One Place. How Many Stories? — The Intertwining of Colonialism and Nazism in the So-Called “Tanzania Park”*

Between barracks walls and green spaces lies a place where history is densely concentrated: the grounds of the former Lettow-Vorbeck Barracks in Jenfeld. The barracks were built in 1934, and the monuments commemorating German colonialism were erected in 1938. Known as “Tanzania Park” since 2003, the site reveals how colonial and Nazi perspectives are intertwined. While colonialism and Nazism have thus far been treated mostly separately in German public discourse and commemorative culture, places like Tansania Park*—as well as numerous biographies and discourses on the politics of memory—show how closely these two historical chapters are linked.

Places like this one do not merely recount history—they show that history never simply ends. That lines do not break off, but leave traces: in images, in language, in our collective memory.

Who remembers? Who has the right to interpret history? What might an anti-colonial and anti-fascist practice of remembrance look like without pitting groups against one another or creating rivalries based on comparisons?