1. The 1913 law grants the right of naturalization to “ethnic Germans”, who have lived outside of Germany for generations, while “ethnic foreigners”, who have lived within Germany for generations, are denied the same right. Thereby, an evergrowing number of “cultural Germans” is created, who are treated as foreigners solely because they miss the qualification of “German blood”. See Brubaker, Rogers, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany (Cambridge, MA, 1992).Google Scholar

The Christian Democrats' action had no direct political consequences since German law does not allow plebiscites on national issues. Nevertheless it has proven decisive, because the government was forced to compromise after losing the majority in the Bundesrat (representing the German states) in elections that centered on the issue of nationality.

2. See e.g. Goldberg, David T., Racist Culture. Philosophy and the Politics of Meaning (Cambridge, MA, 1993)Google Scholar.

3. For the post-World-War-II-period, this article concentrates on the federal republic, the political system transferred to the reunified Germany.

4. The period of National Socialism with its explicit connection of nationality and race will therefore not be considered here.

5. Woltmann, Ludwig, “Die Klassen- und Rassentheorie in der Soziologie”, in Politisch-Anthropologische Revue, (1905/1906), p. 424. All translations by the author.Google Scholar

6. See e.g. Kant, Immanuel, Von den verschiedenen Rassen der Menschen (1775) andGoogle ScholarBlumenbach, Johann Fried-rich, De generis humanis varietate nativa (1795)Google Scholar.

7. For details on the construction of the German national myth see Schultz, Helga, “Mythos und Aufklarung: Fruhformen des Nationalisms in Deutschland”, Historische Zeitschrift, 236 (1996), pp. 31–61.Google Scholar

8. For the influence racist Social Darwinism gained in the West, see e.g. Banton, Michael and Harwood, Jonathan, The Race Concept (London 1975), p. 42;Google ScholarMosse, George L., Towards the Final Solution. A History of European Racism (New York 1978)Google Scholar and Goldberg, David T., Racist Culture. 9.Google Scholar While being extremely hostile towards all ideologies that denied the central position of race, some Social Darwinists nevertheless attempted to develop a “Germanic” socialism. They could identify with socialist concepts as long as they were applied only within the “white race” and believed that the white working class incorporated more of the race's “true qualities” than the decadent and weakly middle and upper classes. See e.g. Woltmann, Ludwig, Die Darwinsche Theorie und der Sozialismus (Düsseldorf, 1899)Google Scholar.

10. See e.g. , Banton/, Harwood, The Race Concept, p. 42;Google ScholarPommerin, Reiner, “Sterilisierung der Rheinlandbastarde”: Das Schicksal einer farbigen deutschen Minderheit 1918–1937 (Düsseldorf 1979), p. II, andGoogle ScholarFriedlander, H., The Origins of Nazi Genocide: from Euthanasia to the Final Solution (Chapel Hill, NC,1995)Google Scholar.

11. See Politisch-Anthropologische Revue (PAR), founded in 1901 by Ludwig Woltmann, published until 1914 and then continued under the name of Politisch-Antropologische Monatszeitschrift.

12. Criticism was provoked by the race scientists' division of the “white race” into northern, southern and eastern Europeans, leaving the “Nordics” as the only “true whites”, while east Europeans were supposedly “tainted” by Asian and south Europeans by black and Semitic blood, and by the assumption that Asia never produced an autochtonous civilization (i.e. one that was not created by “Aryan invaders”). See a.o. Baur, Erwinet al., Grundriss der menschlichen Erblichkeitslehre und Rassenhygiene (Munich, 1923), pp. 413–415CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13. Nothing was more damaging here, probably, than Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's judgment of Africa as “the continent without history”. In effect it placed Africans outside the realm of humanity but nevertheless for almost two centuries was not really taken into question; Vorlesungen tiber die Philosophic der Geschichte (Stuttgart, 1945), p. 144Google Scholar.

14. See e.g. Hertz, Friedrich, Rasse und Kultur (Leipzig, 1915), p. 150Google Scholar.

15. Richter, Friedrich, Zeitschrift fuer Kolonialpolitik, Kolonialrecht und Kolonialwirtschaft, 7 (1905), p. 664.Google Scholar

16. Stoler, Ann Laura, Race and the Education of Desire: Foucaut's History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things (Durham, NC, 1995), p. 193.Google Scholar

17. See e.g. Dessoir, Max, “Zur Psychologie der Vita Sexualis”, Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychiatric und psychologisch-gerichtliche Medizin, (1893), p. 142Google Scholar.

18. Shohat, Ella/Stam, Robert (eds), Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media (London, 1994), p. 157.Google Scholar

19. See Brittan, Arthur and Maynard, Mary, Sexism, Racism, and Oppression (Oxford, 1984);Google ScholarGiddings, Paula, “The Last Taboo”, in Morrison, Toni (ed.), Race-ing Justice, En-Gendering Power (New York, 1992), pp. 441–470, andGoogle ScholarGilman, Sander L., Sexuality: An Illustrated History (New York, 1989)Google Scholar.

20. The German colonies were Togo, Cameroon, “German Southwest Africa”, “German East Africa” and parts of New Guinea, Samoa and the Solomon Islands.

21. There were numerous personal and ideological correspondences between the race scientists and the nationalist organizations, mainly the German Colonial Society (Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft) and the Pangerman League (Alldeutscher Verband). The colonial department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in its turn, relied heavily on the expertise of both the colonial society and individual race scientists. See: Bundesarchiv Berlin (BAB), R 1001 Reichskolonialamt, Bd. 5418, “Rechtsfragen bei Mischehen und Mischlingen”.

22. See Benninghoff-Lühl, Sybille, Deutsche Kolonialromane 1884–1914 in ihrem Entstehunp- und Wirkungszusammenhang (Bremen, 1983). The country's most popular teenage novel, selling half a million copies up to 1918, wasGoogle ScholarFrensen's, GustavPeter Moors Fahrt nach Südwest (1906), describing the colonial war in Southwest AfricaGoogle Scholar.

23. See: Noske, Gustav, Kolonialpolitik und Sozialdemokratie (Stuttgart, 1914), p. 56Google Scholar. The international socialist congresses of Amsterdam, 1904, and Stuttgart, 1907, also principally supported colonialism (ibid., p. 223).

24. Rohrbach, Paul, Deutsche Kolonialwirtschaft (Berlin, 1909), p. 17. Rohrbach, a colonial inspector who published several “scientific” books on life in Southwest Africa, became the “voice” of German settlers.Google Scholar

25. Bley, Helmut, Kolonialherrschafi und Sozialstruktur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1894–1914 (Hamburg, 1968), p. 205.Google Scholar

26. South Africa took over Southwest Africa as a mandate in 1920.

27. The attitude towards the inhabitants of the Pacific Island colonies was mellower; they were considered “distant cousins” (with the exception of the “Negroid” Papua New Guineans) and an eventual independence due to the cultural “uplifting” by the Germans was seen as a possibility. See Rohrbach, Paul, Die Kolonie (Frankfurt a. M., 1907), pp. 100–102Google Scholar.

28. Deutsche Kolonialzeitung, 1896, p. 197.

29. Sometimes as literal as in the case of Sarah Bartmann from South Africa. After being publicly displayed in several European cities as an example of black females' pathological sexuality (symbolized by her enlarged buttocks), she died in 1815. Her genitals were first scrutinized by several scientists and then donated to the Musee de I'homme in Paris, where they are still exhibited. See Giddings, Paula, “The Last Taboo”, p. 445Google Scholar.

30. A character, which had been established earlier. Hegel's description of man-eating African Amazons, a classical castration fantasy, is the only example he gives of African political systems, ( Hegel, Georg Friedrich Wilhelm, Vorlesungen, p. 142). White racism obviously also includes an obsession with the size of black male genitals, though they never became the topic of a similarly elaborate scientific discourseGoogle Scholar.

31. Or, as contemporary sociobiology puts it, as “carriers of genes”.

32. Leutwein, Theodor, Elf Jahre Gouverneur in Deutsch-Siidwestajrika (Berlin, 1908), p. 232. See alsoGoogle ScholarRaibmayr, Albert, Inzucht und Vermischung beim Menschen (Leipzig, 1897), p. 51Google Scholar.

33. Colonial law for Southwest Africa defined each person as a “native” that had an African ancestor, however far removed. See: BAB, R IOOI, Bd. 5418, pp. 364–379.

34. Accordingly, many settlers married to African women sent their children to Germany.

35. See: Evangelisches Zentralarchiv Berlin (EZB), 5/3016: Die deutsche evangelische Gemeinde in Windhuk, p. 117; “Stärkung des weissen Rassenbewubtseins”, PAR 1906/7, p. 423. Between 1906 and 1908 similar laws were introduced in the other German colonies.

36. The image of the wicked, but smart mulatto who incites the passive “natives” to rebellion was very vivid in the German imagination. See PAR 1905/6, p. 112 and 469; 1906/7, p. 256.

37. At least three such institutions, limiting education to gardening and cooking, existed in Southwest Africa. See EZB, 5/3016, p. 99 and pp. 198–199.

38. Indeed, the numbers were not quite in relation to the reactions. In 1909, there were fifty “mixed marriages” and 4,284 “mulattos” registered in Southwest Africa. See Gentrup, Theodor, Die Rassenmischehen in den deutschen Kolonien (Paderborn, 1914), p. 32.Google Scholar

39. Twenty-five years later, fascist laws introduced this change by severely punishing all sexual relations between “Aryans” and members of “foreign races”.

40. Fischer, Eugen, Die Rehobother Bastards und das Bastardisierungsproblem beim Menschen (Jena, 1913), p. 303, (italics in original). Fischer, who in the Weimar Republic became head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute center for all eugenic and anthropological research, and who successfully continued his career under the National Socialists and in the federal republic, had built his reputation on publishing “the first scientific study” of racial mixing (conducted 1908 in Southwest Africa). Using new methods, namely Mendel's laws, he came to the same old conclusions: “bastards” were inherently inferior, dangerous and unnatural. Interestingly enough, up to this day his work on racial mixing is considered groundbreaking.Google Scholar

41. “Bericht iiber die Jahreshauptversammlung in Bremen, 12 Juni”, Deutsche Kolonialzeitung (DKZ), (1908), p. 441Google Scholar.

42. Fuchs, V., “Zur Frage der Mischehen zwischen Reichsangehörigen und Eingeborenen in Deutsch-Südwestafrika”, DKZ, (1909), p. 38. See also:Google ScholarHoffmann, H. von, “Die Mischehenfrage”, DKZ, (1909), p. 793 andGoogle ScholarFriedrich, J., “Die rechtliche Beurteilung der Mischehen nach deutschem Kolonialrecht”, Koloniale Zeitschrift, (1909), p. 361Google Scholar.

43. Gentrup, Theodor, Rassenmischehen, p. 90–91. See alsoGoogle ScholarDenkschrift des Ausschusses der deutschen evangelischen Missionen, 3 09 1912, p. 61Google Scholar.

44. MP Gröber of the Center-Party in Gentrup, Theodor, Die Rassenmischehen, p. 42.Google Scholar

45. Ibid., p. 41–42.

46. See EZB, 5/340: Reichs- und Staatsangehörigkeitsgesetz, pp. 3, 7, 8 and 28.

47. An example of continuity in spite of political changes is the “Society for Racial Hygiene”. Founded in 1905 as a politically and religiously neutral organization (only open to whites, though), by 1916 it included virtually all important biologists and anthropologists in its ranks. By 1920 lectures on racial hygiene were part of the curricula of all German universities and in 1926 the state-financed Kaiser Wilhelm Institut for anthropology began to co-ordinate all research in anthropology, biology and eugenics. See Weingart, Peteret al., Rasse, Blut und Gene. Geschichte der Eugenik und Rassenhygiene in Deutschland (Frankfurt a. M., 1988)Google Scholar.

48. A parliamentary motion to grant citizenship to children of German women married to stateless men (aimed at Danes in Northern Germany) failed out of concern that it would cover those mixed marriages. See BAB, R 1001, 61 Kol DKG 1077/1, p. 230.

49. BAB, RKA-4457/7, p. 64.

50. See e.g. , Bauret al, Erblichkeitslehre und Rassenhygiene, p. 412Google Scholar.

51. See: Oguntoye, Katharina, Eine afro-deutsche Geschichte. Zur Lebenssituation von Afrikanern und Afro-Deutschen in Deutschtand von 1884 bis 1950 (Berlin, 1997), pp. 56–60Google Scholar.

52. Berger, Astrid, “Sind Sie nicht froh, daβ Sie immer hierbleiben durfen?” in Oguntoye, Katharinaet al., Farbe bekennen. Afro-deutsche Frauen aufden Spuren ihrer Geschichte (Berlin, 1986), p. 115.Google Scholar

53. See BAB, R 1001, 61 Kol DKG 1077/1, p. 86.

54. See BAB, R 1001–1077/1, p. 219 and DKZ 1909, p. 593/4. As a consequence of the scandals the Ministry of Foreign Affairs prohibited the immensely popular public exhibitions of “natives”. See Gilman, Sander L., “Black Sexuality and Modern Consciousness”, in Grimm, Rheinhold and Hermand, Jost (eds), Blacks and German Culture (Madison, WI, 1986), p. 36Google Scholar.

55. Lang, Joseph, Die Schwarze Schmach. Frankreichs Schande (Berlin, 1921), p. 8.Google Scholar

56. For an overview of the campaign and the decisive role e.g. the British socialists played in it see Reinders, Robert C., “Racialism on the Left: E.D. Morel and the ‘Black Horror on the Rhine’”, International Review of Social History, 13 (1968), pp. 1–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57. An inquiry conducted by die British Foreign Office in 1920, diat showed die unfoundedness of the accusations against the black soldiers, did not have any influence on the continuous propaganda. See Ibid.., p. 10.

58. Friedrich Rosenberger, Arztliche Rundschau, Nr. 47/1920, in Distler, Heinrich, Das Deutsche Leid am Rhein. Ein Buck der Anklage gegen die Schandherrschaft des jranzösischen Militarismus (Minden, 1921), p. 56Google Scholar.

59. Lang, Joseph, Die Schwarze Schmach, p. 16.Google Scholar

60. Macco, Hans, Rassenprobleme im Dritten Reich (Berlin, 1933), p. 13–14.Google Scholar

61. Ibid., p. 16.

62. Pommerin, Reiner, Sterilisierungder ‘Rheintandbastarde’: Das Schicksal einerfarbigen Deutschen Minderheit 1918–1937 (Düsseldorf, 1979), p. 23.Google Scholar

63. , Pommerin, Sterilisierung der ‘Rheinlandbastarde’, pp. 94–95.Google Scholar

64. See Kesting, Robert W., “Forgotten Victims: Blacks in the Holocaust”, The Journal of Negro History, 77 (1992), pp. 30–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65. In 1952, “Mach nicht so traurige Augen, weil du ein Negerlein bist” by Leila Negra, a black German teenager, was a Top-Ten hit song in Germany. See Fremgen, Gisela, und wenn du dazu noch scharz bist. Berichte scbwarzer Frauen in der Bundesrepublik (Bremen, 1984), p. 110.Google Scholar

66. Anna, G. und Frieda, P., “Unser Vater war Kameruner, unsere Mutter Ostpreussin, wir sind Mulattinnen”, in Oguntoye et ai, Farbe bekennen, p. 81.Google Scholar

67. Apart from continued “bastard studies” and expertise on race, the Institute initiated Mengele's “experiments” in concentration camps. See , Weingartet al, Rasse, Blut und Gene, pp. 399–423.Google Scholar

68. Kirchner, Walter, “Untersuchung somatischer und psychischer Entwicklung bei Europäer-Neger-Mischlingen im Kleinkindalter unter Berücksichtigung der sozialen Verhältnisse”, quoted in Benno Miiller-Hill, Tödliche Wissenschaft, p. 115.Google Scholar

69. Of the 66,730 “occupation children” officially registered by the German authorities in 1955, i.e. children fathered by allied soldiers, 62,000 were white; public, scientific and political interest was focused exclusively on the black children, however. See Eyferth, Klauset al., Farbige Kinder in Deutschland und die Aufgaben ihrer Eingliederung (Munich, 1960), pp. 11–12Google Scholar.

70. Several studies conducted in the 1950s show the population's negative attitude towards “the niggerlovers’ and their bastards”, Frankenstein, Luise, Uneheliche Kinder von ausländischen Sobiaten mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Mischlinge (Genf, 1953), p. 29Google Scholar; see also , Eyferthet al, Farbige Kinder in Deutschland, pp. 74–78. Magazine articles and stories of the 1950s had a less aggressive attitude towards the children, rather portraying them as “tragic mulattos”, but presented their fathers in “black horror” tradition as drunken, animal-like rapists. SeeGoogle ScholarLester, Rosemarie K., Blacks in Germany and German Blacks”, in Grimm and Hermand, Blacks and German Culture, pp. 122–128Google Scholar.

71. See , Fremgen, und wenn du dazu noch schwarz bist, p. 98Google Scholar.

72. , Lester, “Blacks in Germany”, p. 121.Google Scholar

73. Eyferth et al., Farbige Kinder in Deutschland, p. 8. 74. Ibid.., p. 54.

75. Ibid, p. 77.

76. , Fremgen, und wenn du dazu nich schwarz bist, p. 65. See alsoGoogle Scholar, Lester, “Blacks in Germany”, pp. 128–130Google Scholar.

77. , Eyferthet al., Farbige Kinder in Deutschland, p. 105.Google Scholar

78. Be it in the fotm of sociobiology that holds positions similar to those of the social anthropologists and nevertheless receives favorable treatment in the mainstream press, as e.g. the reception of Murray's and Herrnstein's The Bell Curve shows; see Frazer, Stephen, The Bell Curve Wars (New York, 1995). Or in the modified variation of “invincible cultural differences” between the “races”, seeGoogle ScholarOtyakmaz, Berrin Ozlem, Auf alien Stühlen: Das Selbstverständnis junger türkischer Migrantinnen in Deutschhind (Cologne, 1995)Google Scholar.