Expanding the Canon: Afro-German Studies

Abstract

(FleiB3) or consuming large quantities of Schnitzel, Wurst and Spaetzli that are washed down with liters of Lager, Pils or Spdtlese. Although stereotypes of yesterday have been replaced with a more authentic depiction of a society beset with economic, political, and environmental problems, one social dimension has been neglected almost totally: cultural diversity. The issue of cultural diversity poses a challenge both to American as well as German society. For American students, opportunity to learn about difficulties encountered in a multicultural, multiracial society outside of U.S. could assist them in dealing with same issue at home. Given strong cultural and historical ties connecting Germany and U.S., lessons to be learned could have great impact on future behavior. A look at current textbooks, however, reveals that while issues of gender are more or less effectively presented, racial and ethnic diversity is not. The socialization problems of euphemistically termed Gastarbeiter are just one aspect of overall problem of race which individuals and governments on both sides of Atlantic have not effectively addressed, as witness resurgence of Ku-Klux-Klan, Skinheads, and Neo-Nazis in both Eastern and Western Europe. In his The Souls of Black Folk (1903) eminent scholar W.E.B. DuBois prophetically noted the problem of twentieth century is color line.1 To deal with one aspect of specific problem of race in Germany in its historical and cultural context it would seem appropriate to develop what I term Afro-German Studies. The rationale for such an undertaking is realization that currently ca. 200,000 persons of African descent (African and/or African-American and German heritage) are German nationals and that Africa and individuals of African descent have captured literary and artistic imagination of Germanspeaking world at least since Middle Ages. Europe's fascination with East is well documented in excellent catalogue published in conjunction with May 28-August 27, 1989 exhibit in Berlin's Kreuzberg bearing title Europa und der Orient, 800-1900.2 The same interest is also visually documented in plethora of heraldic symbols, religious statuary, and paintings that are or contain representations of dark-skinned individuals with obvious Negroid features.3 One of early literary references to Africa stressing darker skin color of its inhabitants can, of course, be found in Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzifal.4 Historical references to Africans in Germany are more complicated. It is well known that in 1528 Emperor Charles V awarded an asiento or trade monopoly to two 'German' traders by name of Heinrich Ehinger and Hieronymus Sailer (also Seiller), representatives of combined houses of Welser and Ehinger (Constanz). The contract stipulated that for certain considerations firm was to deliver over a four year period 4,000 African slaves to 'Indies.' Not only did Welser receive permission to establish a colony in what is today Venezuela but they also agreed to provide 50 miners, most of whom came from St. Joachimstal, for mines on Santo Domingo.5 Eventually, Welser apparently received an extension of contract to include 800 additional slaves that were to be sent to Venezuela. This did not happen; instead, as Konrad Haebler noted in 1903, slaves were sold by Welser elsewhere.6 That elsewhere might have been Europe. In second half of sixteenth century court moors were a fixture at some of German courts. The term moor is rather problematical since it apparently referred to any darker-skinned exotic, e.g., Arab, Persian, or African. Word usuage is in this situation quite instructive and Deutsches W6rterbuch notes that until end of eighteenth century term Mohr was used interchangebly with Athiopier only to be replaced by more skin pigment-oriented Neger. The same nebulous terminology was, of course, common in Colonial America where