Friedrich Fabri. Bedarf Deutschland der Colonien?/Does Germany Need Colonies? Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1998. vi + 222 pp. $89.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-7734-8371-2.
Reviewed by Eike Reichardt (Department of History, The State University of New York at Stony Brook)
Published on H-German (February, 2004)
Making a Case for German Colonies
Making a Case for German Colonies
Until recently a scarcely covered topic, the issue of German colonialism has seen renewed scholarly interest during the past five years. Younger scholars have built upon the foundations laid by earlier monographs, the most influential of which has been Hans-Ulrich Wehler's study of Bismarck and imperialism.[1] The long overdue rethinking of Germany's colonial involvement and its significance to attitudes about race, gender and culture in Imperial Germany and beyond has produced a row of excellent studies based on archival research.[2] Thus, the book under discussion here nicely compliments the expanding list of works concerning the German colonial project. Part of E. C. M. Breuning and M. E. Chamberlain's publication consists of a reprint of the third edition of Friedrich Fabri's pamphlet Bedarf Deutschland der Colonien?, published in 1884. In this edition, each page of the original German text faces its accurate and eloquent English translation. The German text was first published in 1879; the original author of the German text, Friedrich Fabri (1824-91), came to fame as a colonial agitator though his main occupation, from 1857 on, was that of Director of the Barmen Rhine Missionary Society. The interdenominational society had started in the late 1820s, originating from a set of Protestant prayer groups located in the cities of Elberfeld, Barmen, Wesel and Cologne. Fabri did not visit any of the society's African missionary posts and apparently derived his positive views about colonialism from written sources. In 1884, he was forced to retire after failed attempts to generate income for the missions through commercial ventures. His writings, however, continued to make an impact in the field of colonial activism, spelling out the reasons and strategies for German colonialism. Therefore, it is fortunate that Fabri's pamphlet has finally been translated into English, making this edition a vital contribution.
The editors of the current book, published in 1998, are E. C. M. Breuning who translated the text, and M. E. Chamberlain who wrote the introduction and notes. The latter's introduction provides a short biographical sketch of Fabri's life and work.[3] In addition, Chamberlain gives the historical background to each of the four problems that Fabri cited as reasons for why Germany would need colonies. Fabri's four main arguments stated that colonialism would be Germany's way out of the "Great Depression" that began in 1873 and could solve the crisis of over-population. Further, German colonialism would justify the first wave of naval expansion, begun around the time of the economic slump, and would be the only future means of protecting commercial and scientific interests in the tropics. Besides commenting on Fabri's arguments Chamberlain provides additional information on the subjects Fabri discussed. Her introduction includes a background paragraph each on the territories that Fabri discussed as potential colonial acquisitions. The editor briefly comments on Fabri's attitude toward "non-European races" (p. 24-25), valuable information for scholars interested in attitudes on race and culture. A glance at the notes to the introduction reveals an array of secondary sources of which the most recent appears to have been published in 1982. The lack of recent works in the notes is evidence for the relative scarceness of recent monographs on the subject, especially in English, but also of the unfortunate fact that Breuning and Chamberlain's new edition went into print just as a handful of new books on German colonialism appeared (see footnote 1). Thus, the editors did not and could not engage with more recent scholarship about the context of Fabri's writings. Some readers may also be surprised, when looking up the source (p. 32) of a quotation attributed to Cecil Rhodes on page 13 of the editor's introduction, to find that the source given by the editor is Lenin's book Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. Nevertheless, as a source for comparative studies between Imperial Germany and other colonial empires this book presents a useful addition to sources available in English. Since readers who do not know German have access to few sources on German colonialism, Breuning and Chamberlain's book indeed closes a significant gap in the availability of translated primary sources.
The translation of Fabri's 1879 text, which is the essential content of Breuning and Chamberlain's edition, presents a smooth read and corresponds to the clear sentences of the original. Fabri's original text does not possess the convoluted sentence structures or awkward wordings of some other late-nineteenth-century pamphlets and books. The translation sounds a bit more complex but only because Breuning seems to have matched idiomatic German expressions with corresponding English idioms, therefore retaining the intended meaning of the original while seeking similar expressions unique to the English language. When Fabri refers to the colonial project as a "Lebensfrage," for example, the translated text mentions "a question of vital importance" (pp. 78-79, italics in original), thus preserving the meaning of the text without sacrificing readability.
A further example, chosen randomly, of the competent translation is printed on pages 94-95 where Fabri, who used the term Mutterland instead of the paternalist Vaterland usually associated with the German language, discussed the benefits of interaction between the mother country and its colonial periphery. Fabri wrote that, "Wie sie mit dem Interessenkreise den Blick erweitert, so staehlt die Vertrautheit mit der See und die Nothwenigkeit, sich in den verschiedensten Lebenslagen zurechtzufinden, die Kraft des Characters und verleiht unsern angelsaechsischen Vettern jenen praktischen Blick und jene Sicherheit des Auftretens, durch welche sie sich so bestimmt von den Bewohnern unserer Continental-Staaten abheben." Breuning's translation reads, "Just as, whilst widening interests, it widens vision, so also a knowledge of the sea and the need to make one's way in all manner of walks of life strengthens the character and gives our Anglo-Saxon cousins that practical insight and that confidence of bearing which differentiate them so markedly from the inhabitants of our continental States." Readers concerned about the somewhat not-so-current sounding wording of this specific sentence, however, should rest assured. Overall, the translation, although perhaps not suitable for lower-division undergraduate survey courses except in short excerpts, will suffice for those with some knowledge of German or experience with studying nineteenth-century texts in English. The editors have also done a great service to those readers who until now have had to make do with Fabri's original German publication copies of which, at over a hundred years old, are although widely cited rather scarce and in poor condition. Thinking beyond recent library budget cuts and reallocations, one hopes that this new edition will stay in print long enough for a wide audience of interested readers to enjoy and utilize.
Notes
[1]. Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Bismarck und der Imperialismus (Cologne: Kiepenheuer, 1972). For a detailed but fairly uncritical history of the German colonial empire, see: Hans Georg Steltzer, Die Deutschen und ihr Kolonialreich (Frankfurt: Societaetsverlag, 1984). A more critical engagement with German colonial activities can be found in: Arthur J. Knoll and Lewis H. Gann, ed., Germans in the Tropics: Essays in German Colonial History (London and Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1987).
[2]. See for example: Russell Berman, Enlightenment or Empire: Colonial Discourse in German Culture (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998); Sara Friedrichsmeyer, Sara Lennox and Susanne Zantop, The Imperialist Imagination: German Colonialism and Its Legacy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998); Pascal Grosse, Kolonialismus, Eugenik und buergerliche Gesellschaft in Deutschland 1850-1918 (Frankfurt and New York: Campus, 2000); Ulrich van der Heyden and Joachim Zeller, ed., Kolonialmetropole Berlin. Eine Spurensuche (Berlin: Berlin Edition, 2002); Lora Wildenthal, German Women for Empire, 1884-1945 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2001); Susanne Zantop, Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany 1770-1870 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997).
[3]. For more detailed biographical information on Friedrich Fabri and information about his work as a colonial activist as well as the context of his activities, see: Klaus J. Bade, Friedrich Fabri und der Imperialismus in der Bismarckzeit. Revolution--Depression--Expansion (Freiburg: Atlantis, 1975).
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Citation:
Eike Reichardt. Review of Fabri, Friedrich, Bedarf Deutschland der Colonien?/Does Germany Need Colonies?.
H-German, H-Net Reviews.
February, 2004.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=8837
Copyright © 2004 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at hbooks@mail.h-net.org.