In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Afrikawissenschaften in Berlin von 1919 bis 1945: Zur Geschichte und Topographie eines wissenschaftlichen Netzwerkes
  • Robert Gordon
Holger Stoecker . Afrikawissenschaften in Berlin von 1919 bis 1945: Zur Geschichte und Topographie eines wissenschaftlichen Netzwerkes. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2008. Missionsgeschichtliches Archiv, Band 25. 359 pp. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. €49. Cloth.

Do not be misled by the title. This book is much more than a parochial history of African studies. Hobsbawm once remarked that just as no railway [End Page 170] enthusiast had ever written a decent history of railways, no nationalist had written a good history of nationalism. A historian of science, Stoecker's key framing question asks how the scientific community known as "Africanistics" emerged. This well-researched book is concerned with the history and topography of the Africanist node centered in Berlin and how the network's topography extended not only to other parts of Germany but also internationally. To accomplish this the author did research in some twenty-six archives in five countries. Exquisitely detailed footnotes and a large bibliography (plus a decent index) show that this is clearly the product of sustained long-term research.

The term "Africanistics" was first used by Meinhof in 1912 and largely concerned linguistics, but later it was considerably expanded by Westermann, who emerges as the key (rather Teflon-coated) figure in the development of African studies in Germany. African languages and philology was originally a minor part of the Seminar for Oriental Languages in Berlin University, and Stoecker tracks how it developed into a fully fledged discipline—although still largely grounded in linguistics—despite the fact that Germany had lost its African colonies. He is interesting on many points, including in his sensitive discussion of the rich and ultimately tragic history of the usually ignored African language assistants and how their role changed from the immediate post–Great War Period to the Second World War and how dependent they were, especially during the Nazi era, on the patronage of their professors who, deprived of first-hand African fieldwork, had to follow the World War I precedent of making do with African POWs.

In contrast to the rather Anglocentric version of the history of the International Africa Institute, Stoecker demonstrates the important role of the continental and especially German contribution to shaping the agenda of this example of supposedly enlightened collaboration, and shows how this was symbolically recognized in the seating arrangements of the banquet celebrating its inauguration.

Africanistics developed by, inter alia, forming strategic alliances with disciplines like "Kolonialwissenschaft" (study of colonialism) and blocking out alternative views such as those espoused by the Jewish scholars Eugen Mittwoch, Charlotte Leubuscher, and Moritz Bonn. Stoecker is insightful on the relationships and alliances created with museums, universities, technical schools, the Prussian Academy of Sciences, kindred organizations promoting colonial interests, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute "sister" disciplines like the Orientalists, and various government departments—ranging from the Auslandsamt to the SS. At the same time, Stoecker also considers the importance of colonial fantasies in shaping this community. So strong was this development that as late as 1942 an Africanistics conference was planned with some 260 confirmed participants, including 70 international scholars (although it was eventually canceled). Indeed, blueprints for a European Colonial Academy were also shelved as the tide of war turned. Of course what all this activity did was sustain the notion of the "Lie of German Colonial Guilt." [End Page 171]

The problematic relationship between scholarship and politics forms a significant part of this book, which resonates rather intriguingly with current ethical dilemmas scholars face in having their expertise used in warfare, and in broader questions of how scholarship can be used for other purposes by the state. Stoecker illustrates this with a wonderful cameo of Otto Schulz-Kampfhenkel, a Nazi propaganda poster boy who successfully meshed the scientific and military elements and who undertook media-rich strategic research expeditions to Libya during Rommel's campaign.

All in all, this is a superb example of historical ethnography. More is the pity that it is not readily accessible to Africanists who might like to pause for a moment of scholarly self-reflection.

Robert Gordon
University of Vermont
Burlington, Vermont
...

pdf

Share