DThe German colonial era in Africa is a story full of cruelty, racism and reckless humiliation by the colonial rulers – but the AfD faction in the Bundestag obviously has no problems with this chapter of German history. On the contrary, she invited a revisionist American policy professor "to a glass of wine in the run up to Christmas" to the Bundestag to "explain why the short German colonial history was an advantage for countries like Tanzania, Cameroon and Togo, which resonates to this day" ,
"The balance of German colonialism. Why the Germans do not have to apologize for the colonial period and certainly do not have to pay for it! "Is the lecture of Professor Bruce Gilley subtitled, which is to take place in the AFD parliamentary group on 11 December and to which the party" all MdBs, speakers, Staff and press "invites. The organizers are the deputies Petr Bystron, AfD chairman in the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Markus Frohnmaier, development policy spokesman for the AfD. Bystron has repeatedly expressed his sympathy for the right-wing "Identitarian Movement" and was therefore for a time watched by the Bavarian constitutional protection.
Gilley, who teaches at Portland State University in Oregon, caused indignation in 2017 with the essay "The Case for Colonialism" in the journal Third World Quarterly. In this he called openly to rethink the "derogatory assessment of colonialism", because this was legitimate and had had positive consequences for the development of the countries concerned. After colonial rule, countries such as Guinea-Bissau would have developed into a "cesspool of human suffering" – under Portuguese colonial rule, the country would have become a "prosperous and human Macao of Africa," Gilley implied.
"Alleged Crimes of the Colonial Age"
His conclusion: The West must consider a repeated colonization of African countries. "Perhaps the Belgians should return to Congo," he wrote and: "100 years of disaster are enough." The experts were horrified; Several colleagues accused Gilley of unhistorical work, factual errors and lack of empiricism. In protest of the essay left half of the editors of the editorial staff of "Third World Quarterly", in the end Gilley withdrew his essay, probably because of death threats against him and the editor of the Journal.
"Gilley is not taken seriously with his position in historical science. It is significant that the AfD does not find another expert for its attempt to salvage German colonialism, "criticized Jürgen Zimmerer, Professor of African History at the University of Hamburg.
The AfD does not challenge that. Gilley's essay "has met all scientific standards," says the announcement of the speech in the Bundestag. For example, he argues that "the European colonial era was a win for many countries, which after decolonization slipped into an ongoing spiral of violence, poverty and corruption". Thus Gilley attacked "one of the hobby-horses of the left", which justified their policy of the open borders "with the alleged crimes of the colonial time".
. (tagsToTranslate) Petr Bystron (t) Marc Jongen (t) Bruce Gilley (t) Jürgen Zimmerer (t) Portland State University (t) AfD (t) Bundestag