Support poco.lit. with Steady!

online Event
10. June 2020

Virtual City Tour: Colonial Traces in Potsdam

German-language event

Did you know that the Kilimanjaro was once Germany’s highest mountain and that the peak of the Kilimanjaro was brought to Potsdam? Did you know that the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I. sold the former German colony Großfriedrichsburg to the Dutch for over 1000 ducats and 12 enslaved Africans who were to serve at court? Did you know that China’s second largest beer brewery, Tsingtao beer, is a legacy of German colonialism?

From the New Palace through the park Sanssouci, our tour points to the traces of what the Prussian Kings and Emperors considered as signs of grandeur and savoir-vivre. We show how these are closely connected to the exploitation and appropriation of foreign territories, as well as how knowledge transfer between Germany and its former colonies is continued rather one-sided. Because this part of German history remains largely unknown, we provide a historical context to the Potsdam landscape, its castles, gardens and statues and connect it to the present.

Tour guides:

Elisabeth Nechutnys studied Anglophone Literatures and Cultures at the University of Potsdam. She is one of the founding members of Postcolonial Potsdam. Today, in addition to her full-time work in a Berlin start-up, she is still involved in Potsdam and offers postcolonial park tours or other events and workshops.

Anna von Rath works as a freelance social justice and diversity trainer in Berlin and Brandenburg and runs poco. lit., a platform for postcolonial literature in the widest sense. She studied English Literature and Cultural Studies and did a PhD on Afropolitism. She is a co-founder of Postcolonial Potsdam.

Contact & Registration:
Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Brandenburg e.V.
Tel.: 0331 200578 -16/19
mitmenschen@boell-brandenburg.de
www.boell-brandenburg.de