ABSTRACT
During the German Weimar Republic (1918-33), the Kulturfilm about Africa established a certain kind of ritual practice for German youth.1 The “rite” of attending the African Kulturfilm showings, in the context of Weimar colonialism, fostered mythic thinking about Africa. Socially constructed projections of Africa, Africans and otherness mythologized Germany’s role in twentieth-century imperialism. Africa held special significance for Germany. Before the First World War, Germany had been the third largest colonial power, claiming German East Africa (comprising present-day parts of mainland Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi), German South West Africa (now known as Namibia), Cameroon and Togo as German protectorates, then forfeited all claims as part of the punitive provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. In German cinematic history, the Kulturfilm as a medium for education contributed a vital component of revanchist colonial propaganda directed at young people. Continuing technical advances in visual media, interests of the state and colonial organizations, education and leisure culture shaped the ritualistic dimension of the Kulturfilm. Colonial mythology, in the sense applied in the present investigation, evolved as narratives embedded in collective shared understandings about Africa, even if such notions paradoxically formed neither consistent nor always coherent myths.
