ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the actions of the explorers Clemens and Gustav Denhardt and the world traveler and soldier of fortune Andreas Künzel in establishing the tiny colony of German Wituland will be addressed. These African explorers and travelers allow us to analyze German colonial history from the periphery to the center. These individuals embody the origin of a narrative of adventure and overcoming hardships in exotic places. During the course of German history, these primary sources and colonial narratives were transformed into a narrative loaded with Nazi ideology like “Lebensraum.” Looking closely at the changing narration of the historical events in German Wituland sheds light on the longevity of the narrative elements of discovery, heroism, and virility in a colonial context as well as on the tension between fact and fiction in times of political instrumentalization.
