ABSTRACT
If there is one mantra permeating German colonial revisionism after World War I, it is the complaint concerning Kolonialmüdigkeit (“colonial fatigue”), the overall “apathy of the majority of Germans regarding the colonial question.”1 Prior to and after the ratifi cation of the Versailles Treaty, there were signs that the German colonial lobby might fi nally succeed in advancing the Kolonialgedanke-the “colonial idea,” the notion that the possession of overseas colonies was vital to Germany’s political, diplomatic, military, and economic interests. The provisions in Article 119 that put Germany’s colonies under the international mandate of the League of Nations became a source of a deep sense of resentment: the constituent National Assembly at Weimar vehemently protested what it denounced as the “theft of our colonies” (March 1, 1919). A day later, on March 2, 1919, General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (1870-1964), the man who had held out against the British, the Belgians, and the Portuguese in East Africa right until the end of the war, was given a triumphant reception when he returned to Berlin with part of his troops and former East African governor marching in a parade through the Brandenburg Gate. As the only German military leader to remain undefeated in World War I, Lettow-Vorbeck attained the status of a kind of folk hero.2 That same month, pro-colonial supporters staged mass meetings in Berlin and in Bremen. By the end of the month, almost 3.7 million signatures had been collected on a petition protesting the loss of Germany’s colonies.3
