City tour: Tracing Bielefeld›s colonial past

Alter Markt (Starting Point) | 33602 Bielefeld
Thursday, 14.30 – 16.30
Fee: 4 Euro
Registration via  https://terminplaner.dfn.de/DGS-Citytours

What connects a city like Bielefeld in the middle of the Teutoburg Forest to Germany‹s colonial past? Merchants from Bielefeld traded overseas even before the German colonial era began, and Bielefeld citizens moved to the German colonies as traders, settlers, missionaries or soldiers. The local German Colonial Society, to which respected citizens of the city belonged, tirelessly promoted the "colonial cause" with lectures, festivals and exhibitions. Housewives bought products from the colonies in the colonial goods stores, and it was soon impossible to imagine the daily menu without them. In the ethnological collection in the Sparrenburg, exotic everyday objects from the peoples of the world were marveled at: Africa was on the Johannisberg and Kilimanjaro was German. The colonial history city walk invites visitors to critically examine the history of colonialism as part of Bielefeld's city history at places of remembrance.