headquarters in Moscow. Geographically speaking, this linked Berlin together
with the central authority of the Bolshevik regime and the Comintern’s
apparatus in Moscow. In fact, since Berlin functioned as the Comintern’s
“Org-Welt”, the city was a central geopolitical relay station for several reasons.
This included, for example, the transmission of instructions on a global scale
through couriers to secure and implement control over national communist
parties as well as affiliated and sympathizing organizations, and to distribute
funds to these organizations (Schlögel, 2007: pp. 179–208). Two organizations
had Berlin as their operational base, both of which were characteristic of the
struggle against colonialism and imperialism: the League Against Imperialism
with its International secretariat on 24 Friedrichstrasse, and the headquarters
of the communist mass organization Internationale Arbeiterhilfe (iah;
International Workers’ Aid, 1921–1935) at Wilhelmsstrasse 48 (Petersson,
2013). The latter organization was masterminded through the ideas and
organizational maneuvers of Münzenberg, which in a second step greatly
assisted in the initial phase of the lai’s existence first on a local level, and
secondly, on a global scale. For Münzenberg, propaganda was the key and his
skills as an organizational entrepreneur came to serve as a template for some
of the cultural expressions of anticolonialism in Berlin. In 1925, for example,
Münzenberg wrote to Grigori Zinoviev, who for the moment acted as the
Comintern’s chairman, describing in detail a plan about what should be done
to increase propaganda in support of the Soviet Union. Firstly, an upsurge of
“up-to-date material” on the Soviet Union had to be published in the monthly
journal Arbeiter-Illustriete-Zeitung (issued through Münzenberg’s publishing
company Neuer Deutscher Verlag), supplemented by the publication of similar
material in other communist papers and magazines. Secondly, Münzenberg
intended to enhance the campaign by publishing pictorial albums and
postcards, accompanied by “Russian film evenings”, which hopefully would
attract attention and increase knowledge about the societal situation in the
Soviet Union. Finally, Münzenberg explained to Zinoviev that “lectures and
meetings” in German factories and trade unions would certainly result in some
kind of support, at least on a local level.8
What connects several of the aspects mentioned above is that Weimar Berlin
has been referred to a “site at which most possibilities of twentieth-century
modernity were realized” (Föllmer, 2013: p. 5). Organized forms of resistance
against colonialism, for example at public demonstrations, adds to the tale of
Berlin and modernity. However, the aim here is not to disclose or corroborate
8 rgaspi 538/2/27, 51–52, Letter from Münzenberg, Berlin, to Zinoviev, Moscow, 7.5.1925.
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migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 11
practices of cultural anticolonialism merely as an expression of modernity, but
rather, it is to locate, map, and analyze the practices and expressions of migrant
activists, and how these were explicitly or secretly linked to anticolonial and
communist networks.
3 The Mapping of Colonial Spaces in Weimar Berlin, 1925–1932
Weimar Berlin was “the big city” (“die Grossstadt”), inhabited by “asphalt
people”, where different locations provided different opportunities. It was as if
the “warmth came from the asphalt [and] Berlin by night is considerably more
miserable and despaired than it is immoral and debauched”. Alexanderplatz,
for example, represented the drive and uncertainty of Berlin as a metropolitan
capital, populated by traditional working class people living side-by-side with
the very poor (Jelavich, 2006: p. 1; Black, 2010: p. 19).9 A contemporary observer
contemplated the city’s “moral decay” and how the “quarters of foreigners
always were immoral” places. The Swedish liberal newspaper Dagens Nyheter
(Daily News) published an anonymous account on 17 May 1925, authored by a
recent visitor to the city, who described how Berlin’s social development had
seriously changed after the war’s ending in 1918. There seemed to exist no limits
to any form of depravity and vice put on public display. Instead, the anonymous
author bemoaned how “Gross-Berlin’s poorly made-up little geishas with their
crimson red lips and dead eyes” had captured the city. The author’s views not
only disclose the prejudices of the time, but it also conveyed a view on Berlin’s
vibrancy and the multiplicity of political, social, and cultural spaces. It was
both a curious place and the scene for decadent and immoral behavior, and
thereby it was no longer representative of “Prussian chastity”. It was as if there
existed no limits to how human feelings could be expressed in literary form, or
through the enactment of theatrical plays at Berlin’s theaters (Dagens Nyheter,
1925). The city was, as Eric D. Weitz writes, a “symbol and pacesetter” but “too far
in front” in comparison to the rest of Germany. Regardless of this conundrum,
Berlin attracted both determined and talented people from within Germany,
as well as individuals arriving from all the corners of the globe (Weitz, 2007:
p. 79).
Mapping colonial encounters in Berlin makes visible the hidden terrain of
the city’s colonial and anticolonial spaces. These venues, addresses and public
spaces, or other locales are identified in the sources. The identification of
9 In 1930, around four million people lived in Berlin, making it the third largest metropolis in
the world, exceeded only by London and New York.
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events and their localities uncovers how anticolonial ideas were translated into
practice. Berlin was a vibrant milieu that fused the rhetorics of anticolonialism
with political meetings, demonstrations, or at cultural events. Moreover, the
study of colonial spaces and anticolonial sites shows that, for some, Berlin was
a limited and regulated space. This was mainly a consequence of the enforced
prohibitive measures, censorship, and security measures emanating from
Berlin’s police authorities.
Where were the localities of these colonial spaces and anticolonial sites?
The sources suggest the following, among many others: Piscator-Bühne at
Nollendorfplatz; Andreassälen, Pharussäle at Müllerstrasse 142 in the working
class district of Wedding; the Musiker-Festsäle at Kaiser Wilhelmstrasse 31; the
Sturm-Saal at Potzdamerstrasse 134a; Rathauskeller on Königstrasse; the office
of the “Indian Information Bureau” at Mauerstrasse 52; the bureau of League
against Colonial Oppression at Bamberger Strasse 60; the lai’s headquarters at
Friedrichstrasse 24 and then Hedemannstrasse 13 in 1932–33; iah headquarters
at Wilhelmstrasse 48; the Chinese National Agency at Witzlebenplatz 5/6 in
Charlottenburg; and the Deutsches Künstlertheater at Tiergarten at Budapester
Strasse 35. These locations were of pivotal importance as sites of anticolonial
campaigns, demonstrations, or as organizing centers, connecting different
groups in Berlin’s limited city space.
4 Anticolonial Campaigns, Demonstrations, and Organizing Centers
The struggles of the Chinese nationalist revolutionary movement created
international reactions after the war had ended in 1918. On May 30, 1925,
British Concession police in Shanghai violently suppressed an on-going
strike in the textile industry, resulting in the death of thirteen individuals,
which set off political reactions in Western Europe. For the iah, the turmoil
of the Shanghai incident was used as a pretext to establish the Hands Off
China campaign in June in Germany and France. Münzenberg had high
expectations for the campaign, expecting that the German labor movement
would support it vigorously, for example, by getting workers to buy “Chinese
supporting stamps” (Chinahilfsmarken) for the sole purpose of collecting
money in support of the Chinese workers. On 16 August, the Hands Off
China campaign culminated in an iah-organized congress at Herrenhaus on
Leipziger Strasse. 600 delegates attended, and at the end of the congress two
Chinese trade unionists approached Münzenberg and suggested that it would
be “a good idea” to organize an international congress against colonialism and
imperialism, and for it to be held either in Brussels or Copenhagen. This idea
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migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 13
introduced Münzenberg to a new objective for advancing the anticolonial
project (Petersson, 2013: pp. 65–73).
Public demonstrations against colonialism and imperialism increased after
1925 in Berlin. The sheer scale, size and aims of the demonstrations could be
different depending on the question at stake. However, with the establishment
of the Hands Off China campaign, this marked the beginning of closer relations
between communist and Chinese nationalist revolutionary networks in
the city. It nevertheless became evident that it was crucial to use methods
capable of mobilizing the overlapping networks, such as the establishment of
a unified political platform that could act as a strong leader efficient enough of
broadening the anticolonial movement.
The founding conference of the League Against Colonial Oppression (laco)
at the “Berliner Rathauskeller” on Königstrasse, February 10, 1926, aimed
at centralizing anticolonial activists living in Berlin. The preparations for
the conference had been coordinated by the so-called “Action Committee
against the Colonial Politics of the Imperialists’”, an undertaking in the hands
of Münzenberg, iah and the “Against the Cruelties in Syria Committee”
(established in Berlin, December 1925). The original plan was to convene the
conference discretely by circulating “time or the agenda or the list speakers”
close to the event.10 On February 5, invitations were sent to important
individuals which, according to the document mentioned, stated the
conference’s aim as being: to establish “lively contacts with representatives
and organizations of the oppressed peoples of the East” living in Berlin, and
address to the German people and “the whole civilized world” about colonial
atrocities and the oppression of “Eastern peoples” in Asia.11
43 delegates attended the Rathauskeller conference on February 10. The focal
point of the conference was to obtain the agreement of the delegates to the
establishment of the League Against Colonial Oppression (laco) and to let the
iah prepare an international congress against colonialism and imperialism.
This was, in fact, the initial phase of what later would lead to the inauguration
of the lai at the “First International Congress against Colonialism and
Imperialism” in Brussels, 10–13 February 1927.12 The Rathauskeller conference
was an opportunity to make a political and organizational statement about
the consolidation of anticolonial movements and individual activists on a
common platform. Its attendance list also provides the names and addresses
10 rgaspi 538/3/47, 9–13, Letter from Münzenberg, Berlin, to Müller/iah, Moscow, 26
January 1926.
11 rgaspi 542/1/4, 1, Einladung, Sekretariat G/E, Berlin, 5 February 1926.
12 For the lai’s origin and history, see Louro et al. (2020).
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14 petersson
of anticolonial organizations and activists in Berlin including, for example,
Suraj Kishun of the “Association of Indians’ in Central Europe” who lived
at 116 Uhlandstrasse, Chi Chiang Chad of the “Main Association of Chinese
Students” who resided at 5 Kremmener Strasse, and N. Tschelebi from the
“Muslim Community” who stayed at 10 Fasanenstrasse.13
This account tells us where some anticolonial activists lived in Berlin in 1926.
Colonial associations, societies, and clubs are of particular interest here as
they generously offered colonial migrants opportunities to establish networks
based on personal contacts. The activism of colonial and anticolonial groups
did not, however, pass unnoticed. laco secretary, the Hungarian communist
Louis Gibarti (real name: Laszlo Dobos), observed how the activities of the
Egyptian nationalist “Klub der Zaglulisten” (Zaglulist Club) had stirred up
interest among Arabic and North African residents in the city. Gibarti informed
the Comintern’s Eastern secretariat in Moscow about the club, suggesting that
it would be a good idea to establish an “Oriental Club” in Berlin that could
similarly benefit the laco. The club should have a library and could host
lectures on anticolonial activism and “theoretical courses” on socialism, the
labor movement, and Marxism.14
Colonial unrest in northern Africa had been a notorious subject up for
discussion in Berlin since 1925. In 1927, Moroccan activists formed the “Islamic
Commission” (Islamitische Kommission), a group the Berlin’s Reich Commissar
for Surveillance and Public Order suspected of being in close contact with
Comintern headquarters in Moscow. The Reich Commissar feared that the
commission was about to be transformed into a communist front organization
once it received political instructions and financial support from the Comintern.
The “Islamic Commission” sought to disseminate propaganda on the on-going
Rif Kabylian unrest in Northern Africa, depicting it as an expression of Muslim
resistance against oppression, and to transfer this message to other parts of the
Muslim world. Berlin appeared to be a logical location in which to nourish this
kind of activity, using the city as an organizing center to circulate propaganda
in the “Mohammedan world”.15 Another network was the so-called “Cell of the
Middle and Far East”, which united people that either visited or briefly resided
in Berlin, arriving from Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, Egypt, Palestine,
Syria, Turkey and Persia.16 Of a similar character was the “Indian association”
established on March 14, 1927 and consisting of Indian students, which the
13 rgaspi 542/1/4, 5–6, Anwesenheitsliste, Berlin Rathauskeller, Berlin, 10 February 1926.
14 rgaspi 542/1/5, 4–5, L. Gibarti, Berlin, to Eastern secretariat, Moscow, 23 February 1926.
15 rgaspi 458/9/22, 2–4, Abschrift, Berlin, 4 April 1927.
16 rgaspi 458/9/22, 7, Anfrage über Gründung einer mohammedanischen Zelle, Berlin, 19
April 1927.
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migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 15
Reich Commissar categorized as “overtly communist”, suspecting them of
being in close contact with the Comintern and the Communist Party of Great
Britain (cpgb). Intelligence reports suggested that the association’s main
purpose was threefold: to support Chinese and Indian revolutionaries visiting
Berlin, the collection of money for the purpose of sending funds to China and
India, and the continued preparation of revolution in India.17
Connections between Indian and Chinese migrant activists were abundantly
clear in the city of Berlin. The Reich Commissar observed that the Chinese
nationalist organization Kuomintang maintained a bureau in the city, and
that it cooperated closely with its London bureau while upholding intimate
ties to iah headquarters in Berlin.18 Another sign that Berlin served as a
European center for Chinese nationalist propaganda was the establishment
of the “Chinese National Agency” in April 1927. The agency came about after
a coordinated effort by the iah and the lai’s International secretariat once
the Comintern’s Eastern secretariat in Moscow had approved the idea, and
Münzenberg placed the Chinese national revolutionary Liao Huaxing in charge.
The agency did not, however, last for long and was dissolved in August 1927 and
transferred to the lai’s International secretariat. Nonetheless, the main point of
the agency had been to funnel Chinese nationalist propaganda from Germany
to England and France. Located at Witzlebenplatz 5/6, Charlottenburg, the
agency functioned as a counterresponse to the Kuomintang’s violent putsch
against its former collaborator, the Chinese communist movement and party,
in Shanghai on April 12, 1927.19 The call ringing out from Shanghai earned an
immediate response on the streets in Berlin. On 13 April, the kpd organized a
public demonstration in Lustgarten to support the Chinese liberation struggle,
having representatives of the Chinese communist youth movement deliver
a flag as a gift to the German communist youth movement. Münzenberg
reported later to Comintern headquarters that the “1500 strong crowd” at
the demonstration had stirred up “a media echo” and was a “forceful protest”
against the situation in China.20 Events of this kind certainly stirred up feelings
and reactions as they combined “bodily experience and intense emotion to the
17 rgaspi 458/9/22, 8–9, Gründung einer komm.Gruppe indischer Studenten in Berlin,
Berlin, 21 April 1927.
18 Hans Piazza collection (hpc, Berlin), File: Liga. Vorgeschichte, Reichskommissar für
Überwachung offentligen Ordnung, J. V., Berlin, 1 August 1926.
19 rgaspi 495/30/350, 18–19, Letter from Münzenberg, Berlin, to Petrovsky, Moscow, 22 April
1927.
20 hpc, Liga von Brüssel nach Frankfurt/M, Berliner Lustgarten, 13 April 1927; sapmo-
ba zpa i 6/3/361, 8, Letter from W. Münzenberg, Berlin, to M. Heimo, Moscow, 22 April
1927; Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning, ”Jättedemonstrationer i Berlin” (Gigantic
Demonstrations in Berlin), Göteborg, 4 June 1927.
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16 petersson
highest degree” (Hobsbawm, 2002: p. 73).21 The focus on China continued in
various forms. On December 18, 1927, the Soviet Russian Trade Delegation held
a conference in Berlin to highlight the current situation of labor movements in
“the Orient”, but also, to challenge the German labor movement to support the
Chinese nationalist struggle.22
The development of anticolonial activities in Berlin relied heavily on
connective centers. iah headquarters at Wilhelmstrasse 48, located in the
center of the pulsating city, provided office space to “radical, pacifist and
communist organizations”. In 1927 the pacifist League for Human Rights’ shared
an office with the German “Monistenbund” and the “Revolutionary Pacifists”.
Likewise, in the initial phase of the lai, iah headquarters assisted in organizing
the lai’s work to establish national sections in India, China, Egypt, Great
Britain, and Germany. Later in January 1928, the lai acquired a bureau of its
own at 24 Friedrichstrasse. The iah’s locale served the interests of associations
and organizations. For example, a “social-scientific club” was located in the
vicinity, providing opportunities to hold discussions and educational activities
that either the League for Human Rights, lai, and the “Revolutionary Pacifists’”
(Liga der Pacifisten in German) could hold. The lai’s agenda of anticolonialism
and anti-imperialism was also fused with pacifism, a theme that became more
important over time. In April 1928, the Reich Commissar for Surveillance and
Public Order observed an “intense activity” and collaboration between the lai
and the Liga der Pacifisten as the two of them were regularly invited to public
meetings at Pharussälen at Müllerstrasse 142. The Reich Commissar concluded
that there could be no doubt that the “house at Wilhelmstrasse 48 is a center
for communist aid organizations and communist intellectual propaganda”.23
Wilhelmstrasse 48 was crucial as it enabled connections to be made among
activists and it supported the formulation of anticolonial political strategies.
After the lai’s move to Friedrichstrasse 24, several Chinese activists followed
suit and left 48 Wilhelmstrasse to use the lai’s International secretariat as
the base of their activities.24 As much as iah’s headquarters and the lai’s
21 Hobsbawm lived in Berlin between 1931 and 1932 and witnessed the political strife and
violence on the streets of Berlin, something he later wrote about in his reminiscences
about the city.
22 rgaspi 458/9/22, 32–33, Unterstützung des deutschen Streiks durch Gewerkschaften des
Orients, Berlin, 21 December 1927.
23 rgaspi 458/9/44, 30, Report, Berlin, 13 June 1927; rgaspi 458/9/43, 23, Short note,
Reichskommissar für Überwachung der öffentlichen Ordnung, Berlin, 24 April 1928.
24 rgaspi 458/9/22, 44–46, Reichskommissar für Überwachung der öffentlichen Ordnung,
Berlin, March 1928.
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migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 17
International secretariat represented important connective centers, other
places offered a chance to meet and discuss resistance against colonialism.
For example, the club “Roten Stern” (Red Star) on Dessauerstrasse held weekly
meetings where representatives from different communist and anticolonial
organizations met and conferred. The meetings were secret and held behind
closed doors in the club’s library, with a maximum of twelve people allowed
for each session.25
Such anticolonial encounters questioned the nature and fundamentals of
colonialism from an intellectual perspective. This occurred in different forms
and took place at different locations, for example on February 16–19, 1928, a
variety of topics were addressed under the guise of political lectures and
cultural events. A lecture by Fritz Schmidt on Germany’s educational system
at the “Askanischen Gymnasium” was followed by a survey on the penal system
in the Soviet Union. The following day, the journalist and Sinologist, Otto
Corbach, gave a lecture on “American and English imperialism” at Herrenhaus,
which then continued with an open discussion on colonialism at “Orpheum
Haasenheide”, ending with a dance performance from the group “Skoronet-
Trümpy” at an educational center on 11 Yorkstrasse in Kreuzberg.26
All of the above can either be interpreted as isolated events, undertaken by
different groups in Berlin. However, they can also be seen as part of a broader
pattern that mirrored everyday anticolonial activities taking place across the
city. The case of the “Indian Information Bureau” exemplifies this. Functioning
as a connective center, the “Indian Information Bureau” was established in
February 1929 as a joint initiative by the lai’s international secretary and
Indian nationalist revolutionary, Virendranath Chattophadyaya, and his
colleague, the Indian journalist A.C.N. Nambiar, together with Jawaharlal
Nehru. Maintaining an informal connection to the lai, the bureau was located
at a different address in Berlin, Mauerstrasse 52. The official purpose of the
“Indian Information Bureau” was “primarily to supply Indian students with
information regarding all branches of education in Germany and to help
them on their arrival […] to gain admission into universities, technical and
industrial schools and factories”. Moreover, the Prussian Ministry of Education
expressed no concerns about the activities of the bureau, which, for example
included assisting Indian students to find accommodation as “paying guests”
in German families of good standing in Potsdam. German families were then
25 Ibid.
26 rgaspi 542/1/25, 4, Der Ausrufer. Mitteilungsblatt des Jungproletariats, Berlin, 15 February
1928.
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18 petersson
expected to tutor the Indian student in the German language for at least three
hours a day.27
However, the “Indian Information Bureau” also had a covert purpose. While
assisting newly arrived Indian students and giving them social support in
Berlin, the lai’s ambition was to exert political influence over them, via the
bureau. The lai’s International secretariat considered it as pivotal to increase
the work of “establishing regular contacts” with Indian students in Berlin
and elsewhere in Germany in 1930, an objective that also included groups
of “Orientals and Africans”. To do so, one way was to arrange special courses
on imperialism, having the lai and the “Indian Information Bureau” act as
the formal organizers. Much of this drew on the successful endeavors in 1928,
where the lai had organized similar courses in Berlin.28 From the lai’s, iah’s,
and the Comintern’s perspective, this line of work to gain access and establish
contacts with colonial migrant clubs, associations, or committees seems
to have procured positive results. One key explanation for why was that the
lai were convinced that national security agencies in Germany and beyond
seemed oblivious to the everyday activities of colonial migrant groups.29 Yet at
the same time, other spaces were developed and enhanced with an emphasis
on cultural expressions of anticolonialism.
5 “The Colonial World in Flames!”
The lai organized a public meeting at the “Sturmsaal” in Berlin on January
20, 1928, an event that addressed the question of Germany’s former colonial
possessions and the political ambition to repossess them once again. Georg
Ledebour, a German journalist and socialist, was expected to lecture on the
“ambitions and expectations” of Germany to regain its former colonies in
Africa and the Middle East. However, the meeting was poorly attended,
having only one male and two females present and was cancelled due to
poor attendance.30 Münzenberg was not pleased with the “Sturmsaal” fiasco.
Wondering if the explicitly political nature of the meeting had contributed
27 Leibniz-Zentrum Moderne Orient (zmo, Berlin), Krüger-Nachlass, Box 64, Bulletin Nr. 3,
Education in Germany, Indian Information Bureau, Berlin, April-May 1929.
28 rgaspi 542/1/44, 33, Bericht über die indische Arbeit, lai, Berlin, to Eastern secretariat,
Moscow, 9 January 1930.
29 rgaspi 495/4/16, 81–90, Letter from ecci secretariat, Moscow, to cc pcf, Paris, 23 March
1930.
30 sapmo-ba zpa, R1001/6751, 101, Report “Deutsche Gesellschaft für Eingeborenenkunde,”
Berlin, to the German Foreign Department, Berlin, 3 February 1928.
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migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 19
to its failure, he thought that perhaps future anticolonial and anti-imperialist
demonstrations and conferences needed to be approached differently.
Considering the success of the Brussels Congress in 1927, which had yielded an
“international echo” according to Münzenberg, in 1928 it was expected that the
lai would continue down a path that succeeded in creating public reactions.
The political agenda of anticolonialism could, for example, be rephrased or
altered in some respects by following Münzenberg’s concept of utilizing
all kinds of propaganda techniques. Perhaps it could be useful to blend the
political rhetoric of anticolonialism with cultural events, which was realized
when Münzenberg contacted Erwin Piscator to ask if the lai could be given
access to Piscator-Bühne at Nollendorf-Platz in Berlin. Münzenberg then
informed Roy in Moscow, who was then in charge of colonial questions at the
Comintern’s Eastern secretariat, about a coming anticolonial demonstration.
Münzenberg provided Roy with “a poster and leaflet regarding an event”,
arranged by the “local chapter of the Berlin League Against Imperialism” on
March 4. Münzenberg told Roy that he expected that “the event will make
a very good impression […] the press will become very aware of this event”.
Named the “Koloniale Welt in Flammen!” (“The Colonial World in Flames!”)
Münzenberg believed that the event had every chance of demonstrating the
true scale and nature of anticolonial solidarity.31
Another source provides us a different insight into what happened at
“Koloniale Welt …” on 4 March at the Piscator-Bühne. The source was a report
authored by a secret informant, described as “our special rapporteur”, working
for Berlin’s Reich Commissar for Surveillance and Public Order. The report
shows in detail how “Koloniale Welt …” fused the politics of anticolonialism
with cultural practices. In comparison with the debacle of the January 20
meeting described above, “Koloniale Welt …” was attended by “workers of all
ages” and amounted to about 400 people. However, the “special rapporteur”
also noted that “colonial peoples” represented only “15 British and Dutch
Indians, all young people between the ages of 22 and 25”.32
“Koloniale Welt …” addressed a variety of anticolonial topics, focusing on
geographical regions and countries such as Southeast Asia, China, and India.
But it also used the opportunity to highlight colonialism and imperialism as
a societal phenomenon. The “special rapporteur” considered the focal point
of the evening to be “the short, approximately 15-minute combined screening
of film and drama […] Slavery is Abolished”, featuring Piscator-Bühne’s actors.
31 rgaspi 542/1/28, 22, Letter from Münzenberg, Berlin, to M.N. Roy, Moscow, 13 February
1928.
32 rgaspi 458/9/43, 24–28, “Von unserem Sonder-Berichterstatter, Berlin,” 5 March 1928.
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Placed at the end of the program, the drama served as a culmination for the
event. It kicked off with an introductory speech on “the idea of freedom” and
humankind by the “well-known exponent of the pacifist movement”, Alfons
Goldschmidt, a close friend of Münzenberg who held an official position
in the iah. Remembering the global resonance and importance of the 1927
Brussels Congress, Goldschmidt referred to the magnitude of the congress
as it symbolized “a turning point in the life of the colonial peoples”. After
Goldschmidt had delivered his message of hope, the audience was given a
musical performance of Indian songs by the British-Indian poet Harindranath
Chattophadyaya, Chatto’s brother. Harindranath played two songs, the first
one entitled “Victory of India”, while the second dealt with the struggles of
a fisherman against the waves. According to the “special rapporteur”, the
reference to “the waves” in the second song alluded “to the struggles of the
oppressed people”. Harindranath ended his performance by giving a short
lecture on India in his native language, Hindustani.33
Arthur Holitscher, the Hungarian émigré author and left-wing intellectual,
introduced the third topic, entitled “Chinese Revolution Songs”. Accordingly,
Holitscher addressed the relevance of including culture and music as an
essential factor in and for the Chinese nationalist revolutionary struggle.
Holitscher not only forcefully declared solidarity with the Chinese nationalist
struggle, but he also “gave the floor” to some of Pisctor-Bühne’s actors for the
purpose of illustrating “a Chinese citizen, a coolie and an English soldier in
China”. The main point of doing so was, according to Holitscher, to make
clear how pointless the struggle between these groups was, and to question
why there existed a “fight of brother against brother”. The “special rapporteur”
concluded that Holitscher’s speech not only was pacifist in character, but it had
also been “in a communist sense clearly recognizable” after Holitscher paid
homage to Lenin, Liebknecht and other communist leaders. This reference
seemed to have been the focal point of Holitscher’s performance and, as the
“special rapporteur” stated, this created an emotional and positive reaction
among the audience. When Holitscher left the stage, a Dutch Indian student by
the name Surapati entered and performed a violin recital entitled “Indonesian
Wise Men”, followed by an unidentified person who gave a survey on historical
writings about the Dutch East Indies while Surapati performed two songs, one
from Sumatra and one from Malay.34
This paved the way for the culmination of “Koloniale Welt …” in the form
of the 15-minute-long theatrical play “Slavery is abolished”. The “special
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid.
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migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 21
rapporteur” explained that the play’s aim was to “express how enslaved colonial
peoples repeatedly rebelled against the oppressor”, and how colonial peoples
constantly were “silenced by the use of power”. The play’s drama was also a
tour de force of Erwin Piscator’s concept of trying to create “total theater”. This
became particularly evident since the background was made up of “a large
film screen, on which, during the scene, in rapid succession, giant plants of
industrial companies, half-starved workers and – in contrast – the ‘bourgeoisie’
reveling in pleasure, etc. are shown”.35 Centerstage was a white male person
standing on a podium, dressed in breeches, wearing a sport cap, holding a
whip. Introducing himself as “the engineer”, the white male represented “the
oppressor” of colonial peoples, while groups of anonymous individuals “stood
on either side of the stage, shrouded in darkness”, with only two spokespersons
from these “proletarian groups” appearing in visible sight and, as the “special
rapporteur” noted, one was “a yellow woman”. The focal point of “Slavery is
Abolished” was the two spokespersons who took turns to raise their grievances
to “the engineer”. “The engineer” was referred to explicitly as “the oppressor”
by the two spokespersons as he tried to explain that “they are actually free
people, they can work, and they get their wages”. However, and as the author of
the play, the German actor Erwin Kalser, wanted to put across, these were only
empty words and not enough. Instead, the grievances of the two spokespersons
presented a message about the widespread misery among the oppressed
“wives and children”, but also protested against starvation wages and “other
manifestations of oppression […] foreign people” had inflicted “on their own
land”. The play started off at a slow pace. However, as the piece progressed,
the tension on stage increased, characterized by loud protests, and amplified
by shouting, culminating with “the sounds of gunshots” in the theatrical
auditorium. Once the turmoil was over and it was silent, “the man with the
whip” turned towards the “oppressed” on stage, telling everyone that they
should realize that every “technical achievement” had been made available
and handed over “to the oppressed peoples […] by the oppressors”. If not used
properly and carefully, this would instead become the weapon by which they
themselves would be destroyed. To demarcate the end of the play, every actor
began singing “Die Internationale”, upon which the audience then joined in a
“communal, albeit not particularly enthusiastic” way. The “special rapporteur”
concluded that the play had not been:
[…] tailored to any specific colonial country but [was] kept very general.
It culminates in the fact that slavery has only been abolished on paper,
35 Ibid.
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22 petersson
but in fact continues to exist unchanged. Characteristic is the fact that
the man with the whip stubbornly tries to pass himself off as a friend of
the colonial people, apparently in order to present the colonial policy as
hypocritical.36
The impact of the political credo and cultural events of “Koloniale Welt …”
made it necessary for the “special rapporteur” to warn Berlin’s Reich Commissar
about the character of the lai’s internationalist message of anticolonial
solidarity for “oppressed peoples” in the colonies, an agenda which allegedly
seemed to offer “protection and assistance to foreign peoples” across the
world. The “special rapporteur” was not, however, convinced that the lai
truly waged a fight against “colonial oppression”, or if it merely functioned as
a mouthpiece for communist propaganda. Perhaps “Koloniale Welt …” only
was a disguise in the broader context, summarized the “special rapporteur”.
It could be interpreted as a genuine and devoted expression in its declared
support for the struggle against “colonial oppression”, but at the same time, it
could be suspected that the main goal was to use anticolonialism in the service
of international communism.37
6 Theater and Film as Anticolonial Protests
The fusing of anticolonial politics and culture at the “Koloniale Welt …” event
seemed to have established a template for anticolonial groups and connective
centers in Berlin, based primarily on how political and cultural approaches
could be blended in anticolonial rhetoric. For the lai and iah, this became
an established practice in the different contexts and physical settings of
the city. For example, the “Socialist Bund” organized a mass demonstration
jointly with iah and lai against the collaboration of the Mexican clergy with
capitalist interests to “plunder Mexico”, an event that took place at Pharussäle
at Müllerstrasse 142 on April 2, 1928. Expecting to create “cultural reactions”
within the German labour movement, the organizers called upon “workers,
unemployed, freethinkers” to attend the protest meeting.38
Münzenberg did not waste any time when it came to developing further
powerful political demonstrations after “Koloniale Welt …”. While sketching
out the details for an antifascist campaign, Münzenberg chose to model it on
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid.
38 rgaspi 538/2/51, 14, “Die Kirche im Kampf gegen die Arbeiterklasse!”, Berlin, 2 April 1928.
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migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 23
the success of the Brussels Congress 1927 and other recent anticolonial events
in Berlin such as “Koloniale Welt …”. In May 1928, Münzenberg contacted the
West European Bureau in Berlin, which functioned as the Comintern’s regional
center and relay station in Western Europe, and which disseminated instructions
and propaganda from the Comintern’s central apparatus in Moscow to the
national sections (the communist parties), as well as continually inspecting
the sections’ ideological behavior and fervor (Petersson, 2013: pp. 220–221). He
outlined the finer details for the antifascist campaign, declaring that it had to
be “as broad as possible”. The central part of the campaign was the creation of
“a small but important exhibition” in Berlin, solely for the purpose of depicting
the victims of fascism in Italy. Reproducing the “victims of Mussolini” as “one
meter tall … wax figures”, rather than illustrating them “in diagrams”, would
procure a powerful impact if the figures numbered “more than a thousand
in a room”. The mere symbolism of the wax figures would make everyone
understand how “many people [that had been] murdered or deported” because
of Italy’s fascist regime, stated Münzenberg.39 Münzenberg’s idea for the anti-
fascist campaign partly explains the envisioning of propagandistic concepts
and frameworks. Much of the above relied heavily on the continual collection
of information and intelligence that could be used in campaigns or cultural
events by the lai or the iah. In July 1928, the iah called upon every national
section to send films and photographs to Berlin, material to be used for the
on-going international Hands Off China campaign.40
The Chinese national revolutionary struggle also had an impact on
Germany’s socialist literary scene, resulting in several plays and literary works,
for example Egon Erwin Kisch’s “China geheim” (China’s secret) or Bertolt
Brecht’s “Die Massnahme” (The Measure), which earned a reputation in Berlin.
The aesthetics of these cultural performances depicted, as Katerina Clark
writes, not revolutionary triumphs but echoed rather “some deafening roar that
implies massive revolutionary resistance” (Clark, 2020: p. 88). At the same time,
anticolonial connective centers continued with their activity while developing
new collaborations in Berlin. Piscator-Bühne’s theater collective assisted the
lai and the “Club of Chinese Students” to convene a “memorial celebration”
for the late Chinese revolutionary leader, Sun Yat-Sen on December 14, 1930.
While the emphasis was on the Chinese national revolutionary struggle, the
“memorial celebration” provided space for speeches from Münzenberg and Karl
August Wittfogel, the German Sinologist and leader of the Frankfurt am Main
39 rgaspi 542/1/29, 20–22, Report from Münzenberg, Berlin, to web, Berlin, 18 May 1928.
40 rgaspi 538/2/45, 4, Report from Zentralkomitee der iah, Berlin, to Heimo, Moscow, 4 July
1928.
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lai section, on the topic “Soviet Canton – Soviet China!”. Quite like “Koloniale
Welt …” on March 4, 1928, the Sun Yat-Sen celebration included a short version
of Erwin Piscator’s new stage production, the theatrical play “Tai Yang erwacht”
(“Tai Yang Awakens”), based on Friedrich Wolf’s manuscript.41 The plot and
narrative of Wolf’s “Tai Yang erwacht” was grounded in the historical context
of the political and social unrest in China between 1925 and 1927. The play
started with depictions of the violent suppression of the Shanghai textile
strike movement in May 1925, and ended with the Kuomintang’s bloody purge
of the Chinese communist movement in April 1927.42 The main plot of the
play focused on one individual, a young Chinese woman Tai Yang and her
political awakening because of the violent episodes in Shanghai. The German
communist pictorial Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung wrote that the play illustrated
how Tai Yang was “inevitably pushed from the reformist side” to joining the
“revolutionary wing” after having experienced “hunger, misery and terror” in
Shanghai. Thus, the piece not only wanted to show how an individual adapted
herself to violence and terror, but it also told the tale of how someone attained
class consciousness. “Tai Yang erwacht” premiered at the “Wallner Theater” in
Berlin-Mitte at Wallner-Theaterstrasse 35 in 1931. The poster for the production
was created by John Heartfield, the well-known visual artist who developed
photomontage as a form of political propaganda during the Weimar years.43
The special performance of the play “Emperor Jones” on 30 March–1 April
1930 at the Deutsches Künstlertheater at Tiergarten at Budapester Strasse 35,
was another significant episode. Authored by the American playwright, Eugene
O’Neill in 1920, the special performance of the play in Berlin witnessed the first
visit to Berlin by the well-known actor, the Afro-American Paul Robeson, who
had the leading role in the play. “Emperor Jones” focused on the struggles of the
character Brutus Jones, who after killing a man is jailed but manages to escape to
a deserted and remote Caribbean Island. Once there, Jones establishes himself
as emperor. The special performance in Berlin offered a glimpse into the state
of “theatrical America”, but it also offered local actors a chance to take part in
the performance. For example, Joseph Bilé played the role of “Lem. The Negro
leader”. Bilé was not only an actor, but also an engaged anticolonial activist,
born and raised in the former German colony of Cameroon. As co-founder
41 sapmo-ba zpa r/1501/20200, 26, Die Rote Fahne, No. 288, Berlin, 10.12.1930.
42 On Shanghai 1925, see Petersson (2013: p. 68). For the Koumintang putsch in 1927, and
reactions on it, see Pantsov (2000).
43 Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung, Jahrg. 1931, Nr. 2 (Berlin: Neuer Deutscher Verlag), p. 8;
Kändler et al. (1987: p. 517).
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migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 25
and secretary of the German section of the Paris based organization Ligue de
Défense de la Race Nègre, Bilé had close relations with the lai and to other
anticolonial and communist networks in Berlin. Münzenberg considered Bilé
as the leading expert on West Africa in Berlin.44
Film was a means to formulate visual anticolonial propaganda. In Berlin,
films could only be shown after receiving approval from the German film
review board (Filmprüfstellen) and could be prohibited if they contained acts
of violence, subversion, or scenes of revolt. Thus, a film could be communist or
anticolonial in scope, and this did not automatically lead to it being prohibited.
The film Battleship Potemkin, for example, was shown after several cuts had
been made to it, while the screening of All Quiet on the Western Front received
a violent reaction from the German right-wing movement, resulting in the film
being prohibited (Jelavich, 2006: p. 128). Sturm über Asien (Storm over Asia),
produced by iah’s Soviet Russian movie branch Meschrabpom-Film and
directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin, was released in 1928. The film was categorized
as one of several “Russian films” that gained international circulation and was
shown in Berlin. The film’s plot dealt with British imperialism, where the story
told the tale of how the militancy of English fur traders and British military
protection forces always procured waves of violence, as in this case, after a
clash over economic interests in Mongolia (Kändler et al. 1987: pp. 164–165).45
Film was implicitly used to strengthen the message of anticolonialism. In
the beginning of 1932, and as the lai prepared for its five-year anniversary,
the organization’s political message had steered towards closer collaboration
with a nascent anti-war movement. This was foremost a response to Japan’s
invasion of Manchuria in 1931. The anniversary would be celebrated with a
“public demonstration” to mark “5 years of struggle” at Pharussäle on February
16, 1932, and the iah assisted the lai to compile a program with an emphasis on
Japan’s “attack on China”. The film “Der blaue Express” was part of the program,
a revamped Soviet version of Agatha Christie’s original crime novel The
44 Kändler et al. (1987: pp. 202–205); see further Aitken and Rosenhaft (2013) on Bilé’s life
and trajectory in Berlin. Today you can walk on Paul Robeson-Strasse in Berlin, located in
the district Nordisches Viertel.
45 The parable to “storm” as a force of nature was used in different contexts. On 13 May 1929,
the lai organized the public demonstration “Sturm über India” (Storm over India), and
by resembling India’s suffering under the yoke of British imperialism as a “storm”, the
demonstration aimed at protesting against the arrest of 39 trade unionists and alleged
communists in March 1929 in India. The demonstration was a vocal expression that later
would lead to the establishment of the “Meerut conspiracy trial” campaign, which ended
in the beginning of 1933.
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26 petersson
Mystery of the Blue Train. Directed by the Russian film maker Leonid Trauberg
and produced by the Soviet production company Sowkino in 1929, “Der
blaue Express” gained international distribution through iah’s movie branch
Meschrabpom-Film, which in Germany went under the name “Prometheus-
Film”. The reason for including the film was connected to the jubilee’s theme:
“Against Japanese aggression in China – Against a new world war”. The poster
for the event declared that the audience would witness and understand how
“tremendous” the film was. In comparison to Christie’s original plot, a murder
taking place on a train bound for the French Riviera, in Trauberg’s version
the geography had shifted to China and dealt with travelers on a train, with
the Soviet Union as the final destination. The film’s explicit focus on class,
with the division of the travelers into three separate classes on the train,
depicted rising class conflicts among the passengers as the train got closer to the
border of the Soviet Union. Before showing the film, Münzenberg, Wittfogel,
the lai’s Hans Jäger, the Japanese communist Zentarou Nakamura, and Chen
Chau Wen from China, delivered speeches. Bekar Ferdi, a Turkish communist
and secretary of the lai’s International secretariat, reported afterwards to the
Comintern’s Eastern secretariat in Moscow, that the audience had received
the film with “great enthusiasm”, shouting out loud protests in Pharussäle
against Japan’s imperialist war of aggression in China and that this was a verbal
response to the film’s message of class conflict.46 “Der blaue Express” had,
however, been on circulation in Berlin since 1930. Münzenberg was excited
about the film’s success, informing the Comintern’s Agitprop department in
Moscow that he was going to send “all reviews” to them, and that they should
use them to “write something about” the film in the Soviet press.47
7 Conclusion: The Coda of “Colonial Day” 1932
This article does not aim to present and analyze every detail of anticolonial
cultural propaganda in Weimar Berlin. However, it has demonstrated the
connection of cultural anticolonialism as a political discourse to the struggle
against empire, colonialism, and imperialism. Several organizing and
46 rgaspi 542/1/54, 31–34, Report by Ferdi, Berlin, to Eastern Secretariat, Moscow, [stamped
date] 16 March 1932.
47 rgaspi 495/30/695, 13, Letter from Münzenberg, Berlin, to Agitprop department, Moscow,
21 October 1930.
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migrant activists and cultural spaces of anticolonialism 27
connective centers in Berlin functioned in this context as important locations
for the creation of anticolonial spaces across the city. Considering the total
physical destruction of Berlin because of the bombing by the Allied forces
during the Second World War, nearly every location mentioned here ceased to
exist in its original form. What remains are the narratives found in documents,
personal memoirs, and contemporary newspapers. Cultural anticolonialism,
as it was practiced in Weimar Berlin, was first and foremost an organized form
of resistance. However, it also was connected to, and overlapped with, the
political discourse of anticolonialism in Berlin. Cultural anticolonialism relied
extensively on external political developments and the support of other actors,
for example the lai and iah. Furthermore, neither the timing or the location
of these events could be entirely controlled by their creators, particularly
after 1932 when access to public spaces and cultural avenues in Berlin became
increasingly restricted, prohibited, or limited (Jelavich, 2006: pp. 240–241).
One of the final anticolonial events in the Weimar capital was the celebration
of “Colonial Day” in Berlin on December 12, 1932, an event that somewhat
marked a symbolic end of a transitory phase. The Ministry of Interior in Berlin
concluded that the lai’s initiative to hold a “Colonial Day”, which publicly
addressed the failure of the communist Canton uprising in China November
1927, was nothing more than an attempt to “influence the broad masses to […]
prepare for revolution” in Germany.48
However, while the Ministry of Interior’s conclusion represents an
antagonistic view, we should see “Colonial Day” as part of a history that
involved movements that created anticolonial spaces and locales in the city.
This included sharing, or at least trying to, a common political language,
slogans and symbols, and cultural practices in theater, film, and in musical
performances., The Nazi party’s ascendancy to power in 1933 marked the
definitive end point. Nonetheless, this article shows that Weimar Berlin was
a vibrant and multilayered milieu for anticolonial movements and cultural
expression – a topic that deserves further research and scholarly analysis.
In Weimar Berlin, the connections to Berlin’s communist networks and
organizations, such as the lai and iah were decisive, regardless of whether
they determined and assisted, or for that matter limited the process to develop
an internationalist message of anticolonialism in the shape of cultural forms
and expressions.
48 sapmo-ba zpa r/1501/20200, 196–197, Nachrichtensammelstelle im Reichsministerium
des Innern, Berlin, 19 November 1932.
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28 petersson
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Journal of Labor and Society (2024) 1–29 | 10.1163/24714607-bja10151
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Leibniz-Zentrum Moderne Orient (zmo, Berlin), Krüger-Nachlass, Box 64, Bulletin Nr. 3, Education in Germany, Indian Information Bureau, Berlin, April-May 1929. 28 rgaspi 542/1/44, 33, Bericht über die indische Arbeit, lai, Berlin, to Eastern secretariat, Moscow, 9 January 1930.
29 rgaspi 495/4/16, 81-90, Letter from ecci secretariat, Moscow, to cc pcf, Paris, 23 March 1930. 30 sapmo-ba zpa, R1001/6751, 101, Report "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Eingeborenenkunde," Berlin, to the German Foreign Department, Berlin, 3 February 1928. petersson
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FAQs
AI
What impacts did "Koloniale Welt in Flammen!" have on anticolonial movements?
add
The event galvanized around 400 attendees, fusing political and cultural expressions against colonialism in 1928. It marked a critical blending of anticolonial rhetoric with artistic practices, establishing a template for subsequent activist initiatives.
How did Weimar Berlin's political context shape anticolonial activism?
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The intricate political landscape enabled diverse anticolonial movements, influenced by the Communist Party and the League Against Imperialism. By 1932, Berlin had hosted about 5,000 colonial migrants, facilitating networks of resistance against colonial oppression.
What role did Erwin Piscator's concept of "total theater" play in activism?
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Piscator's innovative stage techniques aimed to create immersive experiences that heightened audience engagement with political messages. His approach significantly influenced performances like "Slavery is Abolished!," linking theatrical expression with anticolonial struggle.
What methods were used to organize anticolonial cultural activities in Berlin?
add
Cultural expressions intertwined with existing communist networks, using spaces like the Piscator-Bühne for performances and political meetings. The establishment of organizations like the League Against Colonial Oppression facilitated collaboration among diverse migrant activists.
How did colonial migrants influence Berlin's cultural landscape?
add
Colonial migrants contributed to a vibrant cultural milieu, engaging in journalism, theater, and music while advocating for anticolonial sentiments. Their interactions with local communist movements reshaped Berlin's artistic expression during the Weimar period.
Fredrik Petersson
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Hub of the Anti-Imperialist Movement: The League against Imperialism and Berlin, 1927-1933
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On 10 February 1927 the first International Congress against Imperialism and Colonialism, held in Brussels, Belgium, marked the official establishment of the League against Imperialism and for National Independence (LAI). The German communist Willi Münzenberg was the instigator of the congress, supported by the Comintern in Moscow. The congress was first mooted in 1925, however. From 1927 to 1933, Berlin was the operative centre for the LAI. Berlin was a haven for anticolonial activists in Europe during the 1920s, where the International Secretariat of the LAI coordinated anti-imperialist activism with the aim to fulfil the policy of the Comintern on the colonial question. The Nazi party's rise to power in Germany on 30 January 1933 witnessed the literal end of the German communist movement, the LAI and the anti-imperialist movement. This essay analyses the ‘lost’ history of the LAI, a sympathizing communist organization. The LAI was also a nostalgic reference for the decolonization movement in postwar societies that gained its momentum at the Afro-Asian conference in Bandung in 1955. The essay describes Berlin as the ‘place’ that provided anticolonial activists with a forum to manifest their political agenda. The aim is to narrate the LAI as the hub for the anti-imperialist movement in Europe. For the involved actors, the communist and anticolonial movement, the LAI was the central means to develop an international anti-imperialist movement.
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Nazan Maksudyan, Decolonization of Migration in Divided Berlin: Berliner Künstlerprogramm and Artistic Representations of Migrant Subjectivities in the 1970s, in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, 07.01.2025, https://trafo.hypotheses.org/54104
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'The Spatial Dimensions of Protest: 1968 in West Berlin', in Arguing the Establishment: Obedience and Resistance since 1450 (Durham University, 23 May 2013).
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Laura Bowie
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