| Abstrakt: |
Colonial Germany erected numerous monuments during (but especially in the wake of) its short period of expansion into Africa, Asia, and Oceania. When the Treaty of Versailles abruptly ended this period, these monuments, among which one commemorated the plenipotentiary Clemens Baron von Ketteler (1853–1900), who had fallen by the hands of the so-called 'Boxers' during the war in China, were left behind in the former colonies, or – in this case – in a so-called 'half-colony'. After a heyday of colonial revivalism in the 1920s and 1930s, they were mostly understood as forgotten 'remains' and commonly disappeared from the Eurocentric narratives of German Colonialism. However, this perspective undermines their constant entanglements with local as well as trans-national histories. The history of China's Ketteler-monument is one of power, appropriation, and silencing, with multiple meanings and understandings. Therefore, the paper argues that the current perspectives on the former Ketteler-monument, as presented in academic research so far, should be expanded by broadening the time frame and following the history of the monument up until today, by consulting Chinese sources and by incorporating its 'after-' and 'social-life' into the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
