Berlin’s relationship with its colonial past is being reconsidered despite the resistance from far-right wing lawmakers. In January, the German capital announced its five year project name “Postcolonial Remembrance in the City” to review its post-colonial past coinciding with the renaming of two streets and a square in the Wedding District.
The project being organised by the Berlin City Museum and three NGOs will include events and an annual festival dedicated to “decolonial perspectives” and an online map of points of interest around the city. Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland (Initiative of Black People in Germany) (ISD), an organisation involved in the project considers the issue as more relevant than ever. “Migration is now being seen in connection with postcolonial history,” ISD spokesman Tahir Della told DW.
The movement is not without opposition as 500 local residents filed petition against the name changes of the street and arguments of the benevolence of the German Reich are being mooted by the far-right wing populist lawmakers.
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