Abstrakt
The German historiography was for a long time not very interested in the theme of the German colonialism. There are two potential reasons for this ignorance: firstly, the German colonial imperium did not take very long; secondly, the most important theme after the WWII was the National Socialism.
Thus, the exposition "Deutscher Kolonialismus", which the "Deutsches Historisches Museum" in Berlin organised from October 14, 2016 to May 14, 2017, was expected with an enormous eagerness. The subtitle "Fragmente seiner Geschichte und Gegenwart" indicates that the organisers emphasised only some aspects of the very extensive problematic.
The exhibition is therefore divided into eight thematic sections in which the German colonialism is interlaced into a broad geographical and chronological context. It was the intention of the organisers to present the German colonialism as an expensive adventure which was based on the paradigm of the European hegemony.
As many unique objects reveals, this hegemony was demonstrated not only by dint of cruel military backlash, but by using the native people for scientific experiments or by describing the nature with European categories as well. Thanks to all this discoveries, the exhibition provides a lot of stimuli for different scientific disciplines; moreover, its whole conception anticipates the "museum revolution" which is planned in Berlin for the year 2019, when the new big exposition in the Castel of Berlin will be opened.
The reflexion of the own colonial history could be also inspirational for some states in the Central Europe which have never owned territories in Africa or Asia. The xenophobia which seizes some segments of the Czech society can be the result of some stereotypical images spread by explorers like Emil Holub or Josef Kořenský.
Their point of view was not very different form the point of view of the German colonists.