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409:, a revisionist Social Democrat, held a more relaxed and less racist position. He argued that the offspring of such pairings were an "eminently beautiful and healthy people." Appearances could be found there that had to be regarded as "typical beauties of the human race." Race loyalty fails there, he said, or it would be inverted into its opposite: some whites might want not to degrade but to improve their progeny by such a union. But even David conceded: "We do not wish either that a mixed population is engendered haphazardly."
299:, and we want to stay Germans." In relation to the "coloureds", "even the proletarian is a master", he added. Therefore, Solf turned explicitly to the Social Democrats, the parliament's strongest party since 1912, for support, arguing that not the wealthy man would be tempted "out there" to marry an indigenous woman, but "the poor man, the little man." However, Wilhelm Solf, who was considered liberal and understanding when he was governor of German Samoa from 1900 to 1911, did not find the wide support he wished for.
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355:" of "marriage between persons with severe infectious or hereditary diseases." In the light of the large gender imbalance among whites in the colonies, he conceded "sexual mixing" between colonists and "coloured women" to be inevitable. But he saw the "growth of a mixed race" as a "danger" which the German "Man of Culture" could only counter by carefully supervising the mixed-breeds' educations."
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210:, on top of the previous marriage ban. Only those children who had been entered into special lists before, could claim a right to citizenship and alimony. All children born later (who, by the new law, had to be extramarital anyway) were treated as illegitimate, without claims to their fathers or their country. In March 1912 in the Reich Budget Commission for the Colonies, the
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between natives and whites are contracted or when there extramarital intercourse resulting in mixed-race people." He was also filled with indignation by "white women flirting with negroes here in
Germany." He also pointed out the "unpleasant" fact that "certain women" had developed a "perverse affinity" to "exotic tribals", calling this a sign of bourgeois decadence.
395:" in "the people's consciousness." However, the Christian Socialists regarded a marriage ban as ineffective as the neighbouring colonial powers had no such laws, and thereby a marriage could easily be contracted on their territory. Therefore, Mumm advocated promoting the "marriage among whites in the colonies" and sending only "married officials to the colonies."
399:
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At the end of its debate, the
Reichstag passed a resolution on 8 May 1912 that asked the government to draw up a law to "ensure the validity of marriages between whites and natives in all German colonies" and to determine the rights of illegitimate children. 203 deputies (Social Democrats, Centre and
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were closer to whites culturally than
Hereros or Hottentots, intercourse with them was of a higher level, he argued. The Social Democrat accused Solf of the fear that "the influx of white blood" into Samoa would give rise to "a part-white, part-Samoan population, like the Basters of South West Africa
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is forced to keep up its rule over coloured people by maintaining its racial purity." Although
Lebedour spoke as a critic of "capitalist colonial policy" and of its need to maintain whites as "master race separate from the natives", but nevertheless he saw it as "an undesirable state when marriages
435:, leader of the Centrists, also argued "against the proliferation of mixed-breeds." "99 per cent of all mixed-breeds in the colonies result from extramarital intercourse", he claimed. Therefore, it were nonsense to ban mixed marriages, as the fight against miscegenation had to be fought by fighting
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In the 53rd meeting of the
Reichstag's 13th session, on 2 May 1912, State Secretary for the Colonies Wilhelm Solf initiated a fundamental debate on the mixed-race question and the problem of mixed marriages, depicting it in dramatic terms. He argued, the "vicious consequences of mixed marriages" to
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Schwarz, Thomas (2002). "Die
Mischehendebatte im Reichstag 1912: Hybridität in den Verhandlungen zwischen deutscher Biopolitik, Anthropologie und Literatur" [The mixed marriage debate in the Reichstag 1912. Hybridity in negotiations between German biopolitics, anthropology and literature].
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but for the legitimacy of the offspring. He argued: "As soon as these young people in their most vigorous age come into contact with subdued peoples, when there are no or only so few white women that they could not enter marriage at all", mixed-race children would then be the "inevitable result in
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and of the status of children from such unions. It is evidence of the racial-political ideas of German political parties at the time and also of the precursors of the more aggressive racism of the interwar period in
Germany. The debate came about during a period when most European governments had
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banned sexual relations between their colonial officers and native women. In French West Africa, relations between
Frenchmen and native women were promoted at first but were more and more despised later. In 1903, a law in South Rhodesia banned sexual relations between white women and black men.
380:) demanded a "sharp segregation" of the races and "educating our colonial citizens" against mixed marriages and cohabitation. He argued that even the head of the Catholic mission in South West Africa called brothels "the lesser evil" in contrast with these "immoral" practices.
318:, not only Germany's." To avoid this, the colonies would have to be abandoned, while Solf only wanted to "eradicate the intercourse." Ledebour criticised the mixed-marriage ban with special reference to Samoa where there were about 80 of them. Exactly because
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would continue to occur until "national law and popular sentiment are in agreement." Afterwards, he appealed to the deputies (all male) to consider whether they wanted "black daughters-in-law" and "woolly-haired grandchildren." The
373:, put forward the hypothesis that "children arising from mixed marriages towards the bad side." He invoked "healthy, national race-consciousness" and condemned "any facilitation of racial mixing in our colonies."
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girl" and of Samoan girls in parliament and commented: "Quite nice. You can't find nicer ones among our ones." The Centre argued for legalising these unions, also because of their numerical insignificance.
351:", "white women almost threw themselves at the foreign guests." Braband rejected mixed-marriages and the resulting children as a plainly pathological phenomenon and advocated at the same time for the "
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327:, governor of South West Africa, who had warned in 1906 in a paper on colonial policy about "the numbers of mixed unions" and "the vicious consequences of racial mixing", "because in
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Most German colonial administrations came to prohibit marriages between
Germans and indigenous people. Such a ban on "civil marriages between whites and natives" had been enacted in
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be recognised by all nations whose "calling for colonisation brought them in touch with coloured peoples of low culture and inferior civilisation." He pointed out the
391:, criticised that "a certain female lowlife" in the big cities "associates with Black men" and demanded as the "sharpest reaction" enshrining the rejection of such "
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as a special example: "Misunderstood humanity takes its toll, just as the undignified descent down to the inferior race." Solf proclaimed to be "against
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reserved for himself the right to decide in such cases in 1906. Even marriages contracted before this ban were nullified in South West Africa in 1907.
283:, he said, was spending 50,000 Mark annually for "white girls" to be sent to South West Africa. Solf: "Do you want that these white girls return with
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requested the legalisation of mixed marriages and the right to alimony also for extramarital children. Concurrently, a resolution was put before the
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who descended from
Dutchmen and Hottentots", which would strengthen the natives' ability to resist. Thereby, Ledebour adopted an argument of
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662:]. Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte (in German). Vol. 190. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht.
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to draw up a law restricting the colonies' ability for ordinances and extending the Reichstag's influence there.
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some Free-minders) voted Yea, 133 voted Nay, and 1 abstained. However, this law was never drawn up or passed as
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266:, self-evidently", but he claimed, "the Negro must have felt better in the old, patriarchal conditions of the
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The Reichstag was not consulted for these administrative ordinances. On 17 January 1912, the
636:]. Campus Forschung (in German). Vol. 909. Frankfurt/Main New York: Campus-Verlag.
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630:"Schwarze Bestien, rote Gefahr": Rassimus und Antisozialismus im deutschen Kaiserreich
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than he is feeling now, internally, as a human." Today, "the Negro could even become
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deputy Adolf Gröber agreed with David in praising beauty. He showed pictures of a "
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began only two years later, at the end of which Germany lost all her colonies.
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as spouses?" He resumed his point with: "We are Germans, we are
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Initiatives for similar treatment of the opposite case failed".
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Modern Imperialists. The Empire as reflected in its colonies
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enforced a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate
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163:outlawed interracial liaisons in their colonies.
556:Reichstagsprotokolle, 19112,14,3, pp. 1735 A ff.
547:Reichstagsprotokolle, 19112,14,3, pp. 1732 C ff.
538:Reichstagsprotokolle, 19112,14,3, pp. 1728 A ff.
529:Reichstagsprotokolle, 19112,14,3, pp. 1730 B ff.
520:Reichstagsprotokolle, 19112,14,3, pp. 1649 B ff.
511:Reichstagsprotokolle, 19112,14,3, pp. 1648A ff.
274:if he is not lynched before." Solf argued that
60:"German interracial marriage debate" 1912
613:] (in German). Köln Weimar Wien: Böhlau.
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175:An illustration of an interracial couple in
416:Centrist leader Mattias Erzberger in 1919
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229:; 42 couples and 3,595 descendants in
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49:adding citations to reliable sources
237:whose loyalty in putting down the
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339:The liberal deputy Carl Braband (
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589:: 323–350.
450:World War I
189:East Africa
156:World War I
148:biopolitics
101:August 2024
681:Categories
485:References
367:Protestant
353:prevention
349:Singhalese
289:Hottentots
223:New Guinea
204:mixed-race
141:debate on
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276:lynchings
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