ABSTRACT
Following the defeat of the German Empire in World War One, very few parades were held in honor of the returning troops: most Germans could see no reason to celebrate the military that had waged and lost the war for European supremacy. However, in 1919, some hundred colonial offi - cers and soldiers under the command of Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck paraded through the Brandenburg Gate and were welcomed enthusiastically by the waiting Berliners. Few facts about events in faraway East Africa had reached Germany during the war years, but this information gap had been fi lled by press stories of daring deeds by German troops, surprising victories over a numerically superior enemy and adventures in the jungles of eastern Africa. These narratives continued to shape memories of the German colonial project throughout the time of the Weimar Republic, when the former German colonies-which had once been notorious for scandals and mismanagement-gained immense popularity and the loss of the colonies came to be seen as part of the national post-war trauma. This essay refl ects upon the making of heroic wartime narratives on the battlefi elds of the East African campaign and on the pages of colonial literature written after the battles had been fought and the colonies lost.
