Zionism, the German Empire, and Africa: Jewish Metamorphoses and the Colors of Difference 9783110586039, 9783110583342

Table of contents :
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements and Permissions
List of Abbreviations
Note on Translations, the Appendices, and Controversial Lexical Choices
Introduction: The Mbwapwa Rhizome: Jewish Metamorphoses and the Colors of Difference
Chapter 1: Portrait of the African as a Jew – of the Jew as an African?
Chapter 2: Soap Powder, the Jews, and the White Man’s Country
Chapter 3: The German Empire, Africa, and the Jews
Chapter 4: Imag(in)ing the Other: Satire and Colonial Conflict
Chapter 5: Black Faces and Blackface: Mbwapwa, Mpundo, and the Variété
Chapter 6: Human Meat and Tortured Souls: Oskar Panizza
Conclusion: At the Fringes of the Mbwapwa Rhizome: Franz Kafka and Looming Conflagration
Appendix I: Max Jungmann: Briefe aus Neu-Neuland
Appendix II: Max Jungmann: Letters from New-Newland
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

Axel Stähler Zionism, the German Empire, and Africa

Axel Stähler

Zionism, the German Empire, and Africa Jewish Metamorphoses and the Colors of Difference

ISBN 978-3-11-058334-2 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-058603-9 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-058365-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018947851 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck Cover image: Paul Klee, Negerblick/Negro Glance (1933), © Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Obj. ID 9093 www.degruyter.com

For Maël and Timon

Contents List of Illustrations 

 IX

Acknowledgements and Permissions  List of Abbreviations 

 XI

 XII

Note on Translations, the Appendices, and Controversial Lexical Choices 

 XIII

Introduction: The Mbwapwa Rhizome: Jewish Metamorphoses and the Colors of Difference   1 The German Colonial Enterprise, Zionism, and the Mbwapwa Rhizome   7 Mbwapwa Jumbo and His Letters from New-Newland   15 Imaginaries of Africa and of Palestine   18 Colonial Conflict and its Mediation in Germany   27 The Mbwapwa Rhizome and the Chapters of this Book   34 Chapter 1 Portrait of the African as a Jew – of the Jew as an African?   39 The “common fatherland” and the Dangers from Inside  Black ‘Jews’ and ‘Black’ Jews   50 The Iconography of Difference   59 Exhibiting Otherness: Fascination and Contempt   72 Hideous Hittites and Magnificent Maasai   92 Rifle and Bottle, Umbrella and Fez   100 The Ambivalence of Herzl’s Gloves   110

 40

Chapter 2 Soap Powder, the Jews, and the White Man’s Country   121 The Jewish Soap Powder Plot   121 The White Man’s Country and the Jews   129 Civilization and Culture Imperiled: The Jews and the Blacks   146 Jews, Blacks, Monkeys – and the Imaginary White Other   152 Challenging the Racial Point of View   162 Chapter 3 The German Empire, Africa, and the Jews   171 Bloodthirsty Beasts and Bloody Battle   174

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Race War and Genocide   193 Return of the Native, Return of the Repressed   208 Mbwapwa, Kreplach, and Anticolonial Subversion   215

Chapter 4 Imag(in)ing the Other: Satire and Colonial Conflict   226 Colonial Resolve and Psychopathic Aberration   227 Commemoration and Oblivion   244 Capitalist Complicity and Clerical Collusion   252 The New Regiment and the Jewish Spirit   257 Colonial Desire and Sexual Excess   267 Chapter 5 Black Faces and Blackface: Mbwapwa, Mpundo, and the Variété  Colonial Scandal and Colonial Swamp   276 Variété, Cakewalk, and the Wild West   295

 275

Chapter 6 Human Meat and Tortured Souls: Oskar Panizza   324 The Grotesque, the Uncannny, and the Ludic Impulse   325 Contested Humanity and a Mad Danse Macabre   338 Anthropology of the Monstrous and the Imagined Reprieve of Genocide 

 352

Conclusion: At the Fringes of the Mbwapwa Rhizome: Franz Kafka and Looming Conflagration   363 Metamorphoses, Monsters, and Mimicry   363 Apes, Negroes, and Zionists   371 Schlemiel Redivivus – Mbwapwa R.I.P.   379 Appendix I Max Jungmann: Briefe aus Neu-Neuland  Appendix II Max Jungmann: Letters from New-Newland  Bibliography  Index 

 445

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List of Illustrations Figure 1 Josef Rosintal, Mbwapwa Jumbo, from Schlemiel (1903)   2 Figure 2 Josef Rosintal, illustration to “Chayim Yossel Goes to a Spa” (“Chajim Jossel auf der Badereise”), Schlemiel (1904)   51 Figure 3 Hendrik Witbooi (postcard; b/w photograph by F. Nink; Germany/German  63 South-West Africa; c. 1900)  Figure 4 King Ndumbé Lobé Bell (b/w photograph; 1886)   64 Figure 5 Eduard Thöny, “The Herero before the Battle” (“Der Herero vor der Schlacht”), Simplicissimus (1904)   65 Figure 6 “King Brisso Bell with His Wives” (“König Brisso-Bell mit seinen Frauen”), Die Gartenlaube (1884; engraving after an original b/w photograph in possession of C. Woermann; 1881)   68 Figure 7a, b Martin (b/w photographs), from Felix von Luschan, Contributions to the Ethnography of the German Protectorates (1897)   76 Figure 8a, b Bismarck Bell (b/w photographs), from Felix von Luschan, Contributions to the Ethnography of the German Protectorates (1897)   79 Figure 9 “Bismarck Bell with Wife” (“Bismarck Bell mit Frau”; b/w photograph by Franz Kullrich), from Gustav Hermann Meinecke et al. (eds.), Germany and its Colonies in the Year 1896 (1897)   80 Figure 10 “G. S. W. Africa. Hendrik Wittboi with his son Isaak and Secretary of War” (“D. S. W. Afrika. Hendrik Wittboi mit seinem Sohn Isaak u. Kriegsminister”; b/w postcard; Germany/German South-West Africa; c. 1900)   84 Figure 11 “Captain Hendrik Witboi / Fort Gibeon and South Side of the Market Square” (“Kapitän Hendrik Witboi / Feste Gibeon und Südfront des Marktplatzes”; b/w postcard; Germany/German South-West Africa; c. 1900)   85 Figure 12 Friedrich Maharero (b/w photograph by Franz Kullrich), from Gustav Hermann Meinecke et al. (eds.), Germany and its Colonies in the Year 1896 (1897)   90 Figure 13a, b Kassiúi (b/w photographs), from Felix von Luschan, Contributions to the Ethnography of the German Protectorates (1897)   92 Figure 14 The Zionist delegation in Jerusalem (b/w photograph by David Wolffsohn; 1898) uncropped original   114 Figure 15 Josef Rosintal, “Freely adapted from Lilien” (“Frei nach Lilien”), Schlemiel (1907)   124 Figure 16 E. M. Lilien, “Old-Newland. Title page of the Journal for the Exploration of Palestine” (“Altneuland. Titelblatt für die Zeitschrift zur Erforschung Palästinas”), Altneuland (1904); detail   125 Figure 17 Josef Rosintal, “Why Zionism’s Progress is so Slow” (“Wieso der Zionismus so langsam voran kommt”), Schlemiel (1905)   144 Figure 18 Arthur Thiele, “Bankruptcy Clearance Sale” (“Konkurs-Ausverkauf”; postcard; c. 1905)   146 Figure 19 Wilhelm Busch, Schmulchen Schievelbeiner, from Wilhelm Busch, Plish and Plum (1882)   156 Figure 20 “Greetings from Karlsbad” (“Gruss aus Karlsbad”; postcard; Germany; c. 1900); this copy postmarked 26 May 1914   157 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-201

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 165 Figure 21 “Made in Germany” (postcard; England [?]; c. 1905)  Figure 22 Israel Zangwill (b/w photograph by London Stereoscopic Company; 1890)   167 Figure 23 Josef Rosintal, “Matchiche,” Schlemiel (1907)   169 Figure 24 Thomas Theodor Heine, “How the Negroes in Our Colonies Imagine the Devil” (“Wie die Neger in unsern Kolonien sich den Teufel vorstellen”), Simplicissimus (1904)   241 Figure 25 Thomas Theodor Heine, “The African Peril” (“Die afrikanische Gefahr”), Simplicissimus (1904)   243 Figure 26 F[ranz Albert] J[üttner], “Contribution to the Shortly to be Published ‘Almanac of Decorations’” (“Beitrag zum demnächst erscheinenden ‘Ordens-Almanach’”), Lustige Blätter (1904)   245 Figure 27a, b German South-West Africa Campaign Medal, obverse: “SOUTH-WEST AFRICA” (“SUEDWEST AFRIKA / 1904–06”); reverse: “TO THE VICTORIOUS COMBATANTS” (“DEN SIEGREICHEN STREITERN”) (bronze; 1907)   246 Figure 28 Germania, Niederwald Monument, Rüdesheim on the Rhine (b/w postcard; Germany; c. 1900)   247 Figure 29 Olaf Gulbransson, “The New Moses” (“Der neue Moses”), Simplicissimus (1907)   260 Figure 30a, b Thomas Theodor Heine, “Carnival 1908” (“Karneval 1908”), Simplicissimus (1909)   262 Figure 31 Olaf Gulbransson, “Contre-Tour,” panel: “Diamond Bernhard” (“Der Diamantenbernhard”), Simplicissimus (1910)   265 Figure 32 Olaf Gulbransson, “The Peters Trial” (“Der Prozeß Peters”), Simplicissimus (1907)   273 Figure 33 “The real genuine Schuhplattler” (“Die wirklich echten Schuhplattler”; postcard; Germany; c. 1900)   298 Figure 34 Illustration by Siegfried Horn to Eduard Schwechten, The Song of Levi (1895; ed. 1933)   333 Figure 35 Illustration by Siegfried Horn to Eduard Schwechten, The Song of Levi  338 (1895; ed. 1933)  Figure 36 E. E. Joel, “Election Bait” (“Wahlfisch-Köder”), Schlemiel (1920)   381

Acknowledgements and Permissions Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders and obtain permission to reproduce this material. Please do get in touch with any inquiries or any information relating to these images or the rights holders. Cover image: Paul Klee, Negerblick/Negro Glance (1933), © Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Obj. ID 9093. Figures: 1; 2; 15; 17; 23: Schlemiel 1.1 (1903): 2; 2.9 (1904): 82; (1907): 9; 3.2 (1905): 19; (1907): 4. 3: Photograph by F. Nink. © Bildarchiv der Deutschen Kolonialgesellschaft, ­Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main, Bildnr. 071-2404-33. 4: © SZ Photo/Süddeutsche Zeitung Photo. 5: Simplicissimus 8.46 (February 9, 1904): 363. © Dagmar von Kessel, ­EduardThöny-Nachlass, München. 6: E. Jung, “Deutschlands Colonialbestrebungen. Deutsche an der Westküste von Afrika. Kamerun. Angra Pequena,” Die Gartenlaube 32.37 (1884): 609–17, 612. 7a, b; 8a, b; 13a, b: Felix von Luschan, Beiträge zur Völkerkunde der deutschen Schutzgebiete, erweiterte Sonderausgabe (Berlin: Reimer, 1897), pls. VI; V; XV. 9; 12: Gustav Hermann Meinecke et al. (eds.), Deutschland und seine Kolonien im Jahre 1896: Amtlicher Bericht über die erste deutsche Kolonial-Ausstellung 1896 (Berlin: Reimer, 1897), pp. 154; 159. 10; 11; 20; 27a, b; 28: author’s private collection. 14: © Israel National Photo Collection, Government Press Office, photo code D443-004. 16: Altneuland 1 (1904): title page (detail). 18, 21, 33: © Bildarchiv Foto Marburg. 19: Wilhelm Busch, Plisch und Plum (Munich: Bassermann, 1882), p. 30. 22: London Stereoscopic Company, 1890. © Jewish Museum, London; cat. no. 1278A.10. 24; 25; 29; 30a, b; 31; 32: Simplicissimus, special issue: Kolonien 9.6 (May 3, 1904): 60; 9.4 (April 19, 1904): 31; 11.50 (March 11, 1907): 806; 13.47 (February 22, 1909): 796–7, 797; 14.45 (February 7, 1910): 775–80, 778; 12.17 (July 22, 1907): 265–6, 266. © DACS 2018. 26: Lustige Blätter 19.10 (1904): 11. 34; 35: Eduard Schwechten, Das Lied vom Levi, rprt. (1895; Düsseldorf: Knippenberg, 1933), pp. 30; 11. 36: Schlemiel no. 23 (1920): title page. I am grateful to John Wiley and Sons and de Gruyter for permission to integrate into Chapters 1 and 2 revised and expanded versions of my articles on “Constructions of Jewish Identity and the Spectre of Colonialism: Of White Skin, and Black Masks in Early Zionist Discourse,” German Life and Letters 66.3 (2013): 253–75 and “Zionism, Colonialism, and the German Empire: Herzl’s Gloves and Mbwapwa’s Umbrella,” in Ulrike Brunotte, Anna-Dorothea Ludewig, and Axel Stähler (eds.), Orientalism, Gender, and the Jews: Literary and Artistic Transformations of European National Discourses (Berlin and Boston: de Gruyter, 2015), pp. 98–123, respectively.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-202

List of Abbreviations ANL Theodor Herzl, Altneuland (Leipzig: Hermann Seemann Nachfolger, [1902]). RA Franz Kafka, “A Report to an Academy” [1917], in Metamorphosis and Other Stories, transl. Michael Hofmann (London: Penguin, 2007), pp. 225–35 / “Ein Bericht für eine Akademie,” in Sämtliche Erzählungen (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1983), pp. 147–55; page references, separated by a slash, are to the English translation by Michael Hofmann and the German text, respectively. LNN Max Jungmann, “Letters from New-Newland” / “Briefe aus Neu-­Neuland,” Schlemiel 1.1 (1903), 2; 1.2 (1903), 10–11; 2.1 (1904), 2; 2.2 (1904), 12; 2.3 (1904), 22; 2.5 (1904), 42; 2.10 (1904), 88; 3.4 (1905), 35 and “Letter from Texas” / “Brief aus Texas,” ­Schlemiel (1907), 8–9. IT Oskar Panizza, “An Indian’s Thoughts” or “Indians’ Thoughts” / “Indianergedanken” [1893], in Visionen der Dämmerung, ed. Hanns Heinz Ewers (Munich and Leipzig: Müller, 1914), pp. 347–56. SL Eduard Schwechten, The Song of Levi / Das Lied vom Levi, 2nd edn. (1895; Cologne: Verlag der antisemitischen Buchhandlung [Eduard Hensel], 1896). NT Oskar Panizza, “A Negro’s Tale” / “Eine Negergeschichte” [1893], in Visionen der Dämmerung, ed. Hanns Heinz Ewers (Munich and Leipzig: Müller, 1914), pp. 243–53. OJ Oskar Panizza, “The Operated Jew” [1893], in The Operated Jew: Two Tales of AntiSemitism, transl. Jack Zipes (London: Routledge, 1991), pp. 47–74 / “Der operierte Jud’,” in Visionen der Dämmerung, ed. Hanns Heinz Ewers (Munich and Leipzig: Müller, 1914), pp. 213–42; page references, separated by a slash, are to the English translation by Jack Zipes and the German text, respectively. ONL Theodor Herzl, Old-New Land, transl. Lotta Levensohn (1941; New York: Bloch and Herzl Press, 1960). PR Anonymous, “Parliamentary Report” / “Parlamentsbericht,” Schlemiel (1907): 5–6. German Reichstag Session Reports / Stenographische Berichte über die V ­ erhandlungen StBR  des Reichstags, www.reichstagsprotokolle.de (last accessed March 3, 2018).

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Note on Translations, the Appendices, and Controversial Lexical Choices If not otherwise indicated, all translations from original texts into English are my own. As a rule, it was my objective to render the original as accurately as possible in English, even to the detriment of stylistic and idiomatic fluency, particularly when trying to convey the Yiddish inflection inscribed into some of my sources. In some instances, however, it appeared necessary to sacrifice a literal translation to a more ‘poetic’ rendering because in these cases the buoyancy produced by its rhyme and rhythm contributes significantly to the semantic potential of the original. In the case of Theodor Herzl’s novel Altneuland, I generally made use of Lotta Levensohn’s influential American translation of 1941, and variously reissued under the title Old-New Land. However, Levensohn’s translation suffers from omissions and is frequently distorting. In some instances, I therefore took the liberty of revising her rendering of the original German text in order to accentuate significant nuances otherwise lost or to correct some problematic elisions. With regard to Jack Zipes’s translation of Oskar Panizza’s “Der operierte Jud’” I followed a similar practice. While his translation is generally accurate, the close reading of the controversial literary grotesque occasionally required the clarification of some ambiguities and, in some instances, also their reinstatement. The satirical magazines Simplicissimus, Der wahre Jakob, and Kladderadatsch, referred to mainly in Chapter 4, are fully accessible online.1 I have therefore limited my choice of reproductions to be included here to the most essential ones. It will be easy for any reader interested in following up on my discussion to consult the relevant material online. In Appendix I, I offer a transcription of the nine original letters from New-Newland and from Texas by Max Jungmann, based on my own copy of Schlemiel since the journal is nowadays rather difficult to come by. I have added to this in Appendix II a complete translation so as to make the text as a whole accessible to the reader in English rather than present them with fragments as and when discussed in the main body of my book. I have, moreover, included explanatory notes with the English text which, above and beyond the focused discussion, indicate the satirical polyvalence of the series of letters and contribute to their contextualization. All quotations from “Letters from New-Newland” (LNN) in the

1 See http://www.simplicissimus.info/index.php?id=5; http://www.der-wahre-jacob.de/index. php?id=42; and http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/kla. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-204

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text are taken from this transcription and its translation. Parenthetic references follow the format: Roman numeral (to indicate the source letter) and, separated by a slash, the line numbers of the English translation and the German original, for instance: LNN I, 1/1. In terms of some potentially controversial lexical choices, I decided to adhere to the contemporary usage of words long since frowned upon as politically incorrect, eschewing also the unsatisfactory practice of putting them into inverted commas. These terms include: Dark Continent, native(s), negro(es), nigger(s), Indian(s), savage(s), civilized, civilized nation(s), uncivilized, primitive, and race as well as, in untranslated German, Hosenneger and Hosennigger. Clearly, I do not subscribe to the connotations these terms would have had in contemporary discourse, nor to those they have in the present day. They nevertheless, precisely because of their historical contingency and contiguity, serve to indicate contemporary perceptions and attitudes and as such contribute to their better understanding. Nor are more recent terminological substitutions necessarily more objective. They in fact may easily gloss over and belie the problems inherent in the usage of these terms. I have, however, adopted the lower case spelling of antisemitism as well as negro(es), aryan(s), and semite(s) in order to avoid ­essentialist connotations. Finally, I should like to mention Jay Geller's most recent book, Bestiarium Judaicum: Unnatural Histories of the Jews (2018), which became available to me too late to be considered in my discussion but which complements some of my own research and otherwise offers fascinating insights into negotiations of Jewishness relevant also to the present volume.

Introduction The Mbwapwa Rhizome: Jewish Metamorphoses and the Colors of Difference This book might as well begin like a joke: Three Jews meet in a café. Says the first Jew: “Listen…” – Alas, we will never know quite what he said, or the other two. But three Jews did in fact meet in the Café Spitz in Basel during the Sixth Zionist Congress in August 1903: The lawyer and writer Sammy Gronemann, the physician and satirist Max Jungmann, and the founder and leader of the Zionist Organization, Theodor Herzl. Others were probably also present, but they play no further part in this narrative. According to Gronemann’s memoirs, it was Herzl who suggested at this meeting the creation of a Zionist satirical journal.1 Three months later, in November 1903, the first issue of Schlemiel appeared in Berlin under the general editorship of Julius Moses with Jungmann as sub-editor (­Redakteur). But even though it was endorsed by Herzl and subsidized by the Zionist Organization,2 the illustrated journal of Jewish humor was not an economic success and suffered moreover, as Gronemann indicates, from the increasing lack of enthusiasm (“Unlust”) of its contributors.3 The last monthly issue appeared in March 1906 and it took almost another year until the next issue was published, in February 1907, with the promise that subsequent issues were to appear annually at Purim. In the event, however, it was only in 1919–20 and, finally, in 1924 that further unsuccessful attempts at resuscitating the ill-fated venture were made. Nevertheless, Schlemiel, with an estimated print run of 5,000 and the circulation of shared copies in coffee houses and Zionist reading rooms,4 must be considered a significant voice in early Zionist discourse in the German-speaking countries. Its most salient feature may have been the ‘objectivity’ with which it sustained the internal diversity and the explosive dynamics of critical debate in early Zionist discourse. Schlemiel’s exposure and relentless bashing of the

1 See Sammy Gronemann, Erinnerungen, ed. Joachim Schlör (Berlin and Vienna: Philo, 2002), pp. 249, 257. For a more detailed reminiscence on the origins of the magazine which makes mention also of its short-lived previous incarnation in the guise of Schlemihl (1903), edited by Leo Winz, see Max Jungmann, Erinnerungen eines Zionisten (Jerusalem: Mass, 1959), p. 61. 2 See Jungmann, Erinnerungen, p. 62. 3 Gronemann, Erinnerungen, p. 262; see also Jungmann, Erinnerungen, p. 62. 4 See David A. Brenner, German-Jewish Popular Culture before the Holocaust: Kafka’s Kitsch (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), p. 35; Michael Berkowitz, Zionist Culture and West European Jewry before the First World War (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), p. 180; and Jungmann, Erinnerungen, p. 62. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-001

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 Introduction

Figure 1: Josef Rosintal, Mbwapwa Jumbo, from Schlemiel (1903).

follies of its targets were absolutely indiscriminate and hardly any of the public figures in the Zionist movement escaped a lambasting in its blistering pages.5 Indeed, not even Herzl himself was spared the prickly barbs of the satirical spirits that he cited. Yet, performing jocosely to the delectation of his friends,6 the politician, whose iconic sobriety and gravity have been perpetuated in Zionist discourse, is nevertheless said to have read with gusto from the satirical Jewish monthly and even on his deathbed to have impatiently awaited the latest issue of Schlemiel.7 Turning over the cover sheet of the very first issue of the new journal, the unsuspecting reader was confronted with what must have been an u ­ nexpected sight: 5 Schlemiel was mostly inward looking, as Jungmann emphasized in his memoirs, see ­Jungmann, Erinnerungen, p. 64: “Mostly we had our sport with the greats of our own people and poured scorn and mockery on the heads of militant kindred spirits and eminent adversaries. [Überwiegend trieben wir unser Spiel mit den Grössen des eigenen Volkes und ergossen unseren Spott auf die Häupter von militanten Gesinnungsgenossen und bedeutenden ­Gegnern.]” 6 See Gronemann, Erinnerungen, p. 261 and Brenner, German-Jewish Popular Culture, p. 33. 7 Jungmann, Erinnerungen, p. 68.

Introduction 

 3

Next to the heading “Letters from New-Newland” (“Briefe aus ­Neu-­Neuland”)8 was the image of a negro9 with side-locks and kippah, serenely meeting the reader’s gaze with his own (see Figure 1). Indeed, this was the first in a series of letters from ‘New-Newland’ (1903–07) which offer an intriguing response to the so-called Uganda Plan (1903–05) and to notions of Jewish colonization. The title of the letters echoes that of Herzl’s visionary novel Old-New Land (Altneuland, 1902), which the leader of political Zionism had published in the previous year in order to disseminate his ideas and to demonstrate what Zionism would be able to achieve, once the Jews had returned to their old-new land: Palestine.10 The fictional authorial persona and narrator of the letters was Mbwapwa Jumbo, retired chief of Uganda turned special correspondent for Schlemiel – he whose image would have surprised the reader on turning the first page of the new journal. Mbwapwa’s missives were reports on the first Jewish contingent to arrive in East Africa in response to the Uganda proposal. Earlier in the same year, in April 1903, the British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain had offered Herzl a territory in British East Africa for autonomous Jewish settlement under British suzerainty. The offer provoked extended and fierce debate within the Zionist Organization which, in its program agreed at the First Zionist Congress at Basel in 1897, had unequivocally identified Palestine as

8 Eight letters, partially numbered in Roman numerals, appeared in Schlemiel between 1903 and 1905; the last, unnumbered, letter of 1907 was entitled “Letter from Texas” (“Brief aus Texas”). See Schlemiel. Illustriertes jüdisches Witzblatt 1.1 (1903): 2; 1.2 (1903): 10–11; 2.1 (1904): 2; 2.2 (1904): 12; 2.3 (1904): 22; 2.5 (1904): 42; 2.10 (1904): 88; 3.4 (1905): 35; (1907): 8–9. 9 The term negro and its German equivalent, Neger, as well as any derogatory derivatives, such as Nigger, are applied throughout with reference to their historical usage and will not be printed in inverted commas; for an explanation of this practice see the previous section. 10 However, while writing his novel, Herzl had almost despaired of the feasibility of his project. On March 14, 1901 he recorded in his diary: “I am now industriously working on Altneuland. My hopes for practical success have now disintegrated. My life is no novel now. So the novel is my life,” Theodor Herzl, The Diaries of Theodor Herzl, ed. Raphael Patai, transl. Harry Zohn (New York and London: Herzl Press/Yoseloff, 1960), III, 1071; see also Theodor Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, eds. Alex Bein et al. (Berlin: Propyläen, 1983–96), III, 225: “Ich bin jetzt eifrig an Altneuland. Die Erfolghoffnungen im Praktischen sind zerflossen. Mein Leben ist jetzt kein Roman. So ist der Roman mein Leben.” Max Jungmann moreover recorded that Herzl, at the height of the debate on the Uganda proposal, declined to contribute to Schlemiel, once again giving vent to his frustration with the internecine fighting within the Zionist movement: “For the life of me I cannot send you the requested contribution to your paper because my good spirits have long since completely dried up, especially since I have been a member of our movement… [Beim besten Willen kann ich Ihnen den gewünschten Beitrag für Ihr Blatt nicht schicken, weil die gute Laune bei mir schon längst vollständig versiegt ist, namentlich aber seit ich in unserer Bewegung bin…],” Jungmann, Erinnerungen, p. 63.

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 Introduction

the location of the Jewish homeland that was to be secured under public law. It was not before the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905, however, after Herzl’s death, that the proposal was finally rejected. Although supported by the majority, the decision led to a rift in the Zionist Organization and to the establishment of the Jewish Territorial Organization (ITO) in the same year.11 Though an expedition was sent to East Africa in December 1904 by the Zionist Executive to report on the suitability of the territory offered for Jewish settlement,12 no practical steps toward its Zionist colonization were ever taken.13 Mbwapwa’s continuing reports, which appeared with waning frequency in Schlemiel until April 1905, when the expedition had returned to Europe, are therefore purely imaginary, as is the last of his communications of February 1907. The altogether nine missives nevertheless provide an illuminating commentary on this historical episode and on contemporary negotiations of Jewish identities. In particular, Jungmann explores demarcations of Jewishness from, and identifications with, blackness vis-à-vis the colonial paradigm.14 More specifically, with his narrative of the fictitious Zionist settlement of East Africa and with the creation of the black African Mbwapwa Jumbo and his conversion to Judaism, Jungmann articulates an intricate and critical response to any Jewish colonial aspirations. At the same time, he formulates a highly perceptive and scathing commentary on the convergence of Zionist, racist, and colonial discourses.

11 The ITO was founded by Israel Zangwill and Lucien Wolfe and continued to search for a suitable territory for Jewish settlement which, in contrast to Palestine, would provide short-term relief to Jewish persecution in eastern Europe. For a comprehensive discussion of the activities of ITO, see Gur Alroey, Zionism without Zion: The Jewish Territorial Organization and its Conflict with the Zionist Organization (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2016). 12 See the Report on the Work of the Commission Sent Out by the Zionist Organization to Examine the Territory Offered by His Majesty’s Government for the Purposes of a Jewish Settlement in British East Africa (London: Wertheimer, Lea & Company, 1905). For a recent commentary, see Eitan Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land: The Zionist Expedition to East Africa, 1905,” in Eitan Bar-Yosef and Nadia Valman (eds.), “The Jew” in Late-Victorian and Edwardian Culture: Between the East End and East Africa (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 183–200. 13 Individual Jews did settle in the area, but not as part of a Zionist settlement scheme, see Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land,” pp. 188, 195. 14 For a more detailed analysis, see Brenner, German-Jewish Popular Culture, pp. 30–3 and Axel Stähler, “Constructions of Jewish Identity and the Spectre of Colonialism: Of White Skin, and Black Masks in Early Zionist Discourse,” German Life and Letters 66.3 (2013): 253–75. For antisemitically motivated correlations between Jews and black Africans since the seventeenth century, see Sander L. Gilman, The Jew’s Body (New York and London: Routledge, 1991), pp. 99–100, 171–6, etc. and, more recently, especially in imperial Germany, Christian S. Davis, Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent in Imperial Germany (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2012), pp. 77–132.

Introduction 

 5

A crucial element of the satirist’s critique, and arguably anticipating the notion of the instability and ambivalence of colonial discourse suggested by postcolonial theorists,15 is the deliberate collapse of the distinction between the supposedly immutable categories of black and white and of colonized and colonizer. Jungmann has Mbwapwa oscillate between them and makes him perform in effect what Daniel Boyarin has called “colonial drag,”16 though adding another dimension to this notion with the intricate color play to which he subjects his epistolarian.17 The historical moment at which Jungmann chose to engage in this ‘charade’ is of crucial significance because it was fraught, in imperial Germany, with negative associations evoked by the colonial war against the Herero and Nama in German South-West Africa (present-day Namibia) since January 1904 and the ensuing change in the perception of black Africans in parliamentary and public discourse. No longer stereotyped as children that needed to be – and could indeed be – educated, even if they were unruly at times, the negroes of South-West Africa had suddenly metamorphosed into “bloodthirsty beasts in human shape”18 against whom a bloody race war was being waged. To create, at this juncture, not only a sympathetic black character who invites the reader’s empathy, but to go indeed so far as to suggest his particular affinity and identification with the colonizing Jews must be considered quite an audacious move. Indeed, as ­Christian S. Davis recently observed: “Acutely aware of their own delicate position as insider-­ outsiders in German society, some Jewish contemporaries recognized a danger to themselves in discourses on blacks.”19 Significantly, however, Mbwapwa as a ‘black’ Jew is also an internal other, the blackness of his skin substituted for that of the traditional somber garb of the orthodox Jews of the Mizrachi. The Mizrachi, an acronym for Merkaz Ruchani,

15 See, e.g., Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994), pp. 90, 110–15. 16 The phrase was coined by Daniel Boyarin in “The Colonial Drag: Zionism, Gender, and Mimicry,” in Fawzia Afzal-Khan and Kalpana Seshadri-Crook (eds.), The Pre-Occupation of Postcolonial Studies (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000), pp. 234–56. 17 For this ‘color play,’ see Stähler, “Constructions of Jewish Identity,” 253–75. 18 Thus the antisemitic delegate of the German Social Party (Deutschsoziale Partei), Ludwig Count Reventlow, in the Reichstag, see StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1900 (C): “blutdürstige Bestien in Menschengestalt.” For a thorough documentation of the parliamentary and public debates on the Herero War in imperial Germany, see Michael Schubert, Der Schwarze Fremde: Das Bild des Schwarzafrikaners in der parlamentarischen und publizistischen Kolonialdiskussion in Deutschland von den 1870er bis in die 1930er Jahre (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2003) and Frank Oliver Sobich, “Schwarze Bestien, rote Gefahr”: Rassismus und Antisozialismus im deutschen Kaiserreich (Frankfurt am Main and New York: Campus, 2006). 19 Davis, Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent, p. 132.

6 

 Introduction

i.e.  “religious center,” was a religious Zionist organization founded in Vilna in 1902.20 It was the only faction within the Zionist movement fully to support the Uganda Plan. The identification of the Mizrachim with the African native emphasizes not only inner-Jewish difference along the lines of established descriptors of racial difference. It moreover operates at least associatively with clichéd stereotypes, evoking notions of savagery which, in the course of the narrative, are variously interrogated in relation to the Mizrachim. They in fact appear to be more savage than the so-called savages. Jungmann in this way challenges not only conceptions of stereotypical representations of African natives but at the same time amplifies the divide between the orthodox Jews and their Jewish others. Considering Jungmann’s opposition to the orthodox Zionist element, this identification is not arbitrary but very deliberate indeed. My chiefly anticolonial reading of Mbwapwa may therefore be an instance of putting the cart before the horse. However, while it certainly should be acknowledged that to some extent this is where Mbwapwa’s origins lie, both the construction of his character and the progression of his letters seem to indicate the significance also of the colonial context and of the comparative negotiation of racial identities. After all, identification is suggested to the reader not with the Mizrachim but with Mbwapwa, whose chattily amiable character operates as a focalizer who promotes self-­ questioning and potentially also self-assurance to those Jews who are unlike the Mizrachim. Clearly, as the best satire should, Mbwapwa works on several levels, not all of which may have been intended by his creator, nor may he even have been aware of their existence. If Jungmann was aware of the incendiary potential of his creation as both black and a Jew, he either must have liked to play with fire or have been confident that Mbwapwa’s existence would remain ‘secret’ beyond the confines of the Zionist insider group. Even so, what motives could Jungmann have had for such a positioning? What are its implications for constructions of Jewishness and the perception of the Zionist enterprise? And how does the satirist’s “racial ruse”21 relate to early Zionist discourse and the interrelated conceptions of territory, identity, and nationhood prevalent in this discourse? Finally, in which ways are “Letters from New-Newland” and Jungmann’s black correspondent linked to constructions of nation, race, and empire in Germany? While recent critical discourse has acknowledged the potential convergence of Zionism with various 20 Any reference to Mizrachim in the context of this book is therefore not to eastern, oriental, or Arab Jews, for whom this designation has more recently been employed, but to the members of the Mizrachi. For the Mizrachi, see, e.g., Berkowitz, Zionist Culture, p. 45. 21 I borrow this term from Jonathan Wipplinger, “The Racial Ruse: On Blackness and Blackface. Comedy in fin-de-siècle Germany,” German Quarterly 84.4 (2011): 457–76.

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 7

European colonialisms and imperialisms,22 the crucial significance of the quotidian ­exposure to, and participation in, public discourse on the German colonial experience of the influential German-speaking Zionist elite has so far not been sufficiently acknowledged.23

The German Colonial Enterprise, Zionism, and the Mbwapwa Rhizome German colonialism has received much scholarly attention particularly in the past two decades, covering diverse and divergent areas. Indeed, the relatively late recognition of the significance of this historical phenomenon, ephemeral as it was, has arguably led to a proliferation from the very beginning not merely of explorations of the historical events, but to their wide-ranging cultural historical contextualization. Approaches and patterns of research tested in colonial and postcolonial studies, traditionally particularly strong in the Anglophone and Francophone spheres, have been made productive in relation to German imperialism and colonialism and have endowed this research with a critical and theoretical acumen resulting from the fertilization and cross-fertilization with earlier and concurrent research relating to other imperial and colonial settings. Research in the colonial experience overseas and at home – such as that pioneered by Susanne Zantop and Russell A. Berman and further advanced among 22 See, e.g., Gershon Shafir, “Zionism and Colonialism: A Comparative Approach,” in ­Michael N. Barnett (ed.), Israel in Comparative Perspective: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996), pp. 227–42; Avi Bareli, “Forgetting Europe: P ­ erspectives on the Debate about Zionism and Colonialism,” Journal of Israeli History 20 (2001): 99–120; and Derek J. Penslar, “Zionism, Colonialism and Postcolonialism,” Journal of Israeli History 20 (2001): 84–98. For an overview of this frequently controversial debate, see, e.g., Axel Stähler, Literarische Konstruktionen jüdischer Postkolonialität: Das britische Palästinamandat in der anglo­ phonen jüdischen Literatur (Heidelberg: Winter, 2009), pp. 86–96. For Herzl’s notion of creating a “miniature England in reverse,” see Eitan Bar-Yosef, “A Villa in the Jungle: Herzl, Zionist Culture, and the Great African Adventure,” in Mark H. Gelber and Vivian Liska (eds.), Theodor Herzl: From Europe to Zion (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2007), pp. 85–102, pp. 98–100. It has even been suggested that Herzl’s The Jewish State (Der Judenstaat, 1896) “may not mention Africa by name but is, nevertheless, profoundly influenced by the then ongoing European colonial impact on the continent,” Mark Levene, “Herzl, the Scramble, and a Meeting that Never Happened: Revisiting the Notion of an African Zion,” in Eitan Bar-Yosef and Nadia Valman (eds.), “The Jew” in Late-­ Victorian and Edwardian Culture, pp. 201–18, p. 203. 23 See, however, Derek J. Penslar, Zionism and Technocracy: The Engineering of Jewish Settlement in Palestine, 1870–1918 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991).

8 

 Introduction

others by Joachim Zeller, Volker M. Langbehn, and David Ciarlo – has emphasized the pervasive significance of the colonial imagination also in the German context.24 Indeed, it emerges from the work of these and other scholars that, if initially perhaps in a more latent fashion than in the earlier colonial powers, the colonial imagination and experience had a profound impact on the culture, both high and low, of the German-speaking lands and, more specifically, of imperial Germany. It ranged across the cultural spectrum from the exotic to the mundane: From colonial goods to literary, artistic, and musical engagements; from everyday objects, toys, furniture, and furnishings to jewellery; from popular entertainment to postcards, poster stamps, and advertisements; and from the exhibition of natives to scholarly inquiry.25 As a corollary to and significant part of the colonial experience, colonial war in particular had an acute bearing not only on colonial and imperial discourse in Germany but indeed on the entirety of its social, economic, and cultural fabric. The centenary in 2004 of the beginning of the Herero War has, moreover, generated new public interest in Germany’s colonial past as well as a proliferation of historical studies.26 These publications augmented earlier scholarly approaches27 and

24 See, e.g., Susanne Zantop, Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family, and Nation in Precolonial Germany, 1770–1870 (Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 1997); Russell A. Berman, Enlightenment or Empire: Colonial Discourse in German Culture (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1998); Joachim Zeller, Bilderschule der Herrenmenschen: Koloniale ­Reklamesammelbilder (Berlin: Links, 2008); Volker M. Langbehn, German Colonialism, Visual Culture, and Modern Memory (New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 2010); David Ciarlo, Advertising Empire: Race and Visual Culture in Imperial Germany (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2011). See also Sara Friedrichsmeyer, Sara Lennox, and Susanne Zantop (eds.), The Imperialist Imagination: German Colonialism and its Legacy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998); Davis, Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent; Nina Berman, Klaus Mühlhahn, and Patrice Nganang (eds.), German Colonialism Revisited: African, Asian, and Oceanic Experiences (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2014). 25 See, e.g., Anne Dreesbach, Gezähmte Wilde: Die Zurschaustellung ‘exotischer’ Menschen in Deutschland, 1870–1940 (Frankfurt am Main and New York: Campus, 2005); Ciarlo, Advertising Empire; John Phillip Short, Magic Lantern Empire: Colonialism and Society in Germany (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012); Felix Axster, Koloniales Spektakel in 9 × 14: Bildpostkarten im Deutschen Kaiserreich (Bielefeld: transcript, 2014); Paul Lerner, The Consuming Temple: Jews, Department Stores, and the Consumer Revolution in Germany, 1880–1940 (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 2015). 26 See, e.g., Jürgen Zimmerer and Joachim Zeller (eds.), Völkermord in Deutsch-Südwestafrika: Der Kolonialkrieg (1904–1908) in Namibia und seine Folgen (Berlin: Links, 2004). The ‘re-­ discovery’ of German colonialism has, moreover, produced a recent literary engagement with the colonial past, see Dirk Göttsche, Remembering Africa: The Rediscovery of Colonialism in Contemporary German Literature (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2013). 27 See, e.g., Walter Nuhn, Sturm über Südwest: Der Hereroaufstand von 1904 – Ein düsteres Kapitel der deutschen kolonialen Vergangenheit Namibias (Bonn: Bernard & Graefe, 1997).

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 9

also sought to encompass the implications for cultural production in the colonial metropole and its periphery.28 More specifically, the potential affinities of colonial war and genocide with the Holocaust, discussed already by Hannah Arendt,29 have been developed into a fecund, if not entirely uncontroversial, line of inquiry that, in the context of this book, is however only of marginal relevance.30 More germane to the objectives of this book is rather the interest elicited by constructions of blackness and the experience of being black in the culture of the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic which has also burgeoned in recent years.31 Some attention has been given in particular to the infusion of popular culture with constructions of blackness in entertainment, advertisements, quotidian experience, and ethnography.32 What emerges from these engagements with otherness is what may be called an iconography of difference which has a bearing also on constructions of Jewishness. The relevance of constructions of blackness to constructions of Jewishness has been recognized for instance by Sander L. Gilman.33 More recently, Davis

28 See, e.g., Medardus Brehl, Vernichtung der Herero: Diskurse der Gewalt in der deutschen Kolonialliteratur (Munich: Fink, 2007). 29 See Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951; New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1973) and, more recently, David Olusoga and Casper W. Erichsen, The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism (London: Faber and Faber, 2010). 30 See, e.g., Eric Ames, Marcia Klotz, and Lora Wildenthal (eds.), Germany’s Colonial Pasts (Lincoln and London: Nebraska University Press, 2005); Volker M. Langbehn and Mohammad Salama (eds.), German Colonialism: Race, the Holocaust, and Postwar Germany (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011). 31 See, e.g., Katharina Oguntoye, Eine afrodeutsche Geschichte: Zur Lebenssituation von ­Afrikanern und Afro-Deutschen in Deutschland von 1884–1950 (Berlin: Hoho-Verlag Hoffmann, 1997); Patricia M. Mazón and Reinhild Steingröver (eds.), Not so Plain as Black and White: Afro-­ German Culture and History, 1890–2000 (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2005); Albert Gouaffo, “Prince Dido and ‘Human Zoos’ in Wilhelmine Germany: Strategies for Self-­ Representation under the Othering Gaze” and Eva Rosenhaft, “Schwarze Schmach and métissages contemporains: The Politics and Poetics of Mixed Marriage in a Refugee Family,” both in Robbie Aitken and Eva Rosenhaft (eds.), Africa in Europe: Studies in Transnational Practice in the Long Twentieth Century (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2013), pp. 19–33 and 34–54, respectively; Robbie Aitken and Eva Rosenhaft (eds.), Black Germany: The Making and Unmaking of a Diaspora Community, 1884–1960 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013); Mischa Honeck, Martin Klimke, and Anne Kuhlmann (eds.), Germany and the Black Diaspora: Points of Contact, 1250–1914 (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2013); and Dick van Galen Last and Ralf Futselaar, Black Shame: African Soldiers in Europe, 1914–1922, transl. Marjolijn de Jager (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015). 32 See, e.g., Rainer E. Lotz, “A Musical Clown in Europe,” The Black Perspective in Music 18.1 (1990): 116–26 and Wipplinger, “Racial Ruse,” 457–76. 33 See Gilman, Jew’s Body, pp. 99–100, 171–6.

10 

 Introduction

emphasized the ambivalent potential of this influence as it was perceived by Jews and by Germans in the Kaiserreich.34 In his study on colonialism, antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish descent, Davis moreover explores the involvement in the colonial enterprise of Jewish Germans, such as Paul Kayser and Bernhard Dernburg, to the latter of whom I will return in Chapters 3 and 4 as a target of the satire of Schlemiel and various German satirical magazines. Another such German of Jewish descent active in the colonial venture as an adviser to the Colonial Office, and curiously not mentioned by Davis, was the botanist and expert in tropical agriculture Otto Warburg. Notably, Warburg was also a prominent Zionist and, as Derek J. Penslar has shown, utilized his considerable professional experience at the same time toward the development of Jewish settlement in Palestine.35 As a national movement, first inspired by the Italian Risorgimento but developing into a unified political force only since the foundation of the Zionist Organization in 1897, Zionism, albeit a product of its times, was nevertheless a latecomer – as was the German Empire with its belated colonial ambitions. In political Zionism, moreover, both the national and the colonial impulse merged by necessity, inasmuch as the national renaissance was ultimately predicated on the colonization of a territory that, although there was a hereditary title to it, had been lost for two millennia and that needed to be reclaimed. Yet even though Zionism, as declared in the germinal Basel Program of 1897, aimed “at establishing for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine,”36 territorial alternatives were nevertheless explored in order to provide relief to the persecuted Jewish masses in eastern Europe. The Uganda Plan was only one of these schemes, which ranged as far afield as El Arish in the Sinai, Grand Island in the Niagara River, and – if at a much later date – Australia.37 But without doubt it was the most divisive of all such proposals which, even though it was eventually discarded, nevertheless provoked a split in the Zionist Organization and led to the foundation of the ITO in 1905. Significantly, as Michael Berkowitz has shown, Zionism in western Europe developed its own “culture” which needs to be understood as being entangled

34 See Davis, Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent, esp. ch. 2. 35 See Penslar, Zionism and Technocracy, pp. 61–3. 36 For an English translation of the full text, see Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz (eds.), The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History (1980; Oxford and New York: Oxford ­University Press, 1995), p. 540. 37 See, e.g., Robert G. Weisbord, African Zion: The Attempt to Establish a Jewish Colony in the East Africa Protectorate, 1903–1905 (Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1968); Adam Rovner, In the Shadow of Zion: Promised Lands before Israel (New York: New York University Press, 2014); Alroey, Zionism without Zion.

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 11

in multiple ways, and multi-directionally, with its wider context. It is perplexing, therefore, that Berkowitz, while generally acknowledging that Zionism was “framed by the fin-de-siècle nationalist forms familiar to Jews,”38 completely ignores the pervasive impact of colonialism on the culture of the Kaiserreich as it filtered into Zionist discourse. Indeed, for the first two decades of the existence of the Zionist movement, imperial Germany and its colonial enterprise loomed large in this context. Even so, just as the influence of German colonialism on Zionist thought and culture – beyond its practical impetus – has not yet been sufficiently explored,39 the Zionist response has not yet been adequately examined as a significant engagement of an insider-outsider group with the German colonial venture and the conflicts it produced. In this book, I propose to explore some of these historical contiguities, albeit to varying degrees, by focusing on the particular case of Mbwapwa Jumbo and the proliferation of cultural and historical significations this figure invites and of which it is a product. My basic premise is that Jungmann’s text cannot really be separated from its extensive and variegated context; that, in effect, it is metonymic of the interpretive profusion generated by its ‘times’ among which, in the portion I want to focus on, Zionism and German colonialism are hegemonic but are themselves subject to the pervasive and near-infinite interweaving of polysemic diversity. In order to approximate this interconnectedness and to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the whole and (some of) its parts, my approach is to some extent inspired by the midrashic method. It is also informed, eclectically but not arbitrarily, by the notion of entangled histories and by narrative network theory; to all of which is added a sound portion of close reading. Following the publication of Geoffrey H. Hartman and Sanford Budick’s edited volume on Midrash and Literature (1986), much has been made in literary studies of what has been called the midrashic approach to literature.40 Based on the tradition of commentary in Rabbinic Judaism known as midrash, this 38 Berkowitz, Zionist Culture, p. 2. 39 Penslar, too, in his important book, limits his focus mainly to Otto Warburg and the practical inspiration he drew from the German model, including his implantation into the Zionist Organization of “German colonialism’s celebrated commitment to scientific research and experimentation” and his attempt to serve “German imperialist purposes” with a Jewish colonization program for Mesopotamia, Zionism and Technocracy, pp. 60, 65. The pervasive presence of colonialism in German (popular) culture and its impact on the Zionist project in a more widely conceived sense is not considered by Penslar. More specifically, the critical perspective on the German colonial model as it emerges for instance from Mbwapwa’s letters is mostly neglected. 40 For an excellent overview, see Devorah Baum, “Textuality,” in Nadia Valman and Laurence Roth (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Jewish Cultures (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), pp. 139–50.

12 

 Introduction

approach celebrates the “interpretive bounty”41 of a text and at the same time implies that commentary is not only “a by-product” of scripture but is itself “a functional revelation.”42 Some caution is necessary here: Neither is the secular text on which I base my own inquiry authoritative in the sense that scripture is to the midrash,43 nor am I myself schooled in the midrashic method as such. The generally associative method of this approach – signifying, in Hartman’s words, “a variety of ‘open’ modes of interpretation” and revaluating “the shuttle space between the interpreter and the text”44 – nevertheless seems to me eminently suitable to unraveling some of the entangled skeins of signification interlacing with the multiple signifier embodied by Mbwapwa. Indeed, it allows the acknowledgement of the cumulative creation of a single text or tapestry, to stay with Hartman’s image, which consists not only of Mbwapwa’s correspondence but is formed of a textual, and indeed con-textual or inter-textual, totality in which the nine letters from New-Newland and Texas are not only a commentary on their historical context but an integral part of this context which creates meaning in relation to, and derives meaning from, all and sundry of its myriad con-textual connections. As such the text continues to baffle its interpreter – even though, as Hartman asserts, in midrash “the interpreter’s associative knowledge is invested with remarkably broad powers,”45 powers which I intend to make productive in the course of this book. Ultimately, it is nevertheless only that other awareness emphasized by the midrashic method – that there will always be other midrashim46 – which eventually allows the reconciliation with the inevitable incompleteness of interpretation: The shuttle evoked by Hartman may be weaving a fabric, but there will always remain gaps between the threads of the woven cloth. And yet, depending on light and shadow and the observer’s perspective, patterns may emerge. Even so, as Frank Kermode asserts, it should nevertheless be “clear that different people at different times will form their own notions of the relations

41 Harold Fisch, “The Hermeneutic Quest in Robinson Crusoe,” in Geoffrey H. Hartman and Sanford Budick (eds.), Midrash and Literature (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986), pp. 213–35, p. 230. 42 Geoffrey H. Hartman, “Midrash as Law and Literature,” The Journal of Religion 74.3 (1994): 338–55, 342. 43 See, e.g., Fisch, “Hermeneutic Quest,” pp. 231–2. 44 Geoffrey H. Hartman, “Introduction,” in Hartman and Budick (eds.), Midrash and Literature, pp. ix–xiii, p. xi. 45 Ibid. 46 Quoting from Max Kidushin, Fisch observes that “each midrash implies ‘that other interpretations are possible’” and that they are “essentially independent of one another,” “Hermeneutic Quest,” p. 231.

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 13

between parts, and between parts and wholes.”47 In other words, different people at different times will see different patterns. The application of the midrashic approach to what broadly speaking is ‘history’ may provoke controversy in that it suggests, in Max Kidushin’s words, the “principle of indeterminacy”48 and assumes the fundamental interpretivity of ‘historical facts.’ Yet the narrative nature of historiography, recognized among others by Louis O. Mink and Hayden White,49 suggests not only the basic textuality of historical knowability but a similar relation of interpretation to interpreted text as that of midrash to scripture – or of the satirical commentary of Mbwapwa to colonial history and its larger context – in what is effectively a metonymic relationship.50 Bearing in mind Kermode’s observation about parts and wholes the implication is not only that parts tend to be constitutive of different wholes, sustaining their entanglement, but also that a critical mass of parts is required for a meaningful interpretation. Thus, even though at times there may be a danger of slipping into a positivistic mode, my purpose in accumulating historical and cultural detail is not merely self-serving. Rather, I aim to feed a ‘narrative’ mode of interpretation, informed to some extent by the midrashic method, a narrative which is the product not of a historical study but of a cultural historical approach anchored in literary studies. By doing so, I seek to contextualize the creation and the polysemic potential of Mbwapwa within its multifarious context by exploring nodal clusters in the extensive web of significations enwrapping, and – depending on the perspective – extending from, the figure of Max Jungmann’s creation and his epistolary effusions. The emerging narrative, if perhaps linear, nevertheless does not necessarily proceed in a straight line, but describes what may seem an erratic zig-zag: Flashing synapsis to flashing synapsis, as it were; or the shuttle, flying from side to side, though this metaphor does not convey the ‘three-dimensional’ character of the interrelation of the narrative’s constituent parts. It is sequential nonetheless, and therefore con-sequential, in a narrative order: A story – with a meaning. Certain 47 Frank Kermode, “The Plain Sense of Things,” in Hartman and Budick (eds.), Midrash and Literature, pp. 179–94, p. 182. 48 Max Kidushin, The Rabbinic Mind (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1952), p. 132. 49 See, e.g., Louis O. Mink, “History and Fiction as Modes of Comprehension,” New Literary History 1.3 (1970): 541–58 and Hayden White, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973). For an overview, see Jan Pomorski, “On Historical Narrative. A Contribution to the Methodology of a Research Programme,” in Jerzy Topolski (ed.), Narration and Explanation: Contributions to the Methodology of the Historical Research (Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi, 1990), pp. 41–54, pp. 42–4. 50 See, e.g., Fisch, “Hermeneutic Quest,” p. 216.

14 

 Introduction

‘narrative’ choices – in Hayden White’s sense of emplotment51 – were obviously necessary in order to develop a scholarly argument; and yet it is important to bear in mind that different stories might be told about Mbwapwa. In fact, the notion of the rhizome advanced by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari is hugely apposite to the conceptualization of what I attempt to do in this book: The approximation of what I like to call the ‘Mbwapwa rhizome.’52 Another caution is necessary here: Although I acknowledge the influence of Deleuze und Guattari, I should stress that in this instance too – as with the midrashic approach – I adopt, and adapt, only those characteristics of the rhizome which are productive within the purview of my interest. Thus, my book is not organized in ‘plateaus’ but in conventional chapters; but the principles of connection and heterogeneity are clearly operative in relation to the material I work with.53 The premise that the rhizome “ceaselessly establishes connections between semiotic chains, organizations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences, and social struggles”54 is very much at the basis of my inquiry into the Mbwapwa rhizome. Another useful metaphor for an understanding of the approach of this book is provided by narrative network theory as developed more recently in cognitive anthropology and linguistics.55 The analogy suggests that there is a network-text – the Mbwapwa rhizome – in which Mbwapwa’s narratives both individually and as a whole occupy nodal clusters of varying significance and with differently developed strains of cohesion or juncture in relation to other such nodal clusters. Probably the most significant implication of the notion of the rhizome and of the network-text as well as the midrash is that there are shifting perspectives on each of the constituent nodes of my narrative, depending on the reader’s position in the network and the direction of their approach. Indeed, both rhizome, or network-text, and reader should be imagined as constantly shifting and morphing in relation to one another. As a result, the hegemonic Zionist master narrative may be marginalized in the force field of that of the German colonial enterprise and the reversal of, or at least a look askance at, some of its established tropes may be initiated. Conversely, received articulations of the German experience of colonialism in the early twentieth century may be challenged because they are refracted through a Zionist prism. Once again, Mbwapwa’s letters are themselves a sort of midrash:

51 See White, Metahistory, pp. 7–11. 52 Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1987; London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014). 53 See ibid., pp. 5–7. 54 Ibid., p. 6. 55 See, e.g., David Ciccoricco, Reading Network Fiction (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2007).

Mbwapwa Jumbo and His Letters from New-Newland 

 15

They provide a narrative commentary to contemporary social, political, and cultural developments and their mainstream representation – but in the process they become a part of their context and are therefore rhizomatic in character.

Mbwapwa Jumbo and His Letters from New-Newland The defining features of Mbwapwa’s communications are his guileless character and his amiable chattiness, which allow him to address highly contentious issues without reservation.56 In the initial installment of November 1, 1903 he describes in biblical terms how his people, having heard of the plans for a Jewish settlement of Uganda, desolately meet by the banks of Lake Victoria-Nyanza, their tears mingling with its waters.57 It is Mbwapwa alone who does not despair. Instead, he invokes the experience of persecution shared by blacks and Jews as the common ground on which they will acknowledge their brotherhood. Indeed, once the Jewish settlers arrive, they are welcomed by Mbwapwa and his compatriots, all of whom convert to Judaism. In the event, it is the inner-Jewish diversity which threatens the new commonwealth. The first letter ends with the death of the reform rabbi Dr. Schmul who joined the ‘black’ Jewish colonizers incognito and who is drowned in the lake by the Mizrachim in response to his efforts to modernize the religious laws in the colony. In the beginning, Jewish colonization of the African territory in Mbwapwa’s epistles is characterized by the concurrence of culture and agriculture. Yet, throughout his letters, it is the clichéd Jewish emphasis on education and culture which informs colonial practice and the construction of the Jewish home in Africa. But the Jewish hunger for culture and education is ridiculed as absurd, impractical, and even as paralyzing. Where others – such as the explorer H. H. ­Johnston and the artist and Zionist activist Alfred Nossig, both discussed in Chapter 2 – anticipated the failure of peddlers and speculators, the bungling orthodox Jews, both hereditary and converted, while managing to survive and thrive, are no better suited to the colonial task than the former. In Mbwapwa’s second letter of December 1, 1903, the colony is attacked by reform Jews and their native allies to avenge the drowning of the unfortunate Dr.  Schmul. Yet when after the Jewish reconciliation the crops are devastated and the cattle stolen by the Maasai, the ensuing nigh on interminable debate on

56 For the full text of Mbwapwa’s nine letters, both in the German original and in English translation with annotations, see Appendices I and II. 57 See, for instance, the imagery of Psalm 137 and Exodus 22:20.

16 

 Introduction

the best course of action to restore the colony bizarrely results in the proposal to establish a university and an art academy. The emerging pattern shows the fictional African colony emulating the real Zionist aspirations for Palestine with the establishment of Hebrew University (1925) and the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts (1906), which were discussed since the earliest Zionist Congresses. In his third letter of January 1, 1904, Mbwapwa proudly reports on the progress he makes with learning the pure German dialect of Vilna (i.e. Yiddish) under the tutelage of Chaskel the Scribe. Moreover, the influx of immigrants from all over the world is attended by the development of a serviceable infrastructure of houses and roads. The latter are smooth enough for the rabbi and the rebbetzin to dance the cakewalk, a modern popular dance with African rhythms and exaggerated, parodistic movements which swept across Europe in the first decade of the twentieth century. In addition, support of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and of Jewish literature and art are discussed in a parliamentary sitting in which Mbwapwa participates as a delegate. The topic of assimilation, broached already in the first of the letters from New-Newland, is further pursued in the fourth missive, of February 1, 1904. Mbwapwa has unexpectedly been elevated to the position of Ambassador to the Court of the Tsar in Russia. The honor bestowed on him is dubious. Pogroms sweep across the eastern European country and Mbwapwa fears to be killed. Having heard that Jews are no longer allowed to take up residence in Russia, he hopes to escape the assignment. Instead, he is ordered to Berlin to immerse himself in reform Judaism so as to assimilate and eventually turn into a Christian, foregoing his orthodox ‘blackness.’ In analogy, scrubbed with the right soap powder, Mbwapwa is expected, moreover, to wash away also his epidermal blackness. He would then gain immunity against the rampant Russian antisemitism. And so, with the prospect of the perilous appointment restored, Mbwapwa and Chaskel, who is to accompany him, weep – once again – by the banks of the Victoria-Nyanza. The following letter of March 1, 1904, his fifth, brings Mbwapwa unexpected relief with the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. Diplomatic relations with Russia are suspended and the focus of Mbwapwa’s communication once again shifts to the Jewish colony, where he is allowed to remain. Yet there is no end to the commotions in New-Newland. A new arrival challenges the prevalent concept of Bildung with an anarchic approach and moreover introduces vegetablism to the Jews. More importantly, he is also elected into the synagogal commission for dancing. Picking up the African dance mania already alluded to in the third of Mbwapwa’s letters, the dance service is adopted in the colony in analogy to the liturgical use of the organ in German reform communities so as to prevent the natives from turning into antisemites. The increasing assimilatory tendencies once again generate and deepen the internal Jewish divisions in the colony. Indeed, the following letter – the sixth, of May 1, 1904 – recounts the foundation of a Zionist movement in Uganda by

Mbwapwa Jumbo and His Letters from New-Newland 

 17

Chaskel the Scribe, Mbwapwa’s erstwhile mentor and teacher of the pure German dialect of Vilna. While the economic situation in the colony is satisfactory, the Jews are not happy with the geographical location of their country. Chaskel acknowledges that in Romania, Russia, and Galicia the Jews were treated badly. Nevertheless, replicating public discourse on the African natives emerging during the concurrent colonial conflicts, he suggests that to live among the civilized nations is preferable to being entrenched among the so-called barbarians – even if antisemitism is an integral manifestation of that civilized state. After a long interval of five months, Mbwapa’s next epistle, his seventh, appeared on October 1, 1904. The letter indirectly touches on the dire economic situation of Schlemiel. The special correspondent laments that he has not received his honorarium – which explains his long silence. The remainder of the letter addresses once again the internal divisions among the Zionist fractions. The text contains alarming reference to a subliminal readiness for senseless violence when the Mizrachim kill all the dachshunds in the colony only because Chaskel uses the simile of the obstinate animal to indicate the determination and indomitability of the non-religious Zionists. Mbwapwa, who denounces Chaskel, becomes complicit in the act. In fact, this is the first – and only – time that he is tainted with the alleged intolerance of the Mizrachim, one of whom he has become. An even longer interval was to elapse before the next installment of ­Mbwapwa’s letters was published on April 1, 1905. This eighth letter is unusual in that it is written in doggerel. It is also the only one of the retired chief’s communications which refers directly to real events in East Africa. The Zionist commission sent to the proposed territory in order to establish its suitability for Jewish settlement was attacked by the tribe of the Wanandi. And so Jungmann plays out the ambiguity of the commission’s findings against the resistance of the native tribes and the potential flourishing of antisemitism wherever Jews go. In the concluding ninth letter of the series, published in the last issue of Schlemiel on February 28, 1907, Mbwapwa himself has become a member of a similar expedition. He and Chaskel have been sent as spies to Texas to ascertain its potential as another area for Jewish settlement. In the New World, they meet with Buffalo Bill as well as Uncas and Watawah, figures from James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking tales. Their expedition reflects efforts of the ITO to develop alternative areas for Jewish settlement. But the Jewish spies return none the wiser to Uganda from a country in which they are not welcome. In raising the ugly specter of colonialism, Jungmann issues a warning in regard to any Zionist colonial aspirations. His letters from New-Newland challenge not only the legitimacy of colonial appropriation but more specifically, with the construction of Mbwapwa, they suggest the affinity of Jews with blacks through a shared history of suffering. Yet it also emerges from the sequence of

18 

 Introduction

letters that Uganda may be “the white man’s country,”58 but that it is not the Jew’s. Despite all efforts to turn it into a home for the Jewish people, it will never be the home of the Jewish people. There is, it is quite clear, only one homeland of the Jews and this is Palestine. However, as an imaginary parallel home, Uganda has a lesson to teach, if only – in the searingly satirical pages of Schlemiel – as a thought experiment. Mbwapwa, with all his droll geniality, is the compelling mouthpiece of his creator to give articulation to these insights.

Imaginaries of Africa and of Palestine By the first decade of the twentieth century, Africa was no longer exactly terra incognita – one is reminded of Marlow’s wistful reminiscences of the blank spaces on the map in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899), which was published only a few years before Mbwapwa Jumbo made his appearance. When Marlow tells his story, he concedes: True, by this time it [i.e. the map of Africa] was not a blank space any more. It had got filled since my boyhood with rivers and lakes and names. It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery – a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness.59

Among those making the blank spaces disappear from the map of Africa was the English explorer, artist, and administrator H. H. Johnston, whom we will encounter again in Chapter 2. After having served as Special Commissioner of the British Uganda Protectorate from 1899 to 1901, Johnston published two volumes on The Uganda Protectorate (1902) in which he outlined the territory’s geography as well as its history and political order and proffered an anthropological and ethnographic survey. In his preface, Johnston enthused that the Uganda protectorate – where the territory offered in the following year to Jewish settlement was to be situated – contained “nearly all the wonders, most of the extremes, and some of the horrors, of the Dark Continent.”60 Johnston’s rhetorically polished turn of phrase, metonymic for his account, and like so much of the travel writing of his day to which he too had contributed,

58 See, e.g., H. H. Johnston, “The White Man’s Place in Africa,” The Nineteenth Century and After 55.328 (1904): 937–46, 941. 59 Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, in Youth, Heart of Darkness and The End of the Tether (London: Dent, 1989), pp. 43–162, p. 52. 60 H. H. Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate ([S. l.]: [S. n.], 1902), I, 11.

Imaginaries of Africa and of Palestine 

 19

suggests that even with the blank spaces on the map largely gone, Africa continued to be very much a place of the imagination. German explorers had similarly added to both the exploration and the mythification of the Dark Continent. Most notably, perhaps, the Jewish-born Emin Pasha (born Eduard Schnitzer) who, after having advanced in Ottoman service to become governor of the Egyptian province of Equatoria, was retained by the German East Africa Company shortly before he was killed by slave traders in 1892. During the Mahdist War (1881–99), Emin Pasha was besieged and several relief expeditions were sent out to rescue him – one of them led by the Welsh-born journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley (1886–89) who had achieved fame with his rescue of David Livingstone in 1871. For a German expedition under Carl Peters (1889–90), who was similarly well-known for his exploits in Africa, funds were collected all over the German Reich. After his return, Peters published a popular account entitled The German Emin Pasha Expedition (Die deutsche Emin-Pascha-Expedition, 1891), richly and imaginatively illustrated by Rudolf Hellwege. The expedition, incidentally, had traversed the very territory designated in Mbwapwa’s letters as New-Newland. The exotic attraction of Africa was further amplified with adventure fiction, such as the hugely popular writings of Carl Falkenhorst (born Stanislaus von Jezewski), Frieda von Bülow, and, in particular, Karl May (pronounced ‘My’) – to whom I will return in Chapters 3 and 5.61 Of pervasive cultural impact were moreover ethnographic shows, discussed in more detail in Chapter 1. Among a variety of ethnic others, they introduced also black Africans to Germany and similarly titillated the sense of exotic attraction and menace, as illustrated for instance with the poster for the Wakamba-Negro-Warrior-Caravan from the East Coast of Africa (Wakamba-Neger-Krieger-Karawane von der Ostküste Afrikas, 1893) which utilized not only stereotypical representations of the fierce and imposing savages but inserted portraits of Stanley and Emin Pasha in support of evoking an affective dichotomy of savage and civilized.62 Depending on the performance venues chosen for them, ethnographic shows evoked different associations and attracted, to some extent, different audiences. Exhibitions in zoological gardens suggested a scientific context and authenticity; panopticons, fairs, and variety theaters promoted enigmatic thrills and sensual attraction or, as the case might be, amusement and ridicule.63 Quite significantly, such exhibitions and performances of natives did not strive to revise established imaginaries of the other or to create new ones. Meant to satisfy commercial expec61 See, e.g., chapter three in Matthias Fiedler, Zwischen Abenteuer, Wissenschaft und Kolonialismus: Der deutsche Afrikadiskurs im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert (Cologne: Böhlau, 2005). 62 See Dreesbach, Gezähmte Wilde, p. 136 and p. 132, Figure 6. 63 See ibid., p. 157.

20 

 Introduction

tations, they rather responded to, confirmed, and amplified current stereotypes.64 In fact, ethnographic shows gave momentum to what Anne Dreesbach has called a cycle of stereotypes (Stereotypenkreislauf).65 Representations of Africans in ethnographic shows emphasized in particular the supposed savagery and warlike character of the natives as well as their alleged proximity to wild animals.66 Black Americans in contrast were frequently ridiculed in popular entertainment, including minstrel shows and blackface performances which proliferated in the last decades of the nineteenth century. They fed another cycle of stereotypes that interlocked with the former like cogwheels in a perpetuum mobile of discrimination. The sudden popularity of the cakewalk, discussed in Chapter 5, added another cog to the machine. Mbwapwa’s letters did, and did not, follow the same patterns. It is precisely this tension which makes them so intriguing. Most importantly, even though Mbwapwa is black, his correspondence is not primarily about the natives. None of his compatriots are given any prominence in his communications, much less a voice; nor is their tribal identity explained. In fact, after his first mention of the wholescale conversion to Judaism of the natives and their participation in the war against the reform Jews no further explicit indication of their presence is given. Instead, his letters are almost exclusively about the Jews. Even so, the identification with the African epistolarian evoked all the current connotations connected to the imaginary of the natives. It would moreover have reflected its processual dynamics which, during the ephemeral period of the existence of Schlemiel, were in fact quite turbulent. Nor are Mbwapwa’s reports really about Africa as a physical reality even though, once again, contemporary connotations associated with the Dark Continent would have resonated with the reader. The letters contain no specifics about the colonial territory beyond mention of Lake Victoria-Nyanza and Mount Kenya. Mbwapwa’s creator, Max Jungmann, was clearly not interested in the geography and locality of the proposed territory – neither in its wonders, nor its horrors. Accordingly, New-Newland is not a place of cartographic darkness as suggested by Conrad. If in a very different sense, and in contradistinction to the humor infusing Mbwapwa’s correspondence throughout, the Jewish colony is rather a place of darkness as experienced by Marlow when he approaches the metaphoric heart of darkness at the center of the eponymous novella. Of course, nothing quite like the increasingly fearsome journey up river happens in the nine letters

64 See ibid., p. 160. 65 See ibid., pp. 181–2. 66 See ibid., pp. 136–8.

Imaginaries of Africa and of Palestine 

 21

from New-Newland and Texas. But the question of what the immersion in the ­other-world of the colony will do to the colonizers, even, to some extent, the fear of going native – like another Kurtz – persist throughout underneath the surface of levity projected by the black epistolarian. And though “the horror, the horror”67 is never made explicit in as many words, there is a serious dimension to the letters and the various cartoons in Schlemiel related to them, whether deliberate or not, that interrogates identities and ethics in relation to the seemingly established parameters of civilized and primitive which are similarly called into question. The New-Newland emerging from the special correspondent’s letters is quite literally a utopia – a non-place. It remains – in fictional terms as much as in terms of real settlement efforts – a purely imaginary setting. It is, nevertheless, of metaphoric significance for the one place that political Zionism aspires to as a real place, its ‘teleotopia’ – Palestine, or Eretz Israel (i.e. the Land of Israel). Indeed, as such, New-Newland emerges not so much as a training ground but as a testing ground:68 Not for the practicalities of colonization but rather for its ethics. In the fictional letters of the Jewish African this is played out against the mediation of the contemporary German colonial experience and the pervasive and significant ethical anxieties it produced and perpetuated. The application of the ethical reflection engaged in, and encouraged by, Mbwapwa’s letters is therefore at least bi-directional. While it is doubtful that Schlemiel would have elicited much interest among non-Jewish German readers, it nevertheless provided food for thought in relation to the very real German colonial project. Some of the German Jewish and mostly Zionist readers of Schlemiel may also have been positioned at the intersection between German and Jewish ‘colonial’ interests – such as Otto Warburg, who was not only “a veteran scientific adviser in the German colonial service” but since 1903 held various executive positions in the Zionist Organization and was the first director of the Zionist Commission for the Exploration of Palestine (Kommission zur Erforschung Palästinas) from 1903–07.69 Yet for the majority the ethical reflection offered by Mbwapwa’s letters would not have been directed toward Africa, but toward Palestine which, though it was the hereditary land promised to the Chosen People, was perceived to be in need of being colonized in an endeavor that would redeem both the supposedly degenerate land and the degenerate Jews.

67 Conrad, Heart of Darkness, p. 149. 68 In another report, The Journey to Uganda (1963), published almost six decades after the fact, Wilbusch implicitly suggested the idea of Africa as a training ground for the Jewish settlement of Palestine. See Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land,” pp. 193–6. 69 Derek J. Penslar, “Zionism, Colonialism, and Technocracy: Otto Warburg and the Commission for the Exploration of Palestine, 1903–1907,” Journal of Contemporary History 25 (1990): 143–60, 143. See also the extended version of this article in Penslar, Zionism and Technocracy, pp. 60–79.

22 

 Introduction

Palestine itself was to Europeans, around the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century, largely an imaginary country. Yet its imaginary was informed not by the mystery of exploration and the sense of adventure evoked by the Dark Continent. Instead, it was predominantly derived from scripture. Palestine it may have been, but really this was only a synonym for the Holy Land. As it had been put quite succinctly in Baedeker’s travel guide to Palestine and Syria (Palästina und Syrien, 1876), compiled by Albert Socin, one of the founders of the German Society for the Exploration of Palestine (Deutscher Verein zur Erforschung Palästinas): “A journey to Palestine and Syria cannot be looked upon as an ordinary pleasure-trip. The natural beauties of the country are comparatively few.” Nor, it is suggested, is there much of anything else: Its oriental exotic allure is limited, and it offers no art to speak of. The conclusion is that “[t]he only object of a traveller to Palestine can be to call up the historical ­associations of the country.”70 And yet, the barren country attracted organized European and American travel. Between 1869 and 1882 Thomas Cook’s Eastern Tours “conducted about 5,000 tourists to Palestine, almost three-quarters of the total number of British and American visitors. By 1891 the number had risen to 12,000.”71 The large majority of these visitors would have been pilgrims, visiting the holy sites. As Thomas Cook wrote in 1872: “It is a great event in one’s life to be able to come and see these wonderful countries with the Bible in one hand and Murray [i.e. Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine] in the other.”72 Significantly fewer pilgrims traveled to Palestine from the German-speaking countries. Travel accounts, however, were proliferating and they tend to give a good indication of the popular perception of the Holy Land.73 Already in 1865, about a decade before the first edition of Baedeker’s guide was published, the Swiss cleric Konrad Furrer acknowledged that the increasing number of publications about Palestine corresponded to the growing number of pilgrims.74 70 Karl Baedeker (ed.), Palestine and Syria: Handbook for Travellers, 2nd edn. (1876; Leipsic: Baedeker, 1894), p. iii. 71 Eitan Bar-Yosef, The Holy Land in English Culture, 1799–1917: Palestine and the Question of Orientalism (Oxford: Clarendon, 2005), p. 64. 72 See ibid., p. 65. 73 See, e.g., Frank Foerster, “Frühe Missionsbriefe und Reiseberichte als Quellen der deutschen Palästinamission,” in Ulrich van der Heyden and Heike Liebau (eds.), Missionsgeschichte, Kirchen­geschichte, Weltgeschichte: Christliche Missionen im Kontext nationaler Entwicklungen in Afrika, Asien und Ozeanien (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1996), pp. 89–104, pp. 89–90. See also Peter Thomsen, Systematische Bibliographie der Palästina-Literatur, vol. I: 1895–1904 (Leipzig and New York: Haupt, 1908). 74 See Konrad Furrer, Wanderungen durch Palästina (Zurich: Orell, Füßli and Comp., 1865), p. v.

Imaginaries of Africa and of Palestine 

 23

Yet in his Rambles through Palestine (Wanderungen durch Palästina, 1865),75 Furrer lamented that the pilgrims only ever followed the same established routes, traveling in relative ease on horseback, and ignoring anything beyond: “Only at the key places, where they are compensated for their feeble exertions with almost European comfort, the majority allow themselves some more time for contemplation.”76 Furrer in contrast chose to walk, “in the Swiss way”77 and eschewing European amenities, in order to achieve a much more profound holistic experience off the beaten track. Yet his interest too is not really in Palestine; he yearns to see “the land of the Bible”78 and, by walking its length and breadth, to create a living understanding of the bible and its stories. In fact, he argues that only when the natural basis of the history of Israel is comprehended a clear understanding may be gained of it.79 His rambles through the Holy Land are in effect an exercise in exegesis.80 A little less than twenty years later this was articulated even more succinctly by Karl Theodor Rückert. In his travel book, Journey through Palestine (Reise durch Palästina, 1881),81 the Catholic priest and theologian similarly invoked the never-ceasing interest in Palestine. In addition, he acknowledged his use of two travel guides which had become available since Furrer’s reflections on the well-worn pilgrims’ routes in the Holy Land: Baedeker’s Palestine and Syria and Frère Liévin’s Guide to the Holy Places and Historical Sites in the Holy Land (Guide-­indicateur des sanctuaires et lieux historiques de la Terre-Sainte, 1869).82 Indeed, he professes to have had both constantly in his hands during his travels. Although, other than Cook, he does not mention having the bible in his hand as well – and it might have been difficult to juggle three books – Rückert’s travel objective is nevertheless, once more, exegetic. Reference to Frère Liévin’s Guide to the Holy Places moreover indicates another of the writer’s avowed intentions: To confront the prevalence of Protestant travel accounts of the Holy Land with a specifically Catholic perspective.83 75 A second edition was to appear in 1891. 76 Furrer, Wanderungen durch Palästina, p. v: “Nur an den Hauptpunkten, wo ein fast europäisch bequemes Leben sie für die kleinen Strapazen entschädigt, gönnen sich die Meisten mehr Zeit zur Betrachtung.” 77 Ibid., p. vi: “[N]ach Schweizerart.” 78 Ibid.: “[D]as Land der Bibel.” 79 See ibid., p. vii. 80 A similar phenomenon has been described by Bernhard Lang, “Der Orientreisende als E ­ xeget, oder Turban und Taubenmist,” Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins 121.1 (2005): 67–85. 81 Karl Theodor Rückert, Reise durch Palästina und über den Libanon (Mainz: Kupferberg, 1881). 82 English translation (Ghent: C. Poelman, 1875). 83 See Rückert, Reise durch Palästina, p. vi.

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 Introduction

More importantly, Rückert supports his argument with the staple orientalist notion of stagnation and immutability, which he applies to Palestine: “For there not only dale and hill or heat and cold or plants and animals, but also man, so changeable elsewhere, has retained the highest conceivable degree of sameness.”84 Eliding demographic changes in Palestine over the course of almost two millennia, which included the dispersal of the Jews, Rückert’s argument basically is that this supposed immutability is of particular significance to an understanding of the divine economy of redemption. It is, ultimately, a short-cut to r­ evelation: Time standing all but still in Palestine allows the visitor – or the reader – to infuse their religious understanding with life and truth in light of the largely unchanged reality of the holy places.85 The prevalence of these and similar constructions of Palestine as the Holy Land was complemented with but, at least initially, not really challenged by the emergence of a scientific discourse on the Ottoman province.86 However, since the latter half of the nineteenth century, in addition to the persisting biblical dimension, this discourse was increasingly focused on Palestine’s agricultural and geological potential and on the development of its infrastructure.87 More specifically, within scientific discourse on Palestine arose the notion of the German colonization of the middle eastern territory. This was promoted for instance by the German orientalist Philipp Wolff and the Austrian geographer Kuhlmann88 and realized, to some extent, with the settlement of the pietist Templar colonies since 1868.89 At the same time the chiliastic idea of the restoration of the Jews to Palestine as prerequisite to the Second Coming of the Lord led also to abortive efforts of supporting the Jewish colonization of Palestine.90 With the exception of some messianic movements, such as that led by ­Shabbatai Tzvi in the seventeenth century, no concerted efforts had been made by Jews to return to Palestine prior to Zionism.91 In a religious sense, the loss of the Promised Land was largely considered a divine punishment for transgression 84 Ibid., p. v: “Dort hat nämlich nicht blos Berg und Thal oder Hitze und Kälte oder Pflanze und Thier, sondern auch der anderorts so veränderliche Mensch den denkbar höchsten Grad von Gleichförmigkeit bewahrt.” 85 See ibid., p. vi. 86 See Haim Goren, “Zieht hin und erforscht das Land”: Die deutsche Palästinaforschung im 19. Jahrhundert, transl. Antje Clara Naujoks (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2003). 87 See ibid., p. 253. 88 See ibid., pp. 248–53. 89 See ibid., pp. 272, 306–11. 90 See ibid., p. 263. 91 For a brief overview, see, e.g., Stanford J. Shaw, The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic (Houndmills, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1991), pp. 132–6 and for the Sabbatean

Imaginaries of Africa and of Palestine 

 25

that could only be revoked by the Lord. While the yearning for the Land of Israel was prominently inscribed into the liturgy, in Germany in particular notions of a German-Jewish symbiosis and the Jewish mission among the nations contributed to an ever more historicized and abstract understanding of the connection to the Promised Land which valorized the diaspora and substituted, in Heinrich Heine’s notorious phrase, the “portative fatherland” of the Torah for the material reality of the Land.92 It was not until the emergence of the (proto-)Zionist movement since the 1860s that new hopes of returning to the Promised Land were entertained and even this provoked scorn and resistance among the Jewish establishment, not only for the perceived presumption of acting against the divine will but also for fears of upsetting the precarious balance of life in the diaspora and of provoking allegations of dual loyalty.93 Indeed, toward the end of the nineteenth century, the Zionist desire to return to Palestine uncannily converged with antisemitic aspirations to expel the Jews.94 In Zionist discourse, the imaginary of Palestine was no less complex than in the Christian perception, nor can it be entirely separated from it. When he published his The Jewish State (Der Judenstaat) in 1896, Theodor Herzl’s notion of the physical reality of Palestine was apparently rather hazy. And yet, early Jewish settlements both of philanthropic and of proto-Zionist origin had been established in Palestine since the latter half of the nineteenth century: Mikveh Israel, for instance, an agricultural training school set up by the Alliance Israélite Universelle and later supported by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild, was founded in 1870.95 In 1882, members of the proto-Zionist Hovevei Zion movement, ­ ovement, Matt Goldish, The Sabbatean Prophets (Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard Unim versity Press, 2004). 92 See Heinrich Heine, “Confessions,” in Prose Miscellanies, transl. S. L. Fleishman (Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, 1876), pp. 245–98, p. 276 and “Geständnisse,” in Vermischte Schriften (Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe, 1854), I, 1–122, 85: “portatives Vaterland.” 93 See, e.g., Berkowitz, Zionist Culture, pp. 11, 44–5, who suggests that another reason for the rejection of Zionism was the “threat to orthodox livelihoods” it posed, p. 45. Berkowitz notes moreover that Zionism emphasized its compatibility with individual national identities in order to counter the argument about dual loyalties, see pp. 7, 11. For an overview of differing Jewish conceptions of Eretz Israel, see, e.g., Oliver Bertrams, Alexandra Pontzen, and Axel Stähler, “Das Gelobte Land,” in Alexandra Pontzen and Axel Stähler (eds.), Das Gelobte Land: Erez Israel von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart in Quellen und Darstellungen (Reinbek: Rowohlt, 2003), pp. 9–34. 94 See, e.g., Sander L. Gilman, Jewish Self-Hatred: Anti-Semitism and the Hidden Language of the Jews (Baltimore, MD and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), pp. 237–8. For a specific literary example, see Axel Stähler, “Orientalist Strategies in a German ‘Jewish’ Novel: Das neue Jerusalem (1905) and Its Context,” Forum for Modern Language Studies 45.1 (2009): 51–89. 95 For the ferme école Mikveh Israel, see, e.g., Penslar, Zionism and Technocracy, pp. 16–18.

26 

 Introduction

briefly trained at Mikveh Israel, established Rishon LeZion (i.e. “First in Zion”),96 drawing on the model of the German Templar colony Sharona.97 The convergence of the German and Zionist interest in Palestine became palpable with the journey to the Holy Land of the German imperial couple in 1898 and the audience granted by the Kaiser to Herzl and the Zionist delegation headed by him in Jerusalem. Herzl, as discussed in Chapter 1, had anxiously sought the support of Wilhelm II for the Zionist aspirations in Palestine. But the Kaiser was entirely pre-occupied with his own nostalgically informed perception of the Holy Land – captured so well in contemporary cartoons, such as Thomas Theodor Heine’s “Palestine” (“Palästina,” 1898) published in Simplicissimus or Edward Linley Sambourne’s “Cook’s Crusader” (1898) in Punch98 – and with his aspirations of cementing his image as a paragon of Protestantism by dedicating the newly built Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem on Reformation Day; nor did he wish to offend the Sultan.99 Like lines intersecting in one point only, both their trajectories subsequently moved rapidly apart and Herzl’s vision of the hoped-for support of the imperial majesty he so much admired was soon disappointed. Herzl’s only visit to Palestine in October and November 1898, there to approach the Kaiser, undoubtedly had a sobering effect on him, and not only politically. The inhospitable nature of the land and its ‘oriental’ decay, described so vividly in his novel Old-New Land,100 must have exacerbated his sense of frustration. Yet Herzl nevertheless initiated in the following year that a reference library of works relevant to the exploration of Palestine be created prior to the establishment of the Zionist Commission for the Exploration of Palestine.101 This was eventually formed in 1903, under the directorship of Warburg; shortly before Mbwapwa made his first appearance. The Commission’s findings were published initially in the bi-monthly Palaestina, edited since the previous year by Alfred

96 Already in 1878, a group of orthodox Jews had founded Petah Tikva which was also supported by Baron Edmond de Rothschild since 1883; for this settlement, see, e.g., ibid., pp. 19, 26–7. 97 For the influence of the Templar model on the early settlements of the Hovevei Zion, see ibid., p. 20. 98 See Thomas Theodor Heine, “Palästina,” Simplicissimus 3.31 (October 29, 1898): 241 and Edward Linley Sambourne, “Cook’s Crusader,” Punch 57 (1898): 169. 99 For the complex diplomatic negotiations and the Kaiser’s blundering role in them, see Isaiah Friedman, Germany, Turkey, and Zionism 1897–1918 (1977; New Brunswick, NJ and London: Transaction, 1998), pp. 76–80. 100 See book I, chapter vi. 101 See Markus Kirchhoff, “Konvergierende Topographien – Protestantische Palästinakunde, Wissenschaft des Judentums und Zionismus um 1900,” in Dan Diner (ed.), Leipziger Beiträge zur jüdischen Geschichte und Kultur (Munich: Saur, 2003), pp. 239–62, p. 257.

Colonial Conflict and its Mediation in Germany 

 27

Nossig and Davis Trietsch.102 The journal, its sub-title proclaiming its purpose to be “the cultural and economic exploration of the land,”103 was later to merge with the periodical Altneuland (from 1904–06), another target of Schlemiel’s satire as we will see in Chapter 2, but it was revived in 1907. With the Eighth Zionist Congress of the same year 1907 coincided also the rise of so-called practical Zionism. This no longer sought to find a political solution before concrete steps toward the colonization of Palestine were to be taken but prioritized the question of how the land was to be colonized.104 Schlemiel was defunct by then and Mbwapwa no longer among Zionism’s admonishers. But it was only then that practical Zionist efforts toward the acquisition and cultivation of the land were intensified in earnest.

Colonial Conflict and its Mediation in Germany The sense of Africa as a place of the imagination was enhanced rather than diminished by the brutal reality of colonial warfare in the far-away continent. As is explored in Chapters 3 and 4, the events described by Mbwapwa in his amusing narratives, laced with Anglicisms and increasingly suffused with Yiddish, would have been recognized by a contemporary readership as relating in various ways to the German colonial enterprise in neighboring German East Africa (present-day Tanzania) and, even more pertinently, in German South-West Africa. Jungmann seems to have been as well-informed about the colonial situation as could be expected. He not only named his fictional character for a district in German East Africa and its eponymous administrative center, Mpwapwa (or Mpapua), which had been established by the German colonial administration in 1889.105 Further references to indigenous peoples moreover suggest his familiarity with issues arising from the German colonial enterprise which at the time when Mbwapwa made his first appearance were indeed beginning to inform public discourse on Germany’s imperial policy. Especially German South-West Africa had experienced recent unrest since October 1903 when the Bondelzwart revolted against German colonial rule.

102 For the journal, see Penslar, Zionism and Technocracy, pp. 67, 70, 96. 103 Palaestina: Zeitschrift für die culturelle und wirschaftliche Erschliessung des Landes. 104 See Kirchhoff, “Konvergierende Topographien,” p. 257. 105 See Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon (Leipzig and Vienna: Bibliographisches Institut, 1908), XIV, 204–5, s.v. “Mpwapwa” and Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, ed. Heinrich Schnee (Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1920), II, 595, s.v. “Mpapua.”

28 

 Introduction

Reports about the conflict appeared in the German press from November of the same year,106 the very month in which Mbwapwa was introduced in the first issue of Schlemiel. Further mutinies erupted in December 1903 and finally led to the war of the Herero and later the Nama (derogatively also called Hottentots) against the Germans which flared up in January 1904 and which eventually concluded with the almost complete annihilation of both peoples in 1907. In East Africa, German colonial rule was challenged by the Maji Maji Rebellion from July 1905 to August 1907 which was terminated with a catastrophic famine induced by the German Schutztruppe.107 It is in particular the continuing war against the Herero which increasingly and inevitably forms the backdrop to Jungmann’s development of Mbwapwa’s character and the fortunes of the Jewish colony in East Africa as read against potential Zionist aspirations toward a Jewish colonialism. The satirist mentions the Herero and Bondelzwart in one breath with the Maasai when, in his sixth letter of May 1904, he describes the growing discontent in the Jewish colony because of its cultural isolation and the fear of being entrenched among the barbarians. Jungmann’s insouciant confusion of tribal geography can easily be explained with the prominence of the Herero War and the earlier uprising of the Bondelzwart in public awareness. It was indeed the Herero War and, to a lesser degree, the Hottentottenkrieg (Hottentot War) and the atrocities allegedly committed by the insurgents which created an increasing public awareness of the colonial enterprise and contributed crucially to the change of the image of the negro in Germany. Germany, as has frequently been observed, was in many ways a late-comer to colonialism. Her overseas aspirations had been realized only after the foundation of the Empire in 1871 and its consolidation in the following years.108 Initially, German colonialism consisted of individual mercantile enterprises which were secured from 1884 onward, during the so-called European ‘Scramble for Africa,’ with the establishment of protectorates in Africa and colonies in the Pacific. The prioritization of setting the mostly land-bound empire on a firm footing, no less than the expense involved in the acquisition and upkeep of these territories have been said to account for the initial reluctance of the German Empire to engage overseas. Eventually, however, its increasing interest was determined by further economic considerations (such as the creation of opportunities for capital investment; the protection of trade; 106 See, e.g., StBR (January 19, 1904), p. 364 (C). 107 For the lesser interest in revolts in Cameroon, the Bismarck-Archipelago and the uprising of the Nama and Maji Maji, see Sobich, “Schwarze Bestien, rote Gefahr,” p. 88. 108 For pre-colonial colonial fantasies and the eventual colonial movement in Germany, see Zantop, Colonial Fantasies, esp. pp. 191–201.

Colonial Conflict and its Mediation in Germany 

 29

the opening of export markets; and the all-important access to raw materials) as well as notions of what has been referred to as social imperialism (the deflection of domestic tensions); by the desire to protect German culture from depletion by channeling emigration to German colonies (rather than to America); and by the idea of a civilizing mission. More importantly in the present context, German colonialism and the prestige of colonial possessions were tied in public opinion to the emergence of the nation and its standing as a new player in the European power game.109 The uprising of the Herero, though neither the first nor the last colonial war to be fought by Germany, was an unexpected blow. It developed very quickly into a discursive event in relation to which subsequent colonial wars were mediated as after-effects.110 The immediately following Hottentottenkrieg against the Nama, albeit even more challenging in military terms, already occasioned much less media coverage and was, as Medardus Brehl notes, mostly interpreted as subordinate in the context of the media event of the Herero uprising.111 Similarly, though difficult to suppress, the Maji Maji Rebellion, which demanded a much lesser toll of German casualties, was not mediated with the same panic-stricken exaggeration as the Herero War. This had indeed generated a veritable flood of publications since early in 1904, beginning with reports in the daily press and in colonial papers, soon to be augmented by (frequently merely alleged) eyewitness reports, publications of the Reichstag, official statements, popular historiographical accounts, memoirs and diaries of settlers and soldiers, editions of letters from the front, and fictional texts, in particular for children and adolescents.112 Other media participated in the frenzy and the event was mediated, for instance, also in photographs, postcards, advertisements, poster stamps, and paintings.113 Many of these publications and other representations, inspired by the Herero War, were concurrent with other colonial wars for which its mediation provided not only an interpretive pattern, such as the Hottentottenkrieg or the Maji Maji Rebellion, but for which it was metonymically substituted. Arguably, the character of the Herero War as a discursive event exhibits ­significant resemblances with a similarly transformative event in British colonial history of half a century earlier. The so-called Indian Mutiny, or less contentiously the Sepoy Rebellion, of 1857–58 was mediated in Britain predominantly as an imperial myth which emphasized the treachery and cruelty of the natives and the 109 For a comprehensive and very useful overview, see Sebastian Conrad, German Colonialism: A Short History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011). 110 Brehl, Vernichtung der Herero, p. 102: “Folgeerscheinungen.” 111 See ibid., p. 103. 112 See ibid., pp. 103–4. 113 See, e.g., Axster, Koloniales Spektakel in 9 × 14.

30 

 Introduction

valor, determination, and endurance of the British.114 While the specter of English women and children in Cawnpore (present-day Kanpur) brutally ­massacred by the insurgents haunted the British imagination and generated persistent images of the bestial attackers and the heroic and spirited resistance even of feeble women, the massacre of Allahabad perpetrated by the British Madras Fusiliers or the slaughter of more than two thousand ‘mutineers’ in the Sikander Bagh in Lucknow were either obliterated from collective memory or re-interpreted as brave victories. As Astrid Erll argues with reference to the five criteria of Ereignishaftigkeit, or eventfulness, suggested by the narratologist Wolf Schmid, the Sepoy Rebellion gained its paradigmatic significance by medially being construed as a crisis of, and turning point in, the history of the British Empire.115 The five criteria which, according to Schmid, imbue an occurrence or change within the narrated world with the character of an event and which Erll identifies as operative in the discourse on the Sepoy Rebellion are: Relevance, unpredictability, impact, irreversibility and, finally, non-iterativity.116 As Erll correctly observes, these features are of course not inherent in the event itself but are products of the processes of its medial construction and collective interpretation.117 Erll applies the concept of eventfulness, originally conceived of by Schmid in a more narrowly narratological sense, to what she apparently understands as a kind of master narrative with the intention of identifying and analyzing patterns of remediation and premediation in constructions of the Sepoy Rebellion as a media event. Remediation, a term proposed by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, refers to the “formal logic by which new media refashion prior media forms.”118 Premediation, introduced by Grusin to describe what, in effect, is 114 The potential of public media to act as channels for resistance to the imperial enterprise argued for by Margery Sabin, Dissenters and Mavericks: Writings about India in English, 1765–2000 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) and, with direct reference to the Indian Mutiny, by Christopher Herbert who indeed demonstrates in his War of No Pity: The Indian Mutiny and Victorian Trauma (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008) the pervasiveness of serious internal dissent in the Victorian response to the insurrection, should make us wary of succumbing to the temptation of retrospectively homogenizing the mediation of the event, of remediating the pattern premediated by what, as Herbert suggests, was turned into its dominant interpretation only in the wake of anti-imperialist postcolonial studies. 115 Astrid Erll, Prämediation – Remediation: Repräsentationen des indischen Aufstands in imperialen und post-kolonialen Medienkulturen (von 1857 bis zur Gegenwart) (Trier: WVT, 2007), p. 7. 116 See ibid., p. 6 and Wolf Schmid, “Narrativity and Eventfulness,” in Tom Kindt and Hans-­ Harald Müller (eds.), What is Narratology? Questions and Answers Regarding the Status of a Theory (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2003), pp. 17–33. 117 Erll, Prämediation – Remediation, p. 7. 118 Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, Remediation: Understanding New Media (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1999), p. 273.

Colonial Conflict and its Mediation in Germany 

 31

an anticipatory remediation, denotes the establishment of medial frameworks which allow future events to be represented and interpreted according to recognizable patterns.119 Erll investigates the interactive and dynamic processes of representing the occurrences in India in media and genres as diverse as telegrams, ­newspaper articles, various forms of life writing, historiography, photographs, paintings, theater, poetry, fiction, and film in order to attempt the reconstruction and structural analysis of various historically contingent media cultures which have been playing a decisive part in alternative constructions of the “Indian Mutiny” to the present day. Evidently, within the wider context on the presence of the Herero War in German public and political discourse in relation to the letters from New-­Newland, I neither can nor intend to elaborate the same comprehensive scope as Erll in her monograph on the Sepoy Rebellion. Indeed, in order to argue that the Herero War occupies a position in German colonial discourse which approximates that of the Sepoy Rebellion in the British context, it should suffice to point out the crucial analogies. Schmid’s five criteria of eventfulness certainly seem applicable in the case of the Herero War, if once again unpinned from their original narratological context. The relevance of the Herero War is evidenced by the ubiquity it achieved in public discourse in Germany. Although contested by some critics of German colonial policy, the unpredictability of the uprising was emphasized time and again by both the government and in parliamentary debate,120 a claim sustained by the ‘shock factor’ with which the revolt was invested. The Director of the Colonial Office, Oskar Wilhelm Stübel (1900–05), went so far as to equate the uprising with a natural catastrophe. It was, he maintained in the Reichstag, “a force of nature”; and he continued: “This uprising may be compared to a calamity that befalls a people.”121 This perception already gives an indication of the crucial impact the revolt was felt to have. Moreover, the effect of the Herero War as an event is ­distressingly manifest in the almost complete annihilation of the ­rebellious 119 Richard Grusin, “Premediation,” Criticism 46.1 (2004): 17–39. 120 The sense of righteous indignation at being surprised by the colonial revolt is captured, e.g., in Thomas Theodor Heine’s cartoon “Am grünen Tisch” (“At the Green Table”) in Simplicissimus 9.3 (April 12, 1904): 21 with the caption: “In order to prevent in the future disagreeable incidents in our colonies, it would seem indicated to initiate a statutory provision which stipulates that any uprising contemplated by the natives must be applied for six weeks in advance by them [Um in Zukunft unliebsame Vorfälle in unseren Kolonien hintanzuhalten, empfiehlt es sich, eine gesetzliche Bestimmung in die Wege zu leiten des Inhalts, daß jeder von den Eingeborenen beabsichtigte Aufstand von deren Seite sechs Wochen zuvor anzumelden ist].” 121 StBR (March 17, 1904), pp. 1895 (D)–1896 (A): “[…] eine elementare Gewalt […]. Dieser Aufstand ist zu vergleichen mit einem Unglück, wie es über ein Volk kommt.” For August Bebel’s response, see p. 1901 (A).

32 

 Introduction

people and emerged also in the administrative reorganization of the German colonies in its wake.122 It was clearly marked as a crisis and a turning point in German colonial history which came fully into effect after the so-called Hottentottenwahlen, the general elections of January 1907, which had, in fact, been necessitated mainly because the supplementary budget in response to the ever mounting military expenditure in Africa had failed to pass the Reichstag.123 Subsequent to the elections, which have been described as “a successful mobilization of nationalist-imperialist sentiment,”124 the Reich was able not only to modernize its colonial administration but Germany’s overseas possessions had gained a firm hold on public discourse125 which, as discussed in Chapter 1, had been lacking before and was promoted with no more than moderate success by such events as the colonial exhibition of 1896. A corollary of this administrative reform and the emergence of a public awareness was also the revision of the hegemonic image of the indigenous African peoples. More specifically, colonial ideologies increasingly employed arguments originating in race discourse which quickly gained wider acceptance.126 This too replicates the impact of the Sepoy Revolt which has been identified by Robert J. C. Young as the first in a series of events “that dramatically altered the popular perceptions of race and racial difference and formed the basis of the widespread acceptance of the new, and remarkably up-front, claims of a permanent racial superiority” in Britain.127 The irreversibility of the Herero War as an event may be gauged with the deaths of an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 Herero in what has been called the first genocide of the twentieth century,128 while its non-iterativity may be articulated in analogy 122 With the implementation of the Treaty of Versailles all German colonies and protectorates were ceded in 1920. However, most of the African protectorates were lost to the Entente powers before the end of the First World War: Togoland in 1914, German South-West Africa in 1915, and Cameroon in 1916; only in German East Africa the vastly outnumbered German Schutztruppe was able to hold on until 1918. 123 The term was coined by Bebel, see Edgar Feuchtwanger, Imperial Germany, 1850–1918 (London and New York: Routledge, 2001), p. 145. For the historical background see also, e.g., Ulrich van der Heyden, “Die ‘Hottentottenwahlen’ von 1907,” in Zimmerer and Zeller (eds.), Völkermord in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, pp. 97–102; see also Sobich, “Schwarze Bestien, rote Gefahr,” p. 380. 124 Feuchtwanger, Imperial Germany, p. 145. 125 See Sobich, “Schwarze Bestien, rote Gefahr,” p. 381. 126 See ibid. 127 Robert J. C. Young, Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), p. 92. 128 See, e.g., Jeremy Sarkin, Germany’s Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers (Woodbridge: Currey, 2011), p. 234. For a balanced discussion of the alleged genocide and the number of its victims, see Gunter Spraul, “Der ‘Völkermord’ an den

Colonial Conflict and its Mediation in Germany 

 33

to Erll’s observations:129 The trope of the bestiality and treachery of the negroes had been established through the mediation of the Herero War and, even though Germany’s colonial wars continued almost seamlessly, there was no longer an element of surprise and they were now mostly ascribed to the aberrant, racially determined nature of the African natives as it had emerged during the bloody confrontation. Less straightforward is the answer to the question of whether the Herero War as a media event may be considered a remediation of the Sepoy Rebellion. While the patterns of mediation exhibit a striking congruence in both cases, a direct influence is difficult to prove. It should nevertheless be noted that, at the time, the suppression of the Sepoy Rebellion was mediated far and wide beyond the transnational medial constellation of the British Empire also in America and in Russia as well as in France and in Germany.130 It is also significant in this context that during the parliamentary debates on the Herero War direct and indirect references to the British colonial experience were frequently made by various ­delegates of the Reichstag. Albrecht Patzig of the National Liberal Party (Natio­ nalliberale Partei), for instance, mentioned the British engagement with the Zulu in South Africa.131 More pertinent, though geographically further removed, was the earlier reference by Peter Spahn of the Center Party (Zentrum) to the struggle of the indigenous peoples of India against the British. The speaker may have had the Sepoy Rebellion in mind when he emphasized: “It is well known in particular from the fights of the natives of India against the English that such uprisings develop very quickly and in secret and hidden from the eyes of those Europeans who do not know the natives.”132 While Spahn’s observation was primarily intended as a comment on the unpredictability of uprisings, which he challenged in this particular case, his and other allusions to earlier colonial uprisings suggest that there was indeed a general awareness of their previous mediation. In fact, the cultural pervasiveness of the discursive event of the Herero War and its in retrospect very visible “shaping powers of discourse”133 no less than its significance as a media event then indicate not only that Max Jungmann’s Herero. Untersuchungen zu einer neuen Kontinuitätsthese,” Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 39.12 (1988): 713–39. 129 See Erll, Prämediation – Remediation, p. 8. 130 See ibid., p. 4. 131 See StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1894 (B). Patzig’s reference is presumably to the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879. 132 StBR (January 19, 1904), p. 364 (A): “[N]amentlich aus den Kämpfen der indischen Eingeborenen gegen die Engländer [ist] bekannt, daß solche Aufstände sich in aller Eile und im Geheimen und verborgen vor dem Blick der Europäer, welche die Eingeborenen nicht kennen, entwickeln.” 133 John Johnston, “Discourse as Event: Foucault, Writing, and Literature,” Modern Language Notes 105.4 (1990): 800–18, 818.

34 

 Introduction

“Letters from New-Newland” must be understood within this same discourse but that Mbwapwa’s nine letters as well as other references to his person, if obliquely, participate in the mediation also of this particular event. This is the case even though Schlemiel and Jungmann’s contributions to the magazine are of course primarily determined by Zionist discourse and initially originate in response to a different historical occurrence – the Uganda Plan. Nonetheless, even though, or rather precisely because, “Letters from New-Newland” was not predominantly directed at a German readership but at a (German) Jewish and even more specifically a (Jewish) Zionist one,134 it introduces to German colonial discourse another interpretive pattern which offers a distinctive perspective on the events and confronts it with an alternative conception of colonial practices. In this Schlemiel is exceptional among contemporary Jewish newspapers and periodicals in Germany which otherwise remained remarkably silent about the colonial conflict. That Jungmann’s “Letters” appeared over the course of altogether three years which coincide almost exactly with the period of the Herero War but extend far beyond the topicality of the Uganda proposal which was finally rejected in 1905 is then also significant. Jungmann’s “Letters from New-Newland” is the product of the convergence of both discourses. As such, it is a document of the synoptic perception of two different colonial ventures whose analysis promises insights not only into the intertwining of both discourses but also into the specificity of Zionist approaches and their potential subversiveness in relation to German colonial practice. With increasing historical distance, progressively obscuring and potentially distorting or eliminating its historical contiguity for the modern reader, a full appreciation of Jungmann’s creation would seem increasingly unlikely. Nor is it possible to re-create the diverse and divergent ways in which it would have been received by Mbwapwa’s contemporaries. The most auspicious way of approaching the Ugandan special correspondent and the concerns addressed in his missives therefore appears to be the tracing of what I would call the ‘Mbwapwa rhizome,’ within which the retired chief occupies the main nodal cluster that is nevertheless interlaced with a proliferation of other such agglomerations which, taken together, suggest expanding and potentially shifting layers of meaning.

The Mbwapwa Rhizome and the Chapters of this Book As outlined above, the organization of the chapters in this book necessarily follows a particular sequence, and this sequence suggests a particular ­narrative. 134 See Jungmann, Erinnerungen, p. 62.

The Mbwapwa Rhizome and the Chapters of this Book 

 35

Other sequences and other chapters would have been possible, nor can a project such as this ever be exhaustive. And while my choices are not arbitrary, they may nevertheless occasionally appear to be digressive. But the circuitous way of approximating the ‘Mbwapwa rhizome’ is, in some way, intrinsic to the very notion of the rhizome.135 And a text with as high a connectivity as “Letters from New-Newland,” due not least to its satirical nature which thrives on this very connectivity, virtually insists on recognition of the rhizome of which it ­inevitably is a part. The first of the nodal clusters – or plateaus – of the Mbwapwa rhizome to be explored in this study is that of the black African converted Jew himself. Chapter 1 accordingly investigates the representation of the colonized native in relation to that of the Palestinian native in Theodor Herzl’s novel Old-New Land, which clearly is an intertext for the letters from New-Newland. It moreover interrogates Mbwapwa’s position in relation to the internal Jewish other of the orthodox Mizrachim to whom he is linked through the common denominator of their ‘blackness.’ Zionist discourse is then further examined in relation to notions of ­blackness and its racial connotations as they interact with constructions of Jewishness. Instrumental to this is Mbwapwa’s physical appearance as projected through a drawing purporting to be a photograph, and prefixed to all his communications. It ­presents him as a hybrid that embodies and amalgamates these different racial, cultural, and religious identifications. The special correspondent’s portrait is therefore the starting point for an exploration of the iconography of difference of which it is an articulation. It is linked to iconographic traditions of representing the ethnic other in ethnological and anthropological research and to potential models from real life – or rather, as mediated through widely disseminated images of natives of the German protectorates in Africa: The Kaptein of the Nama, Hendrik Witbooi, and the son of the Paramount Chief of the Herero, Friedrich Maharero. The ambivalent potential of these images as spaces of contestation is explored in relation to their use of polysemic attributes which is expanded to include representations of Jewishness. Though largely conjectural, such an identification of Mbwapwa with individuals who achieved notoriety for their exotic otherness or for their involvement in the violent resistance to German colonial rule during the ephemeral existence of the fictional black African Jew would have had significant, and dynamically changing, impact on the perception of Mbwapwa, the plateaus shifting and colliding with the seismic shocks produced by the conflict in the far-away colonies. This identification is moreover complemented, if more obliquely, with the suggestion

135 See, e.g., Deleuze and Guattari, Thousand Plateaus, p. 12.

36 

 Introduction

of another, collective, identification of the Jews with the Maasai which had been proposed in contemporary ethnological research. This would have contributed an additional, if perhaps less conspicuous, node to the Mbwapwa rhizome and is considered here as such. Notions of blackness and its (im)mutability as invoked through Mbwapwa’s oscillations of epidermal hue occupy another nodal cluster in the ‘Mbwapwa rhizome’ that is interrogated in Chapter 2. The implications of Jewish whiteness or blackness are explored in relation to notions of colonial entitlement and the Jewish settlement of what, in contemporary discourse, was designated “the white man’s country” in Africa. The chapter investigates negotiations of Jewishness between the parameters of civilization and barbarism from both an insider and an outsider perspective, focusing in particular on the perceived dangers of contamination and degeneration as applied to the Jews and to the colonial setting, respectively. Another nodal cluster of extensive connectivity, discussed in Chapter 3 and expanding on the negotiations scrutinized in the previous chapter, is formed by the Herero War as well as other colonial conflicts of the German Empire. The chapter investigates parliamentary discourse on the Herero War and emerging strategies of othering and, in effect, dehumanizing the black African insurgents. These are subverted in a mock parliamentary report published in Schlemiel which, outside the nine letters from New-Newland and Texas, once again refers to the figure of Mbwapwa. Yet the Jewish African’s representation clashes severely with the image established over the course of his correspondence and accordingly challenges not only the mode of parliamentary minutes but also the readers’ acquiescence sustained by their gullibility. Chapter 4 develops as another node of the Mbwapwa rhizome the context of satirical representation in imperial Germany within which Schlemiel and the letters from New-Newland need to be comprehended. So as to sharpen the perspective on the anticolonial bias of “Letters from New-Newland” in relation to the ongoing colonial wars and to highlight their specificity, this chapter outlines with particular attention to visual representations the response to Germany’s colonial adventure in the most popular, and politically divergent, satirical journals of the Kaiserreich – among them Simplicissimus, Der wahre Jakob, and Kladderadatsch. As is only to be expected, the Herero War gained much prominence in these satirical magazines. But none, as this chapter proposes, was ever as consistent or as subtle as Schlemiel’s Mbwapwa. And certainly none suggested the ­identification with the black other. As another satirical magazine, Schlemiel nevertheless must be understood in relation to these leading publications which, in part, it emulated and with which, at least to some extent, it competed, even though the Jewish humorous monthly (“Witzblatt”) was considerably less ­significant in the general

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scheme of things and was addressed to a rather specific readership: A  readership that was bitterly divided over many issues but that was nevertheless rather homogenous in terms of its broader ideological outlook. The more fascinating is Mbwapwa’s survival; even though Schlemiel eventually failed, its black Jewish correspondent from the African Zion was clearly appreciated. In Chapter 5 this perspective is further broadened to include other nodal clusters in the Mbwapwa rhizome which provide instances of the visible impact of blackness on the society of imperial Germany and consequently on the construction and reception of the black special correspondent of Schlemiel. The notorious case of the Duala prince Mpundo Akwa from Cameroon serves in particular to illustrate the conceptualization of racial difference as well as the promotion and, indeed, the invocation of a race war. But Mpundo Akwa was also translated into popular entertainment with the figure of the black African appropriated to the music hall stage of the fashionable Metropol-Theater in Berlin that is implicitly referenced in Mbwapwa’s letters from New-Newland. This reference indicates the significance of representations of blackness in popular entertainment for the conceptualization of the figure of Mbwapwa and the chapter accordingly proceeds to explore other forms of popular entertainment associated with blackness and arguably an influence on the construction of the black special correspondent and his context, such as the contemporary frenzy for the cakewalk, the stage practice of blackface – of which the impersonation of the black Akwa in the Metropol Jahresrevue of 1906 was another example – and the variété theater as well as the popularity of shows exhibiting ethnic difference, among them prominently also the traveling Wild West.136 One particular voice contributing to the reflection on the black element in popular entertainment was that of Oskar Panizza. The German writer – whose tragicomedy The Love Council (Das Liebeskonzil), published in Switzerland in 1894, provoked a huge scandal and led to his incarceration for blasphemy in the following year – interrogated in an essay on the variety theater (1896) the subversive role of black performers on the stage. In effect, Panizza offers another form of identification with ‘the negro,’ whom he celebrates not only for his alleged inclination toward the grotesque but as the very personification of the destructive aesthetics of the variété genre. Though highly eccentric, the controversial author’s provocative deliberations suggest another node within the Mbwapwa rhizome

136 Intriguingly, the same connection was made also by Theodor Herzl. In Old-New Land, he describes a Bedouin-style fantasia performed by the young men of an early Jewish settlement (ONL, 48; ANL, 53) which is based on an observation in his diary where he mentions a similar occasion, comparing it to the “Far-West cowboys of the American plains” he once saw in Paris, Herzl, Diaries, II, 742; see also Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, II, 677: “Far-West-Reiter.”

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 Introduction

which is determined by the performative aspect of Mbwapwa within the context of popular entertainment. Of no less interest in this context, and extending into another node of the Mbwapwa rhizome, explored in Chapter 6, are also some of Panizza’s literary grotesques. In this chapter I focus on three of the frequently maligned writer’s stories published in the collection Visions (Visionen, 1893): “A Negro’s Tale” (“Eine ­Negergeschichte”), “An Indian’s Thoughts” (“Indianergedanken”), and “The Operated Jew” (“Der operierte Jud’”). The trained psychiatrist, who ended his days as an inmate in an asylum, confronted in all three grotesques notions of ethnic difference and different strategies of metamorphosing into the other as well as the ruthless disciplining provoked by such attempts. While fiercely idiosyncratic and published about a decade before the creation of Mbwapwa, these literary texts, like Panizza’s thoughts on popular entertainment, nevertheless reflect on practices informing the Mbwapwa rhizome and relevant to an understanding of the black African Jew in the cultural context of imperial Germany. The pages of Schlemiel do not suggest a fully consistent attitude toward blackness, nor even to Jewishness. Nevertheless, Jungmann’s Mbwapwa and the diverse contexts in which he surfaces in the satirical magazine, also outside his own letters, without doubt serve as foils for the interrogation of the nature of Jewishness. The whole (imaginary) Ugandan adventure emerges from the blistering satire of Schlemiel as a litmus test of what it means to be Jewish. Much more than merely the debate about a specific and suitable territory for Jewish settlement to be preferred over any other, it challenges to the core notions of Jewishness between ‘savagery’ and ‘civilization,’ between blackness and whiteness and the various connotations suggested by these all-pervasive concepts. With Mbwapwa, the satirist not only construes the Jew as a colonial subject but gives rise to introspective criticism of the colonial venture Zionism was about to embark on, exposing it with the oscillation between black and white and colonized and colonizer as a form of “colonial drag.”137 Jungmann’s “Letters from New-Newland” suggest that it is time to take off any disguise and to return to a common humanity within which the Jewish particular can evolve productively and beneficially.

137 Boyarin, “Colonial Drag,” pp. 234–56.

Chapter 1 Portrait of the African as a Jew – of the Jew as an African? From the very beginning, Schlemiel’s special correspondent in Uganda emerges as a collaborator of the Jewish colonizers. Indeed, it is mainly owing to Mbwapwa Jumbo’s intervention that the colonization of the East African territory advances without violence. Even before the arrival of the first settlers, the chief exhorts his people: “The jewish nation will be friendly to you; because it has been lynched in Europe like the poor nigger in America.” (LNN I, 5–6/5–7) Consequently, Mbwapwa argues in acknowledgement of the shared history of persecution for the particular affinity between Jews and blacks: “A shared fate brings people close to one another, and they will look upon you as on brothers” (LNN I, 6–7/7–8). Once the Jews have in fact arrived, Mbwapwa and all his compatriots convert to Judaism. Endorsing mimicry and assimilation, they effectively become complicit in the colonial endeavor. Yet they nevertheless unintentionally also subvert the colonial project and it becomes clear in the course of the narrative that a process of hybridization is set in motion which sees the Jews in turn assimilating to African customs. While none of Mbwapwa’s countrymen is given a voice or, indeed, mentioned ever again in his letters, Mbwapwa’s own volubility knows no bounds. Amiable and amusing as he is, the prolix Mbwapwa inadvertently and innocently challenges essentialisms while perpetuating them. It is precisely this tension and the resulting ambivalence which not only characterize Mbwapwa throughout but which invest him also with a subversive potential. Intriguingly, in the course of his letters, he is not so much turned into a subaltern than into an equal, albeit as the product of the educational impact of the colonizing Jews. Yet even though Chaskel is initially his mentor, Mbwapwa soon becomes independent of the scribe and increasingly voices his criticism of some of the more eccentric schemes of the Jew. Eventually, their roles are even reversed, and in his last letter the African effectively takes the lead once the pair leave Uganda for Texas. Ultimately, Mbwapwa is fully immersed in the Jewish colony’s social and political life. Even though he is retired from his chiefdom, the governance of Uganda having been taken over by two presidents elected by the colonizers, he becomes a member of parliament and later – if not entirely of his own volition and not for very long – an ambassador. Yet at the same time he remains at a slight distance, an observer who embodies the potentially subversive and menacing gaze of the colonial subject on the colonizer. He is accordingly in a position to comment on the foibles and follies of his new countrymen (and, to a lesser degree, women). It https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-002

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 Chapter 1 Portrait of the African as a Jew – of the Jew as an African?

is this critical voice of the insider-outsider that sets Mbwapwa apart for instance from the representation of the native in Theodor Herzl’s Old-New Land.

The “common fatherland” and the Dangers from Inside In Old-New Land, the assimilated Austrian Jew Friedrich Löwenberg and his misanthropic gentile companion Kingscourt seek the isolation of a secluded island. They are disgusted with human behavior, and in the case of Löwenberg particularly with Jewish behavior corrupted by an existence in exile. On their way, they visit Palestine in all its oriental squalor which, with the exception of one nostalgic moment in Jerusalem, feels entirely alien to the ‘European’ Löwenberg. Yet on their return to Palestine twenty years later, in 1923, the country has changed profoundly. Restored to the Jews, the old land has been renewed. It has been transformed under the auspices of the ‘New Society’ into “Old-New Land”  – into a model society that is tolerant as well as technologically and culturally advanced. Without doubt, the Ugandan correspondent’s reports from New-Newland need to be read against the novel, of which they offer at least partially a parody. As such, the figure of Mbwapwa suggests also an alternative to the conception of the ‘native’ in his intertext. A member of the New Society and participating in its Executive Committee, the Palestinian Arab Reschid Bey is in Old-New Land, like Mbwapwa in New-Newland, a collaborator who acknowledges the beneficial effect of the Jewish colonization of the country. At the same time, it has been claimed that Herzl “wanted to show that it was not enough for the Arab minority to reach the material level and guarantee social and political rights for the native population,” that he “refrained from imposing the occidental model on submissive Arabs,” and that “he distanced himself from cultural imperialism.”1 Thus Reschid Bey calmly responds to the architect Steineck’s claim that “[w]e Jews introduced cultivation here” with pointing out that “this sort of thing was here before you came” (ONL, 121).2 Here, as in many other instances, Lotta L ­ evensohn’s 1941 American translation blandly elides some of the semantic potential of Herzl’s German text. The original “Kultur,” instead of the agricultural term “cultivation,” embraces all aspects of cultural achievement and is therefore much more comprehensive and, consequently, potentially also much more ­controversial. Even so, the

1 Denis Charbit, “Herzl’s Nationalism: Is it Ethnic or Civic?,” in Gelber and Liska (eds.), Theodor Herzl, pp. 23–41, p. 40. 2 “‘Wir Juden haben Kultur hierhergebracht’ […] ‘Diese Kultur war auch früher da, wenigstens andeutungsweise.’” (ANL, 136)

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figure of Reschid Bey is designed by Herzl to pre-empt any suggestion of inequality and oppression of the natives in the new commonwealth. When Kingscourt asks whether the Jewish colonization did not cause the displacement of Palestinians and suggests that only individuals gained by it,3 Reschid Bey affirms to the contrary that “[i]t was a great blessing for all of us” (ONL, 122)4 and continues to elaborate: Those who had nothing stood to lose nothing and could only gain. And they did gain: Opportunities to work, means of livelihood, prosperity. Nothing could have been more wretched than an Arab village at the end of the nineteenth century. The peasants’ clay hovels were unfit for stables. The children lay naked and neglected in the streets, and grew up like dumb beasts. Now everything is different. They benefited from the progressive measures of the New Society whether they wanted to or not, whether they joined it or not. When the swamps were drained, the canals built, and the eucalyptus trees planted to drain, and ‘cure’ the marshy soil, the natives (who, naturally, were well acclimatized) were the first to be employed, and were paid well for their work. (ONL, 123)5

The unhealthy squalor acknowledged by the Palestinian is variously referred to in Herzl’s novel, in line with manifest orientalist stereotypes. Reschid Bey’s admission at the same time recognizes and approves also the nevertheless paternalistic nature of Jewish colonization which foists progress on the natives whether they want to or not. In addition, the Palestinian is construed by Herzl as the living example of the policy of tolerance pursued by the New Society. Reschid Bey remains Muslim and it is ascertained in the novel that no coercion has been exerted to achieve religious homogeneity within the new commonwealth. Indeed, all social and political benefits of the new society have been extended to all its members regardless of

3 “Were not the older inhabitants of Palestine ruined by the Jewish immigration? And didn’t they have to leave the country? I mean, generally speaking. That individuals here and there were the gainers proves nothing.” (ONL, 121) “Sind die früheren Bewohner von Palästina durch die Einwanderung der Juden nicht zu Grunde gerichtet worden? Haben sie nicht wegziehen müssen? Ich meine: im Großen und Ganzen. Daß Einzelne dabei gut fuhren, beweist ja nichts.” (ANL, 137) 4 “Für uns alle war es ein Segen.” (ANL, 137) 5 “Die nichts besaßen, also nichts zu verlieren hatten, die haben natürlich nur gewinnen k ­ önnen. Und sie haben gewonnen: Arbeitsgelegenheit, Nahrung, Wohlergehen. Es hat nichts ­armseligeres und jämmerlicheres gegeben als ein arabisches Dorf in Palästina zu Ende des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Die Bauern hausten in erbärmlichen Lehmnestern, die zu schlecht waren für Tiere. Die Kinder lagen nackt und ungepflegt auf der Straße und wuchsen auf, wie das liebe Vieh. Heute ist alles anders. Von den großartigen Wohlfahrtseinrichtungen haben sie profitiert, ob sie wollten oder nicht, ob sie sich der neuen Gesellschaft angliederten oder nicht. Als die Sümpfe des Landes ausgetrocknet wurden, als man die Kanäle anlegte und die Eukalyptusbäume pflanzte, welche den Boden gesund machen, da wurden diese einheimischen, widerstandsfähigen Arbeitskräfte zuerst verwendet und gut belohnt.” (ANL, 139)

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 Chapter 1 Portrait of the African as a Jew – of the Jew as an African?

their creed or race (see ONL, 124, 139, 152).6 In contrast, the vehicle for Mbwapwa’s ­transformation is his conversion. His skin color, against contemporary expectations and common social practice, is no obstacle; to the contrary, it is precisely the color black as tertium comparationis through which he is associated with the Jewish settlers: Because these, as has been mentioned, are ‘black’ Jews – not by complexion but by habit. They are orthodox Jews, with beards and side-locks, garbed in somber black. Thus, even though contemporary reports in the Zionist press show some interest in the existence of epidermally black Jews, such as the Jews of India, of the Yemen, of Abyssinia (Ethiopia), and – putatively – even of Australia,7 it is not those Jews the text is interested in but the ‘black’ Jews of the Mizrachi. Max Jungmann, the creator of Mbwapwa, was wary of the Mizrachi and felt no particular affection for the religious Zionists. More specifically, he was piqued by the divisiveness of their endorsement of the Uganda Plan which he himself, like the majority of Zionists, rejected.8 In fact, the orthodox Mizrachi was the only Zionist faction to support the proposal of an East African settlement area for the Jews. Mbwapwa, because of his blackness and his orthodox Judaism, is therefore virtually a metonymy for the ‘black’ Jews, and it emerges from Jungmann’s memoirs that initially the Ugandan chief was indeed created as a satirical sting to rile the Mizrachi.9 The creation of the figure of Mbwapwa is therefore not only an intervention in negotiations of Jewishness and blackness with an external perspective but first and foremost an exploration, within a Jewish context, of different, and implicitly counterbalanced, manifestations of Jewishness. The issue was, in fact, pervasive in Schlemiel and found articulation in a variety of contributions. Prepared by Adolf Jampoller, the rubric “Zionists’ Latin” (“Zionistenlatein”), for instance, in which terms resonant in Zionist discourse were confronted with their supposed Latin equivalent, included “Nolens volens” (“willy-nilly”) as the translation of Uganda10 and “hic niger est” (“that one is black”) as that of “Misrachi.”11 The rubric stakes a claim to classically informed education and is as such interesting because, even while it subverts itself through its specious definitions and through the implied analogy to Jägerlatein (hunters’ 6 See (ANL, 140, 158–9, 172); see also (ONL, 66–7) and (ANL, 74–5). 7 See, e.g., Anonymous, “Ein afrikanisches Zion,” Die Welt 2.16 (April 22, 1898): 7; Anonymous, “Schwarze Juden in Australien?,” Die Welt 7.27 (July 3, 1903): 19; Y., “Exotische Juden,” Ost und West 1.12 (1901): 933–40; A. Tobias, “Neues von den Falaschas,” Ost und West 7.4 (1907): 231–8; and Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg, “Die weissen und schwarzen Juden des suedlichen Indien,” Ost und West 12.3 (1912): 243–52. 8 See Jungmann, Erinnerungen, p. 64. 9 See ibid. 10 A[dolf] J[ampoller], “Zionistenlatein,” Schlemiel 2.7 (1904): 64. 11 A[dolf] J[ampoller], “Zionistenlatein,” Schlemiel 2.11 (1904): 100.

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yarn) as a designation for hyperbolic fabulation, it reaffirms on another level the full appropriation of, and command over, its subject with the ability to play semantically challenging and aesthetically pleasing word games. The former of the two terms refers to the pressing need to find an asylum for the persecuted Jewish masses and represents settlement in Uganda as a necessity. More intriguing is the latter because it identifies the Mizrachi once again as black, associating moreover the derogatory term “Nig(g)er” with the black Jews. Besides, another semantic dimension is suggested in this case with the original context of the phrase, which is derived from Horace’s Satires (I, IV). Here it conveys a warning: “[T]hat man is black of heart; of him beware, good Roman.”12 In the context of the satire, in which the poet develops a defense of his own satirical practice, the caution refers in fact with some added piquancy to the malevolent satirist. The implicit suggestion is then not only that the ‘black’ Mizrachi are also “black of heart” and that one should beware of them. With some self-reflexive resonance the implication is moreover that Schlemiel is not among those who merely like to give pain with their satire and that the journal rather aligns itself with Horace, who maintained: “That such malice shall be far from my pages, and first of all from my heart, I pledge myself, if there is aught that I can pledge with truth.”13 This is obviously a strategy to validate the satirical bite and integrity of Schlemiel. The Horatian phrase occurs also as aphorism 203 in Nietzsche’s The Joyful Wisdom (Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, 1882; also translated as The Gay Science), where its connotations are similarly negative: “Hic niger est. – Usually he has no thoughts, – but in exceptional cases bad thoughts come to him.”14 Whether intended or not, this allusion, which is of course itself a response to the ancient text, universalizes its applicability by reconfiguring it within a new context beyond the writing of satire. It is as such that it is also relevant in relation to the Mizrachi. In the same issue of Schlemiel,15 the Mizrachi is also attacked in the lyrics of a song entitled “Misrachi” and to be sung to the patriotic and widely popular 12 Horace, Satires. Epistles. The Art of Poetry, transl. H. Rushton Fairclough (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014), I, IV, 85: “[H]ic niger est, hunc tu, Romane, caveto.” 13 Ibid., I, IV, 101–3: “[Q]uod vitium procul afore chartis atque animo prius, ut si quid promittere de me possum aliud vere, promitto.” 14 Friedrich Nietzsche, The Joyful Wisdom, transl. Thomas Common (New York: Macmillan, 1924), p. 196; see Friedrich Nietzsche, Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, in Die Fröhliche Wissenschaft / Wir Furchtlosen (Neue Ausgabe 1887), ed. Claus-Artur Scheier (1887; Hamburg: Meiner, 2013), p. 159: “Hic niger est. – Er hat für gewöhnlich keinen Gedanken, – aber für die Ausnahme kommen ihm schlechte Gedanken.” 15 By this time Mbwapwa was already well established as a voice in Schlemiel, though his appearances were becoming less frequent. The previous issue of October 1904 had included

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tune of “Lützow’s Wild Hunt” (“Lützows wilde Jagd”) composed by Carl Maria von Weber (op. 168, no. 2; 1814) to words by Theodor Körner. Nicknamed schwarze Jäger (black hunters) for their black uniforms, many of the members of the Lützow Free Corps, widely glorified by German nationalists beyond its actual exploits during the Napoleonic Wars, are said to have vowed to cut neither hair nor beard until Germany was freed.16 The association with the orthodox Zionist faction of the Mizrachi therefore works on various levels. The facial growth of the orthodox Jews, not to be cut by a blade, is evoked by the unshorn appearance of the ‘black hunters.’ The ‘blackness’ of the members of the Mizrachi is moreover construed in various ways – in the refrain: “O, when you ask the black fellows”;17 but also in relation to their sinister plotting and corresponding darkly brooding looks: “Why is their glare so glowering.”18 Indeed, the Mizrachi is accused of violating the pledge of tolerance given by the various Jewish factions attending the First Zionist Congress in Basel and of dividing Jewry:19 At Basel we pledged, forever and without exception Strictly to abide by tolerance. Who comes now and breaks the holy oath And means, in rage against our culture, To split asunder Jewry once again? O, when you ask the black fellows: – This is : : This is Mizrachi, that gnaws to pieces peace. : :20

As in Mbwapwa’s letters, the enmity of the Mizrachim toward (modern) culture is thus emphasized by associating them with barbarism. In fact, the lyrics of

­ bwapwa’s seventh letter, but his next correspondence was to follow only in April 1905, see M Schlemiel 2.10 (1904): 88 and 3.4 (1905): 35. 16 See Poultney Bigelow, History of the German Struggle for Liberty (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1896), II, 105–7. 17 “O, wenn ihr die schwarzen Gesellen fragt.” 18 “Was blicken die Männer so finster darein.” 19 For the “myth” of unity elaborated in early Zionism, see, e.g., Berkowitz, Zionist Culture, pp. 13, 31. 20 Anonymous, “Misrachi,” Schlemiel 2.11 (1904): 101: “Zu Basel gelobten wir, allezeit nur / Uns streng tolerant zu verhalten. / Wer kommt nun und bricht den geheiligten Schwur / Und will in der Wut gegen unsre Kultur / Das Judentum wiederum spalten? / O, wenn ihr die schwarzen Gesellen fragt: – / Das ist / : : Das ist Misrachi, der den Frieden zernagt. : :” The original refrain reads: “Und wenn ihr die schwarzen Gesellen fragt: / Das ist Lützows wilde, verwegene Jagd.” Theodor Körner, “Lützows wilde Jagd,” in Körners Werke in zwei Teilen, ed. Augusta Weldler-Steinberg, vol. 1 (Berlin, etc.: Deutsches Verlagshaus Bong & Co., [1908]), pp. 37–8, p. 37.

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the song suggest their double blackness. The members of the Mizrachi are portrayed as ‘black’ in outward appearance and in their hostility toward culture. As we will see, a similar double blackness is construed also in “Letters from New-Newland.” When the first Jewish settlers finally arrive in Uganda, in Mbwapwa’s narrative, it emerges that they are members of the Mizrachi, religious Zionists, who, as the special correspondent quips, make the archangels Michael and Gabriel seem like Social Democrats in comparison. Among them, in disguise, is also a celebrated reform rabbi, Dr. Christian Schmul, whose first name already indicates his affiliation with the majority culture in Germany and the perception of the uneasy proximity of the reform movement to assimilationist tendencies. Schmul gives a rousing sermon to the assembled blacks from the foothills of Mount Kenya.21 This obviously is an allusion to the Sermon on the Mount which, once more, reveals Schmul’s affinities with Christianity, although, significantly, he does not preach from the summit.22 Indeed, intriguingly, the mountain is subtly ‘Jewified’ in Mbwapwa’s account, as his choice of the German word “Plattfuß” to indicate its foothills – the flat foot of the mountain – associates it with an infirmity that was held to be typical of the degenerate Jewish body, as Sander Gilman has shown.23 This linguistic appropriation of the mountain and, by extrapolation, of the land24 is mirrored in a further development: Inspired by the sermon, Mbwapwa and every single one of his compatriots convert to Judaism.25 However, the unfortunate Dr. Schmul cannot bask in his success for long. Since he insists on Sunday as the day of rest, in order “to fulfill certain cultural obligations” (LNN I, 45–6/50–1) incumbent on modern man, Schmul is grabbed by the Mizrachi Jews and drowned in the lake to their shouts of “Africa for the blacks! Africa for the blacks!” (LNN I, 49–50/51) This is their response to Schmul’s attempts to exclude from the new Jewish state the, as he claims, intolerant orthodox element. Jungmann’s pun exploits the ambiguity of the word “black” in the 21 For Jews and flat feet see Gilman, Jew’s Body, pp. 38–59. 22 See Matthew 5 and, especially for the rule of the law, Matthew 5:17–20. 23 Gilman, Jew’s Body, pp. 48–9; there is also a connection to blacks, as Gilman quotes from Gustav Muskat, quoting from Karl Hermann Burmeister: “Blacks and all of those with flat feet are closest to the animals,” p. 49. 24 For symbolic parallels between Africa and Palestine in Zionist discourse, see Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land,” pp. 188–9. 25 Mbwapwa’s conversion anticipates an interesting parallel with the conversion of the Bugandan chief Semei Kakungulu and members of his tribe to Judaism in 1919 when they formed the Abayudaya. For a history of the Abayudaya, see Richard Sobol and Jeffrey A. Summit, Abayudaya: The Jews of Uganda (New York: Abbeville, 2002).

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given context. Initially, one would expect it to refer to the indigenous population and the phrase had indeed achieved notoriety in this context in connection with the Ethiopian Church movement discussed in more detail in Chapter 3. Here, however, it refers to the enraged and somberly attired members of the Mizrachi and only by extension to the converted blacks who, in effect, become doubly black. Intriguingly, the ‘black’ Mizrachi Jews, by rejecting the cultural duties of modernity and by killing Schmul, the equivalent of the ‘white’ missionary, turn into ‘savages’ and in this way also become doubly ‘black.’26 The significance of Schmul’s death by water is further illustrated by a cartoon which appeared in the following issue of Schlemiel next to the second installment of Mbwapwa’s narrative. The drawing suggests a circus setting with the audience arranged around the arena which is filled with “baptismal water.”27 A reform rabbi – recognizable by his robe, preaching bands, and trimmed beard – is precariously balancing above the water on a tightrope between two poles and looping into the word “Reform.” The caption reads: “O Lord, o Lord, I’m always so afraid that eventually he’ll tumble in.”28 Even though the Victoria-Nyanza is not the baptismal water indicated in the cartoon, the assimilationist Schmul’s death by drowning denotes his signal failure in the tightrope challenge. The cartoon’s title, “Our Future Lies upon the Water” (“Unsere Zukunft liegt auf dem Wasser”), moreover, not only refers to the precarious acrobatics negotiated by the reform movement. It is, in fact, a quote from the speech Kaiser Wilhelm II gave at the opening of the new port at Stettin (present-day Szczecin) on September 23, 1898.29 This is frequently seen to have initiated the marine armaments race in line with the Kaiser’s imperial ambitions which, as a political tightrope walk, were no less precarious than those performed in a religious context by the Jewish reform movement.30 Indeed, both may be read as indictments of mimicry, of Jews

26 It may well be that Jungmann had the martyrdom of Christian missionaries in mind here: Only twenty years before, in 1885, Bishop James Hannington had been captured, exhibited, and finally killed by King Mwanga II of Buganda near Lake Victoria-Nyanza. For the martyrdom of Hannington, the first Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, in “a land known to be occupied by the most lawless of savages,” see E. C. Dawson, James Hannington, First Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa: A History of his Life and Work, 1847–1885 (London: Seeley, 1888), pp. 383–6, p. 323. Another dimension to Schmul’s death is then also the killing of missionaries by ‘blacks’ and the association of the Mizrachi Jews with the savage practices of the indigenous peoples. 27 See F. W., “Unsere Zukunft liegt auf dem Wasser,” Schlemiel 1.2 (1903): 11: “Taufwasser.” 28 Ibid.: “Ein Zuschauer: O Gott, o Gott, ich hab’ immer so Angst, daß er mal ’neinplumst.” 29 See A. Oskar Klaußmann (ed.), Kaiserreden: Reden und Erlässe, Briefe und Telegramme Kaiser Wilhelms des Zweiten. Ein Charakterbild des Deutschen Kaisers (Leipzig: Weber, 1902), p. 340. 30 See Oliver Stein, Die deutsche Heeresrüstungspolitik 1890–1914: Das Militär und der Primat der Politik (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2007), p. 208.

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mimicking Germans, and of Germans mimicking European imperialists. There is, however, in Mbwapwa’s epistles, a third level: Of Jews mimicking imperialists, which is, of course, the basic premise of his letters from New-Newland and the main bone of contention in relation to the Zionist project. While assimilationist tendencies and mimicry are thus criticized in the letters from New-Newland, intolerance and immutable orthodoxy are similarly denounced. Indeed, in Mbwapwa’s communications, it was precisely the intolerant insistence on their orthodoxy and the resulting antimodern and anticultural attitude which climaxed in the savage murder of Dr. Schmul at the hands of the Mizrachim. In his seventh letter, Mbwapwa himself – a recent “member of the orthodox Mizrachi-society” (LNN I, 54–5/55–6) – is also affected by the intolerance of the orthodox mind-set, and in this he differs greatly from the idealized Reschid Bey. By informing on Chaskel’s Zionist agitation and applying the twisted logic of an astounding non-sequitur, he becomes deeply implicated in the massacre of all the dachshunds in the colony for their stubbornness, triumphantly insisting in conclusion of his epistle: “Now no one can say that the Mizrachim are intolerant, but it will be recognized that we accommodate even our enemies as far as is possible.” (LNN VII, 50–2/58–60) Tolerance, within the Jewish community and without, was presented by Herzl in Old-New Land as an absolute moral imperative of the new commonwealth. The ‘black’ savagery of the Mizrachim in Uganda therefore appears to be another response to Jungmann’s intertext. In the novel, while offering a model society, Old-New Land – precisely because of its democratic and pluralistic nature – accommodates also those who cannot appreciate its benefits. Among them are those parasitical assimilated and despised Jews of the old European social order who, though met in the new society to which they cannot adapt with the same contempt they provoked in the old, are nevertheless tolerated, such as “the rich Viennese stock broker” Laschner, Schiffmann, the Weinbergers, Grün and Blau, and the opportunistic Dr. Walter, né Veiglstock (see ONL, 103–4, 172–81).31 More important than this stagnating and selfish element, however, that is bound to die out, is Rabbi Dr. Geyer and the potentially damaging political influence and demagogic agitation he symbolises. Geyer (his name associates “vulture”) is characterized in retrospective initially as one of those designated by Herzl as protest rabbis (Protestrabbiner) for their opposition to any Zionist aspirations, long before his novel appeared.32 Yet in the old-new land Geyer experiences a complete transformation. In the old society he occupied a reform oriented

31 “Der reiche Börsenmann von Wien” (ANL, 117); see also (ANL, 195–207). 32 See Theodor Herzl, “Protestrabbiner,” Die Welt 1.7 (July 16, 1897): 1–2.

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­ osition which sought to elide any claim or even reference to the Promised Land p and instead insisted on the Jewish mission among the nations (ONL, 137–9);33 after his emigration to Old-New Land he shifts his allegiance to an exclusivist nationalistic stance. Geyer remains a disembodied menace in the novel. He never appears as a character and it is only the tenets of his populist demagogy and their infectious potential which are variously encountered in the novel and which are clearly identified by Reschid Bey as a threat to the new commonwealth: “So long as the Geyer policy does not win the upper hand,” the Palestinian maintains, “all will be well with our common fatherland.” (ONL, 125)34 It is in particular the intolerance endorsed and disseminated by Geyer which is perceived as destructive. The architect Steineck, a blustering man and easily the least tolerant in the touring car described by Kingscourt as “a real Noah’s ark” (ONL, 115),35 fulminates about Geyer: “He’s a cursed pope, a provocateur, a blasphemer who rolls up his eyes. He wants to bring intolerance into our country, the scamp! I am certainly a peaceful person, but I could cheerfully murder an intolerant fellow like that!” (ONL, 125)36 Later, Steineck accuses Geyer of being “a rabbi of the immediate advantage” (ONL, 137)37 and it emerges that his views have been completely reversed. Presumably, like the Mizrachi, Geyer is now of an orthodox persuasion and a clear link is made here between the intolerance he promotes and his bigotry. Steineck’s apparently intolerant effusion originates in his apprehensions for the new commonwealth and is nevertheless clearly the product of an honest and sincere, if excitable, man whose powers of public speaking are limited. As such there adheres a curmudgeonly hyperbole to it which identifies it as the bluster that it is. Yet it is also an instinctive and comically exaggerated defense mechanism against the much more insidious intolerance incited by Geyer. Even so, the novel reveals the destructive power of Geyer’s faulty arguments and the narrow-minded attitude by which they are engendered and suggests that they are defeated by open and enlightened debate and that the commonwealth, by admitting other opinions, is in fact strong enough to stabilize itself.

33 See (ANL, 156–9). 34 “So lange die Richtung des Dr. Geyer nicht die Überhand bekommen wird, so lange wird auch das Glück unseres gemeinsamen Vaterlandes dauern.” (ANL, 141) 35 “Das ist ja die Arche Noah.” (ANL, 129) 36 Once again, Levensohn’s translation does not do the original justice: “Ein vermaledeiter Pfaffe ist er, ein Augenverdreher, Leutverhetzer und Hergottsfopper. Die Intoleranz will er bei uns einführen, der Hallunke. Ich bin gewiß ein ruhiger Mensch, aber wenn ich so einen intoleranten Kerl sehe, den könnte ich mit Vergnügen ermorden.” (ANL, 141) 37 “Er ist der Rabbiner des nächsten Vorteils.” (ANL, 156)

The “common fatherland” and the Dangers from Inside 

 49

In contrast to his political opponent Geyer, David Littwak therefore extols tolerance as Old-New Land’s debt to humanity (OLN, 152).38 It is perhaps the single most important moral imperative of the new commonwealth: “Let the stranger be at home among us!” (ONL, 276; see also 111)39 And it is so obviously in response to the intolerance previously experienced by the Jews (see ONL, 82).40 But Geyer’s xenophobic policy is rejected more specifically by Littwak for a sense of obligation and a purely humanitarian ethos. “Individual Jews,” he acknowledges, “participated in those labors” which brought forth the new commonwealth, “but by no means Jews alone.” The ensuing moral imperative is very clear: “What resulted from the common endeavors ought to be claimed by no one nation for itself.” (ONL, 147)41 As Littwak maintains: The New Society rests […] squarely on ideas which are the common stock of the whole civilized world. […] It would be unethical for us to deny a share in our commonwealth to any man, wherever he might come from, whatever his race or creed. For we stand on the shoulders of other civilized peoples. If a man joins us – if he accepts our institutions and assumes the duties of our commonwealth – he should be entitled to enjoy all our rights. We ought therefore to pay our debts. And that can be done in only one way – by the exercise of the utmost tolerance. Our slogan must be, now and always – “Man, thou art my brother!” (ONL, 152)42

As we have seen at the very beginning of this chapter, the invocation of human brotherhood was answered in Mbwapwa’s first letter from New-Newland. Here, however, it was tied not so much to the optimistic vision of shared contributions

38 See (ANL, 172). 39 “Der Fremde soll sich bei uns wohl fühlen!” (ANL, 318; see also 126) See also the biblical injunction to honor the stranger and to apply the same law to them: “One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you” (Exodus 12:49) and “Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:21); see also Exodus 23:9, Deuteronomy 10:19, 23:7, and 26:11. 40 See (ANL, 93). 41 “Einzelne Juden haben sich an dieser Arbeit beteiligt, aber keineswegs Juden allein. Was aus den gemeinsamen Anstrengungen hervorging, darf keine Nation als ihr Eigenthum ausgeben. Es gehört allen Menschen.” (ANL, 167) 42 “Die Neue Gesellschaft beruht vielmehr auf den Ideen, die ein gemeinsames Produkt aller Kulturvölker sind. Versteht ihr jetzt, meine lieben Freunde, was ich meine? Es wäre unsittlich, wenn wir einem Menschen, woher er auch komme, welchen Stammes oder Glaubens er auch sei, die Teilnahme an unseren Errungenschaften verwehren wollten. Denn wir stehen auf den Schultern anderer Kulturvölker. Schließt einer sich uns an, erkennt er unsere Gesellschaftsordung an, nimmt er die Pflichten unserer Gesellschaft auf sich, dann soll er auch alle unsere Rechte voll genießen. Was wir besitzen, verdanken wir den Vorarbeiten anderer. Darum gehört es sich, daß wir unsere Schuld abzahlen. Und dafür giebt es nur einen Weg: die höchste Duldung. Unser ­Wahlspruch muß jetzt und immer lauten: Mensch, du bist mein Bruder!” (ANL, 172)

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to universally beneficial social progress but rather to the experience of persecution and victimization shared by Jews and blacks.

Black ‘Jews’ and ‘Black’ Jews To each of Mbwapwa’s communications is prefixed a drawing – allegedly a photograph – which presents the newly fashioned black ‘black’ Jew to the reader (Figure 1). Supposedly enclosed in his first letter from New-Newland in order to document his transformation into “a member of the orthodox Mizrachi-society” (LNN I, 54–5/55–6), the picture shows the black African dressed in a plaid caftan with a skullcap and side-locks, with bare feet, and carrying an umbrella. This visualization of Mbwapwa appears to have been the work of Josef Rosintal, a young student at Berlin’s Technical University (Königlich Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg) who did much of the graphic work for Schlemiel.43 With the exception of recurrent references to the retired Ugandan chief’s epidermal hue, the written text of the letters otherwise provides no further indication as to his outward appearance. Yet in the Schlemiel universe, Mbwapwa’s portrait was obviously iconic and was referenced also in other illustrations (see Figure 2).44 The retired black chief – presumably once again in the shape given to him by Rosintal – was even made to walk the streets of Berlin when, at a dance ball organized in support of Schlemiel, he was embodied by Max Jungmann.45 Is the image, then, a portrait of the African as a Jew? Or, conversely, is it a portrait of the Jew as an African? The shared experience of persecution invoked by Mbwapwa suggests that both readings may be possible. A similar point had been made only a few years earlier by Edward Wilmot Blyden, who is sometimes referred to as the “father”

43 See Jungmann, Erinnerungen, pp. 61–2. 44 See Josef Rosintal, “Chajim Jossel auf der Badereise,” Schlemiel 2.9 (1904): 82. 45 See Gronemann, Erinnerungen, p. 261: “Max Jungmann created in the likeness of the Negro Mbwapwa Jumbo an original character who sent staggering reports from the new fictitious Jewish state in Uganda. We once organized a big Schlemiel dance ball at which Jungmann appeared as this black orthodox Negro and stated, when invited to sit, that this was not possible because he was, after all, a ‘standing figure’ [the untranslatable German phrase means something like ‘catchphrase’] [Max Jungmann schuf in der Gestalt des Negers Mbwapwa Jumbo eine originelle Figur, der aus dem neuen fiktiven Judenstaat in Uganda erschütternde Berichte sendete. Wir haben einmal einen großen Schlemiel-Ball arrangiert, bei dem Jungmann als dieser schwarz-orthodoxe Neger erschien und erklärte, als er zum Sitzen aufgefordert wurde, es ginge nicht, er sei ja eine ‘stehende Figur’].”

Black ‘Jews’ and ‘Black’ Jews 

 51

Figure 2: Josef Rosintal, illustration to “Chayim Yossel Goes to a Spa” (“Chajim Jossel auf der Badereise”), Schlemiel (1904); note Mbwapwa’s portrait in the background.

of Pan-Africanism.46 Blyden had been born into slavery in 1832 but in 1850 went with the American Colonization Society to Liberia in whose development as a free state he actively participated. In 1898 he published a pamphlet entitled The Jewish Question in which he stated that “the history of the African race – their enslavement, persecution, proscription and suffering – closely resemble that of the Jews.”47 As Benyamin Neuberger observes, in the Zionist venture Blyden – like Marcus Garvey, the founder of Black Zionism a few years after him – saw not only “a secular movement of national liberation, but a cultural and spiritual movement with goals far beyond a physical return and a political restoration.”48 It is hardly a coincidence that Theodor Herzl, whom Blyden much admired, in turn raised the “Negro Question” in Old-New Land. In the novel, the bacteriologist Steineck (brother of the blustery architect) is working on a cure for malaria and envisages that, once this has been found, Africa will be opened to

46 See, e.g., Jehu Hanciles, Euthanasia of a Mission: African Church Autonomy in a Colonial Context (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002), p. 165. 47 Edward Wilmot Blyden, The Jewish Question (Liverpool: Lionel Hart & Company, 1898), p. 8. 48 Benyamin Neuberger, “Early African Nationalism, Judaism and Zionism: Edward Wilmot Blyden,” Jewish Social Studies 47.2 (1985): 151–66, 163.

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the immigration not only of the white proletariat, but also to the return of the blacks: “The white colonist goes under in Africa. That country can be opened up to civilization only after malaria has been subdued.” (ONL, 170)49 Civilization is here clearly synonymous with white colonization. Steineck then proceeds to explain his vision: “There is still one problem of racial misfortune unsolved. The depths of that problem, in all their horror, only a Jew can fathom. I mean the Negro problem.” (ONL, 170)50 He mentions “the hair-raising horrors of the slave trade” (ONL, 170)51 and continues: Human beings, because their skins are black, are stolen, carried off, and sold. Their descendants grow up in alien surroundings despised and hated because their skin is differently pigmented. I am not ashamed to say, though I be thought ridiculous, now that I have lived to see the restoration of the Jews, I should like to pave the way for the restoration of the Negroes. (ONL, 170)52

This is clearly reminiscent of Mbwapwa’s invocation of the Jewish-black brotherhood based on the shared experience of persecution. Yet in spite of all the lofty humanitarianism which determines the society of Old-New Land and which ostensibly also informs Steineck’s vision, closer scrutiny nevertheless reveals its suffusion with colonial and racist discourse. The humanity of black Africans is evidently not a given but needs to be reaffirmed, reinforcing at the same time their perceived inferiority; and it is slavery and its aftermath that is criticized, but not colonialism. In contrast, Herzl’s own vision, as articulated in Old-New Land, implicitly identifies the colonizing Jews as white Europeans, who are not only able to make use of the most precious achievements of civilization for their endeavors but to transform the new society into a model even for the civilized

49 “Der weiße Mensch, der Kolonisator geht dort zu Grunde. Afrika wird für die Kultur erst dann eröffnet sein, wenn die Malaria unschädlich gemacht ist.” (ANL, 192) See also Sandra M. Sufian, Healing the Land and the Nation: Malaria and the Zionist Project in Palestine, 1920–1947 (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2012), pp. 46–7. 50 “Es giebt noch eine ungelöste Frage des Völkerunglücks, die nur ein Jude in ihrer ganzen schmerzlichen Tiefe ermessen kann. Das ist die Negerfrage.” (ANL, 193) 51 “[D]ie haarsträubenden Grausamkeiten des Sklavenhandels” (ANL, 193). 52 Levensohn’s frequently quoted translation significantly distorts the text as it glosses over the denigrating connotations of the conditional sub-clause in the original German. A more faithful translation might read: “Human beings, if black human beings, were stolen like animals, carried off, and sold”: “Menschen, wenn auch schwarze Menschen, wurden wie Tiere geraubt, fortgeführt, verkauft. Ihre Nachkommen wuchsen in der Fremde gehaßt und verachtet auf, weil sie eine andersfarbige Haut hatten. Ich schäme mich nicht, es zu sagen, wenn man mich auch lächerlich finden mag: nachdem ich die Rückkehr der Juden erlebt habe, möchte ich auch noch die Rückkehr der Neger vorbereiten helfen.” (ANL, 193)

Black ‘Jews’ and ‘Black’ Jews 

 53

occident (see ONL, 50).53 Although never explicitly mentioned, their whiteness is, for Herzl, the indispensable premise for the success of the Jews and for their entitlement.54 The black ‘race,’ in contrast, seems to lack not only the inclination to attain a similar achievement but also the ability to do so. The only black mentioned in the novel occupies a menial position even in the model society of Old-New Land and is sketched in such a way as to perpetuate established stereotypes of the happy-go-lucky character of the ‘negro.’ Riding in the back of the touring car from which Löwenberg and Kingscourt are shown the country, “the negro played a jolly tune on his horn” (ONL, 116).55 Steineck’s proposal, too, is highly ambivalent and perpetuates racial stereotypes of colonial discourse. His first aim is to make Africa available to the white proletariat, in an attempt to resolve the social question. It is only his second objective to see the blacks restored to their home. Then, it is the Jews who assume the role of redeemer, who propose to take agency and lift the poor negroes out of their misery, a feat of which they are apparently incapable themselves. Blyden would presumably have felt rather disenchanted with this vision. Herzl’s obvious Eurocentric bias was scoffed at by Ahad Ha’am in his lengthy and controversial review of the novel published in the following year in the periodical Ost und West. One of the most prominent cultural Zionists, Ahad Ha’am derided Herzl’s lack of realism. In addition, he mockingly observed that not only, strangely, was the predominant language in Old-New Land German but that all its social institutions were also mere imitations of European models.56 This reproach was countered fiercely and furiously by the incensed Max Nordau.57 He insisted – and here it is useful to quote him at some length: Indeed: “Old-New Land” is a part of Europe in Asia. There, Herzl has shown exactly what we want and toward what we work. We want that the reunified, liberated Jewish people should remain a civilized people inasmuch as it is so already, and that it should become a civilized people inasmuch as it is not yet so. Here, we do not imitate anyone; we make use of, and develop, only our property. We have collaborated in European culture, more than in our own [inheritance]; it is ours just as much as it belongs to the Germans, French, English. We

53 See (ANL, 56–7). 54 For a similar reading, elaborating further on the significance of the association of the Zionist venture with a “manly, masculine, mission to Africa,” see Bar-Yosef, “Villa in the Jungle,” pp. 90, 94–5 and Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land,” pp. 184–5. 55 “Hinten der schwarze Diener blies lustige Stückchen auf seinem blechernen Horn” (ANL, 131). 56 See Ahad Ha’am, “Altneuland,” Ost und West 3 (1903): 227–44, 242. 57 Nordau’s riposte in fact preceded the publication of the German translation of Ahad Ha’am’s review which the editors of Ost und West had forwarded to Herzl before it appeared in print.

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will not permit that an opposition be construed between Jewish, our Jewish, and European. To Achad-Haam European culture may be alien. He should be grateful to us then that we make it accessible to him. But we will never accept that the return of the Jews to the Land of their Fathers should be a relapse into barbarism as it is slanderously claimed by our enemies. The Jewish people will develop its characteristic traits within the common western culture like any other civilized people, not without, in a wild Asiatism inimical to culture, as it seems Achad-Haam would have it.58

Nordau, too, takes pains to identify the Jews at least implicitly as white and quite emphatically as culturally European. While acknowledging internal difference and the existence of less civilized elements, he nevertheless insists on western civilization as the absolute measure of any national Jewish regeneration. Intriguingly, Ahad Ha’am referred to Steineck’s proposed solution of the “Negro Question” in Old-New Land in order to denigrate the mimetic principle he saw at work in Herzl’s vision and to insist on the essentialist particularity of the Jews. The bacteriologist Steineck, he writes, laments the fate of the Negroes and dedicates his vigor to clearing for them a path to their homeland – and this in the name of Zionism. We could then very well picture a Negro movement, with the Zionist leader at its head, who writes another “Old-New Land” to symbolize the embodiment of the Negro ideal after 20 years – our question therefore is, in what would this Negro-Old-New Land be different from the Zionist one? I do not think to be exaggerating if I claim that the author would need to make only a very few changes in the present book in order to “Negrify” it completely…. To imitate others without any trace of original talent, to abstain to such an extent from “national chauvinism” that nothing at all remains of the particularities of the people, of its language, literature and spiritual nature; to coil up and to retreat, only to show the stranger

58 Max Nordau, “Achad Haam über ‘Altneuland’,” Die Welt 7.11 (March 13, 1903): 1–5, 2: “In der Tat: ‘Altneuland’ ist ein Stück Europa in Asien. Da hat Herzl genau das gezeigt, was wir wollen, worauf wir hinarbeiten. Wir wollen, dass das wiedergeeinte, befreite jüdische Volk ein Kulturvolk bleibt, so weit es dies schon jetzt ist, ein Kulturvolk wird, so weit es dies noch nicht ist. Wir ahmen dabei niemand nach, wir benützen und entwickeln nur unser Eigentum. Wir haben an der europäischen Kultur mitgearbeitet, mehr als an unserem Teil; sie ist unser in demselben Masse wie der Deutschen, Franzosen, Engländer. Wir gestatten nicht, dass man einen Gegensatz zwischen Jüdisch, unserem Jüdisch, und Europäisch konstruiere. Achad-Haam mag die europäische Kultur etwas Fremdes sein. Dann sei er uns dankbar dafür, dass wir sie ihm zugänglich machen. Wir aber werden nie zugeben, dass die Rückkehr der Juden in das Land ihrer Väter ein Rückfall in Barbarei sei, wie unsere Feinde verleumderisch behaupten. Seine Eigenart wird das jüdische Volk innerhalb der allgemeinen westlichen Kultur entfalten, wie jedes andere gesittete Volk, nicht aber ausserhalb, in einem kulturfeindlichen, wilden Asiatentum, wie Achad-Haam es zu wünschen scheint.”

Black ‘Jews’ and ‘Black’ Jews 

 55

one’s never-ending tolerance, a tolerance ad nauseam – this the Negroes may also be able to achieve. But who knows – perhaps the Negroes would not be able to accomplish this either?…59

Ahad Ha’am concludes that “no Jewish Renaissance that is to be genuinely Jewish and not Negro-like can be achieved in the blink of an eye, just by means of incorporations and co-operatives. A historical ideal requires historical development and historical development is a slow process….”60 When Ahad Ha’am published his review of Herzl’s novel, the Uganda offer had not yet been made.61 The reference to ‘negroes’ is therefore presumably not yet associated with any potential territorial and cultural proximity of Jews and blacks. The rationale of Ahad Ha’am’s reference to blacks is a different one and seems, if perhaps ironically refracted, to echo the contemporary view that ‘the negro’ is incapable of creative energy and can only ever imitate, an accusation leveled in antisemitic discourse also against the Jews.62 To say that not even negroes would be able to be so self-effacing as the Jewish society in Old-New Land is to deny it any cultural creativity and to place it on the lowest rung in the scale of human achievement – even below the negroes. This perception of racial hierarchy and cultural inferiority was extended by Leo Rafaels also to the African American context. In what ultimately is an 59 Ahad Ha’am, “Altneuland,” 243: “[…] grämt sich über das Los der Neger und widmet seine Kraft, um ihnen den Weg nach der Heimat zu ebnen – und das im Namen des Z ­ ionismus. Wir könnten uns also sehr wohl eine Negerbewegung ausmalen, mit dem Zionistenführer an der Spitze, der ein ‘Altneuland’ schreibt, um uns die Verkörperung des Negerideals nach 20 Jahren zu versinnlichen – wir fragen nun, wodurch würde sich das Neger-Altneuland vom ­zionistischen ­unterscheiden? / Ich glaube nicht zu übertreiben, wenn ich behaupte, dass der Verfasser nur ­wenige Aenderungen in dem vorliegenden Buche vornehmen müsste, um es ganz zu ­‘negrisieren’…. / Ohne eine Spur originellen Talents Andere bloss kopieren, sich von dem ‘­nationalen Chauvinismus’ derart fernhalten, dass nichts von den Eigentümlichkeiten des ­Volkes, von seiner Sprache, Litteratur und Geistesbeschaffenheit mehr zurückbleibt; sich ­zusammenrollen und zurückziehen, nur um den Fremden zu zeigen, dass man unendlich ­tolerant, tolerant bis zum Ekel ist, – das vermöchten wohl auch die Neger zu vollbringen. / Doch, wer weiss – vielleicht würden auch die Neger das nicht fertig bringen?…” 60 Ibid., 244: “[E]ine Renaissance des Judentums, die wirklich jüdisch und nicht negerhaft wäre, kann nicht ‘in einem Atemzuge’ vollbracht werden, allein vermittelst Aktiengesellschaften und Genossenschaften. Ein historisches Ideal bedarf einer historischen Entwickelung, und die histori­sche Entwickelung schreitet langsam….” 61 The offer was officially made by Joseph Chamberlain on April 24, 1903. Ahad Ha’am’s review appeared in German translation in the April issue of Ost und West of the same year, but was previously published in Hebrew in the December issue of Ha-Shilo’ah 10.60 (1902): 566–78. 62 See, e.g., Arthur Comte de Gobineau, Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines, 2nd edn. (1853–55; Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1884), I, 214–16.

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awkward shuffle between commiserating with the negroes and their plight and the perplexing suggestion that slavery did at least provide them with security, Rafaels claims that in America the Negro Question had developed into the Jewish Question not because of any shared experience, but because African Americans were seeking out the Jews as scapegoats for their own misfortune. In his lead article in the Zionist organ Die Welt of February 2, 1900, Leo Rafaels – a pseudonym of Leon Kellner, a close friend of Herzl’s and a professor of English literature  – comments on reports of an outbreak of antisemitism among the African American community in Newport, which he considers symptomatic of an encroaching antisemitism across the United States. His concern is that when the negroes, “these poorest of the poor, these ultimate pariahs among the American people, the scum of the earth,”63 dare to assail the Jews this is indicative of a pervasive shift in attitude. By and large, the article projects a somewhat petulant annoyance at the alleged unilateral rescission by the American negroes of the solidarity between blacks and Jews as victims of persecution. More specifically, Rafaels imputes to the offending African Americans a motivation in analogy to racial and colonial discourses: The shoe shines and water-carriers of Newport – because that more or less is the social position of the negroes in America – feel threatened in the purity of their race and in their superior culture by the inferior Jews and demand the removal of the harmful alien.64

While this is arguably an ironic inversion, by the same logic Rafaels’ reference to the negroes’ rightful sense of nationhood is then in effect a refutation of this very notion.65 In fact, the author’s irony in this case reaffirms the allegedly primitive nature of the African Americans who, emboldened by an increasingly antisemitic environment, imitate their white betters: “The blacks have not achieved insight into this nuance on their own, nor have they on their own found the courage to revenge their misery on the Jews.”66 Indeed, in emulation of racist discourse resorting to the dehumanization of the negroes, Rafaels concludes bluntly: “The 63 Leo Rafaels, “Juden und Schwarze,” Die Welt 4.5 (February 2, 1900): 1–2, 2: “[…] diese Aermsten der Armen, die allerletzten Parias der amerikanischen Bevölkerung, der Abschaum der Erde.” 64 Ibid., 1: “Die Stiefelputzer und Wasserträger von Newport – denn das ungefähr ist die gesellschaftliche Stellung der Neger in Amerika – fühlen sich in der Reinheit ihrer Rasse oder in ihrer höheren Cultur durch die minderwertigen Juden bedroht und verlangen die Entfernung des schädlichen Fremdlings.” 65 Ibid.: “[…] diesem berechtigten Nationalgefühle.” 66 Ibid., 2: “Von selbst sind die Schwarzen weder zur Erkenntnis dieser Nuance gekommen, noch haben sie aus eigenem den Muth gefunden, ihr Elend an den Juden zu rächen.”

Black ‘Jews’ and ‘Black’ Jews 

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lowest animal species have the surest instinct for changes in the mood of the higher aerial regions.”67 Ultimately, Rafaels appropriates established racial hierarchies in support of the claim of racial superiority over the blacks by semites and aryans alike: “The distance between black and white is so infinite that the difference between Semites and Aryans in contrast appears to be an infinitesimally small, hardly noticeable nuance.”68 In effect, the prominently placed article, while insisting on Jewish humanitarianism, sets the Jews up not only as white but as master race apparent. This notion had been ironically challenged – and therefore in effect confirmed – by Erwin Rosenberger, Theodor Herzl’s secretary, just a few months earlier with reference to antisemitic unrest among the natives in South Africa at the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War. In his article on “Europe in Africa” (“Europa in Afrika,” 1899), also published in Die Welt on whose editorial board the author served, Rosenberger had caustically offered the occurrence and the scale of antisemitic excesses as a yardstick for civilization. After all, antisemitism, he argues, was a phenomenon peculiar to the civilized nations and, as yet, unheard of among the racially most inferior primitive peoples. Yet recent events in South Africa would appear to defy this pattern: In the half-civilized African south happened an occurrence these days which otherwise comes to pass sporadically only in the highly civilized, over-refined occident: natives ransacked Jewish shops, demolished the furnishings, devastated the premises, stole goods, threatened the proprietors – they behaved like civilized Europeans.69

Rosenberger’s sarcastic account is intriguing in particular because it simultaneously challenges and reaffirms established notions of civilization and of racial hierarchies. There seems inherent in the civilization of western provenance a deep-seated contradiction which incorporates the savagery expected from, but previously not found among, the African natives which is channeled toward antisemitic excess. Its appropriation by the real “savages” is then an “anthropological” curiosity which impacts on racial hierarchy not only by elevating the 67 Ibid.: “Die niedrigsten Thiergattungen haben für den Stimmungswechsel in den oberen Luftregionen den sichersten Instinct.” 68 Ibid.: “[D]er Abstand zwischen Schwarz und Weiss ist so unendlich, dass der Unterschied zwischen Semiten und Ariern dagegen als eine unendlich winzige, kaum wahrnehmbare Nuance erscheint.” 69 Erwin Rosenberger, “Europa in Afrika,” Die Welt 3.41 (October 13, 1899): 5–6, 5: “Im halbcivilisierten Süden Afrikas hat sich dieser Tage etwas zugetragen, was sonst nur im hochcultivierten, überfeinerten Abendlande zeitweilig passiert: Eingeborene sind über jüdische Geschäftsläden hergefallen, haben die Einrichtungsstücke demoliert, die Locale verwüstet, Waren gestohlen, die Eigenthümer bedroht – sie haben sich benommen wie civilisierte Europäer.”

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“­antisemitizing”70 Transvaal kaffirs to notional civilization; but also by relegating the Jews to the lowest rung of the racial hierarchy – much like Leo Rafaels was to suggest for the American context. Prior to the recent incidents in South Africa, Rosenberger maintains, the Jews lived from day to day in the conceited delusion that they were an inferior race only compared with the “Aryans.” Now, since the Jews are treated with undeniable disdain also by the kaffirs, it is to be expected that they will curb to some extent their chauvinistic pomposity.71

More intriguingly still, Rosenberger construes Africa, with its previous lack of antisemitism, as an imaginary refuge for the persecuted Jews of Europe. The Dark Continent in its uncivilized manifestation – even its jungles, symbolic of the dis-orderly and savage other-world of Africa – is preferable as a dream vision to the reality of civilized Europe. But this vision has of course been punctured by the recent events in South Africa which demonstrate that the savages are savages no more but have metamorphosed into civilized antisemites: Many a Jew from Sandz might have dreamt at the time of the Galician excesses against the Jews of jungles, of exotic regions where only savages live and no Galician peasants. The savages are now, as it were, popped soap bubbles. The savage is no longer a “savage,” he swears black and blue by the antisemitic party program.72

As we will see in Chapter 3, Max Jungmann was to make a similar point in his penultimate letter from New-Newland. Considering the attitude toward blacks which informs Ahad Ha’am’s and Herzl’s texts as well as Leo Rafaels’ and Rosenberger’s commentaries on ­tensions between blacks and Jews in America and South Africa, and which is predicated on the strict hierarchical demarcation between blacks and Jews, Mbwapwa’s optimism with regard to the affinities between both may seem misguided. It certainly does not reflect mainstream thinking and there is a lurking sense of its ironic potential. However, as discussed in more detail in Chapter 2,

70 Ibid.: “antisemiteln.” 71 Ibid.: “[B]isher lebten die Juden im dünkelhaften Wahne dahin, dass sie nur gegenüber den ‘Ariern’ eine inferiore Rasse wären. Jetzt, nachdem die Juden auch von den Kaffern mit ­unverkennbarer Missachtung behandelt werden, dürften sie wohl ihrer chauvinistischen  Auf­ geblasenheit einigermassen Zügel anlegen.” 72 Ibid.: “So mancher Sandecer Jude mochte zur Zeit der galizischen Judenexcesse von Urwäldern geträumt haben, von exotischen Gegenden, wo nur Wilde wohnen und keine galizischen Bauern. Die Wilden sind nun sozusagen geplatzte Seifenblasen. Der Wilde ist kein ‘Wilder’ mehr, er schwört Stein und Bein aufs antisemitische Parteiprogramm.”

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the letters from New-Newland develop a dynamic of their own with respect to color coding, with Mbwapwa himself emerging as a changeable hybrid between races and cultures. To some extent, Mbwapwa’s liminal position is inscribed also into his portrait. As a stimulus on the visual imagination Rosintal’s drawing is significant not only because it contributes to lodging the outward appearance of the retired chief firmly in the minds of the readers of Schlemiel. The composition of the purported photograph moreover indicates a number of elements and traditions which became productive in the construction of this figure and, if perhaps subliminally, would have suggested further connotations to its contemporaries.

The Iconography of Difference By the latter half of the nineteenth century photography was well established as a medium of anthropological and ethnographic documentation. While the former was mostly concerned with the taxonomy of different human phenotypes, the latter sought to relate them to their environment inasmuch as it was the product of human agency.73 As such both styles of photography were largely formulaic and need to be understood within their specific iconographic traditions. Indeed, the photographic representation of the other – far from being the ‘objective’ and ‘authentic’ scientific evidence it was supposed to be – was, as Michael Wiener demonstrates, always informed by preconceived perceptions of the self and of the other.74 Viewing habits corresponded to the emerging conventions and soon extended beyond the more narrowly defined scientific context as the photographic material was increasingly popularized.75 Lectures, exhibitions, ever more affordable book publications and the much cheaper illustrated magazines, photographs in various formats (including collectors’ albums, cartes de visite, stereoscopic apparatuses, and images for private and for educational purposes) as well as postcards all contributed to the dissemination of images of the savage or primitive other and the internalization of its iconography which, ultimately, was an iconography of difference.76 73 See, e.g., Amos Morris-Reich, “Anthropology, standardization and measurement: Rudolf Martin and anthropometric photography,” The British Journal for the History of Science 46.3 (2013): 487–516, 489 and Michael Wiener, Ikonographie des Wilden: Menschen-Bilder in Ethnographie und Photographie zwischen 1850 und 1918 (Munich: Trickster, 1990), p. 11. 74 See ibid., pp. 13–14. 75 See ibid., p. 76. 76 See ibid., pp. 59–94.

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Significantly, as Wiener observes, the majority of ethnographic photographs mediated information about worlds already known or, rather, worlds of which imaginaries already existed and which were perceived to be inverted, or topsy-turvy; they appeared to be alien because to the observer as an individual, but also as part of a socio-cultural collective, the imaginary and the photographic image as its manifestation and emanation effectively represented a counter-world.77 Precisely because the photograph was not ‘reality’ but one of any number of representations of reality, it facilitated the appropriation of these faraway worlds and of their inhabitants in what was essentially an armchair colonialism which complemented and supported the colonialist efforts on the ground. The image of the savage as it emerged in ethnographic photography of the nineteenth century is accordingly always to be understood as the common property (Allgemeingut) of its time, underwritten by both science and public opinion.78 It was a manifestation of collective attitudes, which produced and was conditioned by viewing habits.79 In fact, as Wiener emphasizes, the contemporary viewer had next to no chance of seeing anything other than what they were supposed to see.80 The photographic exhibition of the other consequently sustained the further dissemination of the hegemonic phenotypal approach to the human races which considered difference within a hierarchical system of thought that reaffirmed preconceived notions of European biological and cultural superiority over the so-called savages and primitive peoples.81 In the case of Mbwapwa’s ‘photographic’ representation the reassurance expected from the ethnographic and anthropometric photograph inevitably failed. The purported photograph not only offered to its Jewish observers identification on a level which was by definition precluded from conventional ethnographic and anthropological documentation, it effectively insisted on it. The image thus engages in what Jonathan Wipplinger has called in a different context the “racial ruse.” Exploring the stage practice of blackface in imperial Germany, Wipplinger suggests that the representation of blacks by non-blacks in popular entertainment was perceived “as threat to racial and national identities” because it challenged entrenched conceptions of both and projected racial insecurity instead.82 Blackface is indeed another important factor that needs to be considered in relation to the construction of Mbwapwa and it is discussed in more detail 77 See ibid., p. 13. 78 See ibid., p. 210. 79 See ibid., pp. 207–13. 80 See ibid., p. 20. 81 See ibid., p. 53. 82 Wipplinger, “Racial Ruse,” 458.

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in Chapter 5. Suffice it to say for the moment that the principle informing both Mbwapwa’s ‘photographic’ representation and the stage practice of blackface is a similar one. Both rely on racial disorientation and the re-interpretation of identities, in other words, the “racial ruse” – but here in a predominantly ‘white’ Jewish and only secondarily German context. As a vehicle of the racial ruse Mbwapwa’s picture is thus subversive in itself. Yet its subversive potential is further amplified through contextual reconfigurations. These occur in two interrelating modes: Literary, through the accompanying text; and visually, through reference to iconographic conventions; as well as, in either case, through the implicit or explicit correlation with specific intertexts. Ethnographic photographs, as Wiener explains, required categorization and adequate criteria for their interpretation which, in turn, necessitated written contextualization. Verbalization was in fact an indispensable prerequisite for systematically unfolding the different levels of their complex semantic potential because in scientific discourse photographs frequently provided sources for more than just the object they visualized. Indeed, what an individual ethnographic photograph captured was not always what made it relevant as an ethnographic source.83 These absences, if they were even perceived as such, were obviated with the description of the represented material and with its correlation to a system of classification and interpretation. Such configurations of the photographed objects within specific contexts indicate that contextual reconfigurations were then also a possibility in different spheres of their dissemination. One such sphere was created by the mass distribution of images of the exotic other, which had become increasingly popular with the introduction of the postcard at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889.84 In addition to the established conventions of representation and viewing, the semantic potential of the images was in this instance subject to contextual reconfigurations originating mainly in the personal situation and relationship of sender and recipient. Another, potentially more prescriptive sphere of contextual reconfiguration was constituted by humoristic and satirical representations which, in turn, might well take the guise of postcards. Frequently following the familiar iconography of ethnographic photographs, these were often cartoons – such as Mbwapwa’s portrait – which produced meaning through the (sometimes radical) re-interpretation of the familiar yet alien object and the visual and contextual means of its appropriation. Indeed, while with postcards, depending on their genre, familiarity with the contemporary viewing habits of ethnographic photography was probable but not

83 See Wiener, Ikonographie des Wilden, p. 18. 84 See ibid., p. 92.

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indispensable, satirical reconfigurations depended on such knowledge. Their semantic potential was created predominantly through ironic inversion or hyperbole, frequently with the objective of either challenging and destabilizing conventional modes of seeing, or of reaffirming them. It is precisely this subversive interweaving with various discourses which with increasing historical distance complicates appreciation of the satirical potential of these images. The iconography of Mbwapwa’s portrait is clearly derived from contemporary ethnographic conventions of portraying negro potentates as well as other indigenes in what, due to its illusory character, frequently appears to be a contextually reconfigured and ironically subverted ruler iconography. And while there are some more or less subtle differences between such representations and Rosintal’s image of the retired chief of Uganda, a comparison is nevertheless illuminating in regard to Jungmann’s positioning of the black (African) Jew. One such image which itself was the product of a contextual reconfiguration in that it did not originate within the scientific context of ethnographic research, although it adopted at least partially its iconography, is a widely disseminated photograph which, in addition to a portrait of Friedrich Maharero,85 I believe to have been the most pervasive direct model for Rosintal’s drawing of Mbwapwa. The image (Figure 3), produced around 1900 and circulated as a postcard, shows Hendrik Witbooi, the in German colonial discourse notorious Kaptein of the Nama, who led his people in the war against the Schutztruppe until he was mortally wounded in October 1905. Significantly, and contrary to common – or at least preferred – practice in ethnographic or anthropological documentation which seeks to project ‘authenticity,’ Witbooi had himself portrayed not in tribal ‘costume’ but in European dress, albeit in conjunction with the distinctive hat covered in white gauze that is characteristic of the Witbooi and from which derives the originally Dutch name of this Nama tribe, which means ‘white boys.’86 In the full-length photograph the chief is seated in dignified posture on a high stool in an outside setting facing the beholder whom he confronts with his direct gaze. In addition, Witbooi carries a rifle, which in the evolving context of Germany’s colonial wars in South-West Africa and the Kaptein’s interventions was to become an attribute of highly ambivalent status. Initially fighting against the German Schutztruppe, since 1894 Witbooi had been a valued ally for almost exactly a decade until he then unexpectedly incited and led the revolt of the Nama, once the complete defeat of the 85 The alternative spelling Maherero also occurs in various sources; I have harmonized the spelling throughout to the more frequent Maharero. 86 See Gustav Menzel, “Widerstand und Gottesfurcht”: Hendrik Witbooi – eine Biographie in zeitgenössischen Quellen (Cologne: Köppe, 2000), p. 35.

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Figure 3: Hendrik Witbooi (postcard; b/w photograph by F. Nink; Germany/German South-West Africa; c. 1900).

Herero to which he had contributed had become inevitable in late 1904. One of the reasons for their uprising was the impending disarmament of the Nama which the German colonial administration had proposed in response to the Bondelzwart revolt and the Herero War. When Rosintal’s drawing appeared for the first time in November 1903, Witbooi was still a highly regarded ally of the German colonial power. In the course of the ephemeral life of Schlemiel – and of Mbwapwa – this was to change dramatically. Significantly, during the three and a half years of his brief existence the associations evoked by Mbwapwa’s portrait would similarly have been subject to the emerging renegotiation of the image of the native. The historical background of colonial war and more specifically of Witbooi’s involvement and its significance to changing constructions of blackness in imperial Germany, which would have impacted on the reader’s appreciation of Mbwapwa, are discussed in more detail in Chapter 3.

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Figure 4: King Ndumbé Lobé Bell (b/w photograph; 1886).

Witbooi’s photograph, or one very similar to it (see, e.g., Figure 4) , may not only have provided the inspiration for Rosintal’s drawing of Mbwapwa but may also have been the model for another cartoon, published in the satirical magazine Simplicissimus. Eduard Thöny’s “The Herero before the Battle” (“Der Herero vor der Schlacht”) appeared in the February issue of 1904 (Figure 5). It exhibits a number of similarities with Mbwapwa’s portrait first published some three months earlier. Yet while Max Jungmann as well as others involved in Schlemiel would in all likelihood have been familiar with Simplicissimus, the same cannot be said with any degree of certainty of the contributors to this hugely popular magazine in relation to Schlemiel. It seems therefore more likely that both Mbwapwa and the Herero were influenced by Witbooi’s portrait and that most of the similarities between the two originate in the iconography of difference latent also in the photograph of the Kaptein of the Nama. In Thöny’s cartoon, the Herero is shown in a similar pose in traditional costume, yet with two jarring attributes. In the parliamentary debate on the conflict in German South-West Africa, recurring mention is made of the natives’ consumption of alcohol,

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Figure 5: Eduard Thöny, “The Herero before the Battle” (“Der Herero vor der Schlacht”), Simplicissimus (1904).

unscrupulously encouraged and exploited by European traders.87 This may explain the bottle in the Herero’s hand as well as his vacant stare. The top hat imposed on the native’s headdress is representative of European civilization and its mission civilisatrice. Yet at the same time it demonstrates the superficiality of its success, it is literally ‘put on.’ It is moreover, of course, an incongruous element which not so much invites ridicule but rather emphasizes the violation suffered by the stoic Herero. The top hats worn by many native chiefs in the German protectorates were in fact known as “African crowns.” They were initially presented to the tribal dignitaries by representatives of the firm of C. Woermann, the most important German trading company in the African possessions whose head, Adolph Woermann, had been instrumental to the acquisition of these territories.88 Woermann was also 87 See, e.g., StBR (May 14, 1889), p. 1737 (C). 88 See Heiko Möhle, “Mit Branntwein und Gewehr. Wie das Afrikahaus C. Woermann Kamerun eroberte,” in Heiko Möhle (ed.), Branntwein, Bibeln und Bananen: Der deutsche Kolonialismus in Afrika – eine Spurensuche in Hamburg (Hamburg: Libertäre Assoziation, 1999), pp. 39–45.

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thought to have been a profiteer in the Herero War because his was the only shipping line to the protectorate in South-West Africa and was therefore contracted for all troop and supply transports.89 While this may not yet have resonated with “The Herero before the Battle,” it certainly was not to escape the attention of Simplicissimus.90 Even so, a further link to Woermann is provided by the other attribute of the Herero, the bottle of spirits. The ship owner had been challenged in a much earlier sitting of the Reichstag already in 1889 about his trade with alcohol in the protectorates. The delegate Adolf Stöcker, whom we will encounter again in Chapters 2 and 3, had accused Woermann of being complicit in spreading the brandy plague (“Branntweinpest”) across the German protectorates.91 In the parliamentary debate, Stöcker invoked the responsibility of taking seriously the mandate to protect the natives and therefore to protect them also from “the dangers of a false civilization.”92 His fellow delegate Woermann responded with insisting that it was precisely Germany’s trade in brandy which was not only the envy of all other nations but which had allowed German interests to “drill” into the West African trade in the first place.93

89 See Hamburgische Biographie: Personenlexikon, eds. Franklin Kopitzsch and Dirk Brietzke (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2010), I, 348. 90 Indeed, in April 1907 Adolph Woermann brought the satirical magazine to trial for libel and the editor Hans Kaspar Gulbransson was sentenced to three months incarceration, later commuted to a hefty fine. The immediate cause for Woermann’s libel case was a cartoon by Eduard Thöny, “Die Witwe des Afrikakämpfers” (“The African Veteran’s Widow”), Simplicissimus 11.39 (December 22, 1906): 630, in which it was suggested that Woermann profited from the transport of war casualties. Wilhelm Schulz’s “Der Reeder” (“The Ship Owner”) was an earlier indictment of the commercial exploitation of the war at the hands of the firm of C. Woermann, see Wilhelm Schulz, “Der Reeder,” Simplicissimus, special issue: Kolonien 9.6 (May 3, 1904): 59; see also Rudolf Wilke, “Wörmann-Linie” (“Woermann Line”), Simplicissimus 11.24 (September 10, 1906): 377 and, in response to the trial, Eduard Thöny, “Folgen des Simplicissimus-Prozesses” (“The ­Consequences of the Simplicissimus Trial”), Simplicissimus 12.4 (April 22, 1907): 54 as well as Thomas Theodor Heine, “Eine neue Strafe” (“A New Punishment”) and “Der Höchstgestellte” (“The Most Elevated”), Simplicissimus 12.4 (April 22, 1907): 66. For the trial, see Gertrud M. Rösch, Ludwig Thoma als Journalist: Ein Beitrag zur Publizistik des Kaiserreichs und der frühen Weimarer Republik (Frankfurt am Main, etc.: Lang, 1989), pp. 134–6. 91 StBR (May 14, 1889), p. 1737 (C). 92 StBR (May 14, 1889), p. 1738 (B): “[M]ir erscheint die Schutzpflicht zugleich als eine ­Ehrenpflicht, die von der Kultur noch nicht ergriffenen Bevölkerungen der Kolonien vor den ­Gefahren einer falschen Zivilisation zu schützen.” 93 StBR (14 May 1889), p. 1743 (B): “This trade in Africa with brandy is viewed by a number of nations, indeed by almost all nations, with the greatest jealousy. It was the issue which allowed the Germans in the first place to drill into trade in West Africa and to insert themselves so strongly into trade in Africa that their power there is now very significant [Es ist dieser Branntweinhandel in Afrika von einer Reihe von anderen Nationen, ja von fast allen anderen Nationen mit der

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With regard to the “African crowns” and other incongruous appurtenances of the native rulers, an article published in the popular magazine Die Gartenlaube in 1884, the year in which Cameroon became a German protectorate, is rather instructive. In it, King Ndumbé Lobé Bell (see also Figure 4) is favorably distinguished from his rivals for his adherence to traditional costume: Indeed, King Bell gives a favorable impression when compared with the two other Kings of Cameroon who have sunk to the level of caricatures through their strange choice of ­European garments. They wear top hats whose golden plaques are reminiscent of the badges worn by our porters, but they cherish these “African crowns,” for engraved into these plaques made of real gold is the name of the respective black majesty. And yet these hats do not cost anything withal, they are presents of the firm C. Woermann. The long staffs made of glass, which they proudly brandish as signs of their royal might, have the same origin as well. Scepters made of glass – may we not consider these to be felicitous symbols of the African negro kingship?94

The rival kings of Cameroon are thus presented as the kind of caricature which the Herero in Thöny’s cartoon resists turning into. It is their haphazard adoption of European customs which is perceived as incongruous and which reinforces the burlesque potential of the charade they perform and, indeed, are made to perform. For it also presents the royal paraphernalia as conferred on them by the grace of the German trading company. The African Negerkönigthum (negro kingship) thus emerges from the article as brittle and cheap and as falsely glamorous as the scepters made of glass. A telling detail is, moreover, that the golden plaques affixed to the “African crowns” are likened to those worn by porters in Germany, thus firmly relegating the black majesties to their subaltern role (see Figure 6). The Herero’s absurd top hat and spirits bottle thus appear to be latter day attributes of unsavory colonial practices going back to the earliest days of the German

allergrößesten Eifersucht angesehen. Es ist das der Punkt gewesen, wodurch sich die Deutschen überhaupt in den Handel in Westafrika haben hineinbohren können und sich so fest in den Handel Afrikas hineinsetzen konnten, daß sie jetzt eine ganz bedeutende Macht dort haben].” 94 E. Jung, “Deutschlands Colonialbestrebungen. Deutsche an der Westküste von Afrika. Kamerun. Angra Pequena,” Die Gartenlaube 32.37 (1884): 609–17, 612: “In der That macht König Bell einen angenehmen Eindruck, wenn man ihn mit den beiden anderen durch ihre ­sonderbare Wahl europäischer Kleiderstücke zu Carricaturen herabgesunkenen Königen von Kamerun vergleicht. Sie tragen Cylinderhüte, deren goldenes Schild an die Marken unserer Packträger erinnert, aber sie halten diese ‘afrikanischen Kronen’ hoch, denn auf diesen Schildern von echtem Golde ist auch der Namenszug der betreffenden schwarzen Majestät eingravirt. Dabei kosten die Hüte gar nichts, sie sind Geschenke der Firma C. Woermann. Auch die langen aus Glas angefertigten Stäbe, die sie stolz als Zeichen ihrer königlichen Gewalt schwingen, sind von demselben Ursprung. Gläserne Scepter – kann man sie nicht als gelungene Symbole des afrikanischen ­Negerkönigthums auffassen?”

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Figure 6: “King Brisso Bell with His Wives” (“König Brisso-Bell mit seinen Frauen”), Die Gartenlaube (1884; engraving after an original b/w photograph in possession of C. Woermann; 1881).

protectorates. They clash conspicuously with the attributes in the photograph of Hendrik Witbooi. Indeed, though their composition is very similar, the differences between both are striking. Not only is the Kaptein shown in European dress, but instead of the emasculating bottle he carries a rifle; his hat, also covering a headdress similar to that in the cartoon, is anything but ridiculous and, altogether, Witbooi appears dignified and invested with authority without being ostentatious.95 A reading of Mbwapwa’s portrait in comparison to the other two images indicates differences which have a bearing also on constructions of Jewishness in 95 More recently, after Namibian independence in 1989, the image has been further disseminated on the obverse of Namibian Dollar banknotes.

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relation to conceptions of colonialism manifest in the text and in the pictorial representation. He too is presented in a similar pose, though in three-quarter profile. He wears a plaid caftan, under which his bare black legs peek through; his head is covered by a yarmulke; his black face is framed by side-locks; and he holds on to an umbrella. Significantly, he is not a caricature with hyperbolically distorted physiognomic racial markers. In this he is similar to the Herero, whose image Thöny accompanied with a caption which reads: “Will I be gathered, within a quarter, to my fathers or to the Berlin zoological gardens?”96 The Herero expects either to be killed or captured and, if captured, to be exhibited – like the living exhibits of the various ethnographic shows presented at the zoological gardens in Berlin as well as in other German cities97 or, possibly, in the way in which 103 black Africans had been displayed at the colonial exhibition of 1896 in the south-eastern Berlin borough of Treptow, among them also Friedrich Maharero, the eldest son of the Paramount Chief of the Herero, Samuel Maharero.98 In either case, he is portrayed as the dehumanized victim of German colonialism and, despite its satirical dimension, the picture reasserts the Herero’s contested humanity in concert with its caption which, allowing the first person perspective, offers a modicum of identification with the other. Mbwapwa is presented in a similar pose, though in three-quarter profile. Conspicuously, the image of Mbwapwa, too, is not a distorting caricature which exaggerates physiognomic racial markers or clichéd patterns of behavior, nor is he a Hosenneger or even its equivalent, a ‘Kaftanneger.’ Moreover, by making Mbwapwa explicitly ‘visible,’ Jungmann subverts another ploy frequently resorted to by the colonizer of effacing the indigenous peoples of what allegedly is territorium nullius, an empty and virginal land only waiting to be redeemed through its settlement.99 Mbwapwa, though droll in his communications, is a figure we take seriously – not, for instance, like the black African in Wilhelm Busch’s widely popular Fips the Monkey (Fipps der Affe, 1879),100 whose attempts to catch a monkey end in himself being caught in turn, the ring in his nose becoming the means of his undoing and of the painful loss of his nose. In the short ‘comic,’ the black, stereotypically grinning and intent

96 Eduard Thöny, “Der Herero vor der Schlacht,” Simplicissimus 8.46 (February 9, 1904): 363: “Werde ich über ein Vierteljahr zu meinen Vätern versammelt sein oder im Berliner zoologischen Garten?” See also Dreesbach, Gezähmte Wilde, p. 198. 97 See Dreesbach, Gezähmte Wilde. 98 See Gustav Hermann Meinecke et al. (eds.), Deutschland und seine Kolonien im Jahre 1896: Amtlicher Bericht über die erste deutsche Kolonial-Ausstellung 1896 (Berlin: Reimer, 1897), p. 221. 99 See Levene, “Herzl, the Scramble, and a Meeting that Never Happened,” p. 215. 100 Wilhelm Busch, Fipps der Affe (Munich: Bassermann, 1879).

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on monkey roast, seems to rank even below the monkey by whom he is outwitted.101 Not so Mbwapwa, who commands our empathy and, indeed, our sympathy. Though not exhibited, Mbwapwa, too, is to some extent domesticated, yet not dehumanized. In his case, the first person perspective impacting on the perception of his image is expanded into a proper narrative in several installments which, enhanced through reiterative recognition of the increasingly familiar, ultimately intensifies the identification with the African turned Jew. He announces: “[A]s you can see in the photo I enclose, I have myself become a member of the orthodox Mizrachi-society.” (LNN I, 53–5/54–6) Mbwapwa has undergone a complete metamorphosis which, strangely, does not seem incongruous – perhaps because his previous incarnation is open to conjecture and because the costume he wears is not connoted as ‘civilized,’ but as ‘Jewish.’ Yet the African Jew retains the external marker of his skin color. At least for the moment and in the portrait prefixed to all of his communications; although, as we will see in Chapter 2, Mbwapwa’s epidermal hue is by no means immutable. Significantly, however, the African’s blackness seems to be no obstacle to his becoming Jewish, a transformation which, at least externally, is effected with remarkable speed. Like his accoutrements, his language undergoes a transformation over the course of the nine letters. Initially, his epistles are laced with a fair number of Anglicisms. Mbwapwa, this suggests, is already a colonized subject whose native language, lexically as well as syntactically, has been tinted – or tainted – by that of the colonizer.102 But with the immigration of the eastern European Mizrachi Jews, Mbwapwa is required to learn the language of another colonizer. In what is a clever dig at Herzl’s vision for Old-New Land, the language of

101 It has, however, been emphasized by Ciarlo, Advertising Empire, p. 247, that “the textual elements of [Busch’s] story are crafted as a counterpoint to the pictorial elements” and that “while the images establish difference through the exaggeration of caricature, the texts forge connections through empathic connections.” Ciarlo suggests that the picture story in fact undermines “the facile cultural narcissism of ‘civilizing mission’ ideology,” p. 248. See also Ludwig Thoma’s parody, “Fipps, der Affe” (“Fips the Monkey”), with illustrations by Olaf Gulbransson, in Simplicissimus 12.3 (April 15, 1907): 33–36. The story was contextually reconfigured astutely by the writer and the caricaturist. The negro is elided from the story here, but the monkey retains associations of colonial otherness which are linked to notions of subversion: “Thus anyone will understand our meaning, / What to us Fipps to represent is seeming: / Revolt, ruckus, and subversion / And without fatherland a person [So wird uns jeder wohl verstehen, / Was wir in Fipps vertreten sehen: / Umsturz, Krach und Wühlarbeit / Und Vaterlandeslosigkeit],” 33. 102 Historically, Uganda and East Africa (today Kenya), where the Jewish settlement was proposed, were British protectorates since 1894 and 1895 respectively; the latter was turned into a British Crown colony in 1920.

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the Jewish colonizers proves to be not Hebrew but German – in the bastardized form of the jargon, in Yiddish.103 In his second letter, Mbwapwa introduces Chaskel the Scribe who becomes his rebbe and, in the third installment, begins to teach him German. Mbwapwa reports: Meanwhile I spend my time learning the German loshen. Chaskel the Scribe is my rebbe and says that he wants to get me so far as to speak in the pure dialect of Vilna, and I should give up the Anglicisms. (LNN III, 2–4/2–4)

This explicitly raises the issue of the jargon, the hybridized Jewish vernacular, which was frequently perceived to be socially inferior and was disdained by many, especially cultural, Zionists as degenerate. As Michael Berkowitz observes, it was taken to represent “the stunted cultural development of Jewry in exile.”104 The jargon also mirrors Mbwapwa’s linguistic predicament and serves as an indictment of the effects of the colonial situation with the added irony that the colonized have turned colonizers and follow the established pattern of cultural domination, propagating an essentialized, but in reality hybrid identity. The process of his hybridization is indeed reflected in Mbwapwa’s further communications which become increasingly full of jargon. Unexpectedly, like his language and his appurtenances, Mbwapwa’s epidermis also undergoes a number of transformations. Indeed, his skin pigmentation, his blackness, is mutable in response to alternative constructions of Jewishness. Mbwapwa’s portrait therefore also needs to be seen in the context of inner-­ Jewish difference – beyond its subversive similarities with the iconographic conventions of ethnographic documentation as they had devolved also into popular discourse. The same conventions were moreover also applied to representations of Jews and specifically, even in the Jewish and Zionist press, of Jews culturally distinct or from climes perceived to be exotic. In Zionist discourse the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in particular were a period of intense inquiry into manifestations of Jewishness in order to define a national Jewish identity. As such, Mbwapwa’s portrait, though innocuous enough at first glance, suggests further layers of meaning not just in terms of its pictorial detail and iconographic affiliation but also in terms of the decision to include it in the first place. 103 This development is reversed, however, in Mbwapwa’s final letter from Texas which, once again, is bristling with Anglicisms. 104 Berkowitz, Zionist Culture, p. 51. Yiddish was finally rehabilitated, to some extent, at the conference of Czernowitz in 1908 where “a compromise resolution was adopted proclaiming Yiddish as ‘a national language’ and asking for its political, cultural, and social equality with other languages,” p. 73.

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Exhibiting Otherness: Fascination and Contempt All three portraits – of Hendrik Witbooi, of the Herero, and of Mbwapwa Jumbo – incorporate individual traits which distinguish them from the prevalent mode of representing the other in anthropological or ethnographic documentation. Around the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century there was no perceived need to travel exotic lands for anthropological and ethnographic study, though some intrepid scientists did, and increasingly so. Ethnic otherness was on exhibition much closer to home, and while it was subjected to scientific scrutiny, it was also widely popular and accessible to the masses. I would therefore like to turn to the colonial exhibition of 1896 now, which was the first of its kind in the young Empire. It was also the first, and last, to exhibit living natives before the rise of National Socialism in Germany.105 Organized mainly by the German Colonial Society (Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft), the event achieved huge popularity with more than two million visitors and an overwhelmingly positive echo in the press.106 In contrast to the many popular ethnographic shows which, commercially motivated, exhibited ‘exotic’ others mainly to serve the romantic imagination of their audience and to titillate their sense of excitement, the colonial exhibition was a dedicated vehicle of propaganda which aimed to promote the idea of German colonialism and which targeted in particular the colonially not aware and reluctant broad public.107 To this end the colonial exhibition was organized in two sections: The ethnological exhibition of the natives from the German protectorates and colonies and the scientific-commercial exhibition.108 Both were manifestations of two different strategies of domesticating the native other on display. The former sought to recreate in a supposedly ‘authentic’ setting and with a strong performative impetus the customs and conditions of life in the other-world of the natives. The latter looked to subject them to classification within a hierarchical system of racial otherness, to exhibit artefacts, and to promote the framework of conditions within which the human material supplied by the natives could be made productive toward a profitable colonial enterprise. The exhibition nevertheless faced a conceptual ­ icturesque as dilemma: The display of the exotic other was meant to be just as p that in the commercial shows and to inspire the visitors’ romantic imagination; yet at the same time the natives were to be shown in contrast to these as civilizable, because only if they could be educated was the German civilizing mission 105 See Dreesbach, Gezähmte Wilde, p. 249. 106 See ibid., pp. 256, 266. 107 See ibid., p. 245. 108 See ibid., p. 255.

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to be justified and only then would the natives prove to be the economic asset required for the lucrative exploitation of the protectorates.109 These, the natives’ potential for education and civilization and the persistence of their savagery, were issues that were to be fiercely debated only a few years later when bloody conflict severely tested the German colonial resolve in some of the African protectorates and at home. Chapter 3 offers a more detailed discussion of the shift in perception occasioned in particular by the unsettling experience of the Herero and Hottentot Wars between 1904 and 1907. Yet in 1896, though considered other and culturally primitive, the Africans exhibited at Treptow were presented as free agents, as “our black compatriots” and as “our black fellow citizens” with implicit formative potential.110 While ethnographic shows conveyed the image of savage and dangerous Africans, the colonial exhibition thus aimed to promote the notion of domesticated savages whose otherness was fixed not only through the visitors’ unimpeded gaze but also through the scientific scrutiny to which the ‘exhibits’ were subjected. Indeed, the ‘exhibits’ at the colonial exhibition, like the attractions of the popular ethnographic shows, provided scientists with the material for their research which, otherwise, would have been difficult for them to access. In the case of the colonial exhibition at Treptow, the human exhibits were studied by the Austrian anthropologist Felix von Luschan, notorious for the chromatic scale he designed for the establishment of racial classifications according to skin color and at the time Assistant to the Director of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin (Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde). Initially included in the comprehensive official report published under the general editorship of Gustav Hermann

109 See ibid., p. 264. 110 Meinecke et al. (eds.), Deutschland und seine Kolonien im Jahre 1896, p. 49: “unsere schwarzen Landsleute” and p. 131: “unserer schwarzen Mitbürger.” See also Dreesbach, Gezähmte Wilde, pp. 263–4 and, for the persistence of the term, e.g., Hedwig Irle, Unsere schwarzen Landsleute in Deutsch-Südwestafrika (Gütersloh: Bertelsmann, 1911) and Stephanie Kaiser and Jens Lohmeier, “Völkerschauen im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert – Menschen als Anschauungsobjekte,” in Axel Karenberg, Dominik Groß, and Mathias Schmidt (eds.), Forschungen zur Medizingeschichte: Beiträge des “Rheinischen Kreises der Medizinhistoriker” (Kassel: Kassel University Press, 2014), pp. 185–205, p. 195. An anonymous cartoon entitled “Der Landsmann” (“The Compatriot”) in Der wahre Jakob 21.460 (March 8, 1904): 4298 mocks both the notion of the black compatriot and of the alleged superiority of German culture. It shows in full-body profile a pot-bellied black African, naked but for a diaper-like loincloth to whose backside he has affixed various medals; his neck is encircled with a stiff white collar, between his lips is the stump of a cigar, and on his head a top hat. Effectively, from the ideological perspective of the Social Democratic Der wahre Jakob, the figure is a perverted embodiment of the fattened capitalist. The cartoon’s caption reads: “A Herero who understands German culture [Ein Herero, der die deutsche Kultur begriffen hat].”

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­ einecke, von Luschan’s findings were re-issued in the same year in a separate M (allegedly) expanded publication as Contributions to the Ethnography of the German Protectorates (Beiträge zur Völkerkunde der deutschen Schutzgebiete, 1897).111 His richly illustrated book, explicitly targeted toward a popular readership and projecting through its title a specifically German possessively paternalistic interest in the ethnic other, is an example of the popularization of anthropological and ethnographic knowledge; at the same time it also exemplifies through the configuration of its photographic material and the accompanying verbalization the manipulative scope of scientific representation. Like its earlier version in the report, the book is divided into two sections, one on physical anthropology and one on ethnography. Both are categorized geographically according to each Schutzgebiet. In the former, von Luschan follows the established conventions of anthropometric photography by setting next to one another half-length portraits in profile and full face portraits of his human exhibits, similar to ‘mug shots.’ For print-technical reasons, most of the images are separated from their descriptions and are collected at the end of the volume as plates, combining several of them on each page and thus inviting comparisons. To von Luschan’s descriptions of the physical features of his subjects are moreover frequently added short commentaries on their perceived character. It is these additions, in particular, which are of interest here inasmuch as they demonstrate the arrogant cultural bias with which the anthropologist not only observed his objects but which he insinuated to his readers as well and whose perception of the native other he thus channeled. Indeed, his text is indicative of the way in which stereotypes not only penetrated into scientific discourse but were further validated and disseminated through its popularization. The emerging imaginaries of the ‘exhibits’ are not only informed by the pedantic taxonomy to which they have been subjected and which is documented in addition to the photographs and their descriptions in extensive tables; they are moreover aligned to the prescriptive and stereotypic aesthetic and behavioral standards of the civilized nations, any deviation of which is noted with disdain. Significantly, von Luschan’s observations frequently employ what appears to be an abbreviated code for insinuations of moral inferiority, nor are they always entirely accurate. In fact, the character evaluations offered by the anthropologist are often no more than caricatures and rely at least in some instances upon a hyperbolic rendering of the physical features on which they are based. Martin

111 Felix von Luschan, Beiträge zur Völkerkunde der deutschen Schutzgebiete. Erweiterte Sonderausgabe (Berlin: Reimer, 1897), p. 3. See also Felix von Luschan, “Völkerkunde,” in Meinecke et al. (eds.), Deutschland und seine Kolonien im Jahre 1896, pp. 203–69.

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(Kuané a Dibobé), for instance, is described as “Real ‘Hosen-nigger’.”112 The derogatory term itself, by the end of the nineteenth century already an established trope, straightaway evokes a stereotypical image entirely separate from the ‘exhibit’s’ actual physical manifestation. This is confirmed in the subsequent description, when von Luschan continues: “[H]is psychological characteristics correspond entirely to the image one may form of him according to his low forehead and his powerfully developed tools for mastication.”113 The insistence on the “image” formed by the observer surreptitiously acknowledges the impact of stereotypical preconceptions, although it does nothing to challenge this practice. In the abbreviated code referred to above, the supposedly low forehead and the in the original German text extremely derogatory reference to Martin’s allegedly inordinately strongly developed jaws suggest little intelligence and large appetite and accordingly a character dominated by animal urges unchecked by intelligent reflection. Obviously, no more is to be expected of the genuine Hosenneger. However, compared to the actual set of photographs of Martin (see Figure 7a, b),114 it is in fact very difficult to discern the uncommon prominence of either feature. Nor is there a clear indication of the stereotypical characteristics attributed to the Hosenneger. That Martin is dressed in a shirt, displays a watch chain, and wears his short hair in a side parting seems to have been enough for the anthropologist to affix the derogatory label to his ‘exhibit.’ The label of Hosenneger (or the even more derogatory form of Hosennigger) was applied by von Luschan to several of his subjects, though he reserved it mainly for the “material” from Cameroon.115 The resistance to being measured is frequently related by the anthropologist to the trope of the Hosenneger and the concomitant claim as to the stupidity and insolence of the ‘exhibit,’ as in the case of August (Ewané): “Refuses to be measured; stupid and insolent lad, a real Hosen-Nigger!”116 The implication is that any insubordination of the supposedly inferior black subject, as in the refusal to be measured as a mere object, is perceived as insolent and stupid. The westernized appearance of the Hosenneger – August is shown in formal dress with a high collar and black tie117 – is obviously

112 Von Luschan, Beiträge zur Völkerkunde der deutschen Schutzgebiete, p. 17: “Richtiger ­‘Hosen-nigger’.” 113 Ibid.: “[S]eine psychischen Eigenschaften entsprechen vollkommen dem Bilde, das man sich nach seiner schlechten Stirne und seinen mächtig entwickelten Fresswerkzeugen von ihm machen kann.” 114 Ibid., pl. VI.a. 115 See ibid., p. 15. 116 Ibid., p. 20: “Verweigert die Messung; dummdreister Bursche, der richtige Hosen-Nigger!” 117 See ibid., p. 20.

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Figure 7a, b: Martin (b/w photographs), from Felix von Luschan, Contributions to the Ethnography of the German Protectorates (1897).

deemed to be the outward expression of this behavior which then, in turn, can be inferred from the label. In the case of Rudolf (Masako), von Luschan therefore explicitly emphasized the unexpectedly good manners of the native: “Stubborn and dull; won’t be measured, but is otherwise one of the few among the Cameroon negroes present with reasonably decent manners.”118 Rudolf is not a Hosenneger, although he appears also in European dress in the photographic documentation. Overall, it emerges very clearly that von Luschan’s sympathies certainly did not lie with the natives from Cameroon. In the ethnographic section of his report, the anthropologist reiterated his contempt and compared the Duala from Cameroon unfavorably with all the other exhibits in Treptow: [The Cameroon negroes of the exhibition] were without exception people from the coastal regions, mostly of the worst sort, typical Hosen-Niggers, but for precisely this reason exceptionally instructive, because they so very clearly demonstrated what a certain treatment of the negroes will lead to by necessity. Specifically in contrast to the South-West Africans who have been exposed to missionaries for many decades and who behaved here impeccably and like refined people; and to the amiably naive Maasai, untouched by civilization; and

118 Ibid.: “Eigensinnig und beschränkt; lässt sich nicht messen, ist aber sonst einer der wenigen unter den anwesenden Kamerun-Negern mit einem halbwegs geziemenden Benehmen.” See also pl. V.b.

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to the serious New British Islanders, the presence of this impudent band of Duala, degenerate with alcohol, with its idiotic “prince,” was all the more apt and was not to be missed. Naturally it would have been desirable to exhibit in addition to the coastal ragtag also some decent people from the hinterland, such as Bali or Wûte – but we should be grateful for whatever blacks were present.119

Von Luschan’s effusions are significant on several levels. They indicate the anthropologist’s contempt of the effect the exposure to diverse cultural influences had on the natives in the contact zone of the coastal regions of Cameroon. The primordial nature of the natives in which he was interested was thus compromised, the contamination once again related mostly to behavioral and moral degeneration; in this context the susceptibility to alcohol is implied to be another moral failing. The notion of the probing interrogation of the reasons for the native’s addiction suggested by Thöny’s cartoon or by Adolf Stöcker’s parliamentary challenge is certainly not entertained by the anthropologist. There are, according to von Luschan, “decent” people among the natives in Cameroon, but they dwell inland, far away from the pernicious cultural hotchpotch of the coast. Even so, any living specimens are better than none, and it is precisely their perceived degeneration which makes the Duala in von Luschan’s opinion an instructive example. Their degeneration, as he suggests, is the result not only of cultural exposure but also, as the anthropologist’s somewhat cryptic remarks imply, of the wrong treatment of the natives. What he apparently means to say is that the Africans have been spoilt by the colonizers and, consequently, have developed ideas above their station. As would be reiterated in later debates on the subject, discussed in more detail in Chapter 5, the supposed lenience of the German colonial administration toward the natives was thought to have bred presumption which, once again, is encapsulated in the image of the Hosenneger. Indeed, the presumption of one of his subjects, Toby John (also Yangaman or Nkonga ma ngaba lobé), to carry visiting cards and to request von Luschan’s photographic services for his own purposes produced the anthropologist’s ­ 119 Ibid., p. 53: “Was ich über die Kamerunneger der Ausstellung selbst zu sagen habe, ist schon im anthropologischen Teil dieses Berichtes erledigt worden. Es waren durchwegs Küstenleute, meist der schlimmsten Sorte, typische Hosen-Nigger, aber gerade deshalb ungemein lehrreich, weil man an ihnen so recht deutlich sehen konnte, wohin eine gewisse Behandlung der Neger mit Notwendigkeit führen muss. Gerade im Gegensatze zu den schon seit Decennien missionarisierten Südwestafrikanern, die hier tadellos und wie vornehme Leute auftraten, und zu den noch von jeder Kultur unbeleckten, liebenswürdig-naiven Massai und zu den ernsten Neu-Britanniern war diese freche, durch Alkohol degenerierte Duallagesellschaft mit ihrem idiotischen ‘Prinzen’ erst recht am Platze und hätte sicher nicht fehlen dürfen. Natürlich wäre es erwünscht gewesen, wenn neben dem Küstengesindel auch anständige Leute aus dem Hinterlande, etwa Bali oder Wûte, zu sehen gewesen wären – aber wir müssen dankbar sein schon für das, was an Schwarzen da war.”

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i­rritated bewilderment, culminating in the observation that the African seemed also otherwise to be dim-witted, which underlines the perceived absurdity of the request: “Has visiting cards in the name of Toby John, demands from me that I take a photographic portrait of him and provide him against payment with 6 dozen prints, and seems rather dim otherwise as well.”120 Both the imposition of having von Luschan perform commercial services for him and of attaching to his own image any other value beyond its scientific usefulness are enlisted as evidence of the African’s misguided presumption which consists in arrogating to himself tokens of civilization without entitlement to do so. And then, to top it all, there is of course the perceived affectation of having visiting cards in the first place, which implies an entirely inappropriate claim of social belonging and emphasizes the incongruity of the African’s aspirations with his actual circumstances. We will encounter a similar incident related to the use of visiting cards which resulted in the offending native being thrown into a river in Chapter 5. In this case, too, the African was from Cameroon and he was perceived as a manifestation of the Hosenneger particularly threatening to the social fabric in Germany. The black ‘prince’ Mpundo Akwa was descended from one of the two rival royal families of the Duala and, in a failed attempt at disciplining the uncomfortable other, was to be accused in Hamburg in 1905 of fraud and the fraudulent use of the title of nobility from which he was, however, eventually acquitted. Bismarck Bell, the “idiotic ‘prince’” mentioned in von Luschan’s ethnographic effusion quoted above, merited even more detail in the section on physical anthropology. His name, derived from that of the former German Chancellor and the other of the rival royal families of the Duala, is the only one to be set in inverted commas in von Luschan’s account, a typographic slight which challenges the very essence and integrity of his identity: An absolutely hilarious original and a completely incomparable blend of idiot and “Hosennigger.” Of course he won’t be measured; but then he appears one fine day suddenly in front of the apparatus, en grande tenue [in full dress] and festooned with cotillon [paper] medals or the decorations of a skittles club, and indicates with a graciously condescending gesture that he desires to be photographed. Because of the strong shaking tremors of the man who is a terrible drunkard and suffers from delirium the photographs could not be exposed sufficiently. They nevertheless will suffice to give an approximate idea of the appearance of this “dignified” village chief.121

120 Ibid., p. 18: “Hat Visitekarten mit dem Namen Toby John, verlangt von mir, dass ich ihm gegen Bezahlung 6 Dutzend photographische Porträts mache, und scheint auch sonst recht ­beschränkt zu sein.” See also pl. IV.a. 121 Ibid., p. 20: “Ein ganz köstliches Original und eine unvergleichliche Mischung von Idiot und ‘Hosennigger.’ Natürlich lässt er sich nicht messen; wohl aber erscheint er eines Tages ganz

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In von Luschan’s report, Bismarck Bell is the very epitome of the Hosennigger and his description is replete with the irony befitting the ridiculous other. He too is portrayed in formal dress with high collar and black tie and with the medals mentioned by von Luschan pinned to his lapel (see Figure 8a, b).

Figure 8a, b: Bismarck Bell (b/w photographs), from Felix von Luschan, Contributions to the Ethnography of the German Protectorates (1897).

This is, in effect, the caricature of the risible and inebriated native that Thöny’s cartoon of the victimized Herero might have been but is not. Bismarck Bell is represented also in another contribution to the official report on the colonial exhibition. This photograph, which is not explicitly contextualized in the geographer and metereologist Alexander von Danckelmann’s essay on the climate of Cameroon within which it is embedded, shows the Duala with his wife in the style of an ethnographic photograph in his ‘native’ setting in front of the entrance to a hut, dressed only in a long cloth wound around his loins, with his fully clothed wife sitting on a low stool at his feet – on which, unexpectedly, he is wearing European-style low leather shoes (Figure 9).122 plötzlich einmal vor dem Apparat, en grande tenue und mit Kotillon- oder Kegelklub-Orden behangen, und deutet durch eine gnädig herablassende Geste an, dass er photographiert werden wolle. Wegen der starken Tremores des Mannes, der ein arger Säufer ist und auch an Delirien leidet, konnten die Aufnahmen nicht lange genug exponiert werden. Immerhin genügen sie wohl, um von dem Aussehen dieses ‘würdigen’ Dorfhäuptlings eine annähernde Vorstellung zu geben.” 122 See Meinecke et al. (eds.), Deutschland und seine Kolonien im Jahre 1896, p. 154.

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Figure 9: “Bismarck Bell with Wife” (“Bismarck Bell mit Frau”; b/w photograph by Franz Kullrich), from Gustav Hermann Meinecke et al. (eds.), Germany and its Colonies in the Year 1896 (1897).

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While clearly staged (the setting is obviously in Treptow), the photograph of the chief looking sideways into the distance conveys a very different image from the drunkard festooned with silly medals. Bismarck Bell presents here a much more dignified appearance in harmony with his surroundings. The contrast to von Luschan’s representation of the same man is striking. The anthropologist’s portrait of the “village chief” is nevertheless intriguing because the native’s insistence on formal dress and his attempt to valorize his appearance with the display of (fake) medals arguably suggests an attempt to resist or to subvert the scientist’s objectives of classifying and interpreting his “material.”123 Bismarck Bell is moreover said to have resorted to another provocative tactic of subversion by openly staring through opera glasses at the white visitors of the exhibition.124 The black African ‘exhibit’ thus reversed not only the colonizers’ gaze but more specifically, and quite ostentatiously, also parodied the anthropological interest in the other (using an optical instrument for enhanced vision) and reformulated, if only as an ultimately non-consequential taunt, the power relations encapsulated in both. We will encounter the gaze of the native confronting the white observer – either immediate or mediated through a mirror – again in Chapter 2. Some of the other ‘exhibits’ at Treptow similarly employed strategies of more or less direct resistance. Toby John’s use of visiting cards and his non-ethnic costume are another instance, as is August’s formal dress. If relatively restrained, the resistance engaged in by the natives to their depersonalization and their degradation as mere objects of study was nevertheless felt keenly by von Luschan. The anthropologist was exasperated by the refusal of so many of his subjects to be portrayed in ethnic costume and by their insistence on European dress. His frequent reference to Hosenneger is clearly an attempt at disciplining the mutineers. In his report, von Luschan moreover openly articulated his annoyance at not being able – in the context of the exhibition – to exert any force on the objects of his anthropological and ethnographic research.125 In the colonial context this 123 For the refusal to let oneself be photographed as a strategy of anticolonial resistance, see, e.g., Wiener, Ikonographie des Wilden, p. 189. 124 See Joachim Zeller, Weiße Blicke, schwarze Körper: Afrika(ner) im Spiegel westlicher ­Alltagskultur (Erfurt: Sutton, 2010), p. 233. 125 Von Luschan, Beiträge zur Völkerkunde der deutschen Schutzgebiete, p. 9: “Eine andere, allgemeine Schwierigkeit in Treptow lag in der grossen Unlust der meisten Leute, sich messen zu lassen, und in der vollständigen Unmöglichkeit, irgend einen Zwang auf sie auszuüben.” Yet von Luschan also acknowledges the climatic vicissitudes of the unseasonably cold summer of 1896: “My assistants and I were cold in warm clothes, and the blacks would have refused the imposition of fully undressing with the greatest indignation, even if I were to have suppressed my concerns as a doctor and to have insisted on the disrobing. I had to be content if the people removed part of

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would have been different.126 As Wiener observes, unlike Europeans, who were able to pose for their portraits as they preferred to be seen, the natives had no influence on the formal composition of anthropometric or ethnographic photographs, nor were they as customers the initiators of the photographic representation in the first place.127 In Hendrik Witbooi’s case this appears to have been different. And once again von Luschan’s photographs of Bismarck Bell and the other natives of Cameroon are interesting here because they seem to occupy an intermediate position between acquiescence and the subtle efforts of the Kaptein of the Nama to resist photographic stereotyping. While the resistance of the former promoted another, potentially even more insidious form of stereotyping by associating them with the image of the Hosenneger, Hendrik Witbooi was much more – though also not entirely – successful in resisting, or at least diverting, external control over his photographic representation. In fact, his relative autonomy appears in some instances to have provoked the discursive reclamation of the colonizers’ initiative through personal inscriptions in postcards bearing his image as they were sent. The Kaptein of the Nama was a popular subject of photographic postcards.128 In contrast to other, more ethnographic representations, his figure was individualized and postcards usually included his name as well as sometimes more detailed captions. It is also recorded of Witbooi that he liked to sign postcards bearing his portrait,129 thus not only reasserting his individuality but more specifically laying claim to a cultural practice considered essential for cultural development and the creation of a historical dimension.130 Witbooi not only appears in many different motifs

their European garments at least for the moments of the photographic exposure [Meine Gehilfen und ich froren in warmen Kleidern, und von den Schwarzen wäre die Zumutung, sich ganz zu entkleiden, mit der größten Entrüstung abgelehnt worden, selbst wenn ich meine Bedenken als Arzt unterdrückt und die Entkleidung verlangt hätte. Ich musste schon froh sein, wenn einige Leute wenigstens für die Augenblicke der photographischen Aufnahme einen Teil ihrer europäischen Hüllen abstreiften],” p. 6. For a description of the provision of appropriate food, accommodation, and garments to protect the natives from the increasingly chilly climate, see Wilhelm Gronauer, “Gesundheitszustand und Krankheiten der Eingeborenen,” in Meinecke et al. (eds.), Deutschland und seine Kolonien im Jahre 1896, pp. 43–50; see also Dreesbach, Gezähmte Wilde, pp. 259–62. 126 See Wiener, Ikonographie des Wilden, pp. 186–97. 127 See ibid., p. 113. 128 See Axster, Koloniales Spektakel in 9 × 14, p. 78. 129 See ibid., p. 79. 130 Hendrik Witbooi’s letters and diary were registered in 2005 as World Documentary Heritage, see www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/memory-of-the-world/register/ full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-5/letter-journals-of-hendrik-witbooi/ (last accessed March 3, 2018).

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but also seems to have had some influence on the photographic composition:131 The image he projected of himself is consistent throughout. With only very few exceptions, mostly when he was in the picture with others, it showed the Kaptein invariably with the same serious facial expression, in the same style of European dress, with the familiar Witbooi hat and, frequently, with his rifle. In effect, Witbooi subverted the iconography of difference through the attributes he chose for his photographic representation. They were not ‘ethnic’ but aligned him with civilization while simultaneously acknowledging his own cultural heritage. The settings for his portraits are commonly neither studio scenery nor wilderness but man-made, cultivated environments, frequently against a natural background. They support the Kaptein’s claim to autonomy based on the power of his arms and the notion of his participation in civilization embedded in the natural setting of his own country. Even so, the assertive self-representation of the Kaptein could be, and indeed was, undermined through contextual reconfigurations. Thus, Werner Hillebrecht has argued that Witbooi was paraded as a “tamed predator”;132 in other instances his authority was more or less subtly mocked. One recurrent motif, for instance, is of the Kaptein on horseback, as in the postcard portraying him in line with his staff, the caption explaining: “G. S. W. Africa. Hendrik Wittboi with his son Isaak and Secretary of War” (Figure 10).133 The setting of this image is identical with that of another showing Witbooi lined up with the Kapteins of other Nama units as once again identified by the caption: “G. S. W. Africa. Chieftains.”134 The reference to Witbooi’s “Secretary of War” in the former postcard encapsulates, like the motif of the Kaptein on horseback itself, the ambiguity of the photographic representation. To some extent, the picture parodies through its implicit incongruity the iconography of the equestrian portrait, which since antiquity – and revived in the Renaissance – was used to portray rulers mostly as military leaders;135 the notion of a Secretary of War

131 However, too little is known about his involvement in order to make an unequivocal claim, see Axster, Koloniales Spektakel in 9 × 14, p. 79. 132 Werner Hillebrecht, “Hendrik Witbooi: Ikone und Inspiration des antikolonialen Widerstands und des unabhängigen Namibia,” in Michael Bollig, Larissa Förster, and Dag Henrichsen (eds.), Namibia – Deutschland. Eine geteilte Geschichte: Widerstand – Gewalt – Erinnerung, exhibition catalogue, Cologne (Munich: Minerva, 2004), pp. 144–53, p. 148: “Er wurde als ‘gezähmtes Raubtier’ vorgeführt.” 133 “D. S. W. Afrika. Hendrik Wittboi mit seinem Sohn Isaak u. Kriegsminister.” 134 “D. S. W. Afrika. Grossleute,” found at www.delcampe.net/en_GB/marketplace/­postcards/ germany-ehemalige-dt-kolonien/k-342-dswa-grossleute-m-hendrik-witbooi-6-von-links-­ ungelaufen-328826010.html (last accessed May 30, 2016). 135 See, e.g., Norbert Schneider, The Art of the Portrait: Masterpieces of European Portrait-painting, 1420–1670 (Cologne: Taschen, 2002), pp. 26–8.

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Figure 10: “G. S. W. Africa. Hendrik Wittboi with his son Isaak and Secretary of War” (“D. S. W. Afrika. Hendrik Wittboi mit seinem Sohn Isaak u. Kriegsminister”; b/w postcard; Germany/ German South-West Africa; c. 1900).

s­ imilarly appears to suggest an element of mockery by indicating the incongruence of such an office among the natives. An even more illuminating example of subversive contextual reconfigurations of postcards of Hendrik Witbooi is suggested by another of his full-length portraits with his rifle. The old Kaptein is standing in front of an agave and some shrubs at the edge of a dusty path; he faces the camera frontally, the stock of his rifle – held loosely by its barrel – planted next to his right leg. Down to his jacket, scarf, and trademark hat, this image employs the familiar attributes and iconography associated with the Kaptein whose loyalty, following his subjection in 1894, is manifestly declared by his prominent armband in the colors of the Reich. Issued as a postcard, the portrait was inscribed with a caption that supported the martial image of the well-respected Nama chief by alluding to his military prowess. Simultaneously it insisted implicitly on his new-won fealty to the colonial power not only by ‘branding’ him with the imperial flag but also by emphasizing Germany’s claim to the possession of the territory in which he is placed: “The bold Hottentot chief Hendrick Wittboi / German-South-West-Africa.”136 136 “Der verwegene Hottentottenhäuptling Hendrick Wittboi / Deutsch-Süd-West-Afrika.” A ‘companion piece’ showing Samuel Maharero with its caption in the same red font but clearly a

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The same portrait was also issued in at least one other postcard. In this instance, it was contextually reconfigured not through the potentially ambiguous caption of the agave portrait: “Verwegen” means bold but also has connotations of recklessness. Instead, it was reconfigured through an array of visual markers which forcefully suggest the domestication of the native both in a psychological and in a political sense – both of which would of course be seriously disappointed during the year-long revolt prior to the Kaptein’s death in battle in October 1905. Most conspicuous among these visual markers is the frame with which the portrait has been surrounded (Figure 11).

Figure 11: “Captain Hendrik Witboi / Fort Gibeon and South Side of the Market Square” (“Kapitän Hendrik Witboi / Feste Gibeon und Südfront des Marktplatzes”; b/w postcard; Germany/German South-West Africa; c. 1900).

It not only literally contains, or even imprisons Witbooi; it serves moreover to exoticize and orientalize him with incorrect detail in a way which runs directly counter to the deliberately sober and solemn manner in which the Kaptein chose to represent himself: The frame shows palm trees, a bunch of bananas, montage including an earlier photograph and a studio background, inverts this characterization: “Samuel Maharero / The cowardly Paramount Chief of the Herero / German South-West Africa [Samuel Maharero / Der feige Oberhäuptling der Hereros / Deutsch-Süd-West-Afrika]”; for a reproduction, see Axster, Koloniales Spektakel in 9 × 14, p. 104, Figure 22.

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and monkeys – none of which are typical of the protectorate in the proffered shape, but are stock elements of the exoticizing metropolitan imagination of the African jungle.137 The jungle emerges in colonial discourse as the symbol of a counter-world which is indelibly designated as non-civilized. The monkeys are not only an unruly feature of this other-world but are frequently linked by association with the natives. The bananas, finally, suggest the paradisiacal fertility of the colonial territory – they were known alternatively as Paradiesfeigen (paradise figs);138 but also its exploitability. The frame’s arabesques and the orientalizing horseshoe arch further amplify its exoticizing potential and reinforce the impression of the Kaptein’s domestication conveyed through the ensemble as a whole: As if he were presented in a showcase or, in effect, conscripted to a colonial exhibition. There was, it seems, no escape from stereotyping. The sense of Witbooi’s colonial subjection is further enhanced by the second picture next to Witbooi’s portrait and tied to it through the extending frame. Establishing the correct geographical background, whose arid aspect clashes palpably with the lush vegetation in the frame, this photograph depicts Fort Gibeon and the market square of the little town which had been headquarters of the Witbooi clan since Hendrik Witbooi’s grandfather Kido had taken possession 137 South-West Africa was the most arid of the German colonies, see H. Jürgen Wächter, ­Naturschutz in den deutschen Kolonien in Afrika (1884–1918) (Münster: LIT, 2008), p. 18. For the characteristics of the protectorate’s nature and its fauna and flora, see Schnee (ed.), Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, I, 410–46 and Karlheinz Graudenz, Die deutschen Kolonien: Geschichte der deutschen Schutzgebiete in Wort, Bild und Karte (Munich: Heyne, 1985), pp. 56–71. The Cape baboon common in the protectorate is very different from the stereotypical monkeys represented in the postcard frame. Palms, mostly hyphaenae, occur only regionally in Namibia, then South-West Africa; date palms, not indigenous to the colony, were nevertheless successfully introduced by missionaries. For their distribution and further efforts to motivate their cultivation, see Kurt Dinter, Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika: Flora, Forst- und Landwirtschaftliche Fragmente (Leipzig: Weigel, 1909), pp. 161–8, who emphasizes the economic potential of date palm plantations: “To enterprising farmers and shareholders, I am especially thinking of the [German] Colonial Society here, date plantations offer the best of prospects, but 10 years of patience are required [­Unternehmungslustigen Farmern und Gesellschaften, wobei ich speziell an die Kolonialgesellschaft denke, bieten sich in der Dattelkultur die schönsten Aussichten, doch gehört 10 Jahre Geduld dazu],” p. 168; see also Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, I, 287–8. The plantation of date palms in the protectorate is mocked, e.g., in a cartoon by A. M. entitled “Zu Dernburgs Rückkehr aus Afrika: Ein kolonialpolitischer Erfolg” (“On Dernburg’s Return from Africa. A Success of Colonial Policy”) in Der wahre Jakob 24.555 (October 23, 1907): 5589, in which is imagined the Colonial Secretary’s triumphal return to Berlin on the back of a camel against the background of cheering crowds next to the Brandenburg Gate. Bernhard Dernburg, doffing his tropical hat, is sprouting from his head date palms so tall that they need to be supported by a black servant sitting behind him. 138 It appears as such still in Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon (Leipzig: Bibliographisches Institut, 1908), XIV, 292.

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of it in 1862.139 From the photograph, however, any Witbooi are excluded. The only figures indistinctly to be seen in it are an officer in his white dress uniform, a little girl in a frilly dress and presumably her father, holding her by the hand. The eerie absence of any natives is exacerbated by the fort that dominates the hill as a symbol of German colonial rule enforced by its garrison. Another, on a personal level perhaps even more assertive, contextual ­reconfiguration of the postcard featuring the agave portrait and the caption emphasizing Hendrik Witbooi’s boldness occurs in a particular copy sent contemporaneously and reproduced on the internet.140 In this instance, another inscription in what appears to be a contemporary hand has been added to the image. The brief message could hardly be more poignant: “Der ist gefallen” – “This one’s fallen.” This is all there is. No more, apparently, needed to be said, thus investing the curt but momentous statement with all the more significance. The context within which it gains this significance was clearly taken for granted. The terseness of the note in no way diminishes the suggestion of relief, even glee, at the death of the vanquished foe. Yet the verb “fallen” (“gefallen”), indicating the soldier’s death, simultaneously affirms Witbooi’s military honor. More ambiguously, the pronominal use of “der” instead of the name or title of the Kaptein moreover adds a sense of disdain or, conversely, depending on the emphasis, of awe at the death of the long-pursued rebel. In addition, the hand-written note naturally also enters into conversation with the printed inscription of the image and then not only valorizes the triumphant assertion of German victory over the native, be he ever so bold, but at the same time appears to be a response to the contemporary myth which had accrued around the warlike leader of the anticolonial resistance of the Nama in a highly damaging guerrilla warfare. This manifestation of the Kaptein’s boldness most likely had not been anticipated when the postcard had first been disseminated. Indeed, at the time of Witbooi’s renewed fierce resistance to the colonial power it must have almost been felt as a blow or even an insult to be confronted with both the portrait and its caption, because it contested the colonial claim to German SouthWest Africa inserted into the postcard. In another postcard – showing a cropped version of the previously mentioned portrait of Witbooi seated and holding on to his rifle, which I think to have been one of Rosintal’s models for Mbwapwa – the much longer hand-written note on the picture side presents a curious mixture of annoyance and a vaguely ironic self-deprecation: “This scoundrel we want to catch, but cannot do it; I too tried to

139 See Schnee (ed.), Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, I, 737. 140 Found at: www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/suedwest.htm (last accessed March 3, 2018).

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ambush him once for 3 days; but he was long gone!”141 As with the other portrait of Witbooi, the self-representation of the assertive Kaptein as expressed in the chosen attributes and iconography disseminated with the postcard provoked an individual response that sought to reconfigure its meaning in a new context. In the other postcard, showing the agave portrait, the initially positively connoted boldness of the chief, later considered rebellious, was effectively annulled by the triumphant affirmation of his death, which nevertheless implicitly conceded his heroism. The inscription on the seated portrait assumes an intermediate position between both extremes, the vexing situation not yet resolved. Obviously composed by a soldier in the Schutztruppe – the sender mentions that he has been re-deployed to Windhuk (Windhoek) the day before – his message rather reveals the frustration caused by the evasive guerrilla tactics of the Kaptein of the Nama: Not a hero, but a scoundrel. That Witbooi was finally to be mortally wounded in a skirmish only a few weeks later the sender obviously was not to know. In either instance the personal message constitutes a direct challenge to the iconographic autonomy of the Kaptein through a deictic expression (“Der” and “Diesen”). Especially the postcard with the portrait of the seated Witbooi becomes a vehicle for emblematically recovering lost ground. It serves by proxy to apprehend the wanted rebel; the elusive Kaptein is symbolically captured in the guise of his effigy. And yet, at the same time, the merely photographic capture of the native is emphasized. The postcard becomes, in effect, another battleground in the colonial war against the natives. This war is finally declared won by the short hand-written statement in the agave portrait. It invalidates the caption and relegates the postcard’s subject with terse finality to history. The senders’ choices of the photographic images of Hendrik Witbooi for their messages is hence indicative of complex contextual reconfigurations which articulate the profound insecurity of the colonizers vis-à-vis the colonial subject and, by extrapolation, also the perceived instability of the colonizer’s position. In this way, the various contextual reconfigurations of the portraits of the Kaptein are symptomatic also of the shifting response which Max Jungmann’s creation of Mbwapwa Jumbo must have provoked in relation to the changing fortunes in the protectorate. Nine years earlier some Nama and Herero had also been among the exhibits at Treptow. Von Luschan’s attitude toward the natives of German South-West Africa, and in particular the Herero, was very different from that toward the Duala. As we have seen, he observed in them the beneficent effect of decades of exposure to

141 “Diesen Halunken möchten wir gerne fangen, können es aber nicht; ich lauste ihm auch ’mal 3 Tage lang nach [i.e. auflauern]; er war aber nicht mehr da!” Found at: www.deutschsuedwester.de/meinebilder.html (last accessed March 3, 2018).

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missionary efforts and explicitly noted their refined behavior. The most refined of the Herero at the exhibition was probably Friedrich Maharero who finds no place in von Luschan’s scientific account because he did not agree to being paraded as a native. Indeed, the eldest son of the Paramount Chief of the Herero also refused to perform at the exhibition in ethnic costume. There are nevertheless two photographs of him in Meinecke’s volume. One shows him in a pressed tropical suit of elegant cut in front of a team of oxen and a posse of mounted and armed warriors.142 Even though the iconography and setting of the photograph follow established ethnographic conventions and although Maharero touches the horn of the lead ox, this only serves to increase the pervasive sense of detachment and of his posing in an unfamiliar situation beneath his dignity and which ultimately challenges the ethnographic character of the image in what seems to be an attempt to anchor himself in the staged authenticity of the setting. The other photograph of Maharero strongly emphasizes the contrast of the elegant African to the image of the Hosenneger (Figure 12).143 This clearly is not an anthropometric photograph designed to document a native phenotype, like those in von Luschan’s report. It is the portrait of an individual who is correctly and tastefully dressed in European style and whose photographic appearance conveys the impression of a strong personality. Accordingly, it is also neither in profile nor full face but in three-quarter profile which distinguishes Maharero’s portrait from the mug-shot character of the anthropometric photographs and adds to its individualistic appeal. Like Hendrik Witbooi, if in a very different way, Friedrich Maharero does therefore not conform to the expected norm. It is hardly a coincidence that Mbwapwa’s own portrait appears to be a mixture of the two, taking the general pose from Witbooi’s well-known full-length portrait and the three-quarter profile from Maharero’s probably similarly familiar bust portrait. Mbwapwa’s features may even be said to resemble those of the Herero. Indeed, I would go so far as to suggest that Rosintal traced the very photograph of Friedrich Maharero included in Germany and its Colonies in the Year 1896 (Deutschland und seine Kolonien im Jahre 1896) when he created Mbwapwa (for a comparison, see Figures 1 and 12). The fictional African Jew, or Jewish African, is in this way also distinguished from either a mere anthropological or ethnographic object and his individuality is emphasized in analogy to that of Hendrik Witbooi and of Friedrich Maharero.144 In contrast, 142 See Meinecke et al. (eds.), Deutschland und seine Kolonien im Jahre 1896, p. 26. 143 See ibid., p. 159. 144 In January 1905, Friedrich Maharero joined Witbooi in the battle of Groß Nabas against the Schutztruppe. Later he lived in exile in Bechuanaland and, though he died in Okahandja, the Herero capital in Namibia, in 1952, was only briefly allowed to enter the country.

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Figure 12: Friedrich Maharero (b/w photograph by Franz Kullrich), from Gustav Hermann Meinecke et al. (eds.), Germany and its Colonies in the Year 1896 (1897).

none of this was conceded to the real Bismarck Bell in either of the photographs included in the report on the colonial exhibition which remain purely anthropological and ethnographic, respectively. As in his comparison of the South-West African natives with the Duala in the ethnographic section of his report, von Luschan emphasized also in the section on physical anthropology the Herero’s refined behavior. Yet in this case he cautioned: “I would, however, doubt that all Herero make such a thoroughly refined impression and behave as impeccably gentleman-like as those we saw in Treptow.”145 Indeed, the perception of the Herero, as we will see in Chapter 3, was to change dramatically once the violent colonial war in German South-West Africa had erupted and instead of refinement and gentleman-like behavior the perception was now of bloodthirsty beasts in human shape. The disillusionment with the putative educability of the natives and even a sense of betrayal certainly were aggravating factors in this reversal. No such disappointment was suffered by the German colonial masters in relation to the warlike Maasai, presented as the most savage and primordial of 145 Von Luschan, Beiträge zur Völkerkunde der deutschen Schutzgebiete, p. 21: “Ich möchte allerdings bezweifeln, dass alle Herero einen so durchaus vornehmen Eindruck machen und so vollendet gentleman-like auftreten, wie die, welche wir in Treptow gesehen haben.”

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the living exhibits at Treptow, and evidently also von Luschan’s favorites. He describes them as “an exceedingly pleasing and beautiful party […], all of them exceptionally splendid human beings and, with respect to their scientific value, without doubt the highlight of the whole exhibition”; and he concludes: “The tall, lean bodies of the warriors with the childlike genial disposition will be unforgettable to anyone who has seen them.”146 The stereotypical image perpetuated by von Luschan in this instance is that of the fierce but naively innocent ‘noble savage.’ The attraction of these formidable figures was obviously also felt by the audience, if in a way that to von Luschan was entirely inacceptable. The anthropologist scathingly condemns “the extremely disgusting and contemptible behavior of a large part of the audience which can hardly be reprimanded enough.”147 Indeed, concerns were frequently voiced in relation to the dangers posed by ethnographic shows to morality.148 And although von Luschan refrains from being more explicit, he too clearly refers to the mounting sexual tension between the natives and the audience. The irresponsible behavior of the visitors resulted, as the anthropologist alleges, in Kassiúi, one of the Maasai, being “thoroughly spoilt” so that he “eventually owed little to the Hosenniggers from Cameroon as regards insolence and impunity.”149 Yet von Luschan nevertheless succeeds in salvaging his idealized image of the Maasai as noble savages. Not only is the atypical corruption of the native the product of the depravity of some members of the audience. It is moreover explained in retrospect with his similarly atypical appearance: “He was also the only one among his closer countrymen present with an unappealing and brutal appearance” (see Figure 13a, b).150 The sympathy extended to the Maasai by the anthropologist is not an isolated instance. In fact, the Maasai continued to exercise the German imagination. Their uncompromised otherness promoted a sense of restrained physical menace which engendered fascination while the Duala Hosenneger provoked an 146 Ibid., p. 32: “Eine ganz überaus erfreuliche und schöne Gesellschaft […], alles ausgesucht prächtige Menschen und, was den wissenschaftlichen Wert angeht, zweifellos der Glanzpunkt der ganzen Ausstellung. Die grossen, schlanken Kriegergestalten mit dem kindlich liebenswürdigen Gemüt werden jedem unvergesslich sein, der sie gesehen.” 147 Ibid., p. 36: “[…] das kaum genug zu tadelnde und höchst widerwärtige und verächtliche Benehmen eines grossen Teiles des Publikums.” 148 Dreesbach, Gezähmte Wilde, pp. 239–42. 149 Von Luschan, Beiträge zur Völkerkunde der deutschen Schutzgebiete, p. 36: “Der einzige unter seinen Landsleuten, der […] gründlich verdorben wurde und mit der Zeit an Unverschämtheit und Frechheit den Kameruner Hosenniggers wenig nachgab.” 150 Ibid.: “Er war übrigens auch der einzige unter seinen anwesenden engeren Landsleuten mit einem unsympathischen und brutalen Aussehen.”

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Figure 13a, b: Kassiúi (b/w photographs), from Felix von Luschan, Contributions to the Ethnography of the German Protectorates (1897).

unacknowledged sense of dread turned into contempt and ridicule because their otherness was indeterminate, was in flux. Intriguingly, the Maasai were also associated with the Jews – and in this case, it was the Jews who were perceived as protean or degenerate. Albeit very brief, Jungmann’s reference in “Letters from New-Newland” to the Maasai – as allied to the reform invaders and later stealing the colonists’ cattle and trampling their fields – therefore arguably reverberates with connotations evoked by the perceived character of the fierce and imposing East African warriors.

Hideous Hittites and Magnificent Maasai While the association of the Jews with the Maasai may seem unlikely to the modern reader, contemporary comparative ethnographic research proposed a close relationship between both peoples. In winter 1903, roughly at the same time when Mbwapwa made his first appearance in Schlemiel, and duly recorded in the magazine, the Africa explorer Carl Georg Schillings had made reference in a lecture to Moritz Merker’s forthcoming The Maasai: Ethnographic Monograph on an East African Semitic People (Die Masai: Ethnographische Monographie eines ostafrikanischen Semitenvolkes). In this meticulous study, which did indeed appear in the following year 1904 and which even now is considered to be methodologically “far

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ahead many of its contemporaries,” if historically not tenable,151 the author argued: “The Maasai belong to the large family of Semitic peoples whose original homeland is the Arabian peninsula as the nursery of the Semites.”152 More specifically, Merker maintained that he considered the Maasai “to be the descendants of that nomadic Semitic people to which belonged the pastoral people of the most ancient Hebrews.”153 Himself of assimilated Jewish heritage, Merker was from 1895 to his early death in 1906 an officer in the imperial Schutztruppe in German East Africa. An ardent ethnographer in his spare time, Merker based his assessment mostly on historical, cultural, and religious affinities – congruities “of prehistory, of the earliest religious tradition and anything that may be subsumed under the term religion”154 – but also considered physical features, the psyche, and the language of both peoples in his comparative analysis.155 Intriguingly, the Maasai are described by the ethnographer not only as warlike but are also credited with physical characteristics which are very much in contrast to contemporary constructions of the Jewish body which, as Sander Gilman has shown, were linked, in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, “to the underlying ideology of anti-Semitism.”156 The Jewish physique was read as “a sign of the inherent difference of the Jew”;157 it was considered a marker of inferiority and degeneracy,158 which were supposed to manifest themselves in the physiognomy, misshapen bone structure, flat feet, and susceptibility to physical and mental diseases ascribed to the Jew. Yet, according to Merker, the semites – and the Maasai – are “tall, lean figures with appealing, delicately shaped facial features, narrow, frequently large but not rarely downright graceful feet and hands.”159 The apparent discrepancy is attributed by Merker to what he declares to be a common misconception. He explains: 151 Knut Holter, “The Maasai and the Old Testament. Marking the Centennial of M. Merker’s Monograph on the Maasai,” Bulletin for Old Testament Studies in Africa 16 (2004): 13–16, 13. 152 Moritz Merker, Die Masai: Ethnographische Monographie eines ostafrikanischen Semitenvolkes (Berlin: Reimer, 1904), p. 1: “Die Masai gehören zu der grossen semitischen Völkerfamilie, deren Urheimat die arabische Halbinsel, als die Kinderstube der Semiten, ist.” As Merker acknowledges, Felix von Luschan had already made a similar observation, see p. 4. 153 Ibid., p. 5: “[D]ass ich die Masai für die Nachkommen desjenigen nomadisierenden Semitenvolkes halte, dem das Hirtenvolk der ältesten Ebräer angehörte.” 154 Ibid., p. 328: “Uebereinstimmungen […] der Urgeschichte, der religiösen Urtradition und allem, was man unter der Bezeichnung Religion zusammenfasst.” 155 See ibid., p. 4. 156 Gilman, Jew’s Body, p. 38. 157 Ibid. 158 See ibid., pp. 39–43. 159 Merker, Masai, p. 4: “[H]ohe, schlanke Gestalten mit sympathischen, feingeschnittenen Gesichtszügen, schmalen, oft grossen, aber nicht selten geradezu zierlichen Füssen und Händen.”

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When the layman thinks about Semites, he normally thinks about human beings whose outward appearance is alike to that of today’s Jews or very similar to it. This is entirely wrong, for the Jews are for the most part no longer Semites. They were, for as long as they were not sedentary; but then immediately began an energetic hybridization of races which subsequently very much changed the shape of the body and developed it into a new one.160

According to Merker, as the product of this “energetic hybridization,” the racial type of the contemporary Jew is determined by that of the ancient Hittite. This is characterized “by strongly brachycephalic heads, dark hair, dark eyes, big curved fleshy nose, a strongly receding forehead, prominent cheek bones, coarse bones and the corresponding stocky physique.”161 Notably, Merker’s evaluation of these characteristics, which he considers to be “ungainly,”162 remains purely aesthetic and does not extend to any explicit moralistic judgement, as did von Luschan’s observations. In accordance with the current scientific paradigm, as explained by Gilman, his reference to hybridization would nevertheless have suggested to most of Merker’s readers more than a hint of degeneracy and would have confirmed, at least implicitly, the notion of the diseased and inferior Jewish body. With respect to the Maasai, Merker acknowledges that this people also experienced a hybridization. He concedes that the semitic features described by him are neither shared by every Maasai nor to be observed in their totality in the majority of the Maasai. Yet he nevertheless argues that their racial heritage is predominantly semitic and that this distinguishes the Maasai from the negroid peoples among whom they live and whose racial traits he describes conventionally as follows: As Negroes or Nigritites I designate those African coarse-boned peoples whose physique ranges from squat to stocky, whose facial features are “negro-like,” i.e. that show thick pouting lips and broad flat noses, and whose skull is rather prognathous.163

In the light of the ethnographic identification of the biblical Hebrews with the Maasai through their alleged common semitic heritage, with which Jungmann 160 Ibid.: “Wenn der Laie von Semiten hört, so denkt er in der Regel an Menschen, deren Aeus­ seres dem der heutigen Juden gleicht oder sehr ähnlich ist. Dies ist nun durchaus falsch, denn die Juden sind in ihrer Allgemeinheit keine Semiten mehr. Sie waren es, solange sie nicht an­ sässig waren; dann begann aber sofort eine energische Rassenmischung, welche in der Folge die Kör­perform sehr stark veränderte und zu einer neuen ausbildete.” 161 Ibid., p. 5: “[…] durch stark brachycephale Köpfe, dunkles Haar, dunkle Augen, grosse gebogene fleischige Nase, eine stark zurücktretende Stirn, hervortretende Backenknochen, grobe Knochen und einen dadurch bedingten plumpen Körperbau.” 162 Ibid., p. 4: “unschön.” 163 Ibid., p. 1n1: “Als Neger oder Nigritier bezeichne ich die afrikanischen grobknochigen Völker, deren Körperbau gedrungen bis plump ist, deren Gesichtszüge ‘negerhaft’ sind, d. h. dicke aufgeworfene Lippen und breite niedrige Nasen zeigen, und deren Schädel ziemlich prognath ist.”

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may well have been familiar,164 the satirist’s reference to the Maasai may indeed be meant to make the most of the once again clearly ambivalent potential of racial indeterminacy and cross-over this indicates. The development of the Maasai suggests an alternative history to the Jews: ‘This is what we could have turned into, had we chosen to settle in Africa…’; conversely, it gives an indication also of the potential future of the (fictitious) Jewish colony: ‘This is what we may yet turn into, if we choose to settle in Africa….’ At a time when the issue of the Uganda Plan was still hotly debated within the Zionist Organization such a suggestion must have struck the readers of Schlemiel as highly ambivalent. Not least because the sideways glance at the Maasai at the same time also relates to Zionist constructions of Jewishness, because it in turn also brings forcefully to mind what the Jews did become, or were perceived to have become – at least according to both hetero- and autostereotypes of the degenerate Jew as described also by Merker. Indeed, the Jews in the African colony as they emerge from Mbwapwa’s correspondence are the epitome of the diaspora Jew. They are the embodiment of the degradation and degeneration to which the Jews allegedly were subject after the loss of the Promised Land. The confrontation with the Maasai, who were supposed to have remained true to their ancestral essence, may then potentially also be meant to exhort the Jews to restore the essence of their own valiant ancestors in the biblical Promised Land. The new-new land in Africa, as another consequence, cannot offer the prerequisite for this restoration which consists of the amalgamation of both old and new in Old-New Land. Even if this allusion was not intended, the distinct differences between the Jews and the Maasai in Jungmann’s text become significant and the goings-on in the colony then appear to articulate vicarious criticism of the inadequacy of the colonizing Jews not only in relation to the colonial enterprise but also to the transformation into the New Jew envisaged by Zionism.165 In marked contrast to the warlike Maasai, “what are all wild niggers and live from mutually killing themselves” (LNN II, 20–1/23–4), the Jews of New-Newland can neither agree on a course of action to recover their stolen cattle nor do they have any inclination to warfare.166 It is indicative of the Jewish disposition in the

164 Schillings’s lecture in Berlin in winter 1903 as well as his and Merker’s claim obviously caught the attention of the Jewish press as is evidenced by the anonymous review of Merker’s study in Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums which makes mention of Schillings’s lecture, “Die Bibel am Kilimandscharo,” Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums 68.43 (October 21, 1904): 513. 165 For the ‘New Jew,’ see, e.g., Berkowitz, Zionist Culture, chapter 4. 166 The attacking reform Jews moreover demonstrate cowardice by shouting: “Maasai to the front!” (LNN II, 49/56).

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colony that Chaskel the Scribe finally silences the helpless chatter with what in the given circumstances can only be considered an absurd proposal: Gentlemen, what is this you say? Consider that a people first of all is in need of education, art, and science; for a country needs two things, freedom and bread; and an old adage says: Education sets free and art pursues bread. More I do not need to say a word. I therefore propose to establish a University for Scholarship and an Academy for Art on the summit of [Mount] Kenya. (LNN II, 65–9/75–80)

The establishment of Hebrew University, whose foundation stone was laid in 1918 and which was finally opened on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem in 1925, had been suggested by Hermann Schapira already at the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897 and was subsequently promoted through various resolutions of later Congresses. Already in 1906, the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts was established by Boris Schatz in Jerusalem after having been endorsed by the Seventh Zionist Congress in the previous year.167 The very notion of putting culture first, of valorizing education and the arts indicates that the Jews in the colony are not only different from those around them:168 Their very survival is at peril. The insistence on the precedence of culture is moreover reminiscent of the tenets of cultural Zionism which sought to defer the political solution to the Jewish question until a time when the spirit of the Jewish people was reborn. To the political Zionists, this meant to stray toward the abyss. Persecution, they argued, made the establishment at least of an “asylum” an absolute priority. Hence also the division between ITO, pursuing any viable means of acquiring such an asylum, wherever, and the Zionist Organization which aimed to secure Palestine, or the old-new land, for the restoration of the Jewish homeland. It is therefore perhaps only to be expected that Zionism also resurges in the African colony. Doubts about the sustainability of New-Newland are first raised in Mbwapwa’s third communication. A motion to contribute to the Jewish National Fund (JNF), whose purpose was the acquisition of land in Palestine, is discussed in parliament in response to a memorandum by Johann Kremenezky, the founder and first Director of the JNF. Unexpectedly, it is Mbwapwa – more Jewish now than the ‘black’ Jews – who upbraids the colonists for their reluctance to support the Zionist movement outside their own limited purview:

167 For the notion of the productivization of Palestine Jewry attached to the Bezalel Arts and Crafts School, see Penslar, Zionism and Technocracy, pp. 73–4. Originally proposed as a pure arts academy, Otto Warburg and Franz Oppenheimer had insisted on the inclusion of crafts. 168 For the significance accorded to education (Bildung) by Zionism, see, e.g., Berkowitz, Zionist Culture, pp. 2–3.

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Are you being Jews? Such hard Jews should live in Africa? Truly, we niggers have blushed all red seeing this hard-bodiedness (Chaskel: hard-heartedness!) and will give from our own volition for the sacred purpose. We savages are the better humans yet. (LNN III, 35–8/37–40)

The critical position taken by Schlemiel toward the JNF has been discussed in detail by Michael Berkowitz. He observes that the journal “was one of the first Zionist publications to address the possible affinities or tensions between traditional concepts of charity […] and fundraising for Zionism.”169 And it did so with some success. Kremenezky, satirized in Mbwapwa’s letter as John (Johann) Lackland, “feared that the journal might actually discourage Jews from giving to the JNF.”170 While the parliamentary debate in the African colony thus reflects the frequently controversial response to the persistent campaigning for the JNF, Mbwapwa’s criticism is nevertheless important for various reasons. For one, he indicates another change of epidermal hue, from black to red. As we will see in more detail in Chapter 2, the African Jew’s color oscillations between black and white are significant within the colonial paradigm, yet Mbwapwa’s and his compatriots’ reddening indicates another affiliation – within a political spectrum. Red is of course the color of socialism. In another piece in Schlemiel, discussed by Berkowitz, Kremenezky, soliciting contributions to the JNF, is represented as a worker, although he was in fact an industrialist171 – another instance of the leopard changing its spots or the chameleon assuming another color. There may moreover be undertones of addressing the social question through the solution to the Jewish question, as suggested also by Herzl in The Jewish State (Der Judenstaat, 1896).172 Perhaps more pertinently, the Social Democrats considered colonialism as the perpetuation of capitalism and were therefore ideologically opposed to it even though, individually, they may have supported the idea of colonies in a patriotic spirit.173 More important in the context of this book is Mbwapwa’s unacknowledged quote from Johann Gottfried Seume’s ballad “The Savage” (“Der Wilde,” 1793), which promotes the image of the noble savage. As we will see in more detail in Chapters 3 and 5, the well-known phrase – “We savages are the better humans yet”  – was to surface variously in the debate on the colonial wars in German South-West Africa. It in fact was quoted in the very same month in which this installment of the special correspondent’s communications appeared in the 169 Ibid., p. 182. 170 Ibid., p. 183. 171 See ibid., p. 182. 172 See, e.g., Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State, transl. Sylvie d’Avigdor, rev. Jacob M. Alkow (1896; New York: Dover, 1988), pp. 53, 150–2; see also Theodor Herzl, Der Judenstaat (1896; Berlin: Jüdischer Verlag, 1920), pp. 52–3, 67–8. 173 See Davis, Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent, p. 37n37.

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­ arliamentary debate on the Herero War. Mbwapwa’s reference is thus not only p another allusion to the ongoing colonial conflict and its ubiquity in political and public discourse but moreover invokes its ambivalent semantic potential in regard to the alleged barbarism of both natives and colonizers and to the cultural values by which either is determined. The phrase in effect aligns the events in the Jewish colony with the current colonial situation and once again redirects, if obliquely, attention to the land where such things do not occur and where no savages, be they black or white, reside: Palestine. This is made more explicit in the course of Mbwapwa’s letters when the Zionist movement in the colony gathers momentum. The following rather lengthy passage from the special correspondent’s sixth letter is quite illuminating in this context: Our future fell into the water and for this reason we will soon be left high and dry. A mischief, or as they say in German: A malheur has come upon Uganda and the Jews begin to be discontent with their situation. The economic situation is good, but the geographical location of the country is not to their liking. To my shame I have to admit that Chaskel the Scribe is most to blame for the confusion, and he has become a strong agitator. He runs from one person to the next and from the next to the first, crying: “In Romania, Russia, and Galicia we were suffering; but,” he cries: “there, at least we lived among civilized peoples, we lived among people with feeling. Yet here they are as savage as the wolves. And then,” he exclaims, “when we wanted to go on an excursion before, we went to Germany, where we were received with love and where we were given policemen as an escort so that no harm would befall us. Yet here, what neighbors do we have? Maasai and Herero and Bondelzwart, black robbers and bandits, God should have mercy.” And that’s the way he speaks. My heart shrivels in my body, and I called to him: “What do we care about our neighbors?” Then he turns around and says: “Mister Jumbo, there is the word from a German poet, where he sings: It cannot live in peace the very best, If his neighbors will not let him rest.” (LNN VI, 2–20/2–22)

The densely woven passage offers rich pickings. It suggests that it is not economic gain that motivates the Zionist movement. As such, it discounts colonial endeavors based on capitalist principles. The reservations about the colony’s location need of course to be seen in context with the ultimate aim of settling in Palestine. Even so, there is a hint of the anxiety of being cast among the barbarians, which would have been resonant in relation not only to the concurrent colonial confrontations in the German protectorates but also in relation to the old-new land of Israel. Herzl had conceived of the Jewish state as a “rampart” against Asiatic barbarism.174 Yet the notion of being at the frontier, all but cast adrift from the 174 Herzl maintained that a Jewish Palestine would represent “a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism,” Herzl, Jewish State, p. 96; see also Herzl, Judenstaat, p. 24: “Für Europa würden wir dort ein Stück des Walles gegen Asien bilden, wir würden den Vorpostendienst der Kultur gegen die Barbarei besorgen.” See also Ritchie

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safety of the civilized nations was also discomfiting. Indeed, the fear of losing the comfort of living among the civilized nations impacted significantly on the seriousness with which central and western European Zionists contemplated their active participation in the colonization effort.175 Hence the suggestion, if ironically subverted, of a certain nostalgia even for the pogrom-ridden eastern European countries. Antisemitism, as we will see in the next chapter, is presented in Schlemiel as an integral part of civilization. The eastern European perpetrators are therefore not only people of feeling, as manifest in their antisemitic frenzy, but they are civilized – and you have to take the good with the bad. The barbarism ascribed to the African natives is of a different order. And it is here that the current colonial situation once again intrudes into the Zionist particular. Chaskel echoes public and parliamentary discourse on the alleged bestiality of the insurgent indigenes in the German protectorates, identified here in direct reference to contemporary precedent as Herero and Bondelzwart as well as  – unsubstantiated, but founded on their legendary bellicose nature – as Maasai. His reference to them as “savage” like wild animals, “wolves” in fact, is reminiscent of the shift in the perception of the natives which, as we will see in more detail in Chapter 3, was a corollary of their unexpectedly forceful resistance to the colonial project. Their denunciation as “robbers” and “bandits” was derived from the same discourse and we will encounter these designations once again in Chapter 3. Jungmann’s appropriation of this discourse to his reflection on colonialism through Mbwapwa as his focalizer challenges the disparaging and dehumanizing conception of the other it conveys. The amiable Mbwapwa, unsurprisingly, is hurt by his friend’s denunciation. Chaskel’s remark, revealed to replicate the colonizer’s idiom, is bitterly ironic in relation to the barbaric treatment both Jews and blacks experience at the hands of the so-called civilized nations and to its discursive priming. The bond between Jews and blacks of being the victims of persecution which was emphasized in the very first of Mbwapwa’s communications is thus reinforced at a time when the effect of her colonial wars was increasingly felt in imperial Germany. In this context Mbwapwa’s observation that the future of the colony “fell into the water,” as the result of these developments, gains also added significance. It surely must be understood as harking back to the Kaiser’s vision of Germany’s ­ obertson, “‘Urheimat Asien’: The Re-orientation of German and Austrian Jews, 1900–1925,” R German Life and Letters 49 (1996): 182–92, 187 and, for a discussion of Herzl’s Old-New Land in the context of the so called Kulturfrage, the cultural question, Matti Bunzl, “The Poetics of Politics and the Politics of Poetics: Richard Beer-Hofmann and Theodor Herzl Reconsidered,” The German Quarterly 69 (1996): 277–304, 284–7. 175 See, e.g., Berkowitz, Zionist Culture, p. 7.

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imperial future lying on the water, which was referenced with the cartoon by F. W. in the second issue of Schlemiel and is discussed at the beginning of this chapter. The implication then appears to be that Jungmann’s satire is aimed not only at the Zionist venture but also at the German colonial endeavor. It suggests that the imperial vision has failed, is in fact a delusion – which, in the face of the very real challenge posed to the colonial hegemony by the anticolonial resistance in the African protectorates, would not even seem to be too far-fetched. This multidirectional satiric polyvalence of Mbwapwa’s communication is also manifest in the quotation which concludes the cited passage. Chaskel, ever handy with a suitable quote or, as this instance indicates, an unsuitable one, resorts to Friedrich Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell (1804).176 The reference is inappropriate in this case, because the couplet’s spirit in fact contradicts the scribe’s earlier diatribe. Schiller’s play celebrates the idea of national freedom and endorses anti-imperial, and therefore also anticolonial, resistance. It is, in effect, another indictment of colonialism which is, after all, the origin of the unrest among the natives, both in Mbwapwa’s letter and in the gruesome contemporary reality of colonial conflict in German South-West and little later also in East Africa. There is, however, once again another dimension to this which answers more specifically to the internal divisions within Jewry. In the German original, as quoted by Chaskel, Schiller’s text refers to the most pious – “der Frömmste” – who cannot live in peace if his evil neighbor will not let him do so. With the German superlative of “fromm” almost homophone with, and certainly etymologically related to, Yiddish frum, this is another reference to the orthodox persuasion of the ‘black’ Mizrachi Jews in Uganda which, in the context of Schlemiel, is most likely intended to be ironic since Jungmann, as we have seen, considered the Mizrachi to be the divisive force among the Zionists.

Rifle and Bottle, Umbrella and Fez Ever since individuals have been represented in portraits, further semantic dimensions were included with the addition of attributes which – to differing degrees – would indicate the social position, personal situation, and character of those represented. Hendrik Witbooi, as we have seen, was keen to have himself portrayed with his rifle. Eduard Thöny’s Herero wore the “African crown” and grasped a bottle of spirits. Mbwapwa, in addition to the obvious markers of his Jewishness (side176 See Friedrich Schiller, Wilhelm Tell, in Werke: Nationalausgabe, ed. Siegfried Seidel (­Weimar: Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1980), X, 177–227, ll. 2682–3 and note VI.f in Appendix II.

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locks and kippah), clasps an umbrella – which is therefore invested with particular significance.177 And the question accordingly is why the African Jew would be furnished by the creator of his image with an umbrella. The answer, I think, must be deduced from its wide-ranging and ambivalent semantic potential which associates the umbrella with Jews as much as with oriental despots and with convenient ingenuously designed and omnipresent modern fashion accessories. More specifically, in a colonial context, the umbrella became a significant object in the imperial metanarrative of the supremacy of western civilization and its civilizing mission. In fact, it has been described as “the very synecdoche” of modern colonialism.178 In an illuminating essay on “The Evolution of the Umbrella” (1890) readers of Chambers’s Journal were informed that the ubiquitous umbrella, “rarely given a thought” anymore in “the present rapid nineteenth-century mode of living,” was initially – and not very long ago, at that – an “object of derision” in Britain.179 Yet tracing the umbrella’s genealogy, the anonymous writer asserts that “[f]rom the earliest times in the Eastern countries, the umbrella was one of the emblems of royalty and power” and that its “application as a defence from rain was quite an after-thought.”180 As such, however, the umbrella has undergone a remarkable evolution which reflects not only on its pervasive use in the precipitation-prone British Isles but also on the technical resourcefulness of which its western manifestations are a product: Umbrellas when first used in this country were heavy, ungainly articles, which did not hold well together. Considerable ingenuity has been exercised to bring them to their present compact, serviceable, and elegant forms.181

As Ariel Beaujot has shown, in nineteenth-century Britain the umbrella – not as a “rain-shield,”182 but as a social attribute – was considered a symbol of “colonial backwardness”183 that denoted despotism and tyranny because ­traditional

177 This section is a slightly expanded version of a part of my “Zionism, Colonialism, and the German Empire: Herzl’s Gloves and Mbwapwa’s Umbrella,” in Ulrike Brunotte, Anna-Dorothea Ludewig, and Axel Stähler (eds.), Orientalism, Gender, and the Jews: Literary and Artistic Transformations of European National Discourses (Berlin and Boston: de Gruyter, 2015), pp. 98–123. 178 Roger V. Bell, Sounding the Abyss: Readings between Cavell and Derrida (Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2004), p. 246. 179 Anonymous, “The Evolution of the Umbrella,” Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Arts (June 21, 1890): 394–6, 394. 180 Ibid., 395. 181 Ibid., 395–6. 182 Ibid., 395. 183 Ariel Beaujot, “The Material Culture of Women’s Accessories: Middle-Class Performance, Race Formation and Feminine Display, 1830–1920” (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Toronto, 2008), p. 36. Beaujot’s engaging original thesis is sufficiently different from her recently published

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sumptuary laws in the East and in Africa restricted its use to persons of authority. As such, umbrellas signifying the sovereignty of native rulers were brought “as imperial spoils to the metropole as symbols of British power over subjugated nations.”184 The most notorious of these occasions was probably the capture of the state umbrella of the King of Ashantee in 1874 in conclusion of the Third Anglo-Ashantee War. A note on “Coffee Calcallee’s Umbrella” in the Illustrated London News, for instance, celebrated that “[t]he Ashantee war has yielded a trophy of Sir Garnet Wolseley’s victorious arms in the state umbrella of his Majesty King Coffee Calcallee.”185 It went on to explain: Our readers do not require to be told that the umbrella is not for use, to keep off rain or sunshine, though shelter against both is needful in a tropical clime; but that it is an emblem of pomp and dignity, held over the King’s head on all ceremonial occasions.186

In the following week, this was complemented by a notice that the state umbrella of the King of Ashantee was to be “exhibited in the South Kensington Museum.”187 The apparent incongruity of the evaluation of what was, after all, ‘only’ an umbrella and the cultural difference by which it was engendered was seized upon by Punch in a cartoon entitled “Dearly Bought” (1874) which, while it extols the British military success, nevertheless challenges the political gain of the campaign.188 A very different purpose of the umbrella was alleged by Heinrich Liersemann, whom we will encounter again in Chapter 5 as the advocate of an impending race war. In the aftermath of Mpundo Akwa’s trial, briefly mentioned above and discussed in more detail in Chapter 5, the retired naval officer described the prince’s father, the Duala king Dika Akwa in Cameroon in deliberately pejorative terms, not failing to mention his supposedly cowardly use of an umbrella: When Akwa takes to the river to engage in some business he does so usually without making a great fuss and very often he hides himself away – like so many others of the local debtors – behind an opened umbrella, so that his other European creditors should not see him. At other occasions he has no compunctions to show himself present.189

book, Victorian Fashion Accessories (London and New York: Berg, 2013), to warrant references also to this earlier, unpublished, work which is available at https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/26449/1/Beaujot_Ariel_F_200802_PhD_thesis.pdf (last accessed March 3, 2018). 184 Beaujot, “Material Culture of Women’s Accessories,” p. 22. 185 Anonymous, “Coffee Calcallee’s Umbrella,” Illustrated London News (March 21, 1874): 278. 186 Ibid. 187 Anonymous, [No title], Illustrated London News (March 28, 1874): 306. 188 See Joseph Swain, “Dearly Bought,” Punch (March 21, 1874): 121. 189 Heinrich Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa: Ein ­Beitrag zur Rassenfrage (Berlin: Schwetschke and Sohn, 1907), pp. 8–9: “Wenn Akwa zu jemand Geschäfte halber auf dem Flusse fährt, so tut er solches gewöhnlich ohne viel Aufsehen und

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Tainted by Liersemann’s venomous rancor, the ceremonial umbrella is re-­ interpreted here as a tool for evasion and deception. More likely, the King would have traveled sheltered beneath his umbrella of state similar to the way in which it appeared in a woodcut based on an original photograph and published in the popular magazine Die Gartenlaube in the year in which the German protectorate in Cameroon was established. Indeed, the “War Canoe of the Duala in Cameroon” (“Kriegscanoe der Dualla in Kamerun,” 1884) gives a good indication of the manner in which the chief “sits proudly under an enormous umbrella, surrounded by the most loyal of his people.”190 Liersemann’s accusation is clearly a misrepresentation, possibly due to his ignorance, that denigrates the ceremonial use of the umbrella and denies its symbolic significance. It as such appears to be part of a strategy of forcefully substituting the colonizer’s pragmatic values and logic for native customs which, by implication, are belittled and rejected. Alternatively, native traditions could be made subservient to the objectives of the colonial powers in order to articulate their claims to authority in a s­ ymbolic idiom readily available to the subaltern. Accordingly, the semantic potential of the umbrella too was recognized and exploited. Its appropriation by the colonizer as a symbol of hierarchy aided in reinforcing the imperial structure.191 Thus, it was emphasized in the anonymous essay in Chambers’s Journal that “[w]hen the Prince of Wales went to India [i.e. in 1875–76], a golden sun-shade had to be placed over his head, as a symbol of his sovereignty.”192 In turn, “[m]any of the natives presented him with umbrellas as parting souvenirs”193 – which would seem to indicate that a meaningful dialogue was engaged in. At the same time, the umbrella was also, as observed by Beaujot, a symbol of “Western progress, democracy and civility.”194 Again, these points are implicitly confirmed by the essay on “The Evolution of the Umbrella.” Its anonymous author emphasized not only the technical ingenuity which eventually led to the invention of the “‘Paragon’ rib, which is formed of a thin strip of steel rolled into a U or trough section,”195 but also the universal use of the sophisticated sehr oft verkriecht er sich dann auch noch – wie so viele andern der dortigen Schuldner – hinter einem aufgespannten Schirm, damit ihn seine übrigen europäischen Gläubiger nicht sehen sollen. Bei andern Gelegenheiten zeigt er schon, daß er da ist.” 190 Jung, “Deutschlands Colonialbestrebungen,” 612: “[W]ährend er selbst [i.e. der Häuptling] stolz unter einem gewaltigen bunten Regenschirm sitzt, von den Treuesten seines Volkes umgeben.” 191 See Beaujot, “Material Culture of Women’s Accessories,” p. 123. See also Beaujot, Victorian Fashion Accessories, p. 105. 192 Anonymous, “Evolution of the Umbrella,” 395. 193 Ibid. 194 Beaujot, “Material Culture of Women’s Accessories,” p. 127. 195 Anonymous, “Evolution of the Umbrella,” 396.

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apparatus across all strata of society – in contrast to the continuing restrictions in oriental climes, as evidence of which he cited the example of John Kitto: The “innocent traveller” made use of his umbrella during a downpour in Constantinople as a matter of course and was promptly assailed at bayonet point by a palace guard for wrongfully appropriating a symbol “emblematic of royalty.”196 The loss of signification as it is described here was also observed by Carl Peters in his The German Emin Pasha Expedition (Die deutsche Emin-Pascha-­Expedition, 1891). Yet in this instance the democratization favored by the anonymous author of the essay occurs among the natives and the result of the royal symbol having been transported to and re-interpreted in Europe and then turned into an African reimport is merely ridiculous and presumptuous. The ensemble, without the word actually being used by Peters, is that of an unfinished Hosenneger. In his account of the East African expedition, the explorer accordingly mocks one of his guides as: “The ideal of an Usukuma dandy!”197 As if wearing European clothes and a pith helmet were not enough, the silly native – in Peters’ account – has moreover appropriated an umbrella, or parasol, and gloves: European trousers and a European shirt graced the young gentleman; his solemnly moving head was protected by the European pith helmet against the rays of the sun so dangerous to more sophisticated brains. Yet this was not enough for our friend. As he had seen in Bagamoyo, he opened, when the sun climbed higher at around 8 o’clock, a parasol and in order to protect his delicate hands pulled on a pair of woollen gloves, size 13.198

Peters’ scorn is provoked by the implications: The native’s audacity in s­ uggesting – if only implicitly and, in fact, mainly as insinuated by the explorer  – that he is in possession of a sophisticated brain and delicate hands, equal to Europeans, which require particular protection from his native clime for which he has become all too refined. The genealogy of Mbwapwa’s umbrella seems to be a different one. That his umbrella is neatly folded distinguishes him from the “dandy” who is ridiculous 196 Ibid., 395. 197 Carl Peters, Die deutsche Emin-Pascha-Expedition (Munich and Leipzig: Oldenbourg, 1891), p. 479: “Das Ideal eines Usukumadandys!” 198 Ibid.: “Europäische Beinkleider und ein europäisches Hemd zierten den jungen Gentleman; sein feierlich bewegtes Haupt beschützte der europäische Tropenhelm gegen die Strahlen der für feiner organisierte Gehirne so gefährlichen Sonne. Doch dies genügte für unsern Freund nicht. Wie er es in Bagamoyo gesehen hatte, spannte er, wenn die Sonne gegen 8 Uhr höher stieg, einen ­Sonnenschirm auf und zog sich zum Schutze seiner zarten Hände ein Paar Wollhandschuhe, Nr. 13, an.”

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precisely because he uses the umbrella in a fashion reserved for Europeans and, more specifically, European females of a certain social order – a dimension indicated also by the implicit allusion in Rudolf Hellwege’s illustration of the Usukuma dandy to Claude Monet’s Woman with a Parasol paintings (1875, 1886).199 Conversely, if Mbwapwa were nothing but an African chief, his umbrella might simply signify his status as a despotic ruler. Matters are complicated, however, by the fact that he is “Chief (retd) of Uganda” (LNN I, 59/60), that he was effectively deposed, yet has been allowed to hold on to his umbrella. This would suggest a civilizing influence and a democratic principle. Yet, again, his umbrella is tidily folded, and as such its symbolic potential as an emblem of royalty is also curtailed. Not enough with this, Mbwapwa is also a Jew – if only by conversion. And by virtue of his having metamorphosed into a doubly black Jew – by his epidermal hue and by his orthodox persuasion – he is simultaneously colonized and colonizer. As such, his umbrella connotes his participation in the imperial metanarrative of western progress and civilization, but – once more – on either side of the divide. The questions posed by the portrait of Mbwapwa, and prefixed in the form of his image to each of the nine letters, are therefore: Where is the line between savage and civilized? Where are the Jews to be positioned in relation to both? And, what manner of entitlement and responsibility is carried by either notion? Moreover, in the historical context of the Herero War, the image simultaneously challenges current constructions of blacks as “beasts in human shape,” the implicit identification with Jews investing them with a dignity which is ultimately derived from biblical authority. There is, however, also another, less elevated paradigm suggested by the umbrella, and one which may have been more readily recognizable to the German Jewish readers of Schlemiel. Countless satirical and predominantly antisemitic postcards of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries portray in particular eastern European Jewish peddlers with an umbrella.200 The specimen is then mostly a messy and bent one, negligently carried, which complements the unkempt appearance of its owner and reflects his low social standing.201 Much less 199 See ibid. 200 I am grateful to Jay Geller for directing my attention to representations of Jews with umbrellas on this type of postcard. A variety of samples of this iconographic tradition may be viewed at Bildindex der Kunst und Literatur, www.bildindex.de/obj20081419.html#|home (last accessed March 3, 2018). Since then, Salo Aizenberg, Hatemail: Anti-Semitism on Picture Postcards (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2013), has been published; the book includes a brief chapter on “Jews Carrying Umbrellas,” pp. 72–3, in which a short story by Sholem Aleichem is referred to as a literary source for the Jewish umbrella. 201 The shape, condition, and folding of the umbrella as a social marker in Victorian society have been explored by Beaujot, Victorian Fashion Accessories, p. 131. Michaela Haibl has

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dignified than a staff, it is nevertheless an evocative attribute of the Wandering Jew, suggesting exile at the mercy of the elements, perhaps also the nomad’s tent, and, in a psychoanalytical reading, in its sorry and mutilated state, circumcision and the castration anxiety invoked by the physical ‘mutilation’ of its bearer.202 In more stylish form it can, however, also appear instead of the more aristocratic walking cane as an attribute of the Jew as capitalist. It then indicates the inherent affinities between both (stereo)types of Jews and everything this entails. While Jungmann’s readers would have been familiar with the Jewish stereotype illustrated by the umbrella, in Mbwapwa’s hands this attribute appears much more decorous and its flawless shape distinguishes it markedly from its tattered relatives. The same distinction is arguably extended to Mbwapwa in relation to his European Jewish ‘kin.’ Similar to his fresh-faced naivety and perceptive, if sometimes oblique, criticism of the ways of both eastern and western Jews as well as the Zionist and German colonial ventures, this emphasizes Mbwapwa’s exhortative character, but it also serves to heighten the ambiguity not only of the umbrella but its bearer. Indeed, it should perhaps be no surprise in a satirical publication that challenges essentialist formulations even as it employs them, that the Jewified African resists stereotyping on different levels. As noted before, Mbwapwa does not conform to the clichéd image of the Hosenneger – comical as his character is, it is most of all sympathetic and relatable. The most significant point of identification, operating on different levels, is in this instance his skin color. It offers identification in relation to the ‘black’ Jews but also, as a marker of the colonial subject, to those Jews suffering from ‘internal’ colonization.203 His umbrella, as we have s­ uggested for the German context that the symbolic function of the umbrella has a social dimension which applies to the representation of Jews and peasants alike. She argues that the umbrella connotes a backwardness in fashion, as well as socially, which is not only not perceived by its bearer but mistakenly even misunderstood as a signifier of urban sophistication. See Michaela Haibl, Zerrbild als Stereotyp: Visuelle Darstellungen von Juden zwischen 1850 und 1900 (Berlin: Metropol, 2000), pp. 248–50. 202 The latter interpretation was suggested to me by Jay Geller. 203 Conceptions of the internal colonization of the Jews have been discussed for instance by Susannah Heschel, “Jewish Studies as Counterhistory,” in David Biale, Michael Galchinsky, and Susannah Heschel (eds.), Insider/Outsider: American Jews and Multiculturalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 101–15; Susannah Heschel, “Revolt of the Colonized: Abraham Geiger’s Wissenschaft des Judentums as a Challenge to Christian Hegemony in the Academy,” New German Critique 77 (1999): 61–85; Jonathan M. Hess, “‘Sugar Island Jews’? Jewish Colonialism and the Rhetoric of ‘Civic Improvement’ in Eighteenth-Century Germany,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 32 (1998): 92–100; Jonathan M. Hess, “Johann David Michaelis and the Colonial Imaginary: Orientalism and the Emergence of Racial Antisemitism in Eighteenth-­Century Germany,” Jewish Social Studies 6.2 (2000): 56–101; and Tudor Parfitt, “The Use of the Jews in

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seen, moreover served to expand Mbwapwa’s identificatory potential even further as an ambivalent attribute that could be understood as a social signifier and as a metonymy positioning its bearer on either side of the colonial encounter. In Herzl’s Old-New Land, the native, Reschid Bey, offers a different form of identification. In this case it is not epidermal hue which facilitates identification but the degree of acceptance and internalization of civilization. The Palestinian does not become Jewish, as does Mbwapwa. Instead, he endorses civilization as it is embodied by the Jews of the New Society of which he therefore can also become a member. Herzl in fact takes pains to insist through his figure of the ideal New Jew, David Littwak, that the Jewish achievement in Old-New Land is the sum of the social and technical achievements of all civilized nations and as such is greater than its individual parts. Old-New Land, as Friedrich Löwenberg also recognizes, “is something more – it must be something more – than a fusion of the elements of social and technical progress.” (ONL, 272–3)204 Reschid Bey’s outward assimilation to this ideal in evidence of its ­productivity is illustrated by his very appearance. He is introduced in the novel as “[a] handsome man of thirty-five” who “wore dark European clothing and a red fez.” (ONL, 68)205 More need not be said to suggest the appearance of a cultured and acculturated gentleman which is further supported with mention of his studies in Germany and his linguistic capabilities. He speaks perfect German which, as we need to remember, is the common idiom in Old-New Land. Yet intriguingly, like Mbwapwa’s, his language is supposedly tinged with a regional inflection, an effect which Levensohn’s translation ignores completely and which Herzl himself did not pursue consistently in the Palestinian’s later utterances. Only Reschid Bey’s very first words, in response to being hailed in Turkish by David Littwak, are articulated “with a slight northern accent” (ONL, 68).206 This invests his linguistic ­performance with a certain authenticity but simultaneously also indicates the susceptibility or even vulnerability of the individual to the language of the dominant group as a tool of infiltration and, ultimately, of subjugation. In fact, the clipped way in which Reschid Bey bids the visitors welcome – “Wünsche eine recht a ­ njenehme

Colonial Discourse,” in Ivan Davidson Kalmar and Derek J. Penslar (eds.), Orientalism and the Jews (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2005), pp. 51–67; see also Khaldoun Samman, Clash of Modernities: The Making and Unmaking of the New Jew, Turk, and Arab and the Islamist Challenge (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015), pp. 53–4. 204 “Altneuland ist noch mehr, muß noch mehr sein, als eine Zusammenfassung aller sozialen und technischen Fortschritte.” (ANL, 313) 205 “[E]in schöner Mann von etwa fünfunddreißig Jahren. Zur dunklen europäischen Kleidung trug er das rote Fez.” (ANL, 76–7) 206 “[M]it leicht norddeutscher Betonung” (ANL, 77).

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­ nterhaltung!” (ANL, 77)207 – quite incongruously suggests the enunciation of the U Prussian gentry in an almost comedic manner. It at the same time confirms the persistence of Herzl’s preoccupation with the German context and its values. It may have been the seriousness of Reschid Bey’s later contributions to the conversation which prevented Herzl from consistently adhering to this linguistic peculiarity. The whole situation nevertheless offers an intriguing similarity to Mbwapwa’s confrontation with successive colonizers’ idioms inasmuch as Turkish – in which Reschid Bey has been addressed by Littwak – is itself of course the language of the colonial or imperial power to which Palestine was subject during Herzl’s lifetime;208 this too is a dimension elided by Levensohn, who substitutes Arabic for Turkish (ONL, 68).209 In other ways, Reschid Bey is presented as a successful negotiator between cultures, much like Mbwapwa, although in a very different way. Not only are his domestic arrangements in accordance with traditional Muslim practice, but while adapting to and adopting civilized values and ways of expression, he ­nevertheless retains oriental customs also in his personal demeanor, such as the time-honored salutation formula, which is aestheticized and valorized in the novel by the explanation of its symbolic significance: “His salute to them was the Oriental gesture which signifies lifting and kissing the dust.” (ONL, 68)210 The ‘native’ in Herzl’s Old-New Land, is thus construed as a serious and respected other whose indigenous cultural and religious identity is ostentatiously presented as intact, though closer analysis reveals them to be subject to paternalistic intervention. The blending of orient and modernity in the figure of Reschid Bey mirrors that of the bustle of diversity in Old-New Land at large (see ONL, 61);211 it is already indicated by the description of his modern European dress accompanied by the fez, itself a symbol of modernization in the Ottoman Empire and of its owner’s religion.212 Yet the mere appropriation and unassimilated display of external markers of civilization is of course not sufficient to 207 “Wish you much joy of your guests!” (ONL, 68) 208 It is also not quite clear in the novel if Reschid Bey is in fact a Palestinian Arab; he may also be of Turkish background as is potentially suggested by his title of “Bey,” an Ottoman Turkish honorific, originally meaning “chieftain.” 209 See (ANL, 77). 210 “Er grüßte nach orientalischer Art, indem er mit der Rechten den Luftschnörkel machte, der das Aufheben und Küssen des Staubes bedeutet.” (ANL, 77) 211 See (ANL, 68). 212 The fez was initially a symbol of the modernization of the Ottoman Empire and had been introduced by law as substitute for the turban in 1829; it was, in turn, banned in 1925 for the connotations of uncivilized backwardness it had acquired by then, see Suzan Ilcan, The Cultural Politics of Settlement (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002), pp. 28–9, p. 34n9.

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guarantee its genuine internalization, as demonstrated by the stereotype of the Hosenneger. It is therefore no coincidence that Herzl characterizes Reschid Bey as “handsome,” which is an indication of the harmonious ensemble that his person projects and that is further promoted by his western education. This absolves Reschid Bey of the implicit suggestion of purely imitative and potentially devious mimicry. Herzl was very much aware of the ubiquitous accusation of antisemitic provenance that the Jews, like the blacks and other ‘natives,’ were incapable of true creative inspiration and were only ever able to ape and imitate. In his novel, he therefore presents the commonwealth of Old-New Land through David Littwak, as we have seen, as the product of the achievement of the “whole civilized world” (ONL, 152).213 It is for this reason also that Old-New Land has model character for the world at large and that Herzl would reject the label ‘utopian’ for his novel. As is already suggested in Kingscourt’s resigned and yet prophetic observation just before he and Löwenberg escape to their solitary island in conclusion of the first book of the novel, no new inventions are required for the creation of the new society: With the ideas, knowledge, and facilities that humanity possesses on this 31st day of December, 1902, it could save itself. No philosopher’s stone, no dirigible airship is needed. Everything needful for the making of a better world exists already. And do you know, man, who could show the way? You! You Jews! Just because you’re so badly off. You’ve nothing to lose. You could make the experimental land for humanity. Over yonder, where we were, you could create a new commonwealth. On that ancient soil, Old-New-Land! (ONL, 50)214

All that is needed for the creation of the new society is the catalyst of a motivating power, and it is, as Littwak later explains, the “centripetal force” of the “terrible pressure” of poverty and persecution (ONL, 145–6)215 which makes the Jews the perfect agents of what “under the given circumstances and at the given moment, was an historical necessity.” (ONL, 147)216 The argument is basically one in favor of the fundamental assimilability of the Jews into the fellowship of civilized humanity; more, it articulates the claim of their belonging and their entitlement

213 “[E]in gemeinsames Produkt aller Kulturvölker” (ANL, 172). 214 “Mit den Ideen, Kenntnissen, Mitteln, die heute am 31. Dezember 1902 im Besitze der ­Menschheit sind, könnte sie sich helfen. Man braucht keinen Stein der Weisen, kein lenkbares Luftschiff. Alles Nötige ist schon vorhanden, um eine bessere Welt zu machen. Und wissen Sie, Mann, wer den Weg zeigen könnte. Ihr! Ihr Juden! Gerade weil’s Euch schlecht geht. Ihr habt nichts zu verlieren. Ihr könntet das Versuchsland für die Menschheit machen – dort drüben, wo wir waren, auf dem alten Boden ein neues Land schaffen. Altneuland!” (ANL, 56–7) 215 “[A]us dem ungeheuren und allseitigen Druck, der auf uns geübt wurde.” (ANL, 166) 216 “[W]ir thaten nur, was zu thun in unserer Zeit, unter unseren Umständen eine historische Notwendigkeit war.” (ANL, 166)

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as it had so strongly been promoted also by Max Nordau in his response to Ahad Ha’am’s review of Old-New Land. The achievement of this lofty aim requires compliance and dedication not only on the largest scale possible, pertaining to social and technical engineering, but also on the most mundane level. Herzl was therefore careful to avoid any deviation from the established outward presentation of civilizatory values and achievements that might in any way be construed as compromising them – both in the novel and in real life. Schlemiel, as might be expected, was quick to pounce on the preoccupation with external paraphernalia which, in different ways, affected also other members of the Zionist Organization217 and which, in Old-New Land, emerges not only in Reschid Bey’s fastidious dress sense but also in another episode in which Kingscourt and Löwenberg are provided with white gloves for their visit to the opera as it is quite naturally de rigeur in polite society.

The Ambivalence of Herzl’s Gloves In Schlemiel, the Uganda issue was addressed not only in Mbwapwa Jumbo’s letters from New-Newland. It in fact pervades the pages of the humorous monthly.218 This is hardly surprising; after all, the years of its short-lived success c­ oincided with those of the heated debates on the proposal engaged in by conflicting factions in the Zionist Organization. It may be reading too much into this to suggest a causal relationship between the two. Nevertheless, as the fictional stenographic minutes of the Seventh Zionist Congress, published in the April issue of Schlemiel in 1904 and presumably the work of Sammy Gronemann, seem to suggest,219 this was perceived as a time of unbridled schlemielity which is reflected in the proposal to establish an Office for Schlemielities220 made by Max Nordau in familiar strong language. The frantic response to the suggestion and the bizarre digressions recorded in the mock minutes merely prove the point.

217 See, e.g., Berkowitz, Zionist Culture, p. 27. 218 This section is a slightly revised version of part of my “Zionism, Colonialism, and the German Empire,” pp. 98–123. 219 Sammy Gronemann, “Stenographisches Protokoll des VII. Zionisten-Kongresses,” Schlemiel 2.4 (1904): 32–3. For the attribution, see Gronemann, Erinnerungen, p. 261. In fact, in 1904 no Zionist Congress was held as it had been decided in the previous year to convene biannually rather than annually. The Seventh Zionist Congress was convened in 1905. 220 Gronemann, “Stenographisches Protokoll,” 32: “Antrag auf Errichtung einer Centrale für Schlemieligkeiten.”

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No direct mention is made in the minutes of the Uganda scheme. Nevertheless, beyond the indiscriminate castigation of the personal idiosyncrasies of eminent delegates (Nordau among them as well as Davis Trietsch and Theodor Herzl himself), surreptitious mention is made of the Charkov Conference, convened by Menahem Mendel Ussishkin in November 1903, at which Herzl was presented with an ultimatum to reject the Uganda proposal. However, of more significance in relation to the imperial and racist discourses suggested by the letters from New-Newland are the fictitious motions to introduce a compulsory national tie and white gloves. Like Mbwapwa’s umbrella, these are symbolically charged fashion accessories whose function – of articulating a sense of cultural (self-)positioning and of providing performative props in the formation of Jewish identities – is satirically interrogated in Schlemiel. The motion to adopt a national tie is proposed by the indignant Polish Jewish sculptor, writer, and Zionist Dr. Alfred Nossig, described in real life by Penslar as “a dilettante of the most unfocused sort”:221 I would like to suggest to the Schlemiel Commission that is to be elected to embark at long last on the launch of the uniform compulsory national tie. (Applause). As an aesthetically sensitive human being it is almost impossible to attend this congress, to which men have the effrontery to present themselves who are wearing a white collar and a white cravat [called Diplomat in German] around the neck, (clamor) whose only relation to diplomacy this tie may possibly be (clamor), tasteless philistines, whose chutzpah (the further deliberations are drowned in the continuous uproar).222

Nossig, himself portrayed as arrogant and pedantic, challenges the delegates with displaying only the veneer of civilization but lacking a deeper understanding of both aesthetics and diplomacy – the mention of the white tie having a similar function to that of the top hat in Thöny’s lithograph. In effect, Nossig accuses the delegates of being tasteless philistines, impudent, and presumptuous, and as such, although this is never made explicit, he evokes the specter of the Hosenneger. The motion is seconded and expanded by the English delegate, Sir Francis Montefiore, who evidently fails to appreciate its implications and inconsequentially evokes the memory of Sir Moses Montefiore: 221 Penslar, Zionism and Technocracy, p. 67. 222 Gronemann, “Stenographisches Protokoll,” 32: “Ich möchte der zu wählenden Schlemielkommission die Anregung geben, endlich die Einführung der einheitlichen obligatorischen Nationalkrawatte in Angriff zu nehmen. (Beifall). Als ästhetisch feinfühliger Mensch kann man kaum diesem Kongresse beiwohnen, dem Männer sich nicht zu präsentieren entblöden, die einen weißen Kragen und einen weißen Diplomaten um den Hals tragen, (Lärm) die in dieser Halsbinde vielleicht ihre einzige Beziehung zur Diplomatie besitzen (Lärm), geschmacklose Banausen, deren Chuzpe (die weiteren Ausführungen bleiben in dem andauernden Lärm unverständlich).”

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More important than the tie are gloves, – white gloves! My late uncle, Sir Moses Montefiore (Roaring applause. The assembly rises), wore gloves. (Vigorous applause and clapping. The speaker is congratulated.)223

While there is a well-known portrait by George Richmond, RA of Sir Moses, seated and holding gloves in one hand (albeit black ones) and a cane in the other,224 the satirical impact of the references by his grand-nephew Sir Francis to the elder Montefiore and to white gloves must rather be explained with his own peculiar habits. As Gronemann recalls in his posthumously published memoirs: Sir Francis Montefiore was of extremely beautiful and elegant appearance. At congresses he played more of a representative role. A particular peculiarity of his was that he always wore white gloves which he never seemed to take off. As a speaker he was not overly distinguished, but as soon as he mentioned the name of his famous uncle, which he never failed to do, he was always assured of receiving ovations.225

No less significant, because it indicates more serious connotations of the proposal, is its transient endorsement by a delegate modeled on Dr. Heinrich Loewe who, at the time, was editor of the influential Jüdische Rundschau (from 1902–08): I am all for the launch of the uniform tie! One ribbon shall tie us all together! (Vigorous applause.) Multiply entwined are the paths of fate, – our tie shall be a symbol of this! – I am all for white gloves! Clean our hand must be, – and must remain so, even if we touch awful and nasty things. (Vigorous applause and clapping.)226

The ridiculous motion satirizes not only the obsession of the Congress with superficial and external detail and the individuals who support it.227 Its very nature indicates the desire to belong, to construe a group identity with its easily 223 Ibid.: “Noch wichtiger als Shlips ist Handschuh, – weiße Handschuh! Auch mein verewigter Oheim, Sir Moses Montefiore (Stürmischer Beifall. Die Versammlung erhebt sich) hat getragen Handschuh. (Lebhafter Beifall und Händeklatschen. Redner wird beglückwünscht.)” 224 The portrait (oil on canvas, 1874) was also published as a woodcut, entitled “Sir Moses Montefiore, the Old Man Beneficent,” on the title page of Harper’s Weekly in October 1883. 225 Gronemann, Erinnerungen, p. 190: “Sir Francis Montefiore war eine überaus schöne und elegante Erscheinung. Auf Kongressen spielte er eine mehr repräsentative Rolle. Eine besondere Eigentümlichkeit bei ihm war, daß er stets weiße Handschuhe trug, die er nie abzulegen schien. Als Redner war er nicht allzu bedeutend, aber sowie er, was er nie verfehlte, den Namen seines berühmten Onkels nannte, war er immer eines Beifallssturmes sicher.” 226 Gronemann, “Stenographisches Protokoll,” 32: “Ich bin für die Einführung der ­Einheitskrawatte! Ein Band soll uns Alle umschlingen! (Lebhafter Beifall.) Vielfach v ­ erschlungen sind des Schicksals Pfade, – ein Sinnbild dessen sei unser Shlips! – Ich bin für weiße H ­ andschuhe! Rein muß unsere Hand sein, – muß sie bleiben, auch wenn wir schlimme und häßliche Dinge anfassen. (Lebhafter Beifall und Händeklatschen.)” 227 For the internal division in Zionism with regard to this issue, see Berkowitz, Zionist Culture, p. 27.

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r­ ecognizable accoutrements, but also – in so doing – to become like any other ‘club,’ an institution of modern society, and, more specifically, to become a bearer of Europe’s mission civilisatrice. Indeed, in Herzl’s Old-New Land, white gloves are indispensable if one wants to behave like a civilized human being, “[will] man sich wie ein zivilisierter Mensch benehmen” (ANL, 109).228 That most incongruous of photographs, showing Herzl and the Zionist delegation in the shrubs beneath the walls of Jerusalem comes to mind (see Figure 14)229 and one wonders whether it may not have been this very photograph which also provoked the satirist’s spite in Schlemiel. The date is 1898, the occasion the state visit of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II to Palestine. The objective was to meet with the Kaiser to enlist his support for the Zionist cause and to survey the Promised Land on which Zionism had set its hopes. The clash, in this photograph, of the formal western dress with the ‘oriental’ setting seems to epitomize Herzl’s lofty vision of Jewish Europeans settling in Palestine as he was to express it most eloquently in Old-New Land. In his diary, Herzl emphasizes that he checked the propriety of the sartorial arrangements of his fellow petitioners just before they set off to meet Wilhelm II. Giving his companions “a bit of instruction for the reception,” he told them to consider that, although the Kaiser “was a powerful figure,” he was, “still, only a human being. They should be humbly deferential, but nevertheless remember that they are representing the renowned Jewish Nation at one of its historic moments.”230 Once again, he makes specific mention of their gloves: “I further inquired whether their clothes, linen, neckties, gloves, shoes, and hats were in 228 “One must behave like a civilized human being.” (ONL, 96) Eitan Bar-Yosef moreover observes that Herzl, while conceptualizing a novel never actually written, imagined in his diary the impact of external markers on the creation and dissemination of a constitutive legend, see “Spying Out the Land,” p. 184. In one of his entries of June 12, 1895, Herzl envisaged: “For the future legend, have a distinctive cap designed, à la Stanley. Wear the yellow badge while occupying the land, and all pioneers are to receive a little yellow ribbon.” Herzl, Diaries, I, 91; see Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, II, 120: “Für die Legende, eine eigenthümliche Kappe bauen lassen, wie Stanley. Bei der Landnahme den gelben Fleck tragen, und alle Landnehmer bekommen das gelbe Bändchen.” The passage is remarkable not only for the clearly intended positive re-interpretation and appropriation of the yellow badge which Jews were made to wear in the Austrian lands from early modern times to the late eighteenth century, but also for its acknowledgement of the significance of a national narrative of which Herzl, himself a journalist and writer, was clearly aware; it moreover, as discussed by Bar-Yosef, reveals the early fascination of the future founder of political Zionism with the “Dark Continent” and the colonialist mode of its exploration and appropriation. 229 The delegation consisted, from left to right, of Max Bodenheimer, David Wolffsohn, Theodor Herzl, Moses Schnirer, and Joseph Seidener. 230 Herzl, Diaries, II, 748; see Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, II, 683: “[…] eine kleine Lehre für den Empfang […], dass er [i.e. der Kaiser] zwar ein mächtiger Mensch, aber doch auch nur ein

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Figure 14: The Zionist delegation in Jerusalem (b/w photograph by David Wolffsohn; 1898); uncropped original.

order.”231 With Max Bodenheimer’s top hat and cuffs (on the far left), which he deemed inappropriate, Herzl was deeply unhappy. His exasperation was arguably prompted by the apprehension that the incorrectly dressed Jew might be ­construed as uncivilized, in analogy to the perceived incongruity of the Herero with his absurd top hat and, once again, the repulsive specter of the Hosenneger as it had emerged for instance from the photographs of Bismarck Bell and August in von Luschan’s anthropological record of the colonial exhibition only two years previously or from Carl Peters’ mocking description of the “Usukuma dandy.” Herzl clearly was anxious that “the renowned Jewish Nation” would be judged Mensch sei. Sie sollten zwar demüthig sein, aber doch auch bedenken, dass sie das berühmte Volk der Juden in einem geschichtlichen Moment vertreten.” 231 Herzl, Diaries, II, 748; see Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, II, 683: “Ferner fragte ich, ob ihre Kleider, Wäsche, Kravatten, Handschuhe, Schuhe, Hüte in Ordnung seien.”

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at a historical moment according to his fellow delegate’s failed sense of sartorial propriety: “Bodenheimer had a grotesque top-hat, and cuffs so wide that his shirt-sleeves kept sliding down into sight. At the last moment we had to dig him up another pair of cuffs.”232 The offending Bodenheimer remembered the incident in more detail: Herzl was displeased with my silk hat, which had been acquired during my stay in Paris twelve years before and which had meanwhile become unfashionable. But in all Jerusalem a silk hat was not to be found. I then remarked by the way that I also had an opera hat which made Herzl say: “That will be much better. Why didn’t you say so in the first place? Simply take it under your arm.”233

The extent of his fastidiousness in regard to the proper outward demonstration of being civilized emerges also in an earlier episode in Herzl’s diary where he records with pride his efforts to dress correctly for his first preliminary meeting with Wilhelm II in Constantinople, specifically mentioning his, albeit light grey, gloves: “Careful toilette. The color of my gloves was particularly becoming: a delicate grey.”234 Yet Herzl also recalls with some mortification that he forgot to take the right glove off during the interview with the Kaiser, a convention of which he had been made aware at a previous occasion when meeting Grand Duke Friedrich von Baden in 1896,235 in relation to which he had noted: “Externals increase in importance the higher one climbs, for everything becomes symbolic.”236 How serious Herzl was about the symbolic value of white gloves is illustrated also by his recollection of his first meeting with the Turkish Sultan, Abdul Hamid II. This was finally granted to the Zionist leader after much equivocation

232 Herzl, Diaries, II, 754; see Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, II, 688: “Bodenheimer hatte einen grotesken Cylinder u. zu weite Manschetten, an denen die Unterärmel hervorrutschten. Im letzten Augenblick musste man ihm andere Manschetten hervorsuchen.” 233 Max Bodenheimer, Prelude to Israel: The Memoirs of M. I. Bodenheimer, transl. Israel Cohen (New York: Yoseloff, 1963), pp. 127–8; see Max Bodenheimer, So wurde Israel: aus der Geschichte der zionistischen Bewegung. Erinnerungen von M. I. Bodenheimer, ed. Henriette Hannah Bodenheimer (Frankfurt am Main: Europäische Verlagsanstalt, 1958), pp. 103–4: “Als wir zur Audienz aufbrachen, mißfiel Herzl mein Zylinder, den ich während meines Pariser Aufenthalts vor zwölf Jahren erworben hatte und der inzwischen unmodern geworden war. Aber in ganz Jerusalem war dieses Kleidungsstück nicht aufzutreiben. Ganz nebenher bemerkte ich dann, ich besäße auch einen Chapeau Claque, was Herzl zu dem Ausruf veranlaßte: ‘Das ist ja viel besser, warum haben Sie das nicht gleich gesagt? Den nehmen Sie einfach unter den Arm.’” 234 Herzl, Diaries, II, 724; see Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, II, 661: “Sorgfältige Toilette. ­Namentlich die Farbe meiner Handschuhe war gelungen: ein feines Grau.” 235 Herzl, Diaries, II, 332; see Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, II, 327. 236 Herzl, Diaries, II, 331; see Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, II, 325: “Die Aeusserlichkeiten werden immer wichtiger, je höher man steigt. Denn Alles wird symbolisch.”

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on May 21, 1901. On the same day, leaving the Bosporus and explicitly emphasizing the integrity of his private observations safely aboard ship and away from prying eyes, Herzl noted with much disdain: I can still see him before me, this Sultan of the declining robber empire. Small, shabby, with his badly dyed beard which is probably freshly painted only once a week for the selamlik. The hooked nose of a Punchinello, the long yellow teeth with a big gap on the upper right. The fez pulled low over his probably bald head; the prominent ears “serving as pants-­protector,” as I used to say about such fez-wearers to my friends’ amusement – that is, to keep the fez from slipping down onto the pants. The feeble hands in white, oversize gloves, and the ill-­fitting, coarse, loud-colored cuffs. The bleating voice, the constraint in every word, the timidity in every glance. And this rules! Only on the surface, of course, and nominally.237

The sorry puppet Herzl describes is a mere mockery, a grotesque mask hiding the arbitrary power that is wielded behind its back: “But who is the real blackguard behind the grotesque mask of the poor Sultan?”238 Yet the earlier passage is intriguing more specifically because it engages in construing an oriental other that in an unacknowledged inversion appears to be the negative mirror image of Herzl himself – as a civilized European oriental. As such the description of the Sultan arguably is an articulation of Herzl’s innermost anxieties of being mistaken for something similar to “this.” Herzl’s portrayal of the Ottoman ruler is highly charged in this sense. His hooked nose is clearly suggestive of but separated from the ubiquitous Jewish stereotype by the reference to the stock character of the Italian commedia dell’arte and the prominent beak-like nose of the traditional mask of the seemingly stupid but crafty Pulcinella. Besides, Herzl’s orientalist jibe at Abdul Hamid’s wayward fez suggests the notion of the ridiculous mimicry of the oriental affecting to be westernized, but who is properly neither one nor the other and which he attempted to harmonize in the following year in Old-New Land with Reschid Bey’s elegant appearance. Finally, there is a suggestion of decay conveyed by Herzl’s 237 Herzl, Diaries, III, 1128; see Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, III, 272–3: “Ich sehe ihn noch vor mir, diesen Sultan des endenden Räuberreiches. Klein, schäbig, mit dem schlecht gefärbten Bart, der wahrscheinlich immer nur zum Selamlik, einmal in der Woche frisch angestrichen wird. Die Hakennase eines Polichinells, die langen gelben Zähne mit der grossen Lücke rechts oben. Das Fez tief über die wahrscheinlich kahle Stirn gezogen, die abstehenden Ohren ‘dienen als Hosenschützer’ wie ich zur Belustigung meiner Freunde von solchen Fezträgern zu sagen pflegte: damit nämlich der Fez nicht bis auf die Hosen herunterrutsche. Die kraftlosen Hände in zu grossen weissen Handschuhen, u. die unpassenden groben bunten Manchetten. Die m ­ eckernde Stimme, die Beschränktheit in jedem Wort, die Furchtsamkeit in jedem Blick. Und das regiert! Allerdings nur scheinbar u. nominell.” 238 Herzl, Diaries, III, 1128; see Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, III, 273: “Aber wer ist der wirkliche Schuft hinter der grotesken Maske dieses armen Sultans?”

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description of the Sultan’s teeth and his badly dyed beard which conforms to common orientalist stereotypes.239 Herzl’s own luxurious black beard was Assyrian in style and – as recently argued by Artur Kamczycki – a deliberate orientalist allusion to ancient Jewish roots in the Middle East.240 It was as much a statement, and part of a carefully choreographed and iconographically fashioned masquerade, as were his white gloves, both combining to offer the image of an easily reconciled convergence of ancient oriental royal splendor241 with modern civilization and the entitlement carried by both. Indeed, the Sultan’s gloves are everything that Herzl’s are meant not to be. The ill-fitting, over-sized white gloves enveloping the Ottoman ruler’s feeble hands are a potent symbol of the piteous state (in both senses of the word) of this creature that is further dehumanized by Herzl’s unreserved contempt: “And this rules!” The German Kaiser, three years earlier, seemed an entirely different proposition to Herzl. Intriguingly, however, the ostentatious masquerade then engaged in by Herzl and his fellow delegates underneath the walls of Zion was mirrored by a similar masquerade on the part of Wilhelm II. While the Jews, frequently considered to form an oriental alien body in German society,242 project themselves as Europeans (notwithstanding Herzl’s beard), the German Kaiser favored an orientalized vision of himself: The distinctive white flowing gauze with which his helmet was wrapped gave the Prussian Pickelhaube the appearance of a medieval Saracen helmet. The Kaiser’s romantic impulse reached its climax when he laid down a bronze wreath on Saladin’s tomb in Damascus. The Arabic inscription on the wreath, which was captured by Lawrence of Arabia in 1918 and is now housed in the Imperial War Museum in London, demonstrates the reverence the Kaiser felt for the Sultan: “This crown was presented by His Majesty, the Emperor of Germany his presence Wilhelm the Second in memory of his pilgrimage to the tomb of his presence Salah el Din el Ajubi.”243 Wilhelm’s eulogy of Saladin, enthusing that he was “a knight sans peur et sans reproche, who often had to

239 See Edward W. Said, Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient, with a new afterword (London: Penguin, 1995), p. 158. 240 See Artur Kamczycki, “Orientalism: Herzl and his Beard,” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 12 (2013): 90–116. 241 See Said, Orientalism, p. 158. 242 See, e.g., Heinrich von Treitschke, “Unsere Aussichten,” Preußische Jahrbücher 44 (1879): 559–76, 576 and “Herr Graetz und sein Judenthum,” Preußische Jahrbücher 44 (1879), 660–70, 668, two texts which triggered what has become known as the Berlin antisemitism dispute (Berliner Antisemitismusstreit). 243 Imperial War Museum, London, catalogue number: EPH 4338. For a translation into English, see www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30083872 (last accessed March 3, 2018).

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teach his adversaries the true nature of chivalry,”244 reveals not least the image he had of himself.245 I have given this so much space because it seems to me that the underlying impulse of both the Kaiser’s and Herzl’s masquerades is rather similar. Both attempt to conform to an imaginary which carries entitlement. Both attempts also suggest a certain dissociation from reality. But while the Jews in their uncomfortable formal dress – en grande tenue, like Bismarck Bell – remained at the margins, literally extra muros, the Kaiser, in an unfounded illusion of potency, entered Jerusalem like a conqueror on a white steed for whose passage a part of those very walls, next to the Jaffa Gate, had to be demolished.246 Strangely, nothing could illustrate the illusory quality of the imaginary more graphically than the commemorative photograph made of the first meeting of Herzl and the Kaiser in Palestine in the Jewish settlement of Mikveh Israel. The original image showed only a fraction of Herzl’s left foot and leg.247 Herzl ­therefore

244 Klaußmann, Kaiserreden, p. 430: “[…] ein Ritter ohne Furcht und Tadel, der oft seine Gegner die rechte Art des Rittertums lehren mußte.” 245 Incidentally, the Kaiser’s admiration of Saladin had been satirized by Punch in a cartoon which also demonstrates his yearning for romantic chivalry and in which the Sultan once again wears a similar helmet, see Sambourne, “Cook’s Crusader.” 246 Elizabeth Siberry, “Images of the Crusades in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” in Jonathan Riley-Smith (ed.), The Oxford History of the Crusades (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 363–84, p. 367. When the British General Edmund Allenby entered the surrendered city in 1917 he specifically chose to do so on foot in order to distance himself from the pompous behavior of the German Kaiser, see Bar-Yosef, Holy Land in English Culture, p. 263. 247 Herzl gave an account of the meeting and the altogether two spoiled exposures taken by David Wolffsohn in his diary, Herzl, Diaries, II, 744 and Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, II, 679. Intriguingly, recalling his first meeting with Wilhelm II in Constantinople on October 18, 1898, Herzl used the simile of a blurred photograph to describe his sketchy memory of the audience with the Kaiser, see Herzl, Diaries, II, 722 and Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, II, 659. It is interesting to note that the official description of the imperial couple’s journey to the Holy Land makes mention neither of the meeting at Mikveh Israel nor of the audience given to the Zionist delegation in Jerusalem on November 2, 1898, see Ernst von Mirbach (ed.), Das deutsche Kaiserpaar im Heiligen Lande (Berlin: Mittler, 1899). The Jewish settlements are only mentioned in passing: “On more remote hills were some Circassian villages of mud houses with thatched roofs and the Jewish colonies established by Rothschild and Montefiore which catch the eye because of their white-washed modern stone houses and red tiled roofs [Auf entfernteren Höhen lagen auch einige, aus klei­nen Lehmhäusern mit Strohdächern bestehende Tscherkessen-Dörfer und die von Rothschild und Montefiore angelegten jüdischen Kolonien, welche durch ihre weißgestrichenen modernen Steinhäuser und roten Ziegeldächer in die Augen fallen],” pp. 101–2. Otherwise, Jews are portrayed rather adversely. More or less subtly suggesting its insincerity, the welcoming speech delivered at the triumphal arch prepared by the Jewish community of Jerusalem for the emperor is characterized as infused “with effusive words [mit überschwänglichen Worten],” p. 192; to say that Jewish

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had another photograph taken, of himself addressing the void where the emperor would have been, which was then used to retouch the botched attempt. The symbolism is uncanny: The Kaiser’s assurances indeed proved to be equally void and he soon withdrew his approval and support of the Zionist project. At the same time, the counterfeiters also took the liberty of remounting His Majesty on a dark bay rather than his white steed. This had been made necessary by the ‘marginal’ position from which Herzl was to be rescued. The Kaiser, one imagines, would not have been amused by the notion of being shoved to the margins himself, and (presumably for technical reasons) darkened in hue and his features blunted, ‘negrified’ almost, in order to accommodate the Jew; but more importantly, the felicitous result of the photographic manipulation documents another instance of a feeling of entitlement and the desire to belong. Even though in this case there are no white gloves, Herzl nonetheless poses in the appropriate colonial garb – pith helmet and tropical suit: “[F]or everything becomes symbolic.” All the same, the symbolism once again is uncanny: The Jew, in order to be rescued from the margins, needs to re-insert himself into the picture, his claim not one that is founded on equality but on persistence. Obviously this symbolic dimension is largely due to Wolffsohn’s inadequate skills as a photographer. It is nevertheless all the more intriguing that Wolffsohn’s photograph of the Zionist delegation in Jerusalem also required tampering and that it did so once again in an attempt to re-draw the margins. In its well-known and widely disseminated form, the left margin of the picture is actually cropped. It omits the native servant who keeps a respectful distance and who was obviously not meant to appear in the photograph (Figure 14). Nor should we expect him to have been. His presence in the image is not only precluded by a sense of symmetry; his is a truly marginal figure. To the contemporary ‘civilized’ beholder, used to the invisibility of servants and even more so of native servants, his figure would have meant nothing and would have been entirely negligible; it would, in fact, have been invisible and in this sense the crop is no more than the confirmation of current viewing habits.

orphans “sang a song whose contents would have been suitable rather for the salutation of the Messiah than that of the German Kaiser [sangen ein Lied, dessen Inhalt sich eher zur Begrüßung des Messias, als zu der des deutschen Kaisers geeignet haben würde],” has similar implications, p. 193; the same sentiment is once again articulated when the Jews lining the roadside are characterized as shifty and suspicious: “The people salute with waving hands and bows – the Mohammedans respectfully lowering their eyes to the ground, the Jews deeply and agitatedly bending up and down with an ingratiating, piercing gaze [Die Menschen grüßen mit den Händen winkend und sich verneigend – die Muhammedaner ehrerbietig zur Erde blickend, die Juden sich tief und unruhig auf und ab beugend mit einschmeichelndem, stechendem Blick],” p. 112.

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More specifically, the wizened native servant is also no Reschid Bey. He is neither Europeanized, nor – one would assume – educated; he has no influence, nor any particular value. From the perspective of the would-be Jewish colonizers he may be useful as a guide or porter, probably even of the cumbersome photographic apparatus used to commit his marginality and eventual exclusion to posterity (though there is a suggestion of a mule’s nose even further to the left margin); but this, at least as far as the photograph suggests, is the extent to which he may be acknowledged. He certainly has no place in the tableau in which the Jewish Europeans claim center stage vis-à-vis the so-called Tomb of David in the bright and hazy background. The layers of marginality inscribed into the image – the native only half in the picture in the first place, only to be completely elided from its disseminated version; and the Jews extra muros, incongruously dressed, sweating and squinting against the unfamiliar glare of the oriental sun – invest the photograph with a profound irony which, in all likelihood, would have been completely lost on the contemporaries. The white gloves, clamored for in Schlemiel by the fashionable Sir Francis Montefiore and the rather excitable Dr. Loewe and so prominent in the photograph of the Zionist delegation are, of course, highly symbolic in themselves. Similar to the white mask visualized by Frantz Fanon to hide the black skin underneath and discussed in more detail in the following chapter,248 the white gloves conceal sweaty Jewish paws; they mask racial identity and smack of mimicry. On a more critical note, the white gloves are also exposed as the veneer of civilization which is not only used to justify the colonial project, but also to hide dirty hands after dirty deeds. What this might mean is explored in more detail in Chapter 3 about the impact of colonial conflict in Germany. Yet before this, the next chapter will focus on racial indeterminacy and, more specifically, negotiations of Jewishness in relation to conceptions of whiteness and blackness as suggested by Mbwapwa’s color oscillations and the designation of the proposed Jewish settlement area in the Uganda protectorate as “the white man’s country.”

248 See Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, transl. Charles Lam Markman, forewords by Ziauddin Sardar and Homi K. Bhabha (1952; London: Pluto, 2008) and, in relation to “Letters from New-Newland,” Stähler, “Constructions of Jewish Identity,” 267–9.

Chapter 2 Soap Powder, the Jews, and the White Man’s Country In the Eurocentric world view of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, colonizers were white, natives were colored. Skin color signified belonging – to one group or the other  –  and there was precious little chance of transcending the color boundary. Claims to Jewish whiteness are, for this reason, equivalent to claims to national, political, and cultural entitlement in parity with the so-called civilized nations. They are, by extrapolation, also claims to colonial entitlement. With the Zionist movement seeking to confirm Jewish empowerment in all of these areas, the recurrent insistence on Jewish whiteness is no surprise.1 Yet the apparent need to reaffirm Jewish whiteness is also indicative of the racial insecurity experienced by many Jews. Mbwapwa’s letters intriguingly transcend the simple binaries supported by the color divide. Based on notions of a shared experience of persecution, the ­‘Jewification’ of the negro (Mbwapwa) appears to be at the same time also the ‘negrification’ of the Jew (Jungmann and his Jewish readers). Yet clearly the matter is not as simple as all that. In fact, over the course of his letters Mbwapwa records various attempts to change his epidermal hue. The supposed mutability of his skin color positions him in-between colonizer and colonized and it is this in-betweenness which constitutes his subversive potential in either direction, and perhaps also his protean ‘Jewishness,’2 which can relate to both. This chapter contextualizes Mbwapwa’s color oscillations with contemporary reflections on Jewish whiteness and colonial entitlement and the diametrically opposed view of antisemitic provenance of the Jew as the destroyer of culture and civilization and of the threat he poses as an intermediary between native and colonizer.

The Jewish Soap Powder Plot Whiteness is the colonizer’s empowerment and, even more pertinently, his ­entitlement. An intriguing instance of the whitening of Mbwapwa is related in

1 Chief among “Zionism’s most coveted yearnings,” as Eitan Bar-Yosef puts it, was “the yearning to be white,” see Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land,” p. 185. 2 For the notion of a protean Jewishness, see Gilman, Jewish Self-Hatred, p. 307. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-003

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his fourth epistle. The retired chief is to be sent as an ambassador to Russia. The notorious Kishinev pogrom of Easter 1903, which provoked an international outcry, was the first of what has been called the second wave of pogroms in Russia which continued until 1906 and which saw hundreds of Jews killed. It is therefore no surprise that Mbwapwa’s black face turns as white as chalk at the news of his assignment. Worried, Chaskel suspiciously asks: “Mister Jumbo, you are suddenly turning so white – are you an assimilationist?” (LNN IV, 10–11/12–13) Assimilation is indeed the particular concern of this missive. Against Mbwapwa’s objection that no foreign Jews are allowed into St. Petersburg, he is told that in the interest of the Jewish state he should let himself be baptized so as to circumvent the prohibition. In order to prepare himself, he is told: “I should first go to Berlin to make some preparatory exercises in the Jewish Reform community there; then I should soon be ripe for baptism and the soap powder whale would deliver the coup de grâce to me.” (LNN IV, 34–6/38–41) The concluding reference to the soap powder whale suggests that Mbwapwa’s epidermal blackness can be re-adjusted by physically scrubbing it away even while it identifies his skin color as the essential marker of his difference outside the colony. However, the initial step for Mbwapwa to turn himself into a Christian is to follow the practices of the Berlin-based reform movement (bringing to mind memories of the late Dr. Schmul). The cleaning agent will do the rest, and, incidentally, as the German text suggests, deliver the coup de grâce to Mbwapwa. Put differently, it will complete his metamorphosis and turn him from one thing into another, hide and hair. A similar metamorphosis is suggested in a contemporary cartoon in the satirical magazine Kladderadatsch entitled “The Budget for Cameroon” (“Der Etat von Kamerun,” 1905).3 The drawing by Ludwig Stutz criticizes expenditure for stationery of the colonial administration in Cameroon and details the amounts spent on glue, sealing wax, ink, and erasers. Hardly more than a little vignette, it is the latter which is of interest here. The image shows a black African’s skin color being rubbed away by a white administrator with an eraser. The grinning native’s skin has already been lightened in some patches on his back and his thigh. Tellingly, the expenditure for erasers is by far the lowest itemized in the cartoon. While this may reflect on the actual relative value of the eraser, it is nevertheless also the one item which, because of its direct application to the natives, suggests a potential benefit to them, if only implicitly. Indeed, the implication may be that the natives are being whitened through the cultural contact; in other words, it may be meant to indicate the – albeit limited – success of the mission civilisatrice:

3 Ludwig Stutz, “Der Etat von Kamerun,” Kladderadatsch 58.23, Erstes Beiblatt (June 4, 1905): 331.

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The slow i­ntegration of the natives into the human family is symbolized by the gradual erasure of their skin color. As signaled by Mbwapwa’s reference to the soap powder whale, the lightening of black epidermal hue was moreover frequently utilized in advertisements. While I am not aware that Hortaxin, purveyors of Walfisch Blitzblank, the scouring wonder (“Das Scheuerwunder”) and obviously referred to with the “soap powder whale,” ever advertised their products with reference to skin pigmentation, this was, in fact, an established trope of soap advertisements in imperialist societies; also in Germany, though the theme was taken up here much later than in other western countries.4 Yet by 1910, as David Ciarlo notes, “the association between blackness and soap had become so entrenched in German consumer visuality” that soap was universally recognized as “a requisite product for whiteness,”5 while racial differentiation was in turn presented, as it had already been done in British, French, and American advertisements of a decade earlier, “as something that remains, regardless of black skin tone.”6 Nevertheless, if subsequently revealed to be a fallacy, the suggestion was, as Anne McClintock has observed, that “[t]he magical fetish of soap promises that the commodity can regenerate the Family of Man by washing from the skin the very stigma of racial and class degeneration.”7 The best-known examples are ­probably the advertisement campaigns run by Pears’ Soap, which ­McClintock closely analyses. Most pertinent in the context of this book is a particular ­advertisement in which the body of a black child is indeed washed clean of the perceived stigma which is, however, retained in his face. McClintock reads this as follows: In the second frame of this ad the black child is out of the bath, and the white boy shows him his startled visage in the mirror. The boy’s body has become magically white, but his face  –  for Victorians the seat of rational individuality and self-consciousness  –  remains stubbornly black. The white child is thereby figured as the agent of history and the male heir to progress, reflecting his lesser brother in the European mirror of self-consciousness. In the Victorian mirror, the black child witnesses his predetermined destiny of imperial metamorphosis, but himself remains a passive, racial hybrid: part black, part white, brought to the brink of civilization by the twin commodity fetishes of soap and mirror.8

4 See Ciarlo, Advertising Empire, p. 241. 5 See ibid., p. 245. 6 Ibid., p. 243. 7 Anne McClintock, “Soft-soaping empire: commodity racism and imperial advertising,” in George Robertson et al. (eds.), Travellers’ Tales: Narratives of Home and Displacement (London: Routledge, 1994), pp. 131–54, pp. 137–8. 8 Ibid., pp. 138–9.

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Figure 15: Josef Rosintal, “Freely adapted from Lilien” (“Frei nach Lilien”), Schlemiel (1907).

The reason I have quoted this at length is that in Schlemiel we find a very similar representation of Mbwapwa with a white body and a black face (Figure 15). In this case, however, no soap is involved as a whitening agent, his mission to Russia having been aborted after the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. Rather, it seems that it is after all Mbwapwa’s agency, denied to the boy in the advertisement, which has turned his body white: Mbwapwa has been transmogrified into a (would-be) colonizer. The cartoon concludes the last of the retired chief’s reports. Like the whole series, this drawing too is rich with multi-layered meanings. It is, as suggested by its inscription (“freely adapted from Lilien”9), the parody of a design which the well-known Zionist artist E. M. Lilien had devised for the title page of the journal Altneuland (Figure 16), not to be confused with Theodor Herzl’s eponymous novel.10 The first issue of this monthly, which was the organ of the Zionist Commission for the Exploration of Palestine and was dedicated to the economic development of the land, appeared in January 1904. In its editorial, the dream of the Jewish return to Palestine is affirmed and any alternative colonization schemes are implicitly rejected. In a classic triad  –  alluding to the famous epigraph of Herzl’s Old-New Land, “If you will it, / It is no fable”11 – the editors explain the 9 “[F]rei nach Lilien.” 10 Altneuland. Monatsschrift für die wirtschaftliche Erschliessung Palästinas 1 (1904): title page. 11 “Wenn ihr wollt, ist es kein Märchen.”

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Figure 16: E. M. Lilien, “Old-Newland. Title page of the Journal for the Exploration of Palestine” (“Altneuland. Titelblatt für die Zeitschrift zur Erforschung Palästinas”), Altneuland (1904); detail.

new monthly’s inspiration: “The dream became yearning, the yearning will: This is the Zionist movement” – and, ultimately, in the third step, through the agency of science, the aim is “that the will should turn into the saving, redemptive deed.”12 To promote the redemptive ‘deed’ was to be the objective of the journal ­Altneuland. It did therefore indeed take the place of the biblical spies who explored the land, its fruits, and its inhabitants. Lilien’s lithograph, an illustration of the biblical precedent, moreover bestows on the spies an enviable physique. Max Nordau, in his notorious article, variously translated as “Muscular Judaism” or “Jewry of Muscle” (“Muskeljudentum,” 1900), had enthused: “[L]et us once more become deep-chested, sturdy, sharp-eyed men.”13 Such are the old-new Jews carrying the cluster of grapes in

12 Kommission zur Erforschung Palästinas, “Altneuland,” Altneuland  1 (1904): 1–2, 1: “Der Traum ward Sehnsucht, die Sehnsucht Wille: das ist die zionistische Bewegung […]. Dass der Wille zur rettenden, erlösenden Tat werde.” 13 Max Nordau, “Jewry of Muscle,” in Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz (eds.), Jew in the M ­ odern World, pp.  547–8, p.  547; see also Max Nordau, “Muskeljudentum,” Juedische Turnzeitung 1 (June 1900): 10–11, 10–11: “[W]erden wir wieder tiefbrüstige, strammgliedrige, kühnblickende Männer.”

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the image. They embody the regenerative potential ascribed to the Jewish renaissance and the return to the Promised Land.14 By the time Mbwapwa’s last epistle appeared, Altneuland had failed, its final issue having been published in the previous December, 1906. The cartoon may therefore also be something of a tongue-in-cheek valediction. In any case, the allusion would not have been lost on the informed reader, nor would the emphasis on Zionist agency in the colonizing endeavor articulated in the original design and the journal it represented. Of course, the cartoon subverts its pre-text. Chaskel’s skinny body certainly does not resemble in any way its muscle-bound equivalent, nor is the pole burdened with the bounty of the land. Indeed, instead of the fruits of the land, Chaskel and Mbwapwa bear away the trappings of civilization and the signs of their Jewishness of which they have been divested: Umbrella, caftan, what looks like tzitzit, and suspenders. And then, of course, there is the mystifying transformation undergone by Mbwapwa. He is indeed shown to possess an athletic body  –  but, as we have seen, this athletic body is white; only his face retains its native hue. Indeed, the illustration suggests a white person with a black mask, the inversion, in effect, of the title of Frantz Fanon’s influential study Black Skin, White Masks (Peau noire, masques blancs, 1952), in which the early postcolonial theorist describes the inferiority complex experienced by the black colonized subject as the result of his or her divided self-perception. He argues that, confronted with the supposedly superior culture of the colonizer, this culture will be appropriated and imitated by the apparently inferior who, in effect, attempts to become white. This process is identified by Fanon as the “epidermalization” of inferiority.15 In support of his argument, Fanon compares the manner in which Jews and blacks are stigmatized and persecuted in white society and suggests a rationale for their difference. Referring to Jean-Paul Sartre’s well-known observation that the Jews “have allowed ­themselves to be poisoned by the stereotype that others have of them, and they live in fear that their acts will correspond to this stereotype” and his conclusion that “[w]e may say that their conduct is perpetually overdetermined from the inside,”16 14 For a detailed discussion of Lilien’s drawing, see Todd Samuel Presner, Muscular Judaism: The Jewish Body and the Politics of Regeneration (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), pp. 6–10. Presner compares Lilien’s frontispiece with an antisemitic cartoon in the Viennese satirical journal Kike­ riki in which the Jews “are mocked as silly degenerates,” p. 9, but makes no mention of Rosintal’s parody. 15 Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, p.  4; see also Frantz Fanon, Peau noire, masques blancs (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1952), p. 8: “épidermisation.” 16 Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, p. 87. Quoted in Fanon, Peau noire, masques blancs, p. 93: “[…] se sont laissé empoisonner par une certaine représentation que les autres ont d’eux et ils vivent dans la crainte que leurs actes ne s’y conforment […] ainsi pourrions-nous dire que leurs

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Fanon asserts that “the Jew can be unknown in his Jewishness. He is not wholly what he is. One hopes, one waits. His actions, his behavior are the final determinant. He is a white man, and, apart from some rather debatable characteristics, he can sometimes go unnoticed.” In contrast, as a black man, Fanon realizes: “I am overdetermined from without. I am the slave not of the ‘idea’ that others have of me but of my own appearance.”17 Summing up his analysis of the discursive construction of the black and Jewish other, respectively, Fanon explains: “The Negro symbolizes the biological danger; the Jew, the intellectual danger. To suffer from a phobia of Negroes is to be afraid of the biological. For the Negro is only biological. The Negroes are animals. They go about naked. And God alone knows…”18 The ellipsis is in the original, and it is telling; it suggests all manner of phantasies of sexual mischief, violence, and rape. And it is anticipated, intriguingly, in Mbwapwa’s concluding letter in a narrative ellipsis which is similarly tantalizing and may be calculated, as I would argue, to evoke notions of the same threat. In this case, however, the threat is not posed by the converted black Jew, Mbwapwa, even though he is depicted according to stereotype as naked, but by the Jew ­transformed into the would-be colonizer, Chaskel, and still in possession of his underpants. Some further contextualization is necessary here. As we have seen, the whitening of Mbwapwa is a recurrent topic in his letters, but not, strangely, in the very last of his epistles, which was accompanied by the puzzling illustration. Published in February 1907, after almost a year of intermission, this installment shows its fictional author leaving Africa for Texas. In 1907 the ITO, chaired by the British Jewish writer Israel Zangwill, had conceived the so-called Galveston Plan and had negotiated the settlement of Jewish families in Texas.19

conduites sont perpétuellement sur-déterminées de l’intérieur.” See Jean-Paul Sartre, Réflexions sur la question juive (Paris: Gallimard, 1954), pp. 116–17. 17 Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, p. 87; see also Fanon, Peau noire, masques blancs, p. 93: “[L]e Juif peut être ignoré dans sa juiverie. Il n’est pas intégralement ce qu’il est. On espère, on attend. Ses actes, son comportement décident en dernier ressort. C’est un Blanc, et, hormis quelques traits assez discutables, il lui arrive de passer inaperçu. […] Je suis sur-­déterminé de l’extérieur. Je ne suis pas l’esclave de ‘l’idée’ que les autres ont de moi, mais de mon ­apparaître.” 18 Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks, p. 127; see also Fanon, Peau noire, masques blancs, p. 134: “Le nègre représente le danger biologique. Le Juif, le danger intellectuel. Avoir la phobie du nègre, c’est avoir peur du biologique. Car le nègre n’est que biologique. Ce sont des bêtes. Ils vivent nus. Et Dieu seul sait…” 19 For the Galveston Plan, see Alroey, Zionism without Zion, pp.  243–50 and Bryan Edward Stone, The Chosen Folks: Jews on the Frontiers of Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010), pp. 87–93.

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Mbwapwa’s initial reaction to the suggestion that he should leave his country is that he wants to opt out of the Jewish race (LNN IX, 16/18) – not, curiously, the Jewish religion. Eventually, persuaded by Chaskel, he relents and the retired chief and the scribe are then sent as spies into the newly promised land. Following biblical precedent, they take a pole to carry back the fruits of the land.20 In Texas, after having been invited into the house of their Indian host, Chaskel refuses to leave and sends Mbwapwa onward on his own to look for the fruits of the land. The suggestion is that the scribe has already found the ‘forbidden fruits’ of the land. His hostess has caught his eye. On his return, Mbwapwa finds the bedraggled and beaten-up Chaskel aimlessly walking the streets. The scribe is fuming at the ‘natives,’ whom he wishes to the devil. Swollen-faced, he peevishly adds: “And a TERRITORY where one is not met with love but with the opposite I do not need” (LNN IX, 57–8/64–5). It seems obvious enough that Chaskel’s concupiscence – which may also be symbolic of that for the land that is not Palestine and to which no hereditary claim may be made – has been punished. However, the attempted transgression remains an ellipsis, similar to that inscribed by Fanon into his text. Here, too, the suggestion is of sexual phantasies, but the raw sexual threat posed, according to Fanon, by the black male seems to be converted into nothing more than lustful imaginings. The masculinity of the libidinous but luckless Chaskel is exposed as inadequate by the plainly more physical Indian or perhaps even by the offended object of his desires herself. The text is in fact riddled with sexual innuendo and it is useful in this context to remember that sexual conquest and rape have become persuasive metaphors for colonial aggression.21 The latter, however, seems to have been nipped in the bud in this case. Moreover, given racial stereotypes current at the time which emphasize the unrestrained libido of blacks and which are reiterated in Fanon’s essentialist formula, it certainly is no coincidence that Mbwapwa carries the ‘pole’ and that Chaskel retrospectively wishes – as expressed quite innocuously by the turn of phrase “would that I had stayed with the pole!” (LNN IX, 51–2/58) – that he had not relinquished the phallic symbol to the other. Indeed, disappointed by his failure in Texas, Chaskel yearns to return to Uganda, to his free country, although he at the same time makes reference to the ruthless practice of German colonial rule in Africa, which will be discussed in 20 See Numbers 13:17–20 and esp. 23: “And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.” 21 See, for instance, Sara Suleri, The Rhetoric of English India (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), pp.  16–17. See also the almost literal visualization in Olaf Gulbransson’s cartoon about the Peters trial in 1907, “Der Prozeß Peters,” Simplicissimus 12.17 (July 22, 1907): 265–6.

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detail in the following chapters. In earlier installments, Mbwapwa had reported with bitter – if geographically inaccurate – irony on the threat to culture posed to the Jewish colony in Uganda by the Herero and the Bondelzwart, a tribe of the Nama. The uprising of the indigenous peoples in German South-West Africa in 1904 ended with their almost complete annihilation in 1907. If this is what it takes to be a colonizer, then Chaskel and Mbwapwa prove indeed inadequate. But to realize this, their endeavor had to fail. In the attempt, they had to divest themselves of all their markers of identity and Mbwapwa even lost the blackness of his body but, perhaps another indicator of their failure, retains his black face.22 If, as Eitan Bar-Yosef has suggested, Herzl associated his “Zionist mission” with “a thrilling African escapade, a manly mission to explore that ‘Dark ­Continent’ in which white bodies always appear whiter,”23 this colonial and racial fantasy seems to some extent to be subverted by Jungmann’s letters from New-Newland. Returning from yet another continent with the trappings of civilization and the signs of their civilized Jewishness draped over the pole, Mbwapwa and Chaskel may be able to commence the reconstruction of their essential, ‘white’ and non-imperialist Jewish nature, the objective of the Soap Powder Plot  –  but Africa, where, as Chaskel observes, colonial aggression and broken pates are the order of the day, is hardly an auspicious place to do so, nor is it at all certain that they will ever succeed.

The White Man’s Country and the Jews An important factor in the debate on the Uganda proposal was the suitability of the territory in question for the settlement of white colonizers.24 Indeed, in an essay entitled “The White Man’s Place in Africa,” the eminent British Africa explorer H. H. Johnston argued that land suitable for white colonization in Africa was severely limited. The essay, published in 1904, identifies “three obstacles to the white race from Europe overrunning and colonising the continent of Africa as it has overrun and colonised the two Americas and Australasia.”25 The first obstacle, “the insalubrity of the well-watered regions and the uninhabitability of 22 David A. Brenner sees here also a suggestion that Mbwapwa’s and Chaskel’s inadequate masculinity is associated with circumcision, see German-Jewish Popular Culture before the Holocaust, p. 38. 23 Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land,” p. 184. 24 For a discussion of the suitability of the East Africa Protectorate for white settlement in the context of the Uganda proposal, see Weisbord, African Zion, pp. 4–6 et passim. 25 Johnston, “White Man’s Place in Africa,” 937.

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the desert tracts,” Johnston expects to be overcome in time by medical and technical progress – we may be reminded here of the bacteriologist Steineck’s vision in Old-New Land. Of a more serious nature Johnston considers to be the remaining two obstacles. Both are moreover invested with serious topicality in relation to the concurrent colonial conflicts in the German protectorate in South-West Africa: “[T]he opposition of strong indigenous races” and in particular the third, “of quite recent growth,” which Johnston specifies as an emerging ethical awareness, as a growing sentiment which is increasingly influencing public opinion, in Europe more especially, and which forbids the white man to do evil that good may come: Namely, to displace by force of arms pre-existing races in order that the white man may take the land they occupy for his own use.26

Johnston certainly was not an advocate of a the-end-justifies-the-means policy in the colonies, in fact, he was criticized by some of his contemporaries for being too considerate in his appreciation of the natives. He nevertheless is very clear in the articulation of his utilitarian approach to the white man’s role in the Dark Continent: What we have therefore to consider is the line of least resistance to the white man in his colonisation of Africa. Where can he found white men’s colonies likely to be permanent as the homes of a prosperous white people, and where outside those special provinces can he exploit Africa to his personal advantage and to that of the coloured races?27

Two points are important here. First, Johnston anticipates real benefit to the indigenous population. The second is the notion of creating a permanent home for the white man in Africa, rather than that he should “remain there for a portion of his working life as an educator and administrator.”28 Which is why the suitability of territories for potential white settlement, those which can become a home, is so crucial to Johnston. In the experienced explorer’s estimation, the protectorates of British East Africa and Uganda “offer probably the largest continuous area of white man’s country in the central section of the continent.”29 The area Johnston has in mind comprises altogether 70,000 square miles. Yet, as he explains, “nearly 50,000 square miles of this East African territory is more or less in the occupation of sturdy Negro or Negroid races whom it would be neither just nor easy to expel.”30 According to Johnston’s calculations, there are therefore not much 26 Ibid. 27 Ibid., 938. 28 Ibid., 940. 29 Ibid., 941. 30 Ibid.

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more than “20,000 square miles in this direction which we can unhesitatingly offer to European settlers with a prospect of their taking root and attaining ­prosperity.”31 With this in mind, the Uganda Plan suggests an extraordinary commitment of the British government to the Zionist cause or, alternatively, a compelling ulterior motive for the offer. “It is understood, though not authoritatively,” Johnston continues, that the British Government has agreed to place about 5,000 square miles out of this area at the disposal of some Zionist committee, which is to attempt to plant a more or less autonomous Jewish State on whose soil the persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe will be welcome.32

Treading softly here, yet nevertheless suggesting his bewilderment at such a liberal offer, which, as we have seen, had indeed been made in the previous April of 1903 by the Colonial Secretary not to some obscure Zionist committee but to the very leader of the Zionist Organization, Theodor Herzl, the former Special Commissioner for Uganda acknowledges: It is, of course, a matter for the British Government to consider whether, with the claims of possible British settlers in view, they are right in thus generously disposing of 5,000 square miles of habitable land in a British possession to a people who, however unfortunate, are not British subjects.33

Yet leaving aside British national interest and attempting to assuage his ­severity – “Perhaps, however, this is a somewhat ungenerous way of contemplating the transaction”34 – Johnston indicates another impediment to Jewish colonization of the desirable territory: A more serious obstacle to its success would be the unsuitability of these Jewish immigrants as colonists. It would be futile to establish them on this land merely that they may become peddlers or petty tradesmen in a country which is crying out for agricultural development.35

The latter passage is replete with stereotypes of what it means to be Jewish. It also reiterates specifically British concerns about Jewish immigration from eastern Europe in England which eventually was to lead to the passing of the Aliens Act of 1905, which introduced mechanisms of immigration control, registration, and deportation in order to prevent paupers or criminals from entering and settling in 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid. 35 Ibid., 941–2.

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the country. The Uganda proposal, a mere two years earlier, has been understood in this context as an attempt to divert the undesirable Jewish influx.36 The image of Jewish peddlers and petty tradesmen evoked by Johnston and familiar in the British context also from literary sources, such as Israel Zangwill’s Children of the Ghetto: A Study of a Peculiar People (1892) and The King of Schnorrers (1894), was to some extent rooted in the historical reality of the impoverished and crime-ridden slums of London’s East End, though most immigrants, as observed by Todd Endelman, “entered the British economy as workers in sweated industries” and “not as peddlers or costers.”37 It was, however, an image that was disseminated not only by those critical of Jewish immigration in Britain, or in Germany for that matter, nor merely by antisemites, even if there was no end to visualizations of this type of Jew as witnessed, for instance, by a proliferation of satirical and antisemitic postcards, some of which will be discussed below. It rather was an image that was endorsed by Zionism itself and it was, as such, another manifestation of the uncanny convergence of antisemitic and Zionist discourses. As Jean-Paul Sartre noted much later in Anti-Semite and Jew (Réflexions sur la question juive, 1946) and as quoted by Fanon: They [the Jews] have allowed themselves to be poisoned by the stereotype that others have of them, and they live in fear that their acts will correspond to this stereotype. […] we may say that their conduct is perpetually over-determined from the inside.38

Broadly speaking, Zionism sought not only to protect the Jewish masses from persecution, but to remedy the alleged deformation of the Jewish people and, in what has been called a Jewish renaissance, to revive its ancient spirit. It was precisely the odious figure of the peddler which was perceived as a symptom of the degeneration suffered by the divinely chosen people of yore in the present day. Political Zionism, set on the return to the Land of Israel and the creation of an autonomous Jewish State in the homeland, envisaged the redemption of the Jewish people through the redemption of its ancestral and divinely promised homeland which, according to the Zionist master narrative, had fallen into neglect and ruin during two millennia of exile.39

36 This connection was also drawn by Schlemiel in a poem addressed to the by then former British Colonial Secretary, “An Joe Chamberlain,” Schlemiel 3.1 (1905): 1. 37 Todd M. Endelman, The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 2002), p. 132. 38 Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew, transl. George J. Becker (1946; New York: Schocken, 1976), p. 68; see also Sartre, Réflexions sur la question juive, pp. 116–17. 39 See, e.g., Berkowitz, Zionist Culture, p. 163; for the discursive construction of Zionist resettlement of Palestine symbolically bridging and, in effect, effacing the intermittent period of

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From the Zionist perspective the problem with Uganda was of course that it was not Palestine.40 When Theodor Herzl first presented the Uganda proposal to the Sixth Zionist Congress in August 1903 he therefore referred to it merely as “an expedient for colonization purposes”41 and insisted: We shall not and cannot give the Jewish masses the marching signal on the strength of this arrangement. It is and must remain an emergency measure destined to allay the perplexity prevailing in philanthropic undertakings at the present time and to prevent our losing touch with the scattered fragments of our people.42

Even so, the mere consideration of such a proposal provoked an outcry in the Zionist Organization and led to a schism which threatened a permanent split. Although Israel Zangwill did indeed establish the ITO with the aim of accommodating Jewish refugees in alternative territories43 – among which, as we have seen, was also Texas – a complete break was ultimately avoided by the rejection of the proposal after, if presumably only for ‘cosmetic’ purposes, an investigatory commission had been dispatched to the proposed settlement area in ­December 1904 to explore its suitability. Published as a Zionist Blue Book in both German and English after the return of the expedition in spring 1905, the commission’s official report reflects the very different perceptions of its three members of the Ugandan territory as a settlement area.44 The English Major A. St. Hill Gibbons who, as an experienced Africa traveler and veteran of the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902), had been appointed in command of the expedition was generally optimistic and suggested a pilot scheme to explore the further possibilities; the Swiss professor Alfred Kaiser

decay, see Yael Zerubavel, Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National ­Tradition (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1995), p. 32. 40 For alternative territories considered for Jewish settlement, see recently Rovner, In the ­Shadow of Zion and Alroey, Zionism without Zion. 41 Theodor Herzl in the opening speech to the Sixth Zionist Congress, The Congress Addresses of Theodor Herzl, transl. Nellie Straus (New York: Federation of American Zionists, 1917), p. 37; see also Stenographisches Protokoll der Verhandlungen des VI. Zionisten-Kongresses in Basel (Vienna: Buchdruckerei “Industrie”  –  Verlag des Vereins “Erez Israel,” 1903), pp.  3–11, p.  9: ­“Kolonisationsaushilfe.” 42 Congress Addresses of Theodor Herzl, p. 37; see also Stenographisches Protokoll der Verhandlungen des VI. Zionisten-Kongresses in Basel, p.  9: “Das Zeichen zum Aufbruche können und ­werden wir unseren Massen daraufhin nicht geben. Es ist und bleibt lediglich eine Notstandsmassregel, die der jetzigen Ratlosigkeit aller philanthropischen Unternehmungen abhelfen und dem Verluste solcher versprengter Volksteile vorbeugen soll.” 43 See Alroey, Zionism without Zion, pp. 76–84. 44 For a detailed analysis see Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land,” pp. 183–200.

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remained unenthusiastically neutral; but the only Jewish member of the expedition, Nahum Wilbusch’s, account was “unapologetically damning.”45 Small wonder: The Russian Jew was ideologically biased in support of the colonization of the Promised Land with which he was, moreover, very well acquainted.46 Given the romantic and adventurous potential afforded by the expedition, surprisingly little was made of it in Jungmann’s letters from New-Newland. The excitement of spying out the newly promised land in the adventurous fashion of intrepid explorers, including even a brief moment of colonial warfare when the native porters of the expedition were attacked by the Wanandi, should have been tempting to the satirist.47 Of course, in the Schlemiel universe New-Newland – or New Palestine, as the East African territory proposed for Jewish settlement was designated – was already colonized and anything but terra incognita. The arrival of the expedition, taken note of in the penultimate of Mbwapwa’s communications, might therefore have presented a dilemma in relation to the ongoing plot development. But this seems not to have been the main reason for Jungmann to eschew the opportunity of churning out an exhilarating and comical adventure narrative. It has been observed by Eitan Bar-Yosef that the official Report on the Work of the Commission Sent Out by the Zionist Organization to Examine the Territory Offered by H. M. Government to the Organization for the Purposes of a Jewish ­Settlement in British East Africa projected an inconsistent narrative ­representation of the territory in question as well as of the process of its exploration corresponding to the interests of its three separate authors. Major St. Hill Gibbons’ section has been described as an “energetic representation of the African adventure as a colourful and exotic quest”48 and is in effect, as Bar-Yosef suggests, “a textual continuation of his previous travel accounts.”49 Wilbusch’s contribution, in

45 Ibid., p. 187. 46 For the Zionist expedition, see Weisbord, African Zion, pp. 198–223; Gur Alroey, “Journey to New Palestine: The Zionist Expedition to East Africa and the Aftermath of the Uganda Debate,” Jewish Culture and History 10 (2008): 23–58; and Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land,” pp. 183–200. 47 A brief account by Major St. Hill Gibbons was quoted in the anonymous “The East African Scheme” in the Jewish Chronicle (April 7, 1905): 17: “Just after the rear of my caravan had emerged from a dense forest a band of armed Nandi rushed out from the trees and fell upon my men. The porters became terror-stricken and fled, abandoning their loads, but my headman, who had been with Stanley and Emin, stood his ground. He was severely wounded in the head, but managed to foil his opponent. After a somewhat anxious time relief came, and the robbers retired into the forest, but made off with a quantity of stores and also much of my personal baggage, which I had had in my former trans-African expedition.” 48 Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land,” p. 189. 49 Ibid., p. 190.

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c­ ontrast, “is highly laconic.”50 The Russian Jew effectively ridicules the notion of a “white man’s country”51 and applies a rigorously utilitarian perspective which punctures the romantic glorification of the Englishman’s report. Wilbusch purposely seeks to diminish the appeal of the proposed territory and, as Bar-Yosef notes, his matter-of-fact style appears deliberately to challenge the conventions of African travel-writing: [M]aybe because the Jew insists on approaching the Uganda proposal as a “serious” matter that should not be confused with juvenile escapades; or maybe because his fervent ­dismissal of the plan does not allow Wilbusch to acknowledge a colonial desire to play the African adventure out.52

Considering the satirical nature of Mbwapwa’s correspondence, the former of these reasons proposed by Bar-Yosef would hardly seem applicable in J­ ungmann’s case. It is the latter reason which appears to be pertinent also in relation to the letters from New-Newland, though not as suggested in relation to Wilbusch. Again, Jungmann had no compunctions of playing out the African adventure. But for the first time the fictional effusions of his Jewish African were potentially to be challenged by first-hand accounts. In addition, like Wilbusch, Jungmann – happy enough to play with the notion of ‘black’ Jews settling in East Africa  –  did of course not want the Jewish colonization of the African Zion to happen in reality. This is the whole point of Mbwapwa’s correspondence. The retired chief’s eighth missive is therefore not only very brief without offering further details of life in the Jewish colony but also, uniquely among Mbwapwa’s communications, it is composed in doggerel. As such, the short text resists the impulse of narrativization which would have been sustained by the parody of an imperial romance à la Rider Haggard. The implicit emphasis on its unusual form simultaneously highlights the letter’s distance both from the events and the territory in which they are supposedly enacted and which are referenced in the brief epigraph, also unique in Mbwapwa’s communications. Mbwapwa’s doggerel appeared before the publication of the official report, which was submitted in May 1905 to Leopold Greenberg, the main organizer of the expedition on behalf of the Zionist Organization. Yet Gibbons had already variously emphasized his positive evaluation in the press, even before his return to Britain in April. Thus, he is quoted in the Jewish Chronicle as insisting: 50 Ibid., p. 191. Bar-Yosef’s comparison of the original report with a revised account published by Wilbusch almost six decades later is very illuminating in relation to the narrative strategies employed and the imaginaries created in each text, see esp. pp. 193–7. 51 See ibid., p. 192. 52 Ibid.

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“There is no healthier country in Africa than the spot offered by the Government for the Zionists. It seems almost impossible to be ill there. It is an ideal region for white settlement.”53 This was echoed by some of the very few Jewish farmers actually to have settled in the area, though not as part of a Zionist settlement scheme, who had also been given a voice in the extended debate in the Jewish Chronicle. In a letter to the editor, M. W. London, for instance, whose farm had been visited by the commission, deprecated Wilbusch’s lack of expertise and confirmed Major St. Hill Gibbons’ positive assessment. In response to Kaiser, the self-­ professed Zionist insisted that the Jewish settlers in the area were not in need of the professor’s “sympathy” but were in fact “fairly well off” and maintained that “a pioneer must not expect milk and honey from the very start.”54 In another letter to the editor, the Russian-born W. Sulski likewise wrote to the Jewish ­Chronicle in support of the “magnificent offer” that should not be refused and similarly insisted on the suitability of the territory, but also on that of the prospective Jewish settlers: “Give them this chance, which they never had before, and see what good agriculturalists they would make.” Sulski recalls moreover that on his travels through the neighboring district of the Nandi he “could not pass through a village without being offered honey and milk and some sheep.”55 The reference of both Jewish settlers to milk and honey is hardly incidental. Both clearly seek to emphasize the parity of the proposed territory with the biblically promised land. In Mbwapwa’s doggerel letter, Jungmann also took up the allusion to the land flowing with milk and honey: Mister Gibbons was very satisfied, As you can read in all the papers, And he saw that the land is fine, That in it the Negroes thrive splendidly, And that it flows with milk and honey[.]

Yet his next line deflates the enthusiastic assertion, adding: “As soon as both are spilled onto the floor.” The implicit suggestion of trickery and misrepresentation in fact challenges the British explorer’s whole assessment. The reference to milk and honey is obviously inspired by the Lord’s command to Moses to go “[u]nto a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 33:3), the land promised to Abraham and his “seed” (Exodus 33:1). Again, the implications are ambivalent: East Africa is not Eretz Israel and therefore milk and honey need 53 Anonymous, “East African Scheme,” 17. 54 M. W. London, “Jewish Settlers in British East Africa,” Jewish Chronicle (October 27, 1905): 16. 55 W. Sulski, “The East African Scheme,” Jewish Chronicle (March 10, 1905): 22.

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to be spilled to make them flow; at the same time, the trope is revealed as just that and suggested to be inapplicable to any colonization practice, which rather demands the conquest of the land by toil and hardship, as was similarly ­suggested by London’s reference. It is in this way also directed at idealized and ideologically informed Zionist conceptions of the Promised Land as they were articulated for instance in the first issue of the journal Palaestina in 1902. The editors, Alfred Nossig and Davis Trietsch, maintain: It is the aim to turn these pages into a Jewish journal on Palestine – a journal whose task it is to demonstrate what Palestine can mean to the Jews and what the Jews can mean to Palestine – a journal which sees not only a holy land in Palestine, enveloped in the glory of a magnificent past but dead to the present, but which wants to help make Palestine once again a country “flowing with milk and honey,” i.e. a country full of life and affluence, full of industrious diligence and commerce, full of traffic and progress.56

The vision, like Herzl’s in Old-New Land, is an enthralling one, but the process of realizing it – to make milk and honey flow again – inevitably would be a long and taxing one. In fact, when Davis Trietsch wrote only two years later what he thought to be the final afterword to his venture, concluding the brief existence of the periodical which was to be merged with the journal Altneuland, he acknowledged that Palaestina had met with difficulties from the very beginning because its aim was to substitute the “truth” for “rosy illusions” and “romantic visions.” And this truth, he maintained, was apt to suggest auspicious aims but also emphasized the arduous paths that needed to be taken and that could not be skimmed over by dreams.57 The early Zionists did not want to know this, he

56 Anonymous, “Zur Einführung,” Palaestina. Zeitschrift für die culturelle und wirtschaftliche ­Erschliessung des Landes  1.1 (1902): 3–6, 3: “Eine jüdische Palästina-Zeitschrift sollen diese ­Blätter werden – eine Zeitschrift, deren Aufgabe es ist, darzuthun, was Palästina für die Juden und was die Juden für Palästina sein können – eine Zeitschrift, die in Palästina nicht nur ein heiliges Land sieht, umwoben von der Glorie einer grossen Vergangenheit, aber tot für die ­Gegenwart, sondern die mithelfen will, Palästina wieder zu einem Lande zu machen, ‘fliessend von Milch und Honig,’ d. h. zu einem Lande voller Leben und Wohlstand, voll Gewerbfleiss und Handel, voll Verkehr und Forschritt.” 57 Davis Trietsch, “Schlusswort des Herausgebers,” Palaestina. Zeitschrift für die culturelle und wirtschaftliche Erschliessung des Landes  2.3–6 (1903/04): 247–8, 247: “[A]n die Stelle mancher rosiger Illusionen und romantischer Visionen [musste sie] die Wahrheit setzen […] – und diese Wahrheit konnte wohl verheissungsvolle Ziele zeigen, aber sie musste auch auf schwere Wege weisen, die beschritten  –  nicht mit Träumereien überflogen werden wollen.” The publication history of Palaestina shows a number of irregularities. Publication of the three issues combined in this volume was projected for an earlier date but was deferred until spring 1904. The magazine was then merged with Altneuland but, after this venture was discontinued, was re-established in 1907.

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reflects: “[T]hey bristled against having the power of the phantasies commanding the masses broken too soon by the hard arguments of the facts.”58 Mbwapwa’s reservations were further compounded by the observation that “the Negroes” thrive in the East African territory. Two serious issues are addressed with this seemingly innocuous line: First, that there is in fact a native ­population which, contrary to all assurances, is already in possession of the promised ­territory; second, that where negroes thrive, the same will not necessarily be true of the Jews. The latter significantly once again relates to the all-important ­question of the ‘whiteness’ of the Jews and its implications for the debate about the ­suitability of the proposed territory. Coming from Mbwapwa, the observation is moreover an indication of his increasing dissociation from “the Negroes” whom he perceives from a (Jewish) outsider perspective as the other. At the same time, the reader will nevertheless associate the African turned Jew with those splendidly thriving negroes and will construe from this identification another caveat about the African territory and its ‘black’ colonizers. Before the Uganda proposal was eventually rejected, the issue of the suitability of the offered territory was hotly debated also in the German Zionist press. Otto Warburg – himself an expert in tropical agriculture, with Leopold Greenberg co-organizer of the expedition,59 and later to become the President of the Zionist Organization (from 1911–21) – reiterated Johnston’s praise of the territory as “the white man’s country” in Ost und West in 1905.60 Following the other’s reasoning, Warburg in particular emphasized the contrast to other African territories, such as Nigeria and Sierra Leone, to which, as Johnston suggests, the white man may go as planter or capitalist but where he cannot hope to find a home for himself and his descendants, as would be required in a settlement colony.61 Yet Warburg nevertheless remained skeptical of the proposal, not least because, as Penslar observes, “the presence of a large black population available to perform labor for white settlers would impede large-scale Jewish agricultural colonization”62 and would thus be counterproductive.

58 Ibid.: “[M]an sträubte sich dagegen, die massenbeherrschende Kraft der Phantasien durch die harten Argumente der Tatsachen zu früh brechen zu lassen.” 59 See Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land,” p. 186 and on Warburg in particular Penslar, “Zionism, Colonialism, and Technocracy,” 143–60. 60 Otto Warburg, “Einiges über die zionistische Ostafrika-Expedition,” Ost und West 5.3 (1905): 151–62, 151. See also H. H. Johnston, General Report by Sir H. Johnston on the Uganda Protectorate (London: HMSO, 1901). 61 See Kurt Toeppen, “Das Gebiet des projektierten Judenstaates in Ostafrika,” Ost und West 3.10 (1903): 681–704, 697. 62 Penslar, Zionism and Technocracy, p. 64.

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In contrast, Johnston’s insistence that a white settlement in Uganda would not be an injustice to any indigenous peoples because the territory in question, as he claimed, was either uninhabited or its inhabitants were nomadic hunters,63 was quoted by Kurt Toeppen, a seasoned (non-Jewish) German Africa traveler who had lived in East Africa for almost two decades. Toeppen had in fact originally been suggested by Herzl as quartermaster for the expedition, but, as Robert G. Weisbord notes, was eventually not considered because there were some concerns “that the inhabitants would think there was an alliance between the Jews and Germans to oust them from the land.”64 As Johnston was to explain toward the end of the Herero War in another article, on “The Disposal of Africa” (1907), such anxieties were based on the assumption that Germany had been manoeuvring to take over South Africa from its consolidated power base in neighboring German South-West Africa, an objective which had, however, become obsolete already with the British victory in the Second Anglo-Boer War. Johnston nevertheless concedes that “[t]here was a good deal to justify Germany in conceiving such a plan”; as he explains, “[s]ome of the best colonists in Cape Colony and in Natal were of German descent in the first and second generation.”65 More importantly in the present context, Johnston then suggests the potential use of German Jews as a collaborators’ group. “There were,” as he maintains, “large numbers of German Jews already established in the Orange Free State over the diamond mines, and beginning to settle in the Transvaal over the nascent gold industry.”66 Intriguingly, this counters the stereotypes expressed in Johnston’s earlier essay and substitutes another set for them: These Jews are now no longer peddlers and petty tradesmen but involved in the diamond and gold trade. They are speculators and capitalists, yet Johnston nevertheless seems to consider them to be an effective collaborators’ group whose support would clearly benefit the German colonial aspirations. Their loyalty to Germany is simply taken for granted. After all, they are “German Jews” in Johnston’s perception, and that of others.67 63 See Toeppen, “Gebiet des projektierten Judenstaates in Ostafrika,” 697–8. Bar-Yosef discusses the ideological and practical implications of presuming the land empty or settled, see Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land,” pp. 196–8. 64 Weisbord, African Zion, p. 202. 65 H. H. Johnston, “The Disposal of Africa,” Fortnightly Review 82.488 (August 1907): 320–4, 320. 66 Ibid. 67 See, e.g., Colin Holmes, Anti-Semitism in British History, 1876–1939 (1979; Abingdon: ­Routledge, 2015), p.  80. There is, however, some potential terminological confusion here. ­German Jews had indeed settled in South Africa since the beginning of the nineteenth century and some of them occupied key positions in the economy of the Cape colonies, see, e.g., Richard Mendelsohn and Milton Shain, The Jews in South Africa: An Illustrated History (Johannesburg:

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The Jews had also been accused of having instigated the Second Anglo-Boer War in South Africa which, especially among socialist and radical circles in Britain, was perceived to have “resulted mainly from the machinations of Jewish finance.”68 Originally prompted by the journalist J. A. Hobson and “based on his cataloguing of Jewish-sounding names,”69 the notion of a Jewish conspiracy was forcefully rejected by the Jewish Chronicle. At the same time it offered a subtly modified image of those Jews potentially implicated by ‘othering’ them – emphasizing, once again, their German origin and their separation from their people by having converted to Roman Catholicism (not Anglicanism or Protestantism): We have always contended that though many of the capitalists of the Rand [i.e. the Witwatersrand] may, as the joke has it, “speak in broken accents,” it did not follow that they were therefore Jews. […] many of the capitalists have nothing but a German cognomen to justify the ascription to them of Jewish blood; whilst several of the German financiers who were Jews, have long ago left their people for their people’s good, and yielded their immortal souls unto the care of the Roman Catholic Church.70

The rivalry of the colonial powers in Africa for the resources of the Dark ­ ontinent was focused mainly on the material exploitation of the acquired terC ritories but also on their potential for white settlement which, as we have seen from ­Johnston’s earlier essay – and likewise from Steineck’s acknowledgement in Old-New Land – was perceived to be severely limited. For the explorer and former Commissioner of the British Ugandan protectorate this meant that some sort of agreement with the indigenous peoples needed to be negotiated that would not only protect the indispensable human resources of the continent but also recognize the future potential of the natives. Even so, Johnston subscribes to stereotypical perceptions of the nature and cultural inferiority of the negroes when he maintains that

Ball, 2008), pp. 4–27. However, their numbers were soon eclipsed by the quickly mounting immigration wave of eastern European Jews, in particular from Lithuania, during the last three decades before the beginning of the First World War, see ibid., pp. 29–83 and Adam R. Yamey, Exodus to Africa: From Mosenthal to Mandela (Raleigh, NC: Lulu, 2015), pp. 24, 128. Among them were the kinds of Jews we have already encountered in New-Newland: Orthodox Ashkenazim (though in this case not necessarily Zionist) and in possession of the German idiom, i.e. they speak Yiddish – hence maybe the suggestion that they are German Jews. Although in this respect too there may have been some confusion as Yiddish was initially not recognized in South Africa as a European language but, because of the use of Hebrew characters, as oriental, see Yamey, Exodus to Africa, p. 124. 68 See, e.g., Holmes, Anti-Semitism in British History, p. 79. 69 Mendelsohn and Shain, Jews in South Africa, p. 56. 70 Anonymous, “Jews and the War,” Jewish Chronicle (April 20, 1900): 14–15, 15.

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without the incessant prodding of the white man during the last ten thousand years or so, the Negro, in perfect contentment with his surroundings, might have relapsed into a scarcely human condition, might have degenerated once more into an aberrant type of anthropoid ape.71

He accordingly gives voice to a paternalistic colonialism which insists on the ­continued supremacy of the whites under whose tutelage only any African ­civilization may be developed: “The white man, no doubt, must rule and educate in all but a very few Negro States until their African civilisation is securely ­constructed.” At the same time the explorer asserts that “wherever the land is classed as black man’s country, the interests of the black man must be rated first and those of the alien second.”72 Ultimately, Johnston articulates in his later essay a vaguely redemptive vision of “The Disposal of Africa” which he contrasts to the “costly experiments and mistakes in expansion” most recently made by the German Empire but “which have so long been customary incidents in the ­foundation of the British and French empires in Africa and Asia.”73 Indeed, as Johnston maintains, Germany in particular “at present is suffering from false pride,”74 bearing the cost in lives and expenditure of the Herero and Nama wars for holding on to their “useless claims in German South-West Africa.”75 He explains: “In this country they have made the great mistake of regarding the native rights to the soil as a negligible quantity.”76 There was, thus, a lesson to be learnt from the mistakes of the colonial powers and, most recently, those of the German Empire. Discussing the Uganda proposal versus the colonization of Palestine, the problem posed by the existence of indigenous populations was acknowledged by Alfred Nossig, a caricature of whom we have already encountered in the previous chapter. The Polish Jewish artist and writer emphasized that neither Palestine nor East Africa were entirely empty.77 Nossig envisaged that a prolonged struggle would be necessary to seize the decisive economic positions in either case. He also observed that public opinion in England was opposed to the proposal and that protests had been made against the Jewish settlement on behalf of the indigenous peoples as well as British ­settlers.78

71 Johnston, “Disposal of Africa,” 323. 72 Johnston, “White Man’s Place in Africa,” 946. 73 Johnston, “Disposal of Africa,” 320. 74 Ibid. 75 Ibid., 321. 76 Ibid. 77 Alfred Nossig, “Das jüdische Kolonisations-Programm,” Palaestina 2.3 (1903–4): 171–211, 182. 78 Ibid., 184.

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Challenging more positive reports, such as Johnston’s, Nossig  –  before the Zionist expedition had even embarked on its mission – further pointed out that even in the higher regions of the proposed territory Europeans would not be able to work but at best, sheltered by a pith helmet, might supervise black laborers.79 He asked: What is the suitability of this settlement area specifically for Jews? We want to transform the Jewish petty peddlers and speculators into working peasants. In East Africa they would need to form trading companies and, similar to the Boers, would need to force the Blacks with the lash to work. The real Negro state. Is that the image of a regenerated people?80

The question is of course rhetorical, but it is nonetheless interesting to note that in Nossig’s appreciation it is the land that is not suitable for Jewish colonization because it is not sufficiently transformative, rather than the other way round as suggested by Johnston. Nevertheless, Nossig too invokes the Jewish petty tradesmen envisioned by the British explorer, if in conjunction with – at the other end of the spectrum of antisemitic stereotypes  –  the speculator. Neither of whom is suitable for agricultural work which – in Johnston’s estimation an economic necessity  –  is ideologically charged as a redemptive project in the Zionist discourse in which Nossig’s essay participates. It is moreover significant that Nossig, like Herzl, Leo Rafaels, and Ahad Ha’am, clearly demarcates Jews from blacks. He cannot conceive of an independent ‘negro state’ but only of one in which the inferior blacks are ruled by superior whites. Intriguingly, and not at all uncontroversially in contemporary discourse on race, the Jews are construed here unambiguously as white and, in effect, as master race apparent, even though the colonial attitude is rejected. Johnston, too, had not challenged the notion of Jewish whiteness, his own perception of Jews ostensibly deracialized and as such arguably indicative of a liberal British attitude toward Jewish difference which diverged significantly from pervasive antisemitic sentiments in Germany. Even the British settlers in East Africa who were strongly opposed to the proposed Jewish settlement in the protectorate conceded that the Jews were “possibly the lowest class of white men”;81 as Bar-Yosef p ­ oignantly

79 See ibid., 188. 80 Ibid., 189: “Welche Eignung aber hat dieses Ansiedelungsgebiet speziell für die Juden? Wir wollen die kleinen jüdischen Händler und Spekulanten in selbstarbeitende Bauern v ­ erwandeln. In Ostafrika müssten sie Handelskompagnien bilden und ähnlich wie die Buren auf den ­Pflanzungen die Schwarzen mit der Peitsche zur Arbeit antreiben. Der richtige Negerstaat. Ist dies das Bild eines regenerierten Volkes?” 81 Weisbord, African Zion, p. 84.

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sums up: “Barely, but still white.”82 The same concession was not always granted to Jews in South Africa, where they were frequently regarded as “unassimilable into European South African society and consequently not ‘white’.”83 The diffusion of racist into Zionist discourse is manifest also in Nossig’s further deliberations when he notes the impact of the sleeping sickness in the projected territory. The Zionist observed, that in the previous summer 50,000 blacks had allegedly died of the disease. “Fortunately,” as he rather callously, though arguably ironically, added, “they weren’t Jewish Negros yet….”84 Yet given his doubts that the Jewish settlers in Africa would develop nationally and politically into what he calls “the ideal, pure Jewish type,”85 Nossig may have been dead serious. He anticipates that, “as soon as they leave the conserving atmosphere of the European ghetto and will be exposed to the rays of the African sun,” the Jewish settlers will develop into a new tribe, into Jewish East Africans, into what he perceives to be an abnormal variety of the Jewish race.86 The Schlemiel issue of February 1905 included an illustration by Josef Rosintal which may be an articulation of similar apprehensions (Figure 17). The picture shows a dark-haired and fair-skinned maiden hastening on a winding path toward the sun (inscribed with the Hebrew characters for Zion) with the caption “Why Zionism’s Progress is so Slow.”87 But the maiden is impeded by an ugly little urchin clutching her robe and desperately holding her back. The boy is black, his face a clichéd and grotesque grimace, a black mask on a black body. The image suggests that the true goal of the Zionist movement, its “place in the sun,” is Zion and that Uganda is merely a distraction. It would seem, moreover, that the repellent image of the black boy may also indicate a revulsion against living among the likes of him and perhaps, even more disturbingly, the fear of becoming like him as a result of the colonial encounter. The black urchin is inscribed with “Made in Uganda.” Is the suggestion that this is a Jew “Made in Uganda”? Jungmann’s cunning play with the ‘blackness’ of the Mizrachi Jews situates them in an ambivalent in-between, their ‘blackness’ 82 Bar-Yosef, “Spying Out the Land,” p. 185. 83 Claudia Bathsheba Braude, “Introduction,” in Claudia Bathsheba Braude (ed.), Contemporary Jewish Writing in South Africa: An Anthology (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001), pp. ix–lxxvi, p. xviiii. 84 Nossig, “Das jüdische Kolonisations-Programm,” 181: “Zum Glück waren es noch nicht jüdische Neger….” 85 Ibid., 192: “[…] den idealen, reinen jüdischen Typus.” 86 Ibid.: “[S]obald sie aus der konservierenden Atmosphäre des europäischen Ghettos heraus sind und unter die afrikanische Sonne kommen, [werden sie] zu einem neuen Stamm, zu jüdi­ schen Ostafrikanern, zu einer Abart der jüdischen Rasse werden.” 87 Josef Rosintal, “Wieso der Zionismus so langsam voran kommt,” Schlemiel 3.2 (1905): 19.

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Figure 17: Josef Rosintal, “Why Zionism’s Progress is so Slow” (“Wieso der Zionismus so langsam voran kommt”), Schlemiel (1905).

indicating their suitability for settling in the potentially blighted territory among the ‘other’ blacks, while their ‘whiteness’ lays claim to “the white man’s country” in Africa – yet we may also remember how the Mizrachi Jews turned into savages in Mbwapwa’s epistles. Nossig, too, was apprehensive about the potential transformation of the Jews in Uganda. Is this, then, the ugly face of Jews turning into blacks, while the much more dignified Mbwapwa presented the black turned Jew? Is the whitening Mbwapwa experiences in Texas then a stage in his ‘Jewification’? And should we assume that, once he has reached the biblically promised Land, he may turn fully white, and not soap powder white, by becoming fully Jewish? The negative connotations of the black imp, by contrast, are plain. Quite clearly, he is neither a lovable nor a laughable figure, as are Mbwapwa or the silly black in Fips the Monkey, respectively. Nor is he tragic like the deeply

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affecting black performer in Oskar Panizza’s short story “A Negro’s Tale” (“Eine ­Negergeschichte,” 1893) who, when confronted for the first time in his life with his physiognomy in the reflection of a shop window, is appalled. Indeed, at first he does not even recognize the monster that is facing him as his own mirror image. What he sees is: “A black monster! – a snarling gorilla!” (NT, 250)88 ­Realization that what he sees is actually his own form is slow: “At first I believed an animal was in the shop and was looking out; but the white people who went past also saw themselves in the block of water [i.e. the shop window] and now I saw that I was the horrid animal.” (NT, 250; emphasis added)89 Recognizing his difference, his anguished mind disintegrates in the attempt to reconcile the contradiction: In a transgressive move, he paints himself white in his imagination. Yet ­Panizza’s negro does so only to be disciplined by being locked away in an asylum. The short story will be discussed in more depth in Chapter 6 in relation to its author’s alleged antisemitism and his controversial representation of another (failed) Jewish metamorphosis. The (Jewish) Ugandan urchin’s sullen and mischievous expression is potentially much more threatening than any of these evocations of the black other, even though Panizza’s negro attempts to strangle the medical man who refuses to certify the alleged change of his epidermal hue. The urchin’s ugly face is the image of the animal mirrored in the shop window let loose. Anne McClintock interpreted the mirror in the Pears’ Soap advertisement as an instrument of disciplining the black child by confronting it with its ultimately indelible otherness and of reassuring white society of its unassailable superiority. In “A Negro’s Tale” the disciplining impulse is internalized and the mental agony it produces commands empathy as it denounces the narrator’s nonchalant stance. In ­Rosintal’s drawing, the connotations are different and possibly even more disturbing. There is no real mirror involved; rather, the reader is confronted with an imaginary mirror reflecting the horrific potential of racial transformation, and deformation, as it threatens their own identity. The bestial imp insolently returning the reader’s gaze from the page will not be contained in an asylum; in a territory breeding savages, he will rise up against the impulse of civilization and taint Jewish humanity: The  urchin suggests miscegenation, degeneration, and the “epidermalization” of inferiority but also, perhaps worst of all, delay of the maiden’s progress.

88 “Ein schwarzes Scheusal! – Ein fletschendes Gorilla!” 89 “Ich glaubte zuerst, ein Tier steht im Laden und schaut heraus; aber die uaißen Menschen, die vorübergingen, haben sich auch in dem Block Wasser gesehen, und jetzt sah ich, daß ich uar das scheußliche Tier”; emphasis added.

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 ivilization and Culture Imperiled: The Jews C and the Blacks A roughly contemporary humoristic postcard may serve to illustrate the point further. Arthur Thiele’s cartoon, entitled “Bankruptcy Clearance Sale” (“Konkurs-Ausverkauf,” c. 1905; Figure 18), offers a satirical commentary not only on what the caption of his cluttered drawing ironically designates as ­“Kulturfortschritt in Afrika,” as the progress of civilization in Africa. It m ­ oreover encapsulates both Johnston’s apprehensions as well as the Zionist nightmare specter of the ‘old’ Jew merely transplanted to yet another territory rather than being transformed into the ‘new’ Jew in a process of mutual redemption in the Promised Land. Yet it does so from a diametrically opposed perspective. Here, the ‘old,’ peddling Jew infesting Africa denotes the exploitation of the alleged “Konkurs,” the bankruptcy, of European culture and – in a jumbled mockery of the European mission civilisatrice – contaminates the Dark Continent.

Figure 18: Arthur Thiele, “Bankruptcy Clearance Sale” (“Konkurs-Ausverkauf”; postcard; c. 1905).

The bazaar-style stall set up by the eastern European Jew – who in contemporary antisemitic discourse of course always needs to be thought of as oriental – is moreover the inversion of the Kolonialwarenladen, of the colonial goods and grocery store, which was a ubiquitous feature of contemporary quotidian experience in

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Germany as the purveyor of life’s necessities but also of exotic luxuries, including sugar, coffee, tea, cocoa, spices, and tobacco.90 In itself no less a jumble of decontextualized goods assembled from a variety of sources, the Kolonialwarenladen nevertheless was part of a coherent and well-ordered world view from a European perspective which relied on the commodification of the other, neatly consigned to shop display and compartmentalized storage.91 All this is subverted in the cartoon. Here it is the occident which is on offer – and at the hands of the oriental who has insinuated himself into European society and whose auctioning of a higgledy-piggledy simulacrum is ultimately a subversive act. Indeed, the Jew appears to be the purveyor of everything, but everything he offers in his clearance sale is out of context and has lost its meaning. The peddler emerges as the bringer of cultural chaos, as the destroyer of coherence and meaningful social and cultural order and interaction. And not only with regard to the incongruity of his goods, but also to the place in which he offers them. The lush green plants in the background suggest a jungle setting and thus disorderly and uncontainable wild growth. The Jew’s clientele is similarly unruly. It is a crowd of black natives and of monkeys, almost interchangeable in the (non)appreciation of his wares and in their childish curiosity and gullibility. The dis-order equally associated with the Jew and with his customers simultaneously appears to be symptomatic of a malady, or disorder, affecting metropolitan culture and civilization. To permit the sell-out of all values to proceed without restraint may well be taken to denote the bankruptcy of European culture that is advertised in the sign above the Jew’s stall. The progress of civilization invoked in the cartoon’s caption is in fact the perversion of the cultural achievements of the civilized nations which casts its pall also over its European exemplar. Theodor Herzl’s vision in Old-New Land was diametrically opposed to this view. In the future-oriented novel, too, a commercialized understanding of cultural progress is articulated. Yet in the department store in the Jewish model state in Old-New Land the array of commodities is well-ordered and it is in fact the

90 One of the largest supermarket chains in Germany, Edeka, is still named for its past as a cooperative of colonial goods retailers. Originally founded in 1898 as E.d.K., or Einkaufsgenossenschaft der Kolonialwarenhändler im Halleschen Torbezirk zu Berlin (i.e. Purchasing Cooperative of Colonial Goods Retailers in the Hallesches Tor District of Berlin), the name was phonetically expanded to Edeka in 1913. For a history of the cooperative, see Uwe Spiekermann, “Die Edeka. Entstehung und Wandel eines Handelsriesen,” in Peter Lummel and Alexandra Deak (eds.), Einkaufen! Eine Geschichte des täglichen Bedarfs (Berlin: Ausstellungsverbund Arbeit und Leben auf dem Lande, 2005), pp. 93–102. 91 For the marketing of colonial goods in imperial Germany, see Short, Magic Lantern Empire, pp. 39–44.

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epitome of civilization. Indeed, the “department store in Parisian fashion”92 is portrayed in the novel as the product of a historical development “forced by iron necessity” (ONL, 98).93 It supersedes precisely the hawker and any other forms of small business and as such is another solution to the problem articulated by both Johnston and Nossig and satirized in Thiele’s postcard.94 David Littwak, Herzl’s ideal Jew, explains the economic imperative and inevitability of the department store to his curmudgeonly gentile visitor Kingscourt: “[B]oth production and consumption required the modern department store”; and he emphasizes its socio-political benefit: “[I]n this way we were able to cure our small tradesmen body and soul of certain outworn, uneconomic, and injurious forms of trade.”95 To Kingscourt’s assumption that in the new model country retail trade must then have been prohibited, he responds at length by explaining: Everyone is free here, and may do as he chooses […]. We punish only those crimes and misdemeanors which were penalized in enlightened European states. Nothing is forbidden here that was not forbidden there. We do not consider petty trade a misdemeanour, but poor business. That was one of the problems our Society had to solve. It was very important to do so, especially at the beginning, because such large numbers of our people were petty tradesmen.96

In fact, the whole novel projects the trajectory of overcoming this very problem. As Littwak further reminisces, his own history is emblematic of the social triumph of the Jewish commonwealth epitomized in the Warenhaus: “My good father 92 My translation: “Warenhaus nach Pariser Art” (ANL, 110). Levensohn’s translation, “a large bazaar like those in Paris” (ONL, 97), is misleading inasmuch as her choice of word carries oriental associations which Herzl clearly did not mean to suggest. 93 “[E]s lag eiserne Notwendigkeit in dieser Entwicklung” (ANL, 112). 94 In fact, as Paul Lerner observes, “Jews founded the great majority of department stores throughout Germany” and it is estimated that Jewish business accounted before the First World War for more than 80 per cent of total department store sales volume, Consuming Temple, p. 25. For a critical overview of the development of the “Warenhaus” in Germany, see Gudrun M. König, Konsumkultur: Inszenierte Warenwelt um 1900 (Vienna: Böhlau, 2009), pp. 92–124. 95 My own translation, based on Levensohn’s (see ONL, 100), who not only omits “­ modern” here, a feature quite essential to Herzl’s notion of the department store, but consistently translates “Warenhaus” as “bazaar.” “Produktion und Konsumtion forderten das moderne ­Warenhaus […] wir konnten so die Seele und den Leib unserer kleinen Leute von gewissen alten, unwirtschaftlichen und schädlichen Formen des Handels heilen.” (ANL, 113) 96 “Bei uns ist jeder frei und kann thun oder lassen, was er will […]. Bestraft werden nur ­dieselben Verbrechen und Vergehen, die man in den Kulturländern Europas zu ahnden pflegte. Verboten ist bei uns nichts, was nicht auch dort verboten war. Und wir halten ja den Kleinhandel nicht für eine Schlechtigkeit, sondern für etwas Unwirtschaftliches. Das war eines der Probleme, die unsere Gesellschaft lösen mußte. Es war höchst wichtig, besonders in den Anfängen, weil ja große Massen unserer Leute vom Kleinhandel herkamen.” (ANL, 111)

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himself […] earned his poor crust as a peddler. And peddling is certainly the most wretched form of petty trade.”97 Herzl’s vision of the Jew as the bringer of civilization through well-ordered commerce – as exemplified also in the episode of the kid gloves discussed in the previous chapter – is thus confronted by its opposite as articulated in Thiele’s cartoon. Another connotation suggested by the drawing is of course that the natives are quite simply unable to appreciate and meaningfully assimilate the cultural offerings. Yet the figure of the hawker and his merchandise moreover give some indication also as to his role as an active agent of subversion, effectively a saboteur, and of what the sabotaged icons of this civilization are. Sauerkraut (pickled cabbage), Kieler Sprotten (smoked sprats), and Bratheringe (pickled fried herring) moreover indicate an ironic twist in that, though typical German food, they hardly constitute the apex of gourmet culture. Yet their inclusion among the icons of civilization contributes to the incongruence of the merchandise, ranging from fashion accessories and items of personal hygiene to technical articles and to the homely food of the German peasant, but also to military paraphernalia, including Pickelhauben, bugles, and even arms. The reference to arms in particular suggests the not only subversive but effectively anarchic character of the Jew’s commercial enterprise. The disarmament of the natives in the German protectorates in Africa had become a widely debated issue during the Herero War in 1904. Indeed, the expectation that they would have to follow suit and hand in their weapons was a major reason for the Nama to rise up against German colonial rule later in the same year. Beyond these very real concerns, the hawking of the distinctive Pickelhauben in particular indicates that these tokens of military glory and national identity are defiled by being turned into marketable commodities. Both, an item of personal hygiene and connoting military style, Bartwichse (beard wax) is another evocative product which denotes not only the incongruity of the wares on offer but is moreover invested with cultural significance. Much like Herzl’s Assyrian style of beard, it implies a specific model of identification, in this instance suggesting military panache and in particular the fiercely waxed moustaches sported by the Kaiser. Yet to the natives it is in fact a useless commodity because the growth pattern of their facial hair largely prohibits any such use.98 It exemplifies thus the exploitation of futile yet perilous aspirations toward colonial mimicry. 97 “Mein guter Vater selbst […] verdiente sich unser bißchen hartes Brot als Hausierer, und das ist die ärmste, unglücklichste Art des Kleinhandels.” (ANL, 111) 98 See, e.g., Inken Gesine Waßmuth, “Afrikaner als Produkt kolonisatorischen Sprechens in ­Kolonie und Heimat,” in Deutsche Sprache und Kolonialismus: Aspekte der nationalen Kommunikation

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This becomes even more obvious with another product on offer which suggests at least implicitly the notion of lightening the native hue of the black ­Africans – as do also mention of the Seifenpulver-Walfisch in Mbwapwa’s letters, the advertisements for Pears’ Soap, and the denouement of Panizza’s “A Negro’s Tale.” Among the merchandise advertised by the Jew is Waschblau, laundry blue, which was used since the middle of the nineteenth century to counter the effects of yellowing by adding a trace of blue color to the washing, which appeared to restore the fabric’s whiteness. Skin color itself thus becomes a signifier of the natives’ desire for otherness. But here too the proposed solution is not only artificial but naturally impracticable. Another, and very different, connotation of Waschblau may therefore come to the fore here with reference to the blue color it contains. The colloquial German word “verbläuen,” to give somebody a thrashing, derives from the blue bruises sustained from a heavy beating. Black skin supposedly obscures such traces of physical violence. The implied pun was nevertheless used to articulate some critical reflections on the ubiquitous and by all accounts excessive practice of corporal punishment in the German protectorates.99 In 1906 the Jahresrevue of the Metropol-Theater in Berlin, one of the most popular music hall-style theaters in the capital, offered the thinly veiled censure of German colonial practice. Billed as Phantastical-Satyrical Review (Phantastisch-satyrische Revue), with music by Victor Hollaender and lyrics by Julius Freund, The Devil Laughs about It! (Der Teufel lacht dazu!) featured a bemused devil trying to find out why he recruited so few sinners from Berlin.100 Chancing upon the black King Akwa of Cameroon, Natas (Satan backwards)  –  pith-helmeted and brandishing a riding crop  –  accosts the increasingly cowed native with a satiric eulogy on the beneficial effect of corporal punishment as an instrument of ­colonial ­education:101

1884–1919, ed. Ingo H. Warnke (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 2009), pp. 315–44, p. 334. Von Luschan too describes the African Treptow exhibits with very few exceptions as beardless or having only very sparse facial growth, see Beiträge zur Völkerkunde der deutschen Schutzgebiete, p. 9 et passim and for the exceptions, p. 24. 99 See Tobias Becker, Inszenierte Moderne: Populäres Theater in Berlin und London, 1880–1930 (Berlin and Munich: de Gruyter, 2014), p. 188. 100 For Der Teufel lacht dazu!, see Astrid Kusser, Körper in Schieflage: Tanzen im Strudel des Black Atlantic um 1900 (Bielefeld: transcript, 2013), pp. 236–43 and Becker, Inszenierte Moderne, pp.  187–9. For the Jewish background and careers in entertainment of Victor Hollaender and Julius Freund, see Marline Otte, Jewish Identities in German Popular Entertainment, 1890–1933 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 229–32. 101 Natas (played by Josef Giampietro), King Akwa of Cameroon (played by Henry Bender), see Becker, Inszenierte Moderne, p. 188.

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If the negro, hide and hair, You want to change and all renew, He must be dyed, so much is clear, All blue.102

To dye the blacks blue in order to transform and renew them thus means that they need to be beaten into submission. Delivered by Satan, this is of course an indictment of the attitude engendering such brutal practice. Yet at the same time it is also the reaffirmation of the natives’ status as uncivilized and the confirmation of the “epidermalization” of inferiority.103 The ambivalence of the Jewish hawker in Thiele’s cartoon emerges clearly from the significance attached to such products as Bartwichse, Waschblau, and arms, which he flogs to the natives. He exploits their ‘childlike’ naivety by irresponsibly creating false hopes and seducing them into purchasing useless or dangerous articles. While the drawing acknowledges the danger that the use of these products may challenge the existing colonial order, its ironical impulse provides reassurance with regard to the colonial context. Indeed, while the cartoon’s setting is of course colonial and the dis-order of this other-world had emerged as a recurrent trope in a plethora of representations across the medial spectrum, the agency of the Jew in the process as suggested by Thiele is significant, and an analogy may also be drawn much closer to home, to the metropolitan center: The alleged commodification of all cultural values at the hands of the Jews and their resultant devaluation was an antisemitic trope of similar currency. The notion of the ­Verjudung of German culture, its ‘Jewification,’ had been vociferously promoted by the journalist Wilhelm Marr who claimed in his notorious pamphlet The Victory of Judaism over Germandom (Der Sieg des Judenthums über das ­Germanenthum, 1879): “We are so deeply mired in Jewification that we would need to question the existence of modern society as a whole, were we to lift ­ourselves out of it again.”104 In fact, Marr concluded: “Finis Germaniæ”105 – an end to Germany. 102 My translation; original quoted in ibid.: “Will man den Schwarzen ganz und gar / Umwandeln und erneuen, / Muss man ihn färben das ist klar / Ihn bläuen.” 103 Yet another color shift from black to white, equating the natives’ eventual whiteness with their death, occurs in a letter from a German soldier (Karl), who, after mentioning the atrocities he believes the Herero to have committed, promises: “I’ll draw the black blood from their bodies alright, so that they shall turn all pale and faint [ich will ihnen schon das schwarze Blut aus dem Leibe zapfen, daß sie ganz bleich und matt werden sollen],” Arthur Wiegand (ed.), Kriegsbriefe aus Südwest-Afrika (Jena: Tauscher, 1906), p. 3. 104 Wilhelm Marr, Der Sieg des Judenthums über das Germanenthum, 8th edn. (Bern: Costenobis, 1879), p. 38: “Wir sind so tief in die Verjudung hineingerathen, dass wir die Existenz der ganzen modernen Gesellschaft in Frage stellen müssten, wollten wir uns kräftig wieder herausarbeiten.” 105 Ibid., p. 48.

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The extent to which this perception had taken hold also in public discourse does not only emerge from the fierce debate that became known as the Berlin antisemitism dispute (Berliner Antisemitismusstreit) in 1879–80.106 More specifically, the court preacher and founder of the Christian Social Party,107 Adolf Stöcker – while less pessimistic – nevertheless asserted that the symptoms of the malady, or disorder, decried by Marr were indeed virulent in German society.108 He, too, “in full Christian love, but also in full social truth,”109 denounced the Jewification of the German spirit and maintained: “[T]oday it is modern Jewry, residing amongst ourselves, that indeed engages in a struggle against our modern culture.”110 To a contemporary observer, Thiele’s cartoon would therefore also have insinuated the question: Who is the Jew to sell these things? He has not contributed to their production; they are alien to him, just as he is alien to the society and civilization that produced them. As Stöcker clamored: “They [i.e. the Jews] like to harvest, where they have not sown,” and insisted: “Modern Jewry must participate in productive labor.”111

Jews, Blacks, Monkeys – and the Imaginary White Other Of course, Thiele’s is only one specific example of a racialized and antisemitic cartoon, but one that was obviously produced for wide dissemination – quite literally. Indeed, by the turn of the century, picture postcards had become a medium of

106 See, e.g., Marcel Stoetzler, The State, the Nation, and the Jews: Liberalism and the Antisemitism Dispute in Bismarck’s Germany (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2008); for a comprehensive documentation, see Karsten Krieger (ed.), Der Berliner Antisemitismusstreit 1879–1881: Eine Kontroverse um die Zugehörigkeit der deutschen Juden zur Nation, Kommentierte Quellenedition, im Auftrag des Zentrums für Antisemitismusforschung, 2 vols. (Munich: Saur, 2003–04). 107 The party was founded in 1878 as Christian Social Workers’ Party (Christlich-Soziale ­Arbeiterpartei) but was renamed Christian Social Party (Christlich-Soziale Partei) in 1881. 108 Adolf Stöcker, Das moderne Judenthum in Deutschland, besonders in Berlin: Zwei Reden in der christlich-sozialen Arbeiterpartei (Berlin: Wiegandt and Grieben, 1880), p. 3. 109 Ibid., p. 4: “[…] in voller christlicher Liebe, aber auch in voller socialer Wahrheit.” 110 Anonymous, Contra Stöcker: Drei Reden der Abgeordneten Löwe (Berlin), Stöcker, Hänel, ­gehalten in der Sitzung des preußischen Abgeordnetenhauses vom  11. Februar  1880 (Berlin: Barthel, 1880), p. 7: “[H]eute ist es das moderne Judenthum, welches unter uns lebt, das in der That einen Kampf gegen unsere moderne Kultur führt.” 111 Stöcker, Das moderne Judenthum in Deutschland, p. 17: “Sie [i.e. the Jews] ernten gern, wo sie nicht gesäet haben […] Das moderne Judenthum muß an der productiven Arbeit theilnehmen.”

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extraordinary and far-reaching significance in Germany.112 The “­ postcard craze” manifested itself in 786 million postcards mailed in 1900 alone.113 As a postcard, Thiele’s drawing was therefore designed and destined to reach multiple postal consumers; and in any number of different and indeed arbitrary contexts, which potentially eluded and even subverted any intentions its creator may have had. Many picture postcards would have been tied to specific locations or occasions with the scenery they depicted, be it rural or urban, photographic or pictorial. Yet postcards such as Thiele’s suggested no specific use and it might have been sent without any particular reference to its reverse image just as it might have been bought and mailed by someone who appreciated its supposed humor or thought that its intended recipient would.114 Colonial motifs, either of exhibitions in the metropole  –  such as that of 1896  –  or relating to Germany’s overseas possessions, were popular subjects for postcards. While many of these pictures were photographic reproductions, many were pictorial, including also a large segment of humoristic and satirical cartoons, such as Thiele’s, who was quite prolific in this sector. The choice of the source medium was significant not only with respect to representational and formal detail but also because it indicated specific intentions of communication. Photographs, as we have seen in Chapter  1, signaled authenticity (without necessarily answering any such claims), tapping into ethnographic discourse and the connotations of colonial power and racial subjection evoked by it; the use of pictorial or graphic techniques in contrast allowed more freedom of design and composition, even though current conventions of representation were usually adhered to, since the image was of course intended to be easily understood.115 It has been suggested that, in contrast to satirical publications, humoristic postcards lack any critical impulse.116 Yet it seems to me that such a view runs perilously close to disregarding the subversive potential of any artistic representation and, more particularly, of ignoring unintended dimensions of meaning. After all, production and reception contexts of the images d ­ isseminated 112 See, e.g., Jens Jäger, “Bilder aus Afrika vor 1918: Zur visuellen Konstruktion Afrikas im europäischen Kolonialismus,” in Gerhard Paul (ed.), Visual History: ein Studienbuch (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2006), pp. 134–48, p. 140. 113 See Eike Reichardt, Health, “Race” and Empire: Popular-Scientific Spectacles and National Identity in Imperial Germany, 1871–1914 (Raleigh, NC: Lulu, 2008), p. 91: “As one commentator noted in 1911, the picture postcard allowed a deep look into the soul of the sender and mailing one became a social courtesy that people expected.” 114 Ibid. 115 See Jäger, “Bilder aus Afrika vor 1918,” pp. 141–2. 116 Axster, Koloniales Spektakel in 9 × 14, p. 37.

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via p ­ ostcards could neither be completely controlled at the time, nor are they sufficiently ­accessible in the present day in order to be fully recreated.117 As Felix Axster argues, multifaceted and contradictory imaginaries emerged precisely because picture postcards were not intended for a particular milieu nor were they subject to the more specific requirements for instance of advertisements.118 Their impact accordingly was indeterminate and open to contextual reconfiguration, not least as collectors’ items, which denotes further uses of postcards also beyond their postal purpose.119 Yet postcards nevertheless were of course produced for a mass market which both suggested and assimilated the ideas visualized in the images disseminated via the postal service and which remained largely uncontested. Even so, picture postcards were deliberately instrumentalized in the nation-building process, as Axster has emphasized.120 Colonial motifs in humoristic postcards therefore frequently signify racist interventions which promote a segregationist order in colonial relationships. A similar segregationist impulse informs also the plethora of antisemitic postcards among whose motifs that of the eastern European Jewish peddler was very prominent.121 Intriguingly, however, one of the postcards collected in Salo Aizenberg’s Hatemail (2013) demonstrates a level of identification of the writer of the postcard with the Jew which, assuming that the sender was not Jewish himself, illustrates the arbitrariness of ­contextual reconfigurations and the transcendence of prescribed patterns of ­signification – if, in this instance, reduced to bodily functions on the most vegetative level and moreover of questionable scatological humor. Asked by his fellow about the effect on his bowels of the waters at Karlsbad (present-day Karlovy Vary),122 one of the two Jews in the picture, contorting his body in what appears to be a futile effort to control his excretions, answers: “Oy vay, Oi’m goin’ kapores, / Underneath the frockelores / Everything’s already

117 Ibid., p. 33. 118 See ibid., p. 36. 119 See ibid., p. 75. 120 See ibid., pp. 29, 56. The first picture postcard was in fact produced in France in 1870 and was “illustrated with military and patriotic designs for use by the French army, then fighting the Franco-Prussian War,” Aizenberg, Hatemail, p. 3. 121 As demonstrated by Aizenberg, Hatemail, antisemitic postcards were not a German peculiarity but were current across Europe and the USA. 122 The same postcard was also printed for Marienbad (today Mariánské Lázně), as in the copy that was available to me. For the Karlsbad version, see Aizenberg, Hatemail, p. 51, Figure 2–18. For a contextualization of antisemitic postcards and the spas of Karlsbad and Marienbad, see ­Mirjam Triendl-Zadoff, Nächstes Jahr in Marienbad: Gegenwelten jüdischer Kulturen der Moderne ­(Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2007), pp. 101–5.

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stinkadores.”123 The caption, as Aizenberg notes, mocks the jargon with the invented words “frockelores” (“Rockelores”) and “stinkadores,” rhyming on the Yiddish word for “breaking”  –  kapores.124 Yet even more importantly, the caption is in fact an intertextual reference to a chapter in Wilhelm Busch’s Plish and Plum (Plisch und Plum, 1882), a very popular early comic, which unfolds the story of the pranks played by two mischievous dogs. One of their victims is the Jew Schmulchen Schievelbeiner upon whom the pair pounce and whose trousers, underneath his long overcoat, they rip: “Underneath the frockelores / Everything’s kapores.”125 This is not only a potential allusion to Jewish circumcision but is then also used to reference the alleged Jewish love of money when Schmulchen clamors for and receives reparation. Indeed, Busch’s representation of the Jew in image and text combines all the salient racial characteristics of antisemitic provenance: Breeches short and long surtout, Crooked nose and cane to suit, Gray of soul and black of eye, Hat slouched back, expression sly – 126

The accompanying drawing of Schmulchen (Figure 19) is very similar to that of the Jews in the Karlsbad postcard and many others of its ilk. Yet Busch’s doggerel introducing the Jew is relevant more specifically here because it articulates explicitly – if in parenthesis and arguably ironically – the segregationist impulse ascribed also to the antisemitic postcard: “Such is Schmulchen Schievelbeiner,”

123 My translation; Aizenberg, Hatemail, p. 51 provides another translation which, while more idiomatic, does not reproduce the rhyming pattern. The original text reads: “Waih geschrie’n iach geh kapores, / Unterhalb vom Rockelores / Is schon alles Stinkadores.” 124 Ibid. 125 Wilhelm Busch, Plisch und Plum (Munich: Bassermann, 1882), p.  32: “Unterhalb des ­Rockelores / Geht sein ganze Sach kapores.” Rather than faithfully translated, Busch’s works were frequently subjected to “[r]ecastings of the text around the imagery,” see Ciarlo, Advertising Empire, p.  249. Accordingly, in the only available translation into English of Busch’s text, the passage is not adequately translated, see Wilhelm Busch, Plish and Plum, transl. Charles Timothy Brooks (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1883), p. 32. The Jew’s very name, Schievelbeiner evokes crooked and bent bones, a stereotype frequently associated with the Jewish body and further discussed in Chapter 6 in relation to Oskar Panizza’s “The Operated Jew” (1893) and Eduard Schwechten’s The Song of Levi (1895). For perceptions of the Jewish body as deformed, see, e.g., Gilman, Jew’s Body, pp. 38–59. 126 In this case, the American translation is rather faithful to the original, Busch, Plish and Plum, p. 32; see Busch, Plisch und Plum, p. 30: “Kurz die Hose, lang der Rock, / Krumm die Nase und der Stock, / Augen schwarz und Seele grau, / Hut nach hinten, Miene schlau – .”

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Figure 19: Wilhelm Busch, Schmulchen Schievelbeiner, from Wilhelm Busch, Plish and Plum (1882).

it sums up, and then continues to emphasize the latent “us/them” dichotomy: “(More handsome, though, are the likes of us!)”127 While all this is evoked through the intertextual reference in the postcard in which the potential ambivalence of Busch’s Schmulchen is leveled, it is the personal message reproduced by Aizenberg which challenges its segregationist purpose. Whoever the sender “J. K.” was  –  and it is hard, though not entirely impossible, to imagine a Jew mailing this picture postcard – he identified with the Jew: “That’s my lot.”128 The laxative effect of the curative spa waters at Karlsbad and Marienbad (present-day Mariánské Lázně) was of course therapeutically desired and it received wide-ranging treatment in humoristic postcards. As Aizenberg explains,

127 Ibid.: “So ist Schmulchen Schievelbeiner / (Schöner ist doch unsereiner!)” Once again, the American translation, Plish and Plum, p. 32, is unreliable: “Such is old Sol Shuffleshins; / How complacently he grins!” Ulrich Wyrwa, “Plisch und Plum (Bildergeschichte von Wilhelm Busch, 1882),” in Handbuch des Antisemitismus: Judenfeindschaft in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol. 7: Literatur, Film, Theater und Kunst, ed. Wolfgang Benz (Berlin, Munich and Boston: de Gruyter, 2015), pp. 382–4, suggests that Busch ridiculed with this addition “die Selbstüberschätzung und Überheblichkeiten antisemitischer Leser,” p. 383. 128 “So geht’s mir.” The writer’s assumed gender is of course again conjecture, but a female resorting to this kind of humor would seem even more unusual at the time. The postcard, dated June 1907, is actually signed with two names, the writer, who signed with an intimate “Küsse / J. K.,” and another hand, sending “Gruß Moritz [?],” see Aizenberg, Hatemail, p. 51, Figure 2–18.

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Figure 20: “Greetings from Karlsbad” (“Gruss aus Karlsbad”; postcard; Germany; c. 1900); this copy postmarked 26 May 1914.

“[v]isitors from all classes of society were often caricatured waiting in front of occupied toilets (one for women and one for men), bending over and holding their stomachs in urgency.”129 But, as the author also observes: [I]n anti-Semitic fashion, the ugly Jewish character is distinct from the others in that he is unable to control himself and has defecated in his pants. He is shown humiliated with his hands reaching behind in surprise while the visitors next to him hold their noses and appear horrified.130

In one of the examples reproduced by Aizenberg, more than just an object of disgust, the Jew is moreover clearly dehumanized in that a dog is shown defecating next to him, “implying that the Jew and the animal are the same” (Figure 20).131 The identification of “J. K.” with the Jew soiling himself may by unexpected, but it may in this instance be explained with the ‘humorous’ dimension of the tertium comparationis, which would in fact have been one of the postcard’s selling points. As such it did, to some extent, even invite the identification with the sufferer. Any 129 Ibid., p. 202, see also Figures 9–2 and 9–3. 130 Ibid., p. 202. 131 Ibid.

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identification with the Jew next to the dog, in contrast, would be perplexing; more particularly, inasmuch as non-Jewish identification figures are provided here who, it is suggested, exert better control over their sphincters. The antisemitic impact of this image is accordingly articulated in much more unequivocal terms, which arguably limits the spectrum of potential contextual reconfigurations. Thiele’s “Bankruptcy Clearance Sale” may be less severe in its interpretive restrictions and may have been subject to contextual reconfigurations just like the Karlsbad postcard reproduced by Aizenberg. Its picture side nevertheless suggests a hegemonic reading which by necessity is the basis also for any subversive interpretations it may have elicited. Thiele’s postcard, too, is thus openly antisemitic and openly racist, presenting stereotypical images of the Jew and of the native Africans in a setting of colonial dis-order. As such it may be conventional, but it is unusual in that it combines both traditions. Closer scrutiny of Thiele’s composition indicates the wide-ranging potential of signification offered by the picture postcard. The composition, while cluttered, is not complex. It focuses on the Jew’s stall and merchandise in its central setting around which are clustered various natives – men, women, and children – as well as monkeys, all of whom are shown to engage on different levels with the wares on offer. Following the vanishing lines of the perspective, the composition emphasizes the diagonal from bottom left to top right, eventually aligning with the long neck of a giraffe in whose mouth is placed a sign that says: “Auction today.”132 One of the black figures, a portly male, is dressed incongruously in short Bavarian leather pants with a red fez on his head. As such, he is a caricature of the Hosenneger. The Bavarian trousers add a further level of irony which emphasizes not only regional variety but also suggests an internal cultural hierarchy and culture conceit, as does reference to Sauerkraut, Kieler Sprotten, and Brat­ heringe. In Thiele’s drawing, the upper body of the (Leder-)Hosenneger remains bare and is only adorned with a starched white collar and cuffs, his black skin making the formal black jacket redundant,133 as it had proudly and supposedly ­incongruously been displayed by August and Bismarck Bell in von Luschan’s anthropometric photographs. Under his left arm the African carries an ebony walking stick and with his right hand he is reaching for a plaster bust, which is not readily recognizable but whose martial moustaches suggest a contemporary military or political figure, possibly the Kaiser himself. Ivory and plaster busts of 132 “Heute Auktion.” 133 See Jung, “Deutschlands Colonialbestrebungen,” 612: “Die Frauen, bei denen auch die Mode in sonderbarer Art Einzug gehalten, denn sie tragen nur Manschetten, während sie das Hemd verschmähen, gelten dem Manne in erster Linie nur als Lastthiere und Werthobjecte.”

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Wilhelm II were in fact widely advertised collectibles and had become a part of contemporary German popular culture early in his reign.134 As a cultural artefact the bust is interesting moreover because of its commemorative function which invests it with historical depth and as such identifies it as a product specific to the Kulturvolk (civilized people) and, by the same token, as unattainable to the Naturvolk (primitive people) which, precisely because it is lacking historical depth, will not be able to make the transition to becoming the former. The image suggests that the African is bargaining about the price of the bust with the Jewish hawker, as is indicated by his hesitant stance and by his left hand reluctantly being drawn from his pocket. The native’s interest in this symbol of civilization and statesmanship singles him out, as does his central place in the composition. He is, in fact, the only adult male figure in the picture fully visible, if in three-quarter back side profile. Presumably, he is supposed to be a figure of authority – if ridiculed – and adorned with what may be the trappings of his chiefdom. The incongruity of the attributes with which the black African is invested is of course formulaic and stereotypical in this cartoon, but it nevertheless serves to revaluate Herzl’s concerns about Max Bodenheimer’s cuffs or his jibe at the sultan’s fez and the anxieties attached to the correct use of the accessories of ­civilization. The chief obviously has no such concerns and remains blithely unaware of the incongruous and ridiculous spectacle he presents. It should not then, perhaps, come as a surprise that the umbrella too makes its appearance in the cartoon, though it is, in this case, rather a parasol which in the black woman’s grasp in the left bottom corner suggests the inversion of the umbrella as a ­signifier of power in African societies. The feathered turban worn by the woman is similarly an instance of a signifier of power that has been appropriated by the west in orientalist fashion and has been re-imported to the extended orient and – by being incongruous – reflects back on its European appropriation. It also signifies its devaluation in the wake of the dissipation of its original meaning as well as its democratizing dimension with its evolution into a common fashion accessory. But perhaps the most interesting of all the figures is the little boy looking into the mirror, simultaneously with and next to a monkey. The figure itself – its setting, and its communication with the beholder – in many ways epitomizes not only Thiele’s drawing as a whole but also situates it in relation to the other representations of the interracial encounter discussed above, such as the Pears’ Soap advertisement, Panizza’s negro performer, and the imp “Made in Uganda.” The

134 See Eva Giloi, Monarchy, Myth, and Material Culture in Germany 1750–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 214.

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little boy is the only completely nude figure in the drawing; yet more significantly, he is also the only figure looking – through the reflection in the mirror – directly at the beholder, as did the imp in Rosintal’s drawing. In posture and positioning the boy is otherwise an almost exact copy of the putative chief and thus opens up further levels of referentiality also among the teeming figures in the picture. As the chief’s desire is focused on the imperial bust and the power fantasies this evokes, the little boy’s – through the intermediate eye contact with the beholder – is directed on a more basic level toward the European other who is of course in rightful possession of all the cultural artefacts flogged by the Jew and desired by the natives. The black child’s nudity in turn reveals the (truly) natural state of the indigenes who are supposedly not in possession of any cultural achievements or civilization nor, as the composition as a whole suggests, in a position to acquire them – rather than merely to purchase an incoherent bric-a-brac. The boy moreover becomes an embodiment of the ubiquitous colonial trope of the natives as children – which is also suggested by the sheer number of children crowding the picture. With the stereotypically exaggerated features of his physiognomy in the mirror, in particular the bright red swollen lips, he also reinforces notions of otherness and  –  as did Busch’s Schmulchen Schievelbeiner – the European’s sense of “More handsome, though, are the likes of us!” The mirror, however, is cracked. This may suggest that no real communication is possible between the native and the European. To the black boy it may ­furthermore indicate that he will never be like the (imaginary) white other because the potential overlay of images in the mirror will always be defective. More specifically, any connotations of imitation suggested by the mirror’s reflective quality are dismantled; imitation of the other is impossible or at the very least limited because it is always disfigured. In the Pears’ Soap advertisement discussed by McClintock this impossibility was expressed with the face of the black child retaining its original color, even though his body had been scrubbed white. The startled face of the little boy may also bring to mind the horror experienced by the black performer in Panizza’s “A Negro’s Tale”; the more so, as his gaze into the mirror is shared by the monkey sitting next to him. The performer saw himself as “A black monster!  –  a snarling gorilla!” (NT, 250)135 The mirror in Thiele’s cartoon suggests to the boy a similar identification with the monkey who, in posture and focus of his attention, is also drawn as a virtual mirror image of the boy and thus of the chief. To the European beholder, in turn, the cracked mirror may suggest the fractured humanity of the natives. It conveys then the

135 “Ein schwarzes Scheusal! – Ein fletschendes Gorilla!”

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r­ eassurance that the black other will always remain fragmented, its mimicry and imitation never complete and unblemished, if perpetually spurred by the fascination with and the admiration of the white other. There is another mirror in the picture, and this too is of particular significance. It is held by a black belle embraced from behind by her uniformed admirer, once again sharing the look into the mirror – like the boy and the monkey – and pointing with his white gloves to the reflected image which in this case is not visible to the beholder. But the implications are clear enough even so. The white soldier (or policeman) and the black woman appear to be engaging in another commercial transaction in which her presumably new necklace features prominently. The suggestion certainly is that there are illicit interracial sexual relations between the two, and the implications of the encounter may even be exacerbated by the racial ambiguity of the ‘white’ man: For even though he is white, his prominent curved nose and black hair seem to suggest that he may be Jewish, too. In the little hand-held mirror, the white soldier faces his African paramour. Their hidden shared glance on the respective other suggests that the male’s entitlement to whiteness may be challenged in different ways: By being Jewish and/ or by forgetting his racial pride. The look in the mirror then also acts as a warning and an exhortation to reflect on his actions which, in contemporary discourse are further complicated by the fear of sexually transmitted diseases which were considered a threat to white purity and health specifically associated with both black natives and Jews.136 The whiteness of the uniformed and obviously assimilated Jew, if Jew he is, is therefore even more perilous because he insidiously becomes an intermediary not only for racial impurity but also the potential transmission of sexual ill-health to some unsuspecting white innocent. In contrast, the hawker, the openly identified Jew in the picture, is fully drawn to stereotype, like the black Africans, who are represented with the racialized physiognomy to be expected, including most conspicuously their bloated and bright red lips. His physiognomy is comprised of the familiar Jewish nose and sensuous lower lip to which are added the straggly beard and side-locks common to countless representations of Jewish hawkers in similar satirical postcards as well as in Busch’s drawing of Schmulchen (see figs. 19, 20). The cartoon shows him in the performative act of giving his sales patter, supported by a stereotypically ‘Jewish’ gesture. His equally typical gabardine and battered top hat are black, and as such he associates to some extent the ‘black’ Jews mentioned 136 See, e.g., Daniel J. Walther, Sex and Control: Venereal Disease, Colonial Physicians, and Indigenous Agency in German Colonialism, 1884–1914 (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2015), pp.  82–5; Wolfgang Uwe Eckart, Medizin und Kolonialimperialismus: Deutschland 1884–1945 ­(Paderborn: Schöningh, 1997), pp. 125–7, 270; and Gilman, Jew’s Body, pp. 124–5.

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in Mbwapwa’s letters. The African and the Jew in the cartoon in effect embody precisely the racial parameters which define Mbwapwa. Jungmann’s retired Ugandan chief should probably be imagined somewhere in the space between them. But in contrast to both, he is – as suggested earlier – a figure that invites sympathy, a response which Thiele’s cartoon certainly does not encourage in either case. More significantly, in the cartoon the relationship between Jew and African is based exclusively on the commercial transaction which, in turn, is tarnished by its exploitative and culturally corrosive nature. It is a transaction that satisfies the base instincts of greed on the one side and of a primitive fondness of worthless trinkets and mindless imitation on the other. Thiele brings together two groups of subalterns. Yet his cartoon reinforces the racism to which both are subject; a convergence between the Jew and the native other than in their othering is clearly not envisioned. Mbwapwa, in contrast, is shown to bond with the colonizing Jews through the shared experience of persecution. Jungmann’s letters offer the identification with the other and the creation of a cultural hybrid which invites empathy and which, through the oscillation between both perspectives, illuminates both for the benefit of a third – that of the reader – who is similarly encouraged to empathize with both.

Challenging the Racial Point of View The letters from New-Newland thus clearly offered a subversive perspective on established racial categories. Herzl too had little sympathy with the “racial point of view” (“Racenstandpunkt”).137 He noted in his diary upon his first meeting with Israel Zangwill in London in 1895 with some condescension the other’s attachment to this view. To him, the Anglo-Jewish writer’s own physical appearance  –  which he describes as “the long-nosed Negroid type, with very woolly deep-black hair”138 – was living proof of the fallacy inherent in such an attitude: “However, his point of view is a racial one – which I cannot accept if I so much as look at him and at myself.”139 Indeed, recalling that both Zangwill and his 137 Herzl, Diaries, I, 276; see also Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, III, 281. For Herzl’s unconventional rejection of the racial aspect, see, e.g., Shlomo Avineri, “Theodor Herzl’s Diaries as a ­Bildungsroman,” Jewish Social Studies 5.3 (1999): 1–46, 23–4. 138 Herzl, Diaries, I, 276; see also Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, III, 280–1: “Israel Zangwill hat einen langnasigen Negertypus, sehr wollige tiefschwarze in der Mitte gescheitelte Haare.” 139 Herzl, Diaries, I, 276; see also Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, III, 281: “Er steht aber auf dem Racenstandpunkt, den ich schon nicht acceptiren kann, wenn ich ihn und mich ansehe.”

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brother Louis were ensconced in front of the fire on that foggy November day, he emphasized the sense of difference and residual alienation within the chill northern clime conveyed to him by their conduct: “Both give one the impression of shivering southerners who have been cast up on the shores of Ultima Thule.”140 As Herzl presents it, this is not, however, an attempt to stigmatize the internal Jewish other; rather, his observation serves him to reiterate his firm belief that the Jews are “an historical unit, a nation with anthropological diversities. This also suffices for the Jewish State. No nation has uniformity of race.”141 At least subliminally there nevertheless appears to be, contrary to Herzl’s protestations, a certain ‘racial’ pride inherent in describing Zangwill in such terms of difference. After all, Herzl emerges from the comparison as even whiter and as comfortably at home in the autumnal imperial metropole. Zangwill’s ­‘oriental’ physical appearance – simultaneously Jewish and negroid – moreover gave rise to many caricatures, not least also in Schlemiel. Once again produced by ­Rosintal, a full-length portrait of Zangwill was published in the rubric of “Gallery of Illustrious Jews” (“Galerie berühmter Juden”) in the December issue of 1904 with the caption “Mr. Zangwill in America.”142 The “Gallery” was inspired by the “Gallery of Illustrious Contemporaries” (“Galerie berühmter Zeitgenossen”) in Simplicissimus which was to feature, among others, as no. 45 Bernhard Dernburg (1906), the Jewish-born Colonial Secretary from 1906–10 to whom we will return in Chapter 4.143 Intriguingly, Zangwill, the British Jewish writer and founder of the ITO is represented in Schlemiel not only with an umbrella but with negrified features – dark skin and curly black hair. Rosintal’s drawing is based on an original photograph which shows ­Zangwill in Basel next to Herzl and a female delegate at the First Zionist C ­ ongress.144 In comparison with the photograph, Zangwill’s face has been blackened and those features stereotypically associated with blacks have been emphasized, his “woolly” hair – as described by Herzl – and his full lips. Otherwise there is 140 Herzl, Diaries, I, 276; see also Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, III, 280: “Machen Beide den Eindruck fröstelnder Südländer, die nach der Ultima Thule verschlagen sind.” 141 Herzl, Diaries, I, 276; see also Herzl, Briefe und Tagebücher, III, 281: “[W]ir sind eine histo­ rische Einheit, eine Nation mit anthropologischen Verschiedenheiten. Das genügt auch für den Judenstaat. Keine Nation hat die Einheit der Race.” For the meeting with Herzl from the perspective of the Zangwill brothers, see also Edna Nashon, From the Ghetto to the Melting Pot (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2006), pp. 28–30. 142 Josef Rosintal, “Mr. Zangwill in Amerika,” Schlemiel 2.12 (1904): 109. 143 Olaf Gulbransson, “Galerie berühmter Zeitgenossen: XXXXV. Bernhard Dernburg,” Simplicis­ simus 11.27 (October 1, 1906): 420. 144 See Theodor Herzl with Israel Zangwill and Mrs. Pabri (b/w photograph; Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, PHG\1030454).

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little satirical potential associated with the portrait which is also not explained further in the surrounding text, nor is the cartoon’s caption – “Mr. Zangwill in Amerika” – particularly illuminating. Intriguingly, however, the tightly rolled-up umbrella carried by Zangwill in the photograph has been transformed into one of the untidy mangled specimens we have already encountered in the previous chapter. While emphasizing the writer’s difference with regard to his physical appearance, the dislocation of Zangwill from Basel to America may be intended to indicate the transferral of his efforts from Jewish settlement in Palestine (as agreed on in Basel) to other territories. Although the Galveston Plan had not yet been conceived at this stage, nor ITO been established, Zangwill had made his territorialist position clear already in The Two Oppposing Forces at Work on the Jew in October 1903.145 The representation with the tatty umbrella may then also be meant to suggest his ‘peddling’ of the Jewish birth-right to the Promised Land. An identification of black and Jewish is also offered in another cartoon postcard which may, in fact, likewise relate to Zangwill (Figure 21). In this case, however, its provenance places the drawing in a completely different context and from an outside perspective adds to the earlier identification another one that is no less significant, if perhaps surprising. Originating in England and tentatively dated in the first decade of the twentieth century, this postcard is entitled “Made in Germany.” The English connection suggests that it should possibly be read in conjunction with the Uganda proposal, though there is some confusion in regard to the attributes the drawing employs. The prominently displayed cacti are indigenous neither to Africa nor Palestine, though they were used in later Zionist discourse for the identification of the sabra, the new Jew indigenous to Eretz Israel. Contemporary popular conceptions of both Palestine and Africa were hazy enough, as we have seen in the introduction, and one should not expect too much realistic detail. Palestine as the setting of this cartoon does not, however, seem likely as all the other markers point to an African context. The drawing reiterates antisemitic stereotypes as current in Germany at the time. The deformed extremities and bodily frame of the figure which is, of course, not explicitly identified as Jewish are nevertheless sufficiently formulaic to insinuate this identification. The physiognomic features – the nose, obviously, but also the bulging lips, protruding eyes, and curly dark hair – similarly correspond to established antisemitic stereotypes. Added to these are pince-nez which associate intellectuality and thus respond to another antisemitic stereotype. However, these racial markers are changed in the cartoon by a blatant re-coloring, making the figure’s skin color a dark brown (black), its hair black, and its lips a bright red. All of these are

145 See Israel Zangwill, The Two Opposing Forces at Work on the Jew (New York: Menorah, 1903).

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Figure 21: “Made in Germany” (postcard; England [?]; c. 1905).

reminiscent of stereotypical representations of black Africans as for instance in the “Bankruptcy Clearance Sale” (see Figure 18). The figure is thus a racial hybrid which combines features ascribed to Jews and black Africans to form a creature which is identified by the cartoon’s caption somewhat cryptically as “Made in Germany.” Finally, the two cacti on the ground between the figure’s legs suggest oversized testicles – which may also explain the spines lodged in its upper legs. As such the cacti indicate the emasculation of the figure and may thus perhaps be considered another reference to that which may not be said: Jewish circumcision and the associations of castration and effeminization this evoked in contemporary discourse.

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Consequently, the figure offers another amalgamation of the negro and the Jew, but once again not – in contrast to the case of Mbwapwa – in a sympathetic manner. Rather, it embodies the shared racialization and victimization of both blacks and Jews in which the cartoon itself becomes complicit. The epithet “Made in Germany” may thus possibly refer to the antisemitic racialization of the Jew which situates him at the bottom of the scale with the negro. In this instance, whiteness is denied the Jew and he is explicitly and disparagingly turned black, the product – literally: “Made” – of another (internal) colonial confrontation: “in Germany.” In addition, there is a curious analogy in Max Mandelstamm’s essay “A Voice from the Ghetto on Zionism” (“Eine Ghettostimme über den Zionismus”) which appeared in Ost und West in 1901. The Russian Zionist was a close associate of Herzl’s and the model for the writer’s President of Old-New Land, an ardent supporter of the Uganda Plan, and a committed territorialist who joined Zangwill when he founded ITO.146 In his indictment of Jewish assimilation efforts which he alleges to surpass the instinctual mimicry of “the most advanced apes,”147 Mandelstamm also denigrates those Jews turning toward cosmopolitanism for disavowing their provenance in order to “enter the arena” under false pretenses – as “made in Germany!” The author then proceeds to berate those cosmopolitan Jews for dissipating the Jewish national potential and for aiding the causes of others, most bizarrely – as the text implies – even that of the “Congo negro,” rather than that of their starving co-religionists.148 The essay in this way blends notions of provenance  –  “made in Germany”  –  with those of an empathetic response to blackness with the objective of denouncing what it projects as detrimental to an essentialist construction of Jewishness. As such, the hybrid caricature “Made in Germany,” suggests a certain affinity with the negative image of the assimilating Jew construed in Mandelstamm’s essay. At the same time, the English provenance no less than the actual likeness of the caricature may also suggest an identification with Israel Zangwill who, as we have seen in Herzl’s response to the Anglo-Jewish writer’s appearance, combined the very features exaggerated in the postcard – besides, Zangwill too wore

146 See www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mandelstamm-max-emmanuel (last accessed March 3, 2018). 147 Max Mandelstamm, “Eine Ghettostimme über den Zionismus,” Ost und West 1.8 (1901): 585–92, 587: “[…] der entwickeltsten Affen.” 148 Ibid., 588: “Vor allen Dingen thut er nun diese Allmenschheit dadurch kund, dass er seine Provenienz verleugnet und unter fremder Spitzmarke auf die Arena tritt: ‘made in Germany!’ […] Und da erleben wir nun das komisch-tragische Schauspiel wie diese kosmopolitelnden Juden für alle Welt […] sich in Dienst stellen, womöglich sogar für den Kongo-Neger, wenn kein anderer sich dazu hergiebt, nur für die Millionen darbender Stammesgenossen nicht ….”

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Figure 22: Israel Zangwill (b/w photograph by London Stereoscopic Company; 1890).

­ ince-nez (Figure 22). The suggestion may then be another one which, ultimately, p would seem to be based on the same latent misrepresentation we have observed in Johnston’s essay on “The Disposal of Africa.” The German origin of the Jew is related here to a potentially African setting. While it is difficult to draw conclusive connections, I would hazard the guess that the reference may be to Zangwill’s short story “Anglicization” (1902). The story plays out the efforts of Solomon Cohen to Anglicize himself and his family against the background of the Second AngloBoer War. It describes the ostentatious patriotism of the British Jews, fighting side by side in the colonial war with the English and adopting the conformist view of the Boers as uncivilized and filthy others.149 Germany is mentioned not even once in the story, but the Jewish mother’s notion in a haze of patriotic emotion that “it was no accident that the Anglophobes of Europe were also Anti-Semites”150 is sharply contrasted with palpable British antisemitism as it emerges from the contemporary contention that the war was engineered by Jewish capitalists151 and as manifest in the rise of anti-alien sentiments152 which eventually were to lead to the passing of the Alien Act of 1905. Anglicization, craved by the Jews in Z ­ angwill’s story, is crudely – even cruelly – thwarted: Jewish otherness is ­reconfirmed. But 149 Israel Zangwill, “Anglicization” [1902], in Ghetto Comedies (London: Globe, 1925), pp. 47–86, p. 68. 150 Ibid., p. 78. 151 Ibid., p. 79. 152 Ibid., pp. 80–2.

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in this very failure lies also redemption, because between the Jewish mother and son, their love is “the one thing saved from Anglicization.”153 Of course, the postcard has no obvious relation to any of this. But it does construe the Jew with the caricature of a blackened Israel Zangwill as an other; an other, moreover, “Made in Germany”  –  where the antisemitic paradigm is ­perceived to rule supreme and from whence the racialized image of the Jew has insinuated itself also into British society. Zangwill was of course an important figure in contemporary Zionism and a staunch supporter of Jewish territorialism. Another cartoon in Schlemiel, once again by Rosintal, takes up the same racial characteristics. Entitled “Matchiche” (1907; Figure 23),154 the cartoon depicts in the background a music band formed by Zionists of radically divergent convictions – Max Mandelstamm, author of the essay discussed above, as well as Lionel Walter Rothschild, Max Nordau, and Max Bodenheimer – as they accompany the dancing pair of David Wolffsohn and Israel Zangwill. Dressed up for Purim, Wolffsohn, the unfortunate photographer of Herzl’s Palestinian meeting with the Kaiser and his successor as leader of the Zionist Organization, is portrayed like another Herzl with his Assyrian beard and, intriguingly, a fez and tails. Leaning back – in Schieflage155 – he is trying to evade the aggressive forward movement of his dancing partner. Zangwill, in female attire, is once again portrayed as black with black curly hair. Dancing the Brazilian tango, the matchiche or maxixe, the allusion is to Zangwill’s continued efforts on behalf of the ITO to find alternative settlement areas for the Jews. In 1907 it envisaged with the so-called Galveston Plan Jewish immigration to Texas. In Latin America, the Brazilian state of São Paolo was another territory proposed;156 Argentina had already been considered and, eventually, rejected by Herzl.157 The Latin American theme as well as the contrary movements of both dancers – one pouncing, the other recoiling – are therefore easily explained: Wolffsohn with his fez and elegant tails embodies of course the Zionist trajectory toward Palestine in the wake of Herzl. The poem accompanying the image emphasizes the rift between both factions which is obscured only superficially by the Purim celebrations: There you see them with pleasure Swaying in time to the measure

153 Ibid., p. 86. 154 Josef Rosintal, “Matchiche,” Schlemiel (1907): 4. 155 See Kusser, Körper in Schieflage. 156 See Rovner, In the Shadow of Zion, p. 89. 157 Ibid., p. 45.

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Figure 23: Josef Rosintal, “Matchiche,” Schlemiel (1907). And you may believe the couple will ne’er Harm on the other’s head a hair. Yet, alas, their romp Is just Purim pomp, They already are by the get Divorced from board and bed, Tirallala.158

More of a puzzle remains the negroid representation of Zangwill, here and in the earlier cartoon. While having pronounced ‘semitic’ features, the writer is 158 Rosintal, “Matchiche,” 4: “Ihr seht sie mit Vergnügen / Im Takt sich wiegen / Und glaubt, es krümmt das Pärchen / Sich nie ein Härchen. / Doch leider ist der Tanz / Nur Purim-­Firlefanz, / Sie sind schon durch den Get / Getrennt von Tisch und Bett, / Tirallala.”

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nevertheless construed as black, as in the caricature “Made in Germany” in the postcard. Yet the openly racist provenance of the postcard is tempered in the Schlemiel cartoons with both, a certain flippancy which, at least in “Matchiche,” transcends the individual traits toward an acknowledgement of the aggressive territorial debate and its urgency, and with the recognition effect which situates Zangwill firmly within an understanding of Jewishness that appears to be predicated on Herzl’s notions of internal diversity and inclusivity. The Jewish identification with black Africans through Max Jungmann’s creation of Mbwapwa Jumbo may have served a similar function. Yet it moreover negotiates, as outlined above, perceptions of Jewish internal colonization against the very prominent background of fierce colonial wars which in turn challenged current constructions of self and other in imperial Germany. The following chapter unfolds the historical context of colonial conflict of “Letters from New-Newland.” This adds not only further depth to the figure of Mbwapwa and his letters but moreover reflects on the positioning of the Zionist project vis-à-vis the German colonial enterprise.

Chapter 3 The German Empire, Africa, and the Jews The previous two chapters explored the interface between Jewishness and blackness as well as Zionism and its potential colonial aspirations. In the present chapter, these are further contextualized with the impact of imperialism and colonialism both in the German possessions and at home. In particular, the chapter elaborates on the effect of bloody colonial war on shifting contemporary perceptions of blackness and the implications this would have had for Mbwapwa as a figure of identification. Although the Jewish colonization of New-Newland significantly proceeds without bloodshed, colonial conflict is a recurring topic in “Letters from New-­ Newland” and as such arguably reflects the pervasive presence of the ongoing confrontation in the German protectorates in public and political discourse. The voluble Mbwapwa’s account of the frequently grotesque happenings in the Jewish colony includes, in the December issue of 1903, the arrival of an expeditionary force of reform Jews seeking to avenge the murder of one of their own at the hands of the ‘black’ Mizrachi Jews. They ally themselves with the Maasai but their declaration of war is rejected with irritation by the new colonial masters. Nor can the subsequent “Raub der Rabbinerinnen,” the Rape of the ‘Rabbine’ Women (LNN II, 31/35–6), move the orthodox Jews to a martial engagement. Their ire to retaliate is sufficiently aroused only once their wives are returned to them unharmed. The ensuing mock-heroic battle rages for a whole day but the conflict is finally resolved with the exhaustion of the combatants and a high-spirited feast to celebrate their reconciliation. The Maasai, meanwhile, treacherously use the occasion to trample the settlers’ fields and to take off with their cattle. The implications of the juxtaposition with the Maasai have already been discussed in Chapter 1 in relation to the model of identity formation provided by the allegedly semitic people. Probably the most specific reference to colonial conflict, reflecting current affairs, but only indirectly alluding to the German colonial project, occurs in Mbwapwa’s eighth letter in the April issue of 1905. As we have seen in the previous chapter, the Zionist expedition dispatched to assess the viability of a Jewish colonization of the territory offered to Theodor Herzl two years earlier had been attacked on its return journey by the Wanandi tribe. Zionism, in this way, had its own fleeting moment of colonial warfare in Africa. Brief reports, syndicated from Reuters, appeared in the Zionist papers Die Welt and the Jüdische Rundschau but merely mentioned that the attackers had been repulsed.1 1 See “Von der Ostafrika-Expedition,” Die Welt 9.11 (March 17, 1905): 4 and “Aus Uganda,” Jüdische Rundschau 10.12 (March 24, 1905): 134. For the attack, see also Weisbord, African Zion, https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-004

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The attacking black Africans are characterized in the short epistle as “uncivilized and dirty.” The Wanandi, Mbwapwa sums up, is “fierce as a bear” – he is, in brief, a savage. The identification of the native “hordes” with wild beasts is very much reminiscent of the characterization to which the Herero and Nama were subjected in contemporary German public and political discourse,2 and which we have seen replicated in Mbwapwa’s sixth letter. Yet the satiric bias of Jungmann’s poem simultaneously challenges such a conception, as did his earlier letter. It may even suggest its reversal or at least a perspective of cultural relativism. The assertion that the Wanandi “certainly is no antisemite” is particularly relevant in this context. After all, antisemitism – in all its savage and violent brutality no less than in its more refined manifestations – is a phenomenon experienced by the Jews among the so-called civilized nations. We have encountered a similar observation in Erwin Rosenberger’s article on antisemitic unrest among the “Transvaal kaffirs” discussed in Chapter 1. The implication in Mbwapwa’s doggerel clearly is that the residual barbarism of the allegedly culturally superior nations is worse than the ideologically untainted anticolonial resistance of the native tribe which, as the text caustically suggests, originates moreover in a misunderstanding provoked by Chaskel’s intervention, which links the fictional world of New-Newland with the East African reality: But Chaskel the Scribe informed him [i.e. the Wanandi] That Europe’s Jews now seek To aspire culturally in Uganda. The Wanandi is stupid and has no chain And thought to oblige the Jews And wanted to give the explorers a chance To expire as soon as possible here.

The misunderstanding originates in the ambiguity of the association of the German words “[k]ulturell” (“culturally”) and “ausleben,” the latter of which can mean either to enjoy life (in this case culture) to the full or, with some licence, to die – hence translated here as “aspire” and “expire,” respectively, in an attempt to convey the semantic contradiction on which the pun in this instance rests. If p. 209. Otto Warburg did not even mention the attack in “Einiges über die zionistische Ostafrika-Expedition,” but observed more generally in relation to the potential future Jewish colonization of the territory: “The rapacity and warlike inclination of the neighboring tribes, especially of the Wanandi, will be somewhat of an impediment only at the very beginning because they do not possess firearms [Die Raublust und kriegerische Neigung der Nachbarstämme, speziell der Wanandi, wird, da sie nicht im Besitz von Gewehren sind, nur in der allerersten Zeit etwas hinderlich sein können],” 161. 2 See also Sobich, “Schwarze Bestien, rote Gefahr,” pp. 61, 89, 113.

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perhaps obliquely, the colonial confrontation therefore nevertheless emerges in Mbwapwa’s penultimate letter as a challenge to the dominant image of the perceived cultural superiority of the civilized nations. The suggestion is that the Jewish expedition to Uganda was not attacked because it was ‘Jewish,’ but because it projected the image of the colonizing intruder and the attempt to establish the latter’s cultural hegemony. Jew and colonizer carry different connotations which provoke different responses. Mbwapwa’s doggerel therefore arguably also incorporates another warning that the former should not turn into the latter, that Jews should not become colonizers. As we have seen, both instances of warfare against the natives – against the Maasai and against the Wanandi – also give rise to, and articulate, a process of critical self-reflection which is played out throughout Mbwapwa’s communications, and beyond, in Schlemiel. It informs, for instance, also a parody of the parliamentary reports in the final issue of Schlemiel which clearly demonstrates not only the contributors’ familiarity with the published reports of parliamentary debate but also the satirical impulse fed by them. The “Parliamentary Report” (“Parlamentsbericht,” 1907), discussed in conclusion of the present chapter, elaborates further on the identification of blacks and Jews and in the process not only exposes prevalent strategies of demonizing the native other – in this case Mbwapa – in parliamentary discourse but also, unexpectedly, envisages direct colonial conflict between the Jewish republic in Uganda and the German Empire. The critical self-reflection promoted by Schlemiel, it would seem, cannot be fully appreciated outside its context. While aiming to guide Zionism, it is certainly a product also of the contemporary public and parliamentary debates on Germany’s colonial involvement which proliferated around the Zionist bubble. Pricking this bubble, the critical self-reflection initiated by Schlemiel therefore also correlates to the prominent colonialist bluster of cultural supremacy and the superiority of the civilized nation in response to the bloody wars in Africa which, to some extent at least, were also part of a process of self-reflection on the part of German majority culture which projected reassurance but which also admitted doubts as to the nature of civilization and its relation to barbarism. The debate in imperial Germany about the nation’s colonial wars, as will emerge in this chapter, was predicated on the reassertion of the process and purpose of colonization which included the dehumanization of the native other even while it envisaged the rejuvenation of the German Volk purified through its struggle in what was increasingly perceived to develop into a race war of existential impact. As such, the debate cut to the heart of issues pertinent in a Jewish context not only in relation to potential colonial aspirations but also to negotiations of Jewishness within the majority culture.

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Bloodthirsty Beasts and Bloody Battle Both the parliamentary debates in the Reichstag on, and the response of the German press to, the unrest in South-West Africa have been analysed in much detail in particular by Michael Schubert and by Frank Oliver Sobich. Schubert concluded: “While the resistance of the Herero organized itself in the German colony, the grimace of the ‘murdering Negro’ emerged impressively in the German debate about the colonies.”3 Noting in particular the racist underpinning of the perception of the black Africans, Sobich similarly observes: The news coverage of the uprisings is a good example of the way in which a racist perception works through occurrences which seem incongruent. Up to the uprising the hegemonic image was that of the “child-Negro.” Since “children” normally do not murder and loot, a shift occurred – the “Negroes” were declared “beasts.” Previously existent yet less important and scarcely disseminated images now became hegemonic, while those images which had been dominant so far were relegated to the background.4

It is not my intention to replicate the research done by these and other scholars. Nevertheless, it seems illuminating to cite some of the opinions voiced in the parliamentary debate on the German colonies in the original because the actual phrasing is quite revealing of the underlying attitudes which surface also in the mediation of the event and which are likewise pertinent to situating Jungmann’s “Letters from New-Newland” and the Zionist engagement with colonial practice in contemporary discourse. The issue of the Herero uprising was initially discussed in the Reichstag as part of the debate on the supplementary budget for 1903 which had been made necessary by the rapidly mounting costs of the campaign. Four main concerns emerge from the sittings on January 19 and March 17, 1904 which are mirrored by, and relevant to, the representation of the colonial endeavor in “Letters from New-Newland” and its contextualization with contemporary colonial discourse in Germany. These are the conception of culture (in particular in relation to the mission civilisatrice); the image of the black other as well as, reciprocally, also 3 Schubert, Der Schwarze Fremde, p. 233: “Während sich der Widerstand der Herero in der deutschen Kolonie organisierte, bildete sich in der deutschen Kolonialdiskussion eindrucksvoll die Fratze des ‘mordenden Negers’ ab.” 4 Sobich, “Schwarze Bestien, rote Gefahr,” p. 73: “Die Berichterstattung über die Aufstände ist ein gutes Beispiel dafür, wie eine rassistische Wahrnehmung Ereignisse, die nicht zu ihr zu passen scheinen, verarbeitet. Bis zum Aufstand war das hegemoniale Bild das des ‘Kind-Negers.’ Da ‘Kinder’ im Normalfall nicht morden und plündern, kam es zu einer Verschiebung – die ‘Neger’ wurden zu ‘Bestien’ erklärt. Bislang existente, aber minder wichtige und kaum verbreitete Bilder wurden nun hegemonial, während die bisher dominierenden Bilder in den Hintergrund traten.”

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the image of the self and the positioning of either in relation to the parameters of culture and barbarism; the question of whose responsibility the outbreak of unrest in South-West Africa was; and, finally, the (in)commensurability of the military response. Of course, these issues are closely intertwined and the neat division into four individual items, impossible to maintain also in the following discussion, is merely a construct to aid a better understanding of their significance. Germany’s lack in experience in the administration of colonies was variously invoked in the parliamentary debates on the Herero War.5 There was, however, also a clear understanding that colonial war quite simply was to be considered an unavoidable corollary of colonialism. When the Director of the Colonial Office informed the Reichstag about the situation in South-West Africa, he laconically remarked: “Before the natives resign themselves to the inevitable simply no colonial power has so far been spared wars such as those in Zululand, in Dahomey, in Benie, and in Ashantee.”6 The recent historical examples Stübel mentions refer without exception to colonial conflicts engaged in by Germany’s principal rivals in the Scramble for Africa, Britain and France,7 and his observation implies, after all, the Reich’s perceived parity with these established colonial powers. Adolf Stöcker – former court chaplain and leader of the Christian Social Party, already briefly encountered in Chapter 2 for his notorious role in the development of political antisemitism in Germany – considered colonial wars not only inevitable but, more specifically, necessary instruments of the mission civilisatrice and therefore, ultimately, beneficial to the benighted natives: We all feel that it is a calamity when the encounter with primitive peoples necessitates wars, and frequent wars, in colonial policy. Because this is the main gift that the European peoples can offer with the occupation of heathenish lands to their natives, to free them from constant warfare with their neighbors.8

5 See, e.g., Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow’s speech in StBR (December 5, 1904), p. 3377 (D) in which he acknowledges that German history was not conducive to the development of an understanding of colonial objectives and that Germany was lacking the relevant tradition and experience of the established colonial powers. 6 StBR (January 19, 1904), p. 364 (C): “Ehe die Eingeborenen sich in das Unvermeidliche fügen, sind eben Kriege, wie die im Zululande, in Dahomey, in Benie, in Aschanti, wohl keiner koloni­ sierenden Macht bisher erspart geblieben.” 7 Stübel referred also to uprisings in Basutoland and Griqualand East in 1888, in Matabeleland and Mashonaland in 1896, and in West Java in 1868. He emphasized that in all of these colonial conflicts the white colonizers suffered atrocities at the hands of the natives. See StBR (January 19, 1904), p. 364 (A). 8 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1903 (C): “Wir alle fühlen, daß es ein Unglück ist, wenn man in der Kolonialpolitik bei der Berührung mit Naturvölkern Krieg führen muß, und zwar oft Krieg führen

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Stöcker claimed that German rule in the protectorate had indeed pacified the country, concluding half a century of bloody warfare between the Herero and the Nama. Yet the Protestant minister argued also with the cultural and religious mission of the Christian civilized nations in order to justify their colonial engagement: I think it permissible that Christian civilized nations gain dominance over territories which belong to primitive peoples in order to introduce Christian culture. The latter will happen anyway and the perpetration of some iniquities by whites, which cannot be deplored too much, does not impede the progress of civilization.9

The occurrence of the odd detestable outrage, it seems, is quite an acceptable price to pay for the irresistible process of inculturation. In fact, Stöcker’s concluding remarks are uncanny in that, in effect, they tacitly accede to and even envisage the very annihilation of the indigenous peoples which he appears to condemn: In spite of the difficulty of the current occurrences I still cannot despair of the future of South-West Africa. I hope that no destruction of a population will take place there, but a transition to improved circumstances.10

Yet the look beyond the confines of the homegrown colonial dilemma was not only motivated by the desire to explain and legitimate the Reich’s military response and, indeed, its colonial claims and civilizing mission. It was also fraught with political anxieties which arguably originated in a contradictory sense of both inferiority and entitlement. Albrecht Patzig of the National Liberal Party, for instance, was concerned that any censure of the military in the protectorate might evince “a gloating criticism of foreign countries.”11 His fear was not entirely unjustified. The apparent German failure to speedily suppress the colonial insurrection was not only observed with glee in the British press12 but the British military attaché

muß. Denn das ist die Hauptgabe, die die europäischen Völker bei der Besetzung von Heidenländern den dortigen Bewohnern bringen können, daß sie sie von den beständigen Kriegen mit ihren Nachbarn befreien.” 9 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1904 (D): “Ich halte es für erlaubt, daß christliche Kulturvölker Länder, die Naturvölkern angehören, unter ihre Botmäßigkeit bringen, um christliche Kultur einzuführen. Das letztere geschieht auch trotz allem; und einige nicht genug zu verabscheuende Freveltaten von Weißen hindern den Kulturprozeß nicht.” 10 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1905 (A): “Ich kann trotz der Schwierigkeit der gegenwärtigen Vorgänge an der Zukunft Südwestafrikas noch nicht verzweifeln. Ich hoffe, es wird dort kein Untergang einer Bevölkerung stattfinden, sondern ein Übergang zu besseren Verhältnissen.” 11 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1895 (A): “[…] eine hämische Kritik des Auslandes.” 12 See, e.g., Anonymous, “The Rising in German South-West Africa,” The Times (July 11, 1904): 5: “Public opinion in this country [i.e. Britain], in so far as it is still disposed to manifest any interest in the matter, thoroughly agrees with the views expressed by the Rhenish organ [i.e. The

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in Berlin noted that it was “difficult to avoid feeling a certain amount of Schadenfreude (malicious pleasure) on learning of the misfortunes of these ‘superior’ people.”13 When Patzig’s point was reiterated more forcefully by the Director of the Colonial Office, who claimed: “Germany’s honor requires the suppression of the uprising and with all means,”14 Stübel’s assertion reverberated with a faint echo also of sabre rattling toward the colonial neighbor in the South whose collusion with and support of the rebels were frequently suspected.15 Stübel’s tirade was not an empty threat. The Empire did indeed strike back, and it did so with all available means and with appalling brutality.16 August

Cologne Gazette]. The net result of six months’ campaigning has been to mass some 7,500 officers and men in the colony. Lieutenant-General von Trotha, it is true, has been sent out with a staff whose numbers continue to be the subject of alternating amazement and ridicule, but the new commander-in-chief has so far accomplished nothing of particular importance, except to veto Colonel Leutwein’s plan of immediate attack for which the final dispositions had been made. General von Trotha has doubtless formed his own plan of campaign, but the German public keenly desires to be admitted into his confidence.” The article proceeded to remark smugly: “The inevitable comparison and the marked contrast which are afforded by the rapidity and success of the British operations in Tibet have not failed to suggest themselves to dispassionate observers.” Administrative incompetence and the incommensurability of the military response to the Herero uprising were also the target of German satirical cartoons, such as Bruno Paul’s “Kolonialspuk” (“Colonial Haunting”) in Simplicissimus 9.9 (May 24, 1904): 81, showing the ghost of a horribly wounded soldier haunting the German Chancellor von Bülow, with the caption “‘Excellency, there was nothing I could do against the Hereros because our arms and ammunition were held at the customs office.’ – ‘Of the colonies I don’t want to know anything anymore, dear friend, – as if we did not have enough opportunities for embarrassing ourselves at home!’ [‘Exzellenz, ich konnte nichts gegen die Hereros ausrichten, weil unsere Waffen und Munition im Zollamt liegen blieben.’ – ‘Von den Kolonien will ich überhaupt nichts mehr wissen, lieber Freund, – als ob wir nicht daheim genug Gelegenheit hätten, uns zu blamieren!]’” and the anonymous “Die verletzte deutsche Waffenehre” (“The Tarnished Honor of the German Arms”) in Der wahre Jakob 24.534 (January 2, 1907): 5300 which portrays over a sequence of four panels the insane amassing of more and more troops in response to the harmless attacks of a single native with a blowpipe. 13 On April 4, 1904, quoted in Tilman Dedering, “‘A certain Rigorous Treatment of All Parts of the Nation.’ The Annihilation of the Herero in German South West Africa, 1904,” in The Massacre in History, eds. Mark Levene and Penny Roberts (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 1999), pp. 205–22, p. 207. 14 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1896 (C): “Die Ehre Deutschlands fordert die Niederwerfung des Aufstands, und zwar mit allen Mitteln.” 15 Although this was discounted by von Bülow, see his Denkwürdigkeiten, ed. Franz von Stockhammern, vol. 2: Von der Marokko-Krise bis zum Abschied (Berlin: Ullstein, 1930), p. 20. 16 While without doubt propagandistically tainted, the notorious Blue Book on South-West Africa published by the British government in 1918 is interesting in that it not only critically reflects on German colonial practice but gives extensive voice to native perceptions, see Administrator’s Office, Report on the Natives of South-West Africa and their Treatment by Germany

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Bebel, the eloquent leader of the Social Democratic opposition in the Reichstag, therefore turned Stübel’s invocation of Germany’s honor round by insisting that it was upheld rather by the critical voices of her soldiers who had brought the infringements on human rights to light, forcing the colonial administration to investigate the allegations and to address the issue: Germany’s honor is engaged here through the communications of her own soldiers who are deployed in the field, and there arises for the colonial administration the obligation to set investigations in motion without delay.17

The horrifying examples of transgression cited by Bebel, many of them taken from letters addressed to him but also from reports in the press, demonstrate that the pragmatic and political anxieties expressed by Patzig and Stübel were countered in the parliamentary debates as well as in public discourse also with ethical anxieties.18 Yet others felt that the nature of the aggression fully warranted the heavyhanded military response to the rebels and entertained no ethical doubts whatsoever. The antisemitic delegate of the German Social Party, Ludwig Count ­Reventlow, in particular took pains to paint the alleged atrocities of the insurgents in the most vivid colors. His account bizarrely eliciting the mirth (“Heiterkeit”) of the House, Reventlow claimed that the Herero let their young women perform with two stones a certain procedure (“eine gewisse Prozedur”; i.e. castration)19 on the white men unlucky enough to fall into their hands and added that the iniquities of the Herero are by no means limited to men but that they are perpetrated in the same manner on little boys and that moreover the intestines are ripped from the living bodies of German women and hung up in the next tree, though they certainly have not committed any sexual iniquities.20

(London: HMSO, 1918); see also the annotated reprint of the report: Jeremy Silvester and JanBart Gewald (eds.), Words Cannot Be Found: German Colonial Rule in Namibia (Boston, MA: Brill, 2003). 17 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1901 (D): “Hier ist die Ehre Deutschlands engagiert durch Schriftstücke der eigenen Soldaten, die draußen im Felde stehen, und da entsteht für die Kolonialverwaltung die Verpflichtung, unverzüglich Untersuchungen anzustellen”; emphasis in original. 18 See, e.g., Dedering, “‘A certain Rigorous Treatment’,” p. 207. 19 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1900 (A). Bebel cynically suggested that this particular atrocity may also have been an import from civilized Europe, StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1902 (A)–(B). 20 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1905 (C): “[…] daß die Schandtaten der Hereros sich nicht etwa auf Männer beschränken, daß sie in gleicher Weise an kleinen Knaben begangen werden und daß man auch den deutschen Frauen, die doch gewiß nicht geschlechtliche Schandtaten begangen haben, bei lebendigem Leibe die Eingeweide herausreißt und an den nächsten Baum hängt.”

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Although allegations such as these were soon shown to be exaggerated or inaccurate, they continued to persist also in public discourse.21 In fact, Samuel Maharero, the Paramount Chief of the Herero, had given express orders to spare women, children, missionaries, and non-Germans. With only a few exceptions, the Herero warriors appear to have adhered to these instructions which have been interpreted as “a conscious political strategy aimed at discouraging other European settlers in the colony from siding with the ­Germans.”22 Nevertheless, in more appallingly bad taste, invoking scenarios of brutal rape, Reventlow jested that if some white women had been spared by the Herero this was because there were some “gourmets” (“Feinschmecker”) among them – quite shockingly, the minutes once again record the mirth of some delegates.23 It should be noted that by emphasizing that white women could hardly be accused of sexual violations, Reventlow implicitly acknowledged that such had indeed been perpetrated by white men in the protectorate.24 This had also been recognized by some others, not least by Stöcker who conceded the potentially retaliatory character of some of the alleged atrocities of the Herero: “And if particular atrocities are mentioned here, then they are perhaps a savage revenge for sexual iniquities which, very regrettably indeed, are almost always perpetrated where whites come into contact with primitive peoples.”25 Yet in Stöcker’s formulation, the suggestion is that the colonial encounter itself is the breeding ground for corruption, resulting from the colonists’ exposure to, and their eventual contamination by, the natives. Susanne Zantop observes that “colonial desire” – defined by Robert J. C. Young as a “covert but insistent obsession with transgressive, inter-racial sex, hybridity and miscegenation”26 – extended in pre-colonial German colonial

21 See Gesine Krüger, “Beasts and victims – women in the colonial war,” in Jürgen Zimmerer and Joachim Zeller (eds.), Genocide in German South-West Africa: The Colonial War (1904–1908) in Namibia and its Aftermath, transl. Edward Neather (2003; Monmouth: Merlin, 2008), pp. ­170–92, pp. 175–6. 22 Dedering, “‘A certain Rigorous Treatment’,” p. 206. 23 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1900 (B). 24 Indeed, as Gesine Krüger observes: “Colonial fantasies of fear about the virility and savagery of African men overlapped in the war with the silence and denial about the behaviour of one’s own side. For it was, in fact, imprisoned African women who were regarded as the spoils of war by German soldiers and colonialists themselves.” Krüger, “Beasts and victims,” p. 177. 25 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1904 (C): “Und wenn besondere Gräuel hier erwähnt sind, so sind sie vielleicht eine wilde Rache für geschlechtliche Schandtaten, die leider, leider fast immer begangen werden, wo Weiße in Berührung mit Naturvölkern kommen.” 26 Young, Colonial Desire, p. xii.

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fantasies “less to interracial sex than to the possession of the land.”27 Yet the debate in the Reichstag indicates that by then the actual colonial confrontation had created a clear awareness of the significance of colonial desire and its reverse, the racially determined anxiety of sexual violation. While Reventlow’s rape and mutilation fantasies clearly originate in the racialized fear of the unknown other, even while they incorporate an implicitly voyeuristic component, Stöcker’s acknowledgement of sexual transgression appears to chart a course from the degradation of the white colonist – imagined exclusively as male in this context – to miscegenation and, eventually, to degeneration. Whereas the latter two of this triad are as yet implicit rather than explicit in the early parliamentary debates on the colonial conflict in Africa, the issue of miscegenation was soon to surface. In fact, in 1905, at the height of the Herero and Nama wars, interracial marriages were prohibited in German South-West Africa and two years later already existing mixed marriages were annulled.28 The issue came to a head in a debate in the Reichstag in spring 1912 which was to become known as the mixed marriages debate (Mischehendebatte) and which was eventually decided with the recommendation to introduce a bill to secure the validity of all marriages between Germans and indigenes in the colonies as well as the legal position of their offspring.29 However, further steps in this matter were prevented by the outbreak of the First World War and the eventual loss of Germany’s colonies.30 Interracial gender relations and more specifically sex emerge as constants in the interaction between the races not only in the colonial periphery but also in the metropolitan center, as will be seen in Chapters 4 and 5. They constitute the interface between desire and rejection and the perpetration of violence. Yet colonial desire and sex, no less than the perpetration of atrocities, are also aligned with a moral or ethical boundary in German colonial discourse which challenges constructions of the self and the other in the face of actual or imaginary 27 Zantop, Colonial Fantasies, p. 211n4. 28 Ulrike Lindner, “Encounters Over the Border: The Shaping of Colonial Identities in Neighbouring British and German Colonies in Southern Africa,” in Ulrike Lindner et al. (eds.), Hybrid Cultures – Nervous States: Britain and Germany in a (Post) Colonial World (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2010), pp. 3–22, pp. 17–18. 29 For the debate in the Reichstag, see StBR (May 2, 7, and 8, 1912), pp. 1648–1651, 1724–1737, 1740–1747. 30 For the mixed marriages debate, see Thomas Schwarz, “Die Mischehendebatte im Reichstag 1912. Hybridität in den Verhandlungen zwischen deutscher Biopolitik, Anthropologie und Literatur,” Deutsche Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (Keimyung) 10.3 (2002): 323–50; see also Davis, Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent, pp. 77–8 who discusses the question of miscegenation in the colonies in relation to the Jewish Question.

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transgression. As such they also renegotiate clear-cut perceptions of culture and civilization on the one hand, and of primitivism and barbarism on the other. Culture, as Young says, “has always been thought through as a form of cultural difference.”31 But the actual colonial encounter in German South-West Africa brought with it, at least for some observers, the recognition of the precariousness of such binaries. Thus, in the January sitting on the supplementary budget for South-West Africa, Bebel had quoted from an article on the “native question” (“Eingeborenenfrage”) published in the Zeitung für Südwestafrika. While unambiguous about the need to educate the natives to an appreciation of labor, the prevalent means of doing so are strongly criticized in Bebel’s source: The natives should be educated to labor with firmness coupled with fairness, but not through the brutal treatment with three-inch-thick planks and other objects with which one would not even beat cattle.32

The natural hierarchy of the native in relation to cattle suggested here is elaborated further in the excerpt, by placing the white man far above the black. Yet going beyond Stöcker’s admission of the regrettable corruptibility of the colonizers, it is nevertheless acknowledged that there are perverted individuals who range far below the natives: Certainly, we range far above the natives; but regrettably there are also some whites who are far below them, so that they may exclaim in concert with the Canadian: “We savages are the better humans yet.”33

The quotation in the excerpt is from Johann Gottfried Seume’s influential ballad “The Savage” (“Der Wilde,” 1793) in which the German poet gave expression to the Enlightenment ideal of the noble savage. It was, as we have seen, quoted in the same month also by Chaskel in Mbwapwa’s third letter. The poem’s conclusion – cited here and in fact having become what in German is called a “geflügeltes Wort,” a household word – was frequently invoked in the controversial debates on German colonial practice, both ironically and seriously. Bebel, too, was to allude variously to the critique of European civilization and culture expressed

31 Young, Colonial Desire, p. 93. 32 StBR (January 19, 1904), p. 367 (A): “Man erziehe die Eingeborenen durch Strenge, gepaart mit Gerechtigkeit zur Arbeit, aber nicht durch brutale Behandlung mit dreizölligen Latten und anderen Gegenständen, mit denen man nicht einmal ein Stück Vieh schlägt.” 33 StBR (January 19, 1904), p. 367 (B): “Gewiß, wir stehen weit über den Eingeborenen; aber es gibt leider auch Weiße, die tief unter denselben stehen, so daß dieselben mit dem Kanadier ausrufen können: ‘Wir Wilden sind doch bessere Menschen’”; emphasis in original.

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in Seume’s ballad in which he found pre-formulated his own doubts about the moral integrity of the colonizers which he did not tire to reiterate. Indeed, based on reports in the press, in this case the Kölnische Zeitung, Bebel claimed that a large part of the elements who went as settlers to South-West Africa are people of very dubitable repute, that all those who go to South-West Africa, or to any of our colonies, with few exceptions hold the native in more or less disdain, that they see in him a creature of a subordinate race, and such is the treatment to which they subject the native. But according to our conceptions this is a treatment that has more frequently to be considered as barbaric or inhumane.34

The notion that the German colonists were of dubious character was indignantly countered by Otto Arendt of the Free Conservative Party (Freikonservative Partei). The politician, of Jewish heritage though converted, had been active in colonial endeavors since 1885 and was a staunch supporter of the German colonial enterprise. Arendt insisted with respect to the reasons for emigration to the colonies that for the most part this has been prompted by the most idealistic motives, that it was not the worst but the best elements of the German people that were induced to emigrate to our colony owing to the idea of projecting outwards Deutschtum and German culture.35

Bebel in turn alleged in surprisingly colloquial but poignant diction that the motivation of the colonists was “to amass as quickly as possibly a fortune and then to vamoose.”36 He explicitly denounced the colonial enterprise as exploitative and argued that talk about Germany’s civilizing mission was no more than a pretext for economic interests for which the colonists were prepared to sacrifice not only any number of humans but also their humanity.37 Mbwapwa’s reddening in his 34 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1891 (A): “[…] daß ein großer Teil der Elemente, die als Ansiedler nach Südwestafrika gekommen sind, Leute von sehr zweifelhaftem Charakter sind, daß alle, die nach Südwestafrika und überhaupt nach unseren Kolonien kommen, mit wenigen Ausnahmen eine mehr oder weniger große Verachtung gegen den Eingeborenen haben, daß sie in ihm ein Wesen untergeordneter Rasse sehen, und dementsprechend ist die Behandlung, die sie den Eingeborenen zu teil werden lassen. Das ist aber eine solche, die nach unseren Begriffen öfter als eine barbarische, als eine unmenschliche angesehen werden muß.” 35 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1899 (C): “[…] daß es zum großen Teil aus den idealsten Beweggründen geschehen ist, daß es nicht die schlechtesten, sondern die besten Elemente des deutschen Volkes gewesen sind, die durch die Idee, das Deutschtum, die deutsche Kultur hinauszutragen, zu der Auswanderung in unsere Kolonie veranlaßt sind.” 36 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1892 (C): “[…] so rasch als möglich ein Vermögen zusammenzuraffen und dann wieder zu verduften.” 37 See, e.g., Bebel’s allegation: “[W]as liegt an den Menschen, die dabei fallen, die als Kulturdünger in Südwestafrika zu Grunde gehen,” StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1893 (A).

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third letter may come to mind here as indicative of his affinity with the ideological anticolonialism of the Social Democrats. The primacy of the economic interest in South-West Africa was confirmed rather bluntly by Christian Storz of the German People’s Party (Deutsche Volks­ partei) who maintained: “To go easy on the existing human material is therefore an urgent economic necessity.”38 Later in the year, after the Herero uprising had been largely suppressed, Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow, resentfully denying any intentions of exterminating the natives and invoking humanitarian considerations as the guiding principle of German colonial policy, nevertheless emphasized the economic value of the indigenous peoples in a very similar way: Yet, aside from all humanitarian considerations which we will always uphold, there can be no question of eradicating the natives for the plain practical reason that we cannot do without them in any kind of profitable operation in South-West Africa, in agriculture, in animal husbandry, and in particular in the mining sector.39

The recognition that the viability of the colonial enterprise depended on the natives made the question of how to deal effectively with them even more pressing. Their economic value indicated that they should be educated, yet their primitive nature suggested that any effort to penetrate their indolence or subdue their savage inclination may be futile or dangerous. This, as we have seen in Chapter 1, was a dilemma that had already impacted on the conception of the colonial exhibition of 1896. Yet the colonial wars of the first decade of the twentieth century forcefully provoked the reassessment of the earlier optimism. Even so, some delegates felt that moderation was called for. Karl Schrader of the liberal Free-minded Union (Freisinnige Vereinigung), for instance, conceded that “[t]he question whether it is possible to educate these people into genuinely civilized human beings has not yet been resolved.”40 He nevertheless maintained: “Yet to regard them simply as savages is also not permissible.”41 Stöcker also insisted: “At the same time I would like to entreat that the Herero not be 38 StBR (January 19, 1904), p. 370 (A): “Das vorhandene Menschenmaterial zu schonen ist daher eine dringende wirtschaftliche Notwendigkeit.” 39 StBR (December 5, 1904), p. 3376 (B): “Aber von einer Ausrottung der Eingeborenen kann, abgesehen von allen Gründen der Menschlichkeit, die wir immer hochhalten werden, schon aus der praktischen Erwägung heraus nicht die Rede sein, daß wir die Eingeborenen für jede Art des wirtschaftlichen Betriebes in Südwestafrika, für die Landwirtschaft, für die Viehzucht und insbesondere für den Bergbau gar nicht entbehren können.” 40 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1898 (A): “Die Frage, ob es möglich ist, aus diesen Leuten wirklich zivilisierte Menschen zu erziehen, ist noch nicht gelöst.” 41 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1898 (A): “Sie einfach als Wilde zu betrachten ist doch auch nicht zulässig.”

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considered as beasts; that we may not do.”42 In his response to the question of the “educability” (“Erziehbarkeit”) of the indigenous peoples, he argued that the tensions in the protectorate were the result of the inconsistent attitude toward the natives’ legal status: Now, it may be said: These are weak people; they are like children and not yet aware of the consequences of their actions. Yet from this results for the government the holy duty to protect such peoples in a childlike state. This has not been done sufficiently. The mistake was made that in criminal policy – if I may say so – we treated the Herero like children and therefore permitted blows as punishment; yet in civil law policy we considered them like adults who are aware of the consequences of their actions. This is indeed a mistake which we must concede to have made.43

What Stöcker criticized was the incongruity of the paternalistic approach to the natives where their education was concerned with their designation as responsible adults in legal matters where this facilitated their exploitation, although he failed to make the latter point quite explicit – in contrast to the outspoken Bebel.44 Nevertheless, concluding that the atrocities attributed to the Herero were “horribly serious cases,” Stöcker cautioned: “[B]ut we must not without further ado let ourselves be prompted to consider and treat these people as animals.”45 Reventlow, meanwhile, though insisting on his commitment to humanity toward any human being – “Most certainly, we are in favor of humanity toward all kinds of human beings” – concluded his harangue with the admonition not to be too extravagant in the use of humanity toward the insurgents: “[D]o not exercise too much humanity toward bloodthirsty beasts in human shape!”46

42 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1904 (B): “Dabei möchte ich nun aber doch bitten, daß man die Hereros nicht wie Bestien beurteilt; das dürfen wir nicht. […] Es ist eine Tatsache, daß bei der Kriegserklärung die Missionare ausdrücklich von jeder Gewalttat ausgenommen sind, und, soviel ich weiß, ist bis jetzt noch keinem Missionar ein Haar gekrümmt worden.” 43 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1903 (D)–1904 (A): “Nun kann man sagen: das sind schwache Leute; sie sind wie Kinder und sich der Tragweite ihrer Schritte noch nicht bewußt. Daraus ergibt sich allerdings für die Regierung die heilige Pflicht, solche im Kindeszustande befindlichen Völkerschaften zu schützen. Das ist nicht genug geschehen. Es ist der Fehler gemacht, daß wir freilich in der Kriminalpolitik – wenn ich mich so ausdrücken soll – die Herero wie Kinder behandelt und deshalb Schläge als Strafe zugelassen haben, daß wir aber in der Zivilrechtspolitik sie wie erwachsene Leute angesehen haben, die sich der Tragweite ihrer Schritte bewußt seien. Das ist in der Tat ein Fehler, den wir zugestehen müssen.” 44 See StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1890 (D). 45 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1904 (C): “[…] furchtbar ernste Fälle, aber sie dürfen uns nicht ohne weiteres veranlassen, die Leute wie Tiere anzusehen und zu behandeln.” 46 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1900 (C): “Ganz gewiß sind wir für Humanität gegen Menschen jeder Art […] wenden sie [sic] nicht allzu viel Humanität gegen blutdürstige Bestien in Menschengestalt an!”

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Reventlow’s is the dubious honor to have introduced in his speech the trope of the bloodthirsty beast to the parliamentary debate on the Herero War. Yet in the German press this trope had gained currency already from the very first reports on the colonial conflict since January 1904.47 And while initial accounts acknowledged that not all the information had been confirmed, this caution was soon abandoned and the sensational potential of the conflict fully exploited.48 The insurgents were labeled as “murderous blacks,” “ogres,” “savages,” “swine,” “dogs,” “fiends,” and “beasts”; the South-African negro, with his passions unleashed, was allegedly “no longer a human being but a bloodthirsty animal.”49 Bebel in particular battled energetically against this racist dehumanization of the Herero. The leader of the Social Democratic opposition consistently attempted to advance a rational understanding of the reasons for the rebellion. Thus he responded to the assertion of the Director of the Colonial Office that uprisings had been encountered by every European civilized power ­(“Kulturmacht”) engaging in colonialism that this was indeed the case but that the reason for this resistance was to be sought not in the fact of colonization but in the manner in which it was conducted.50 German colonial policy, Bebel insisted, forced uncivilized peoples (“unkultivierte Völkerschaften”) to rise up against their oppressors.51 He spoke of the struggle of desperation (“Verzweiflungskampf”)52 of the Herero and described their revolt against the German colonizers as an act of desperation ­(“Verzweiflungsakt”) provoked by the prospect of losing their means of subsistence and, eventually, their freedom.53 Challenging Bebel’s conception of freedom, Stübel in turn argued that one of the reasons for the uprising was that the Herero were harking back to the time prior to the occupation: “[T]he time when they enjoyed complete freedom, independence, and lack of restraint.”54 His turn of phrase is telling. The lack of restraint he imputes to the Herero evokes associations of dissolute and irresponsible behavior and taints the notion of freedom which, in this instance, indeed appears to be something that needs to be curbed. The transition to the image of 47 Sobich, “Schwarze Bestien, rote Gefahr,” p. 80. 48 Ibid., p. 82. 49 As quoted from various German newspapers by Sobich, ibid., pp. 83–4: “mordlustige Schwarze,” “Unholde,” “Wilde,” “Schweine,” “Hunde,” “Scheusale,” “Bestien,” “kein Mensch mehr, sondern ein blutrünstiges Tier.” 50 See StBR (January 19, 1904), p. 366 (B). 51 See ibid. 52 See ibid. (D). 53 See StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1890 (A). 54 StBR (January 19, 1904), p. 363 (A): “[…] die Zeit, wo sie vollkommene Freiheit, Ungebundenheit und Zügellosigkeit genossen.”

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the bloodthirsty animal almost suggests itself, the monster is already looming behind the phrase, only thinly disguised by Stübel’s veil of words. The antisemitic delegate Liebermann von Sonnenberg had similarly attacked Bebel for defending the Herero. “The freedom of the Herero which you defend consisted in thieving, looting, and murder,” he vociferated.55 Albrecht Patzig, finally, derided that Bebel had referred to the Herero as a people (“Volk”).56 This was a term the national-liberal politician felt to be entirely inappropriate in this case. Most likely he conceived of the Herero as marauding bands of savages, as had also been suggested by Stübel and von Sonnenberg. More specifically, however, it would have been the connotations of the word Patzig would not have been prepared to concede in relation to the Herero. In the almost exactly contemporary sixth edition of Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon of 1905–9, “Volk” is defined as “a part of humanity which belongs together according to descent and language, morality, and education.”57 While this would seem to apply to the Herero, a tacit distinction would have been made between “Volk” and “Naturvolk,” i.e. a primitive people. The former implied “Kulturvolk,” i.e. a civilized people, while the indigenous African people would have been identified as the latter. In the Konversations-Lexikon, the term Naturvolk is defined in explicit opposition to that of Kulturvolk and then refers to the “lower, primitive stratum of humanity.”58 The entry articulates a pervasive social Darwinist perception of human social interaction which at the same time codifies the chasm between both as almost insuperable.59 The gauge against which Kulturvölker and Naturvölker are measured is progress. Naturvölker have no predisposition toward and only a very limited capacity for progress, which is attributed to their nature: They lack the capacity of abstract thinking; they have an inclination toward the mythical interpretation of natural occurrences; and their instincts take precedence over considered action. While this generates a happy contentment, this is likely to be disturbed by eruptions of fierce passions, because the energy of the primitive Naturvölker is not channeled into wholesome labor which they obstinately evade.

55 StBR (January 19, 1904), p. 370 (C): “[D]ie Freiheit der Hereros, die Sie verteidigen, bestand im Stehlen, Rauben und Morden.” 56 See StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1894 (A). 57 Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, XX, 223: “[…] ein nach Abstammung u. Sprache, Sitte und Bildung zusammengehöriger Teil der Menschheit.” 58 Ibid.: “[…] tiefere, primitive Schicht der Menschheit.” 59 It should be mentioned that this widely accepted perception was challenged for instance by the anthropologist Felix von Luschan; see, e.g., Anja Laukötter, Von der “Kultur” zur “Rasse” – vom Objekt zum Körper?: Völkerkundemuseen und ihre Wissenschaften zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts (Bielefeld: transcript, 2007), pp. 76–8.

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Kulturvölker, in contrast, have a hereditary appetence for labor and a disposition toward progress: Generally, the inclination toward labor and mostly also toward progress is eventually passed on among members of civilized peoples as a kind of mental disposition which the primitive peoples satisfied with their situation are lacking.60

Kulturvölker are compelled to continuous progress by the competition among themselves, “since any placid stasis causes economic decline and ultimately the loss of political freedom.”61 Political freedom, obviously valued as the greatest good of a people, is a category that is a priori denied to the Naturvölker. In fact, it is implied that because of their irresponsible nature they are not sufficiently evolved even to appreciate this freedom, as had also emerged from Stübel’s and von Sonnenberg’s derogatory remarks. Moreover, the Naturvölker are closer to nature “than we,” both “in the positive and the negative sense.” This also means that they are deficient in cultural achievements. In particular, they lack the knowledge of writing, the possession of which bestows on a Volk a lasting memory. This, in turn, creates the “historical depth” which is indispensable “for any great cultural creativity.”62 The latter is an achievement that was naturally denied to the Herero in German colonial discourse. Hence Patzig’s indignant reaction. Even Bebel had variously concurred that the Herero occupied the lowest rung of cultural development.63 He had indeed repeated this unequivocally in order to confront allegations of having taken the insurgents’ side and maintained: “I have repeatedly emphasized that it is a savage people of a very low order of civilization.”64 Yet, more importantly, the Social Democrat had also introduced the notion of cultural and historical relativism to the parliamentary debate. Implying grave doubts about the current conception of culture and its overstretched usage, he maintained about the rebelling Herero:

60 Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, XIV, 460: “Die Neigung zur Arbeit und meist auch zum Fortschritt vererbt sich im allgemeinen bei den Angehörigen der Kulturvölker schließlich als eine Art Gehirndisposition, die den langsam oder gar nicht fortschreitenden, mit ihrem Zustand zufriedenen Naturvölkern fehlt.” 61 Ibid.: “[…] da jeder beschauliche Stillstand wirtschaftlichen Niedergang und zuletzt den Verlust der politischen Freiheit herbeiführt.” 62 Ibid., XIV, 459–60: “[…] als wir […] im guten wie im schlimmen Sinn […] historische Tiefe […] für alle große Kulturarbeit.” 63 See StBR (March 17, 1904), pp. 1890 (D), 1892 (A). 64 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1902 (A): “Ich habe wiederholt betont, es ist ein wildes Volk, sehr tiefstehend in der Kultur.”

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And if they resist with all the means at their disposal to the infringement of their existence, of their civilization, to use a term customary with us, at the hands of those whom they are likely to consider from their perspective as barbarians, then this is a behavior that cannot be held against them.65

In his endeavor to create a modicum of empathy with the Herero, Bebel sought to elaborate his relativistic perspective by drawing a parallel to the Roman conquest of the Germanic lands: Precisely like two thousand years ago the Romans did in Germany when they made themselves masters of the country, annexed the land, and led the Germans into slavery, precisely like this it is proposed that Christian Germany, which so much likes to project into the wide world the pinnacle of its civilization and of its Christianity, proceed against the Herero.66

The comparison of Germany as a colonial aggressor to the Romans conquering Germania, and of the Herero’s resistance to that of the Germanic tribes of old, is more than just a rhetorical ploy. Bebel not only reiterates his belief in cultural relativism in that he empathizes with the resistance of the Herero against those, “whom they are likely to consider from their perspective as barbarians.” In fact, his strategy of aligning the contemporary perpetrator with the historical victim seeks to create both an emotional and a rational understanding for the plight of their own contemporary victim. Bebel’s excursion to the heroic but barbaric German past was not responded to by any of his parliamentary adversaries. Yet as a strategy it was strangely similar to Jungmann’s identification, through the creation of Mbwapwa Jumbo, of the Jews with the Africans, though the parameters have slightly shifted in this instance. Bebel expressed his skepticism toward conceptions of cultural supremacy also in the debate on the (in)commensurability of the military response to the

65 StBR (January 19, 1904), p. 368 (A): “Und wenn sie sich mit allen ihnen zu Gebote stehenden Mitteln dagegen wehren, daß in ihre Existenz, ihre Kultur, um einmal einen bei uns gang und gäbe seienden Ausdruck zu gebrauchen, eingebrochen wird von seiten derer, die sie vielleicht von ihrem Standpunkt aus als Barbaren betrachten, so ist das ein Verhalten, das ihnen nicht verargt werden kann.” 66 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1893 (C): “Genau so, wie vor zwei Jahrtausenden die Römer im alten Deutschland verfuhren, als sie sich zu Herren des Landes machten, den Grund und Boden annektierten und die Deutschen in die Sklaverei führten, genau so soll heute von sei­ ten des christlichen Deutschland, das so gern in alle Welt hinaus von der Höhe seiner Kultur, seiner Zivilisation und seines Christentums spricht, gegen die Hereros vorgegangen werden.” See also the earlier reference to the historical precedent, StBR (January 19, 1904), pp. 367 (D)–368 (A).

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uprising. He considered it to be imperative and a moral obligation to act toward the Herero in accordance with the alleged cultural superiority of the colonial power and to avoid the regression into barbarism: Even though the Herero as a human being occupies one of the lowest rungs of civilization and engages in a manner of warfare corresponding to this level of civilization, this does not mean by a long chalk that the European should make use of a similar manner of warfare against him, nor must he.67

Appalled by reports of the cruelty with which the insurgents were treated and deploring in particular actions directed against women and children, Bebel protested: But also against men, be they ever so barbaric on their part as befits their low level of civilization, we who have been whitewashed with European courtesy and culture do not have the right to proceed as they may possibly proceed toward us by shooting them down and by killing them when they are apprehended by the Germans as captives or casualties.68

Once again construeing an in-group of “we,” similar to the entry in the ­Konversations-Lexikon but with a very different intention, Bebel says that we are whitewashed (“übertüncht”) with civility and culture. The pun is less obvious in contemporary German, but one may wonder if Bebel did indeed mean to allude to the invalidity of the equation of white skin color with culture. Certainly, his phrasing suggests that European civility and culture go only skin deep. At the same time, Bebel appears to refer with his turn of phrase to the very same ballad by Seume, “The Savage,” which his newspaper source of the earlier sitting on January 19 had quoted in order to castigate the inferior moral character of some whites in the colony and which we will encounter again in Chapter 5. The poem commences: A Canadian, who knew nothing yet Of Europe’s whitewashed civility,

67 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1891 (C): “Wenn der Herero als Mensch auf einer der tiefsten Kulturstufen steht und eine diesem Kulturgrade entsprechende Kriegsweise führt, so ist doch nicht gesagt, daß der Europäer eine ähnliche Kriegsweise ihm gegenüber in Anwendung bringen dürfe oder solle.” 68 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1892 (A): “Aber auch gegen Männer, und wenn diese noch so barbarisch ihrerseits verfahren, infolge ihres tiefen Kulturgrades, haben wir, die wir mit europä­ ischer Höflichkeit und Kultur übertüncht sind, kein Recht, in dieser Weise zu verfahren, wie sie gegebenenfalls uns gegenüber verfahren, indem wir sie niederschießen und töten, wenn sie als Gefangene oder als Verwundete in die Hände der Deutschen fallen.”

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And felt a heart, like God gave it to him, Untainted by culture yet, in his bosom […].69

The alleged innocence of the noble savage evoked in this passage and his supposed closeness to nature as a sign not of his primitive disposition but of his closeness to God had become a trope since the Enlightenment. Yet its significance as a point of reference in the debate on the Herero War is not, therefore, diminished in any way. If anything, its connotations are even more forcefully recognizable. In “The Savage,” a Huron warrior, returning to his home in the wilderness after having been short-changed for his kill on the market, is caught in a thunderstorm and begs a white planter for shelter. He is denied and chased away as a “misshapen monster.”70 When the haughty settler gets lost on the hunt, he, in turn, finds refuge and welcome in the Huron’s cave. In the morning, his host, now transformed into a proud warrior and frightening to behold, guides the planter to his home. Smiling calmly, the Huron parts from the white man who only now recognizes him with the words: “Look, you clever white strangers, / We savages are the better humans yet!”71 Detached from its original context and variously alluded to in the debate on the Herero War, the reference to Seume’s poem nevertheless invokes a conception of humanity which is untainted by culture and not yet deformed by its influence. Not the alleged savage is the “misshapen monster” – indeed, as the poem has it, the Huron’s heart remains as he received it from God. Rather, culture is conceived of as an agent of deformation and the white settler, the creature of civility and culture, is monstrous in his inhumanity. Ultimately, the Huron’s assessment is accurate. He is indeed the better, the more humane, human being. Seume’s poem was the product of a retrospective idealization of his own experience in America. Having been sold in 1781 as a Hessian mercenary to fight against the American colonists in their war of independence, he arrived too late to see any action, yet his encounter with the New World and its first inhabitants produced a number of important reflections on the perception of the other. In fact, in his autobiography My Life (Mein Leben, 1813), eschewing the literary conventions of the noble savage narrative, Seume gave articulation to a much less

69 Johann Gottfried Seume, “Der Wilde,” in Werke in zwei Bänden, eds. Anneliese and KarlHeinz Klingenberg (Berlin and Weimar: Aufbau-Verlag, 1965), I, 127–30, 127: “Ein Kanadier, der noch Europens / Übertünchte Höflichkeit nicht kannte, / Und ein Herz, wie Gott es ihm gegeben, / Von Kultur noch frei, im Busen fühlte […].” 70 Ibid.: “mißgestaltes Ungeheuer.” 71 Ibid., I, 130: “Seht, ihr fremden, klugen, weißen Leute, / Seht, wir Wilden sind doch beßre Menschen!”

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sentimental perception of the indigenous peoples of the New World.72 Yet this is beside the point, which is rather about the afterlife of his ballad and the sentiment it expressed in the popular imagination and, more specifically, more than a century later, in the political debate on the Herero War. The poet’s criticism of culture and civilization had been reiterated more comprehensively and based on deliberations on the philosophy of history as well as on ethnographic and theological observations by Johann Gottfried Herder. While I do not mean to suggest that Herder’s reflections on civilization and conceptions of the nation directly influenced the debate on Germany’s colonial war in South-West Africa, his observations nevertheless anticipate some of the salient issues arising from the violent colonial conflict. Moreover, the cultural relativism expressed by Bebel in the Herero debate may well have been informed by Herder’s philosophical inquiry. A closer look in particular at the philosopher’s Letters for the Advancement of Humanity (Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität, 1797) will therefore be useful for a better understanding of the issues elaborated by the Social Democrat. In his Letters, Herder challenged the primacy of European culture by questioning the grounds for its supposed normativity. “What is a measuring of all peoples by the measure of us Europeans supposed to be at all? Where is the means of comparison?,” he asked, and continued: “The nation which you call savage or barbaric is in essentials much more humane than you.”73 Like Seume, the philosopher deflates the binaries of civilized and savage, cultured and barbarian by substituting for them the parameter of humanity. Yet Herder not only contested the primacy of European culture but, more specifically, challenged the very notion of its monolithic consistency. He maintained: European culture is an abstracted concept, a name. “Where does it exist entirely? With which people? In which times?” Moreover (who can deny it?), there are so many shortcomings and weaknesses, so many twistings and horrors, bound up with it that only an unkind being could make these occasions of higher culture into a collective condition of our whole species.74 72 See D. L. Ashliman, “The American Indian in German Travel Narratives and Literature,” Journal of Popular Culture 10.4 (1977): 833–9, 834. 73 Johann Gottfried Herder, Letters for the Advancement of Humanity: Tenth Collection, in Philosophical Writings, ed. and transl. Michael N. Forster (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 386; see also Johann Gottfried Herder, Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität: Zehnte Sammlung, in Sämtliche Werke, ed. Bernhard Suphan, rprt. (1797; Hildesheim: Olms, 1967), XVIII, 237: “Was soll überhaupt eine Messung aller Völker nach uns Europäern? wo ist das Mittel der Vergleichung? Jene Nation, die ihr wild und barbarisch nennt, ist im Wesentlichen viel menschlicher als ihr.” Emphasis in original. 74 Herder, Letters for the Advancement of Humanity, p. 396; see also Herder, Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität, XVIII, 249: “Europäische Cultur ist ein abgezogener Begriff, ein Name. Wo existirt sie ganz? bei welchem Volk? in welchen Zeiten? Ueberdem sind mit ihr (wer darf es läugnen?) so viele Mängel und Schwächen, so viel Verzuckungen und Abscheulichkeiten verbunden, daß nur

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At the same time, Herder himself did not shy away from identifying consistent essentialist characteristics of those he considered deformed by culture: “The corruptedly cultivated human being wants only to be able, to have, to rule, to enjoy.”75 The solipsistic egotism he ascribed to European civilization, he found to be manifest in particular in its various colonialist ventures, specifically that of imperial Britain. With loathing he denounced the profit-oriented colonialism of the British Empire motivated by what he identifies as its “presumptious covetous conceit” (“habsüchtigen Eigendünkel”)76 and warned the “poor, innocent Germans” (“arme, Schuldlose Deutsche”)77 not to follow the British example because the result could only ever be “lamentation and misery!” (“Jammer und Elend!”).78 More specifically, Herder disputed the value of any culture forcefully imposed on another: “What, generally, is a foisted, foreign culture, a formation [Bildung] that does not develop out of [a people’s] own dispositions and needs?”79 He concluded that it can only ever be either oppressive and deforming or otherwise condemned to failure.80 In the insistence on his cultural relativism he went so far as to reverse entirely received notions of superiority: “The negro has as much right to consider the white man a degenerate, a born albino freak, as when the white man considers him a beast, a black animal.”81 The terms of his reversal – explored more specifically also in Herder’s so-called Negro Idylls (Neger-Idyllen,

ein ungütiges Wesen diese Veranlassungen höherer Cultur zu einem Gesammt-Zustande unsres ganzen Geschlechts machen könnte.” 75 Herder, Letters for the Advancement of Humanity, p. 384; see also Herder, Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität, XVIII, 234: “Nur können, haben, herrschen, genießen will der verdorben-cultivirte Mensch”; emphasis in original. 76 Herder, Letters for the Advancement of Humanity, p. 385 and Herder, Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität, XVIII, 236. 77 Herder, Letters for the Advancement of Humanity, p. 386 and Herder, Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität, XVIII, 237. 78 Herder, Letters for the Advancement of Humanity, p. 386; see also Herder, Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität, XVIII, 237: “Vollends wenn wir arme, Schuldlose Deutsche hierinn den Britten nachsprechen; Jammer und Elend!” 79 Herder, Letters for the Advancement of Humanity, p. 382; see also Herder, Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität, XVIII, 223: “Was ist überhaupt eine aufgedrungene, fremde Cultur? eine Bildung, die nicht aus eignen Anlagen und Bedürfnissen hervorgeht?” 80 See Herder, Letters for the Advancement of Humanity, p. 382; see also Herder, Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität, XVIII, 223. 81 Herder, Letters for the Advancement of Humanity, pp. 394–5; see also Herder, Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität, XVIII, 248: “Der Neger hat so viel Recht, den Weißen für eine Abart, einen gebohrnen Kackerlacken zu halten, als wenn der Weiße ihn für eine Bestie, für ein schwarzes Thier hält.”

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1797) – are familiar. Public perception of the Herero War produced and proliferated precisely the image of the black beast exposed by Herder as a construction. Not many, however, were prepared to deconstruct the image, even though events in the protectorate had proven the bestiality of the white man – at least to critics of the colonial enterprise, such as Bebel.

Race War and Genocide In August Bebel’s words, the Herero War uncovered “all the brutality and callousness of which the heart of the modern capitalist is capable.”82 Quoting from witness accounts – for instance: “Whatever is alive and of black color is shot down”83 – the Social Democrat ruthlessly castigated the manner of German colonial warfare: “[I]f this is indeed the manner of warfare of the Germans in South-West Africa, then it is not just barbaric but bestial.”84 The delegate’s choice of words is particularly revealing in this case because it indicates once more, as suggested by Herder, the reversal of perceived notions of culture and civilization. While to some extent dictated by party politics, Bebel’s accusation nevertheless accurately indicates the crux of the debate. Who, the Social Democrat effectively asks, is the real beast here? Yet the situation in the protectorate was to deteriorate even further once Theodor Leutwein, governor of German South-West Africa since 1898 and commander of the Schutztruppe since 1894, had been relieved of his command in May 1904. Leutwein had pursued a conciliatory policy and had, in fact, been accused of having provoked the insurrection with his supposed lenience.85 His successor, Lothar von Trotha – an ambitious and controversial officer with some experience in colonial conflicts – sought to resolve the situation instead with appalling brutality.86 After his decisive victory at the Waterberg in August 1904, von Trotha pushed the retreating Herero into the arid Omaheke desert which he then cordoned off, 82 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1893 (A): “[…] all [die] Brutalität und Herzlosigkeit, deren ein mo­ dernes Kapitalistenherz fähig ist.” 83 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1891 (D): “Alles, was lebend ist und schwarze Farbe hat, wird nie­ dergeschossen.” 84 StBR (March 17, 1904), p. 1892 (A): “[W]enn das in der Tat die Kampfweise der Deutschen in Südwestafrika sein sollte, dann wäre sie nicht nur barbarisch, dann wäre sie bestialisch.” 85 See Sarkin, Germany’s Genocide of the Herero, p. 49. 86 But see Spraul, “Der ‘Völkermord’ an den Herero,” 713–39 for the commonly brutal nature of colonial wars of the period.

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and on October 2, 1904 issued the notorious extermination order (Vernichtungsbefehl) which stipulated: “Any Herero found inside the German frontier, with or without a gun or cattle, will be executed. I shall spare neither women nor children. I shall give the order to drive them away and fire on them.”87 Heavily criticized for his approach in the protectorate by his own staff88 and by missionaries as well as in the German press and in parliamentary debates, von Trotha was eventually ordered to rescind his proclamation after the intervention of Chancellor von Bülow with the allegedly reluctant Wilhelm II.89 Von Trotha was finally relieved of his command in November 1905 after both the Herero and the Nama (Hottentots) had been largely subdued. More than just an insurrection that had to be suppressed, von Trotha had conceived of the Herero War in terms of a race war. It is this dimension in particular which sustains the notion that a systematic genocide was perpetrated in the protectorate. Yet it has also been observed that “the annihilation of the Herero was clearly not the product of a homogenous cultural environment: The idea that Africans could simply be exterminated was debated in public and eventually rejected by Germany’s decision-makers,” even though von Trotha briefly may have had “the power to conceive and pursue a radical, genocidal policy.”90 87 “Innerhalb der Deutschen Grenze wird jeder Herero mit oder ohne Gewehr, mit oder ohne Vieh erschossen, ich nehme keine Weiber und keine Kinder mehr auf, treibe sie zu ihrem Volke zurück oder lasse auch auf sie schießen.” Quoted in Spraul, “Der ‘Völkermord’ an den Herero,” 728. An addition qualified: “This proclamation is to be read to the troops at roll-call, with the addition that the unit that catches a captain will also receive the appropriate reward, and that the shooting at women and children is to be understood as shooting above their heads, so as to force them to run [away]. I assume absolutely that this proclamation will result in taking no more male prisoners, but will not degenerate into atrocities against women and children. The latter will run away if one shoots at them a couple of times. The troops will remain conscious of the good reputation of the German soldier. [Dieser Erlaß ist bei den Appells der Truppen mitzuteilen mit dem Hinzufügen, daß auch der Truppe, die einen der Kapitäne fängt, die entsprechende Belohnung zu teil wird, und daß das Schießen auf Weiber und Kinder so zu verstehen ist, daß über sie hinweggeschossen wird, um sie zum Laufen zu zwingen. Ich nehme mit Bestimmtheit an, daß dieser Erlaß dazu führen wird, keine männlichen Gefangene mehr zu machen, aber nicht zu Grausamkeiten gegen Weiber und Kinder ausartet. Diese werden schon fortlaufen, wenn zweimal über sie hinweggeschossen wird. Die Truppe wird sich des guten Rufes der Deutschen Soldaten bewußt bleiben.]” The English translation of the order is quoted from Isabel V. Hull, Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany (Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press, 2006), p. 56. For the contemporary debate on the proclamation, see Spraul, “Der ‘Völkermord’ an den Herero,” 723–5. 88 For critical voices among officers of the Schutztruppe, see ibid., 722 and 736n76. 89 See Dedering, “‘A certain Rigorous Treatment’,” p. 212. See von Bülow, Denkwürdigkeiten, II, 21. See also Spraul, “Der ‘Völkermord’ an den Herero,” 719–20; Spraul notes that von Trotha’s career was effectively over after his return from Africa, see 720. 90 Dedering, “‘A certain Rigorous Treatment’,” p. 216.

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The very fact that such a debate was possible nevertheless indicates a disturbing degree of acceptance of von Trothas genocidal policy in the public sphere. Indeed, the general’s notion of a race war was promoted also by the official historical documentation of the Herero War compiled by the department for military history of the German General Staff. Von Trotha’s refusal to even consider a surrender of the Herero is explained here with reference to the evaluation the commanding officer of the Schutztruppe gave to the Chief of the General Staff, Alfred von Schlieffen, and in which he stronlgy emphasized his doubts about the political advisability of any peaceful arrangement with the Herero prior to the complete destruction of their tribal organization. The insurrection in the German protectorate, von Trotha insisted, was the first indicator of an imminent struggle of the races facing all the European colonial powers involved in Africa.91 First published in installments in Vierteljahreshefte für Truppenführung und Heereskunde, the official narrative of the Herero War was soon popularized in book form under the auspices of the General Staff as volume one of The Campaigns of the German Troops in South-West Africa (Die Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, 1906). Asserting in its introductory chapter the inevitablity of the conflict and its nature as a race war, the publication fully endorsed von Trotha’s assessment and maintained that no political intervention, however skillful, could have forstalled the race struggle.92 Indeed, the concept of the race war emerges from the report as the manifestation of an existential crisis, in elaboration of which the text paradigmatically answers to all the elements of eventfulness (Ereignishaftigkeit) – relevance, unpredictability, impact, irreversibility, and non-iterativity – identified by Erll for the mediation of the Sepoy Rebellion half a century before and mentioned in the introduction as relevant also to the mediation of the Herero War. Accordingly, my interest in the report of the General Staff is not in its authority as a historical document but rather in its narrative construction of the historical colonial encounter. A significant constituent of this narrative is the antithetical portrayal of the adversaries within the framework of a progressive mythification which 91 Kriegsgeschichtliche Abteilung I des Großen Generalstabs (ed.), Die Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, vol. 1: Der Feldzug gegen die Hereros (Berlin: Mittler, 1906), p. 208. In a letter to Chancellor von Bülow from November 1904, von Schlieffen commented skeptically on von Trotha’s recommendations. Yet his doubts were not motivated by humanitarian considerations. Rather they were of a political and practical nature. In effect, the Chief of the General Staff agreed with von Trotha’s fundamental premise of the nature of the conflict as a race war and even with the objectives articulated by the commanding officer of the Schutztruppe, but cautioned that they could not be implemented with impunity. See Spraul, “Der ‘Völkermord’ an den Herero,” 727–8. 92 See Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, I, 6.

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­ malgamates a strong social Darwinist certainty and a sense of cosmic provia dence with the triumphant assertion of Germanness over the allegedly culturally inferior black ‘race.’ The true character of ‘the Herero’ is described very much in contrast to von Lu­schan’s enthusiasm about the refinement of the Herero at the colonial exhibition of 1896 as an unappealing blend of cruelty, avarice, cunning, and superciliousness supposed to express itself in an overweening disdain toward all others, be they black or white. Yet at the same time the report takes pains to emphasize the singular military prowess of the Herero as well as, specifically, their extraordinary frugality, and in particular their imperviousness to thirst.93 This latter attribute is obviously emphasized in anticipation of the conflict’s conclusion which, toward the end of the report, shows the Herero on their disordered flight from the victorious Schutztruppe into the waterless Omaheke desert. The account serves as evidence for the complete internal dissolution of the Herero and as an indication of their impending doom: Sick and helpless men, women, and children who had collapsed for exhaustion lay languishing with thirst in masses cowering on the wayside in the brush, awaiting their doom without will and half senseless.94

In the second volume of the report, dedicated to the immediately following war with the Nama but referring in this instance retrospectively also to the Herero, it is emphasized that the warlike natives found a powerful ally in the peculiar character of their land to which they were able to adapt perfectly.95 Yet this notion of the symbiotic harmony of the black warriors and their land, designed to emphasize the magnitude of the military threat posed to the inexperienced European soldiers, is ultimately inverted by the report. More specifically, the panicked flight of the Herero into the sandveld is construed as a turning point which not only shows them to suffer, and to perish from, thirst and exhaustion but to become the victims of the nature of their own land. The suggestion overall, then, is that the land itself has turned against its unruly children who have lost their connection to it. This is further supported by the notion of a “Strafgericht,”96 a punitive judgement, visited upon the transgressing Herero, which invokes notions of an (almost) divine retribution more terrible than

93 See ibid., I, 3–4. 94 Ibid., I, 199: “Kranke und hilflose Männer, Weiber und Kinder, die vor Erschöpfung zusammengebrochen waren, lagen, vor Durst schmachtend, in Massen hingekauert seitwärts im Busch, willenlos und halb blöde ihr Schicksal erwartend.” 95 See Kriegsgeschichtliche Abteilung I des Großen Generalstabs (ed.), Die Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, vol. 2: Der Hottentottenkrieg (Berlin: Mittler, 1907), p. 299. 96 Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, I, 186, et passim.

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any that might have been inflicted by German arms alone.97 Obviously a strategy of dissociation which deflects responsibility for the gruesome fate of the Herero from the Schutztruppe, the idea was expanded further toward the end of the report: No efforts, no deprivations were shunned to drain the enemy of the last remnants of his resistance; like game chased half to death he was pursued from waterhole to waterhole until, finally, without will, he became the victim of the nature of his own land. The waterless Omaheke was to complete what had been begun by German arms: The destruction of the Herero people.98

The depersonalization of the pursuers (in the passive voice) is complemented here with the dehumanization of the pursued who are compared to hunted game and who, in the process, loose the last vestiges of their humanity with their will. In fact, the persistent reiteration of the natives having lost their will, of having become “willenlos,” may be an acknowledgment of the Nietzschean concept of the will to power as the driving force of life.99 Having lost their will, even less now than game, the Herero have forgone all claims to their existence. At the same time, the text extolls the virtues of the German soldiers, who set the process of destruction in motion and, with their dedication and resilience, prove themselves to be physically superior to their formidable enemies, even in enduring the hardship and deprivations imposed on them by the inhospitable land. In its totality, the report celebrates triumphant Germanness, emphasizing the unwavering and inspiring bravery of the Schutztruppe as an emanation of the German folk character in the face of adversity.100 Intriguingly, once more replicating the patterns of mediation observed by Erll in relation to the Sepoy Rebellion, the report specifically commends also the intrepid response of the German women in the protectorate to the assaults and atrocities suffered by the colonizers. Again, it is the Germanness they embody which is praised as the source of their fortitude: Warm admiration is due to the brave attitude of the German women staying in the protectorate during these days of terror. Continuously witnessing the atrocities perpetrated by the Herero and in the face of harrowing scenes, their lot was particularly dire. Yet without

97 See ibid., I, 189. 98 Ibid., I, 207: “Keine Mühen, keine Entbehrungen wurden gescheut, um dem Feinde den letzten Rest seiner Widerstandskraft zu rauben; wie ein halb zu Tode gehetztes Wild war er von Wasserstelle zu Wasserstelle gescheucht, bis er schließlich willenlos, ein Opfer der Natur seines eigenen Landes wurde. Die wasserlose Omaheke sollte vollenden, was die deutschen Waffen begonnen hatten: die Vernichtung des Hererovolkes.” 99 See, e.g., Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, transl. R. J. Hollingdale (1886; London: Penguin, 2003), §§13, 259. 100 See Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, I, 30

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complaint or despair they endured all the horrendous events not only calmly and bravely but actively lent their hands where help was needed and with great sacrifices supported the men in the execution of their difficult duties. Their devoted exertions have not least contributed to maintaining the courage and confidence of the German garrisons.101

As the German soldiers are contrasted to the black warriors, the German women are presented in opposition to those of the Herero, who are described as inciting the men’s ferocity during the fight from behind the lines with savage screams.102 The report in contrast emphasizes the calm and brave endurance with which the German women devotedly support the men. Indeed, the text exalts the role of the German women in the colonial endeavor and, in particular, in the specifically German mission civilisatrice, which pursues the propagation of a pure and strong Germanness far from home:103 May the example of these brave women who, faced with an uncertain fate, bravely helped to carry German culture into foreign lands become a precedent later, once peace and order have once again asserted themselves in the protectorate. Only then will it be possible to develop and maintain a pure and strong Deutschtum in this settler colony.104

It is quite telling that the emphasis on the character of the protectorate as a settler colony and the development of a pure and strong Deutschtum blatantly envisages 101 Ibid.: “Warme Bewunderung verdient die tapfere Haltung der im Schutzgebiet weilenden deutschen Frauen in jenen Schreckenstagen. Bei den sich dauernd vor ihren Augen abspielen­ den Mordtaten der Hereros und den erschütternden Auftritten war ihr Los besonders schlimm. Aber ohne zu jammern oder zu verzagen ertrugen sie all das Furchtbare nicht nur still und mutig, sondern tätig griffen sie überall, wo es zu helfen galt, mit zu und standen den Männern in ihren schweren Pflichten voll Aufopferung zur Seite. Ihr hingebendes Wirken hat nicht zum wenigsten dazu beigetragen, unter den deutschen Besatzungen Mut und Selbstvertrauen zu erhalten.” 102 Ibid., I, 102: “[…] während die Weiber hinter der Front durch wilden Zuruf die Kampfeswut der Krieger anfeuerten.” Note the use of the noun “Weiber” here in contrast to the German “Frauen”; the connotations are at least twofold: “Weiber” invokes the context of ‘primitive’ peoples in an ethnographic sense, but it also carries the suggestion of harridans. 103 For the role of women in the colonies, see also Clara Brockmann, Die deutsche Frau in Südwestafrika: Ein Beitrag zur Frauenfrage in unseren Kolonien (Berlin: Mittler, 1910) and, more recently, Krüger, “Beasts and victims,” pp. 170–192 and Katharina Walgenbach, “Die weisse Frau als Trägerin deutscher Kultur”: koloniale Diskurse über Geschlecht, “Rasse” und Klasse im Kaiserreich (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2005); Lora Wildenthal, German Women for Empire, 1884– 1945 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001); and Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst and Mechthild Leutner (eds.), Frauen in den deutschen Kolonien (Berlin: Links, 2009). 104 Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, I, 30: “Möchte das Beispiel dieser tapferen Frauen, die, ein ungewisses Schicksal vor sich, mutig deutsche Kultur in fremde Lande hatten hinaustragen helfen, später, wenn Ruhe und Ordnung in das Schutzgebiet wieder eingezogen sein werden, Nachahmung finden. Nur dann wird sich in dieser Siedlungskolonie ein reines und starkes Deutschtum entwickeln und erhalten können.”

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the complete absence, or at the very least the exclusion, of the natives from the German territory once peace and order have been restored. From the report emerge furthermore, against this background, three stages of the inexorable progression of the conflict and, in tandem, of unfolding a strategy of justification for the ruthless race war as which the colonial confrontation is conceptualized in the text. The first of these stages is retrospective, looking back to the time before the war but insisting on its inevitability. This inevitability is tied to the economic objectives of the colonial endeavor and the intrinsic clash of interests. It at the same time ascertains the seriousness of the colonial venture and the necessary corollary of completely subjugating the natives: The great inevitable struggle with the natives had to ensue sooner or later if Germany were not intending to forego the economic exploitation of the country. Whoever wanted to be a colonizer here first must take up the sword and wage war – and not with petty and puny means but with strong, formidable might up to the complete subjugation of the natives. Only then a proper colonization of the protectorate would be possible.105

In short, this is the pragmatic affirmation that eggs need to be broken to make an omelette, and as such it suggests the confirmation of Bebel’s indictment of the callousness of the capitalist venture in the protectorate. The second stage registers outrage at the predicted yet unexpectedly violent resistance of the natives and introduces righteous revenge as a motif: Indeed, the blood of the murdered men, the tortures and agonies of the abused women and innocent children were crying to heaven. Here, one had to fight, to the destruction [of the enemy]!106

Complete subjugation (völlige Niederwerfung) is here substituted with destruction (Vernichtung), the trajectory of the confrontation now inclining from pursuing an economic interest toward fulfilling a moral obligation. The diction moreover carries vaguely biblical connotations, evoking the blood of Abel crying to the Lord above and presumably also prefiguring the impending fate of the Herero

105 Ibid., I, 4: “Der große unvermeidbare Kampf mit den Eingeborenen mußte früher oder später kommen, wollte anders Deutschland nicht auf eine wirtschaftliche Erschließung des Landes verzichten. Wer hier kolonisieren wollte, mußte zuerst zum Schwert greifen und Krieg führen – aber nicht mit kleinlichen und schwächlichen Mitteln, sondern mit starker, Achtung gebietender Macht bis zur völligen Niederwerfung der Eingeborenen. Erst dann war eine wirkliche Koloni­ sierung des Schutzgebietes möglich”; emphasis in original. 106 Ibid., I, 44: “In der Tat: das Blut der gemordeten Männer, die Martern und Qualen mißhandelter Frauen und unschuldiger Kinder schrien zum Himmel. Hier mußte gekämpft werden, bis zur Vernichtung!” Emphasis in original.

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with that of the fratricide Cain: “[A] fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth” (Genesis 4:10–12). In the third and final stage, this trajectory reaches an almost cosmic climax with the interpretation of the factual annihilation of the Herero as the fulfillment of a Strafgericht (punitive judgement), a term which similarly conveys biblical connotations of divine retribution: Dead and desolate the sandveld spread before the eye and spoke in its vast infinity, its sublime silence and rigid monotony a stirring language to the hearts of the scouting riders:  The punitive judgement had run its course.107

The narrative construction of this moment of awed contemplation substitutes the dead and bleak waste of the sandveld for the death of the Herero, of whom no trace remains.108 It relies on the gaze of a witness which is relayed to the reader through the free indirect discourse cited above: “Captain Klein scaled the hill and scanned with his field glasses all the surroundings.”109 Doubly distanced from the brutal reality of the waterless desert through the narrative substitution and through the telescoping gaze through the officer’s field glasses – and consequently dissociated even further from the gruesome fate of the Herero – the reader is nevertheless drawn into assimilating Captain Klein’s gaze on the complete void left by the vanquished and vanished Herero. Significantly, the emotional impact the text is designed to create is not one of compassion, nor even of triumph, but one of comprehending the utter destruction of the Herero in the face of a sublime and impersonal, eternally disinterested and merciless infinity – and one external to any moral system. It is as if the reader were looking, with the officer, from a position of safe but thrilling proximity into a gaping abyss which has swallowed a nameless other. In fact, this narrative construction is reminiscent of the romantic adventure fiction of the immensely popular German writer Karl May. Far-fetched as this comparison may seem at first glance, I nevertheless think that it may serve to illustrate the, as I would argue, intended romantic impulse and righteous relief 107 Ibid., I, 205: “Tot und öde breitete sich das Sandfeld vor seinen Augen aus und redete in seiner gewaltigen Unendlichkeit, seiner erhabenen Stille und starren Einförmigkeit eine ergrei­ fende Sprache zu den Herzen der spähenden Reiter: / Das Strafgericht hatte seinen Lauf genommen”; emphasis in original. 108 Historically this was not accurate; survivors were interned in camps and made their way to Botswana (Bechuanaland) and South Africa; some refugees presumably also reached Portuguese territory (i.e. Angola), though there is no evidence of this, see Spraul, “Der ‘Völkermord’ an den Herero,” 726. 109 Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, I, 205: “Hauptmann Klein erstieg die Anhöhe und suchte mit dem Glase die ganze Gegend ringsum ab.”

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of the reader in the face of the destruction that the pursuer has wrought but from which he dissociates himself, relegating all responsibility to the numinous. As an example, I would like to consider the first novel in May’s orient cycle, In the Desert (Durch die Wüste; originally published as Durch Wüste und Harem in 1892). Very briefly, the situation is that the protagonist and narrator, Kara Ben Nemsi, confronts on his travels through the North African desert the suspected murderer of a French merchant. He warns the villain: We are in the desert where no law applies but that of the strongest. I do not want to test which of us is the stronger; I relinquish you to the vengeance of the omniscient God who sees everything and who leaves no deed without its reward.110

Later, they meet again on the treacherous surface of a salt lake which has claimed many a victim, as one of the lengthy erudite interpolations so typical of May’s work explains. It has, in fact, swallowed whole caravans, closing above its victims without leaving the slightest trace. On the narrow path leading across the deadly Shott el Jerid, Kara Ben Nemsi is perfidiously ambushed by the murderer and his young accomplice. But he eventually gains the upper hand: The guide fled; the older of the two knew that without the guide he was doomed and followed him in an instant; I seized only the younger. He tore himself away and leapt away; I remained close behind him. He was blinded by fear and I by anger; we did not pay attention where our run led us – he let out a horrible, hoarse scream and I immediately threw myself back. He vanished below the salty spray and I stood barely thirty inches from his treacherous grave.111

While the confrontation is much more immediate in this fictional narrative, the situation as such, of the pursuer witnessing the annihilation of the pursued through the medium of a sublime natural force, appears to be very similar to the perspective mediated through Captain Klein’s field glasses. As my earlier quotation from May’s novel indicates, the gruesome fate of the villain is moreover suggested to be the result of a divine intervention which overrules the ‘law of the

110 Karl May, Durch Wüste und Harem (Freiburg im Breisgau: Fehsenfeld, 1892), p. 26: “Wir sind in der Wüste, wo kein Gesetz gilt als nur das des Stärkeren. Ich will nicht erproben, wer von uns der Stärkere ist; ich übergebe Dich der Rache Gottes, des Allwissenden, der alles sieht und keine That unvergolten läßt […].” 111 Ibid., p. 48: “Der Führer floh; der Ältere der beiden wußte, daß er ohne Führer verloren sei, und folgte ihm augenblicklich; ich faßte nur den jüngeren. Er riß sich los und sprang davon; ich blieb hart hinter ihm. Ihm blendete die Angst und mir der Zorn die Augen; wir achteten nicht darauf, wohin uns unser Lauf führte – er stieß einen entsetzlichen, heiseren Schrei aus, und ich warf mich sofort zurück. Er verschwand unter dem salzigen Gischte und ich stand kaum dreißig Zoll vor seinem heimtückischen Grabe.”

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jungle’ and promises eternal justice. It is, in fact, a Strafgericht, just as that suffered by the Herero in the Omaheke desert.112 Indeed, in its concluding section, building up to its narrative climax, the official report on the Herero War reiterates the notion of the Strafgericht, appropriating the voice of an anonymous combatant.113 The passage clearly exemplifies the mythopoeic process which had already begun to transform the memory of the war, of its heroes and its victims, and of its spaces, conveying the near apocalyptic sense of the cosmic destruction of the offending Herero; a process in which, after the initial military confrontation, the German soldiers are mere bystanders and, as the text suggests, spectators of a drama scripted by someone else: “The drama took place on the dark stage of the sandveld. Yet when the rainy season came, when the stage gradually grew brighter and our patrols advanced to the border with Bechuanaland, then the gruesome image of armies dying of thirst revealed itself to their eyes. The rattling breath of the dying and the furious screams of madness … they faded away in the sublime silence of infinity!”

112 It has been suggested by Wolfram Pyta, Karl May: Brückenbauer zwischen den Kulturen (Münster: LIT, 2010), pp. 25–6, that May referred already in And on Earth Peace! (Und Friede auf Erden!), published in September 1904, with indirect criticism to the ongoing colonial war in South-West Africa. I would suggest that May responded much more elaborately to the destruction of the Herero in his late novel in two parts, Ardistan and Djinnistan (Ardistan und Dschinnistan, 1907–09). The novel represents a complex allegory on the notion of world peace in the guise of an adventure story in the other-worldly setting of the land of the star flowers, Sitara, a mirror world of our own; for the novel’s genesis and critical acclaim, see the respective entry by Heinz Stolte and Martin Lowsky in Gert Ueding (ed.), Karl-May-Handbuch, 3rd edn. (1987; Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2013), pp. 255–65. A significant part of the novel is set in the dead city of Ard in the midst of a horrid desert. The aridity of the previously flourishing land is suggested to be a divine punishment for centuries of injust and violent rule. In analogy to the fate of the Herero, in the novel the troops of the forces of good are lured into the desert and the old city to their supposed death. Yet in striking contrast to the destruction of the Herero, not only do they find provision made for them in a vast hidden store and water underneath the giant stone sculpture of an angel of peace presciently designed centuries before by men whose ambition it was to be angels to their neighbors, but the dried up river Ssul (Arabic for peace) also begins to return. After this unexpected rescue, the novel proceeds toward a triumphant epiphany of the forces of good and of peace in fulfillment of the divine promise: “[A]nd on earth peace” (Luke 2:14). The implicit denunciation of the inhumane plot of destruction and the exaltation of humanitarian values derived from Christianity in the novel strongly suggest this to be a thinly disguised condemnation of the colonial war in South-West Africa and, indeed, of colonialism and imperialism more generally. 113 The source is identified as the report “of another combatant [eines anderen Mitkämpfers],” first published in Tag 569 (November 15, 1905), see Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwest­ afrika, I, 214.

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 The punitive judgement had come to its end.  The Herero had ceased to be an autonomous people.114

Like the look through Captain Klein’s field glasses, the anonymous account invites the voyeuristic gaze of the uninvolved onlooker. Yet in this instance the notion of their dissociation is further amplified through the construction of the virtual stage on which the drama is supposed to play itself out. Substituting for historical accuracy and authenticity imagined and romanticizing detail, such as the rattling breath of the dying and the furious screams of madness heard by no-one, the text once again contrasts the sublime finality of the destruction visited upon the Herero with the infinity in which, and by whose passive intervention, it is enacted. Again, the comparison may seem arbitrary, but there are, I would suggest, further layers to considering May’s In the Desert in this context, and indeed most of his oeuvre of more than seventy books. Kara Ben Nemsi (like his counterpart Old Shatterhand in the writer’s American adventure novels and like other impersonations of the author as first person narrator) embodies all the supposed male German virtues. His wisdom and honesty, strength of body and mind, piety and mercy ensure his singular achievements not only in the resolution of his adventures but also as a cultural ambassador of Germanness in far-away lands. Even his Arabic nom de guerre – translated as Karl, Son of the Germans – derives from his identification with the very Germanness with which all his humane triumphs are associated.115 Rather than assuming any direct (and indeed improbable) influence on the report of the General Staff, I would suggest that the recurrent pattern of triumphant German virtues and the frequent romantic enlisting of natural forces in May’s novels are indicative of a pervasive cultural paradigm which may have suggested itself also in relation to the mediation of the Herero War. Yet while May’s work is infused with a strong sense of religious belief and faith in divine justice, this is substituted in the report with the social Darwinist paradigm. The ‘law of the jungle’ rejected by Kara Ben Nemsi is re-interpreted in the report of the General 114 Ibid.: “‘Das Drama spielte sich auf der dunklen Bühne des Sandfeldes ab. Aber als die Regenzeit kam, als sich die Bühne allmählich erhellte und unsere Patrouillen bis zur Grenze des Betschuanalandes vorstießen, da enthüllte sich ihrem Auge das grauenhafte Bild verdursteter Heereszüge[.] / Das Röcheln der Sterbenden und das Wutgeschrei des Wahnsinns …. sie ver­ hallten in der erhabenen Stille der Unendlichkeit!’—–—–—–—– / Das Strafgericht hatte sein Ende gefunden. / Die Hereros hatten aufgehört, ein selbständiger Volksstamm zu sein.” See also Henning Melber, “Der Waterberg,” in Jürgen Zimmerer (ed.), Kein Platz an der Sonne: Erinnerungsorte der deutschen Kolonialgeschichte (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2013), pp. 473–86, p. 475. 115 See May, Durch Wüste und Harem, p. 39.

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Staff as the law of those who are (supposedly) culturally further advanced. And according to this law the German colonizers in South-West Africa have secured their right not only for their own survival but also for the destruction of the Herero. It is certainly no coinicidence that the second volume of The Campaigns of the German Troops in South-West Africa (Die Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, 1907), primarily giving an account of the Hottentot War, concludes in direct contrast to the first volume on the earlier Herero War with the triumphant assertion of the German future: So long as a people keeps alive in itself the belief in the victorious power of such moral ideals, so long it will remain hard and strong inside in spite of all the distractions of the effeminate and materialistic spirit of the age [Zeitgeist] – and for as long as it does, it has the right to believe in its future!116

As such, the text articulates a social Darwinist imperative. Indeed, it is in its concluding section (which was obviously conceived as a general conclusion to both volumes) that the report succinctly elaborates on the function of the colonial war as a touchstone of German entitlement among the family of civilized nations. The military virtues of the German soldiers – emphasizing in particular the indestructible bond of mutual respect between rank and file and the officers – are extolled as the very values which made Germany great and unified in the past. The reference is obviously to the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71 which resulted in the creation of the German Empire. The report clearly instrumentalizes the heroic foundation myth which had evolved in the wake of unification in the quest for a homogenous German national identity. The colonial wars in South-West Africa are presented as the continuation of the imperial trajectory; they confirm its continuity and they partake in and add to its glory. And this glory, coming full circle, is attributed in the report to the idiosyncratic virtues of the German national character. The text in this way construes not only internal consistency, continuity, and communality but at the same time projects also an external perception of the endurance of these “high virtues.”117 The significance of this endurance is explained and emphasized in what is in effect a response to the contemporary critique of civilization as exemplified by the neurasthenia debate in Germany since the late nineteenth century which in 116 Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, II, 303: “Solange ein Volk den Glauben an die sieghafte Kraft solch’ sittlicher Ideale in sich lebendig erhält, solange wird es allen Irrungen eines verweichlichten, materialistischen Zeitgeistes zum Trotz innerlich hart und stark bleiben, – solange hat es ein Recht, an seine Zukunft zu glauben!” 117 Ibid., II, 301–2.

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turn became part of the emerging discourse on degeneration.118 The term neurasthenia was used to refer to symptoms of nervous exhaustion related to modern civilization. Since the beginning of the twentieth century the focus of the neurasthenia debate had shifted from the individual to “the biological processes that threatened the collective ‘culture,’ or nation.”119 The term was now applied to “a number of disorders perceived as the result of degeneration, which in turn was understood as a biological phenomenon.”120 Without mentioning any of this explicitly, the report of the General Staff represented to all intents and purposes a refutation of the alleged neurasthenic impact of modern culture and civilization on the German nation. Perhaps in deference to earlier medical assurances that military service was a beneficial therapy for the nervous system,121 the text insists: The struggle with this hard and unspent primitive people in a land with a poor civilization has shown that the German people has not forfeited its martial virtues despite all its high cultural achievements. A high interior reward inheres in this victorious awareness and for this reward alone the great sacrifices of goods and blood have not been in vain.122

The supposed vigor of the primitive Herero evokes notions of the noble savage, if transposed from an ethical to a biological level, like the neurasthenia debate itself. It is their cultural innocence which has allowed the natives to remain hereditary hard and wholesome, formidable warriors not yet emasculated and exhausted by the civilization alien to their nature. This is important because it becomes the foil against which the warlike nature of the German nation is extolled as having retained its primordial vigor even while similarly excelling in cultural production.

118 See Joachim Radkau, Das Zeitalter der Nervosität: Deutschland zwischen Bismarck und Hitler (Munich: Hanser, 1998). 119 Volker Roelcke, “Electrified Nerves, Degenerated Bodies: Medical Discourses on Neurasthenia in Germany, circa 1880–1914,” in Cultures of Neurasthenia from Beard to the First World War, eds. Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra and Roy Porter (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2001), pp. 177–97, p. 191. 120 Roelcke, “Electrified Nerves, Degenerated Bodies,” p. 191. 121 See, e.g., Wilhelm Erb, Über die wachsende Nervosität in unserer Zeit (Heidelberg: Hörning, 1893), p. 36. 122 Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, II, 302: “Der Kampf mit jenem harten und unverbrauchten Naturvolk in einem kulturarmen Lande hat dargetan, daß das deutsche Volk trotz aller Errungenschaften einer hohen Kultur an seinem kriegerischen Werte noch nichts eingebüßt hat. In diesem sieghaften Bewußtsein liegt ein hoher innerer Gewinn und schon um dieses Gewinnes willlen sind die schweren Opfer an Gut und Blut nicht vergeblich gewesen.” Emphasis in original.

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In a sense, the report thus suggests also an implicit response to the claim made by Seume’s Canadian that the savages are the better human beings. It insists that the German nation has not been deformed by culture but made stronger by it. Its triumphant propulsion into the future is ensured by the successful and productive amalgamation of both. Indeed, the hard-won military success against the Herero is attributed with moral value and rejuvenating power: “Hard-won successes are always a rejuvenating force for a civilized people and their moral value is to be considered much higher than that of effortless gain.”123 The lethargy, feebleness, and stagnation associated with neurasthenia are obviated through the challenging military engagement, and the report accordingly emphasizes that the war in South-West Africa has finally aroused the German people from its colonial indifference and has given its action potential a propitious new direction: The war in South-West Africa has become a decisive turning point in the history of German colonial policy and signifies the momentous beginning of a new auspicious period of the national and more specifically the colonial endeavor of the German people.124

Colonial expansion is thus presented as a panacea for the ills of modern civilization, and the ruthlessness of the colonial conflict is advanced as a model also for the economic conquest of the protectorate as yet to be achieved: “In the struggle for the economic exploitation of South-West Africa those very same forces which aided in the conquest of the protectorate must be alive and active.”125 In sum, the report of the General Staff almost seems to recommend the infusion of controlled ‘savagery’ as beneficial and invigorating to the civilized nation. However, it soon became evident that the reality of the Herero War was experienced very differently by a large number of German soldiers. The alarming extent to which war psychoses (“Kriegspsychosen”) and mental illnesses had affected the troops was observed early on and was acknowledged to be unprecedented by the psychiatrist and neurologist Alfred Hoche in a study on War and

123 Ibid., II, 303: “Hart erkämpfte Erfolge sind aber für ein Kulturvolk stets von verjüngender Kraft, und ihr sittlicher Wert ist weit höher einzuschätzen als der mühelosen Gewinns.” Emphasis in original. 124 Ibid., II, 302: “Der Krieg in Südwestafrika ist zu einem entscheidenden Wendepunkt in der Geschichte der deutschen Kolonialpolitik geworden und bezeichnet den bedeutsamen Beginn eines neuen verheißungsvollen Zeitabschnittes nationaler, insbesondere kolonialer Betätigung des deutschen Volkes.” 125 Ibid., II, 303: “In dem Kampfe um die wirtschaftliche Erschließung von Südwestafrika müssen dieselben Kräfte lebendig und tätig sein, die das Schutzgebiet erobern halfen.” Emphasis in original.

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Psyche (Krieg und Seelenleben, 1915).126 Unsurprisingly, this is a dimension completely ignored by the report of the General Staff. While the deprivations suffered by the soldiers are frequently emphasized, their toll on the mental fortitude of the troops is never mentioned. Any acknowledgment of this kind obviously would have dismantled the intended narrative of German superiority. Even so, it is interesting to note that the explanation for the accumulation of mental illnesses during the South-West African expedition advanced by the psychiatrist similarly neglects the effect of any mental strain. In particular, he makes no mention at all of the atrocities which characterized the colonial conflict and reduces the reasons for the extraordinary increase in mental illnesses to the physical exhaustion of the soldiers in the tropical climate: It is understandable that the particular accumulation of deprivations encountered there, especially the highest degrees of thirst in conjunction with extreme heat and exertions of all kinds, must have a far more detrimental effect than any war in our climate.127

This description of the triggers of mental illnesses among the soldiers of the Schutztruppe is in fact reminiscent of the etiology of tropical neurasthenia – a particular manifestation of neurasthenia which was observed among whites in the colonial setting – and as such it normalizes the resulting disorders within a wider spectrum once again unrelated to the specifics of the mental strain to which the soldiers were exposed. In addition, tropical neurasthenia had a “racial component” in that it was frequently seen as “a white affliction as opposed to black insanity.”128 Attributed to the susceptibilities of civilized man, 126 See Alfred Hoche, Krieg und Seelenleben (Freiburg im Breisgau and Leipzig: Speyer and Kaerner, 1915), p. 7. The psychiatrist was to become notorious for his contribution to The Authorization of the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Living (Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens, 1920), co-written with the jurist Karl Binding, in which he amalgamated concepts of degeneration theory, social Darwinism, and racial hygiene and which significantly influenced the National Socialist euthanasia program; Hoche has been labeled “one of the shrillest psychiatric voices of the period,” Paul Frederick Lerner, Hysterical Men: War, Psychiatry, and the Politics of Trauma in Germany, 1890–1930 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003), p. 221. See also [?] Kirsch, “Kriegschirurgische Erfahrungen im Hottentottenaufstand 1904/05,” Deutsche Mili­ tärärztliche Zeitschrift 35 (1906): 459–69 in which the author, medical staff officer during the Nama campaign, elaborated also on war psychoses. See also Eckart, Medizin und Kolonialimperialismus, p. 276. 127 Hoche, Krieg und Seelenleben, p. 7: “Es ist verständlich, daß die dort wirksame ganz besondere Häufung von Entbehrungen, speziell der höchsten Grade des Durstes zusammen mit extremer Hitze und Überanstrengungen aller Art weit mehr als ein Krieg in unserem Klima schädlich wirken mußte.” 128 Christiane Berth, “Between ‘Wild Tropics’ and ‘Civilization’: Guatemalan Coffee Plantations as Seen by German Immigrants,” in Frank Uekötter (ed.), Comparing Apples, Oranges, and Cotton:

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it was nevertheless supposed to be curable and distinct from the more damaging forms of mental disturbance among the natives. In his lecture on the adverse effects of war on the psyche Hoche similarly considered the impact of culture, or civilization, on the soldiers. Elaborating on the recent precedents of the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) and the Balkan Wars (1912–13), he maintained: “Considering the large differences between the respective levels of civilization of the relevant peoples, the results certainly cannot readily be applied to our own circumstances.”129 Yet he nevertheless categorically rejected any concerns about the mental and nervous health of the German people and emphasized his belief in its future, insisting that the current war – the First World War – afforded ample opportunity to prove it to be so.130

Return of the Native, Return of the Repressed The First World War brought not only a heightened awareness of the impact of war psychoses and, in the German context, of the precedent of the colonial war in South-West Africa. It occasioned also a collective neurosis in response to the war of the races of which the campaign against the Herero and Nama had been considered a resounding victory but which in retrospect was felt to be little more than a successful skirmish. Indeed, when it became known at the beginning of the First World War that France and Britain were planning to deploy colonial troops, the paranoid anxieties about a race war which was now to be transplanted to European soil amplified exponentially.131

Environmental Histories of the Global Plantation (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2014), pp. 113–38, p. 127. The phenomenon, in German also known as “Tropenkoller,” “had its roots in the fears of Europeans entering tropical regions,” p. 127. See also Sandra Maß, “Welcome to the Jungle: Imperial Men, ‘Inner Africa’ and Mental Disorder in Colonial Discourse,” in Maurus Reinkowski and Gregor Thum (eds.), Helpless Imperialists: Imperial Failure, Fear and Radicalization (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012), pp. 92–116, who suggests that while there may have been some disagreement as to whether Europeans and natives suffered from the same mental illnesses, the medical authorities agreed that “neurasthenia was far more common in the colonies than in the ‘temperate zones’,” p. 105. 129 Hoche, Krieg und Seelenleben, p. 7: “Die Ergebnisse lassen sich gewiß bei dem großen Unterschiede in dem Kulturniveau der in Frage kommenden Völkerschaften nicht ohne weiteres auf unsere Verhältnisse übertragen.” 130 See ibid., pp. 4–5. 131 For the wider context of this debate, see Christian Koller, “Von Wilden aller Rassen nie­ dergemetzelt”: Die Diskussion um die Verwendung von Kolonialtruppen in Europa zwischen Rassismus, Kolonial- und Militärpolitik (1914–1930) (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2001).

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The dreadful specter of uncontrollable savage Africans let loose on Europeans was painted in garish colors by Jesko von Puttkamer. Acknowledging in an essay on “The War and the Race Question” (“Der Krieg und die Rassenfrage,” 1915) the existential impact of the war of peoples (“Völkerkrieg”)132 as a struggle for existence (“Existenzkampf”),133 the former governor of the German protectorate in Cameroon nevertheless denounced the use of African troops as irreconcilable with civilized warfare134 and, in effect, as an indefensible breach of the law of nations (“Völkerrecht”),135 comparing it to the alleged unlawful use of expanding (dum dum) bullets by the Entente powers.136 Yet even worse than the savagery von Puttkamer expected to be visited upon the defenceless civilian population at the hands of the black troops was in his estimation the inevitable extensive and calamitous racial hybridization (“­Rassenmischung”) threatened by this desperate measure.137 More specifically, he feared the wider implications on a global scale on the interaction of the races and foresaw in particular the escalation of the “black peril” (“schwarze Gefahr”). Once led into battle on equal terms with white troops, von Puttkamer maintains, the blacks would loose their belief in the supernatural character of the whites and, indeed, of the whites as their fetish. Subsequent to this subversion of white authority, he anticipates the very worst repercussions on the established power relations in Africa.138 With the hyperbolic metaphor of a rapidly spreading and all-consuming wildfire, von Puttkamer emphasizes the threat in particular of the Ethiopian Movement to white supremacy and the survival of European culture on the black continent: The Ethiopian Movement, still denied by inveterate optimists, exists; the fire is smouldering underneath the cinders and only awaits the breeze that will spark it. Once this desert fire is going to sweep across Africa, all European culture on the black continent will perish.139

132 Jesco von Puttkamer, “Der Krieg und die Rassenfrage,” in 12 Kriegs-Aufsätze (Berlin: Stilke, 1915), pp. 9–16, p. 9. The essay was written in September 1914, see the author’s unpaginated preface. 133 Ibid., p. 10. 134 Ibid., p. 11. 135 Ibid., p. 9. 136 Ibid., p. 13. 137 Ibid., p. 11. 138 See ibid., pp. 11–12. 139 Ibid., p. 12: “Die äthiopische Bewegung, von unverbesserlichen Optimisten immer noch geleugnet, ist vorhanden, das Feuer glimmt unter der Asche und wartet nur auf den Windhauch, der es entfachen soll. Wenn dieser Wüstenbrand erst über Afrika hinwegfegen wird, dann hat die Todesstunde aller europäischen Kultur im schwarzen Erdteil geschlagen.”

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The dangers of the Ethiopian Movement had already been presaged in 1904 by von Trotha in justification of his ruthless course of action in South-West Africa.140 Indeed, the escalation of the war with the revolt of the Nama under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi has been shown to have been incited at least to some extent by the influence of the movement on the Kaptein of the Witbooi Nama. We have already encountered in Mbwapwa’s letters the rallying call of “Africa for the blacks! Africa for the blacks!” (LNN I, 49–50/51) Applied in Jungmann’s satirical text to the ‘black’ Mizrachi Jews, the irony of the political double entendre emerges fully only when contextualized with the objectives of the Ethiopian Movement. The Ethiopian Movement emerged at the end of the nineteenth century in South Africa as a new church organization under black leadership that sought independence from European and American missions and soon also encompassed other regions of colonial Africa.141 Yet its ecclesiastic origins were increasingly augmented with a strong political and social focus that has been attributed at least partially to the connections that were being developed with African American communities and churches.142 More than that, as one contemporary observer put it: “The American Monroe Doctrine was applied to the African circumstances and the rallying cry of ‘Africa for the Africans’ gained currency.”143 Hence the ‘black’ Mizrachi Jews’ claim in Schlemiel. A long-time missionary and important public figure in Southern Africa, Alexander Merensky acknowledged “that the Ethiopian Movement comprises great dangers.”144 In support of his claims, the Inspector of the Berlin Missionary Society referred to the General Missionary Conference of South Africa which had denounced Ethiopianism as the misdirected use of the awakened energies of the black race. More particularly, while emphasizing the right of the natives to education and civilization, the conference, as Merensky sums up, deplored “the escalation of racial divisions in the wake of Ethiopian agitation” and “the ruthless proselytization engaged in by the Ethiopian communities and the simultaneously 140 See Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, I, 208. 141 See Erhard Kamphausen, “Ethiopian Movement,” Religion Past and Present. Brill Online, 2015, http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/religion-past-and-present/ethiopian-movement-COM_01237 (last accessed March 3, 2018). 142 See D. Alexander Merensky, “Die äthiopische Bewegung unter den eingeborenen Christen Süd-Afrikas,” in Deutscher Kolonialkongress (ed.), Verhandlungen des Deutschen Kolonialkongresses, 1905: zu Berlin am 5., 6. und 7. Oktober 1905 (Berlin: Reimer, 1906), pp. 538–49, p. 542. 143 Ibid.: “Die amerikanische Monroe-Doktrin wurde auf die afrikanischen Verhältnisse angewendet, und die Parole kam in Umlauf: ‘Afrika den Afrikanern’.” Emphasis in original. 144 Ibid., p. 546: “[…] dass die äthiopische Bewegung grosse Gefahren in sich schliesst.” Emphasis in original.

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frequently emerging moral laxity.”145 In his influential paper delivered at the 1905 colonial congress in Berlin, Merensky further explained that Christian natives in Southern Africa formed a homogenous mass among which all the differences of race, tribe, and traditions were leveled and that this facilitated the dissemination of ideological movements. He maintained: It is therefore of the utmost importance when this African-Christian population is steeped in revolutionary ideas and encourages the notion that the South African natives would be able to and should indeed liberate themselves from the rule of the whites.146

Merensky cautioned that the white colonialists were in danger not only of losing a valuable collaborators’ group but that the Christian natives, because of their education, were even predestined to assume leading positions in future anticolonial uprisings: In earlier uprisings the Christian natives always took sides with the whites, in the future this might be different, and the disposition of the native Christians will carry all the more weight as they will increasingly be invested with the spiritual leadership of their heathenish compatriots because of their higher level of education.147

As an example, the missionary specifically mentioned Hendrik Witbooi and the revolt against German colonial rule led by the erstwhile ally of the Schutztruppe: It is well known that Hendrik Witboi [sic], who with his rebellious Hottentots has made so much trouble for our brave troops in South-West Africa, was encouraged to revolt against us owing to the influence gained over him by the Ethiopian Shepherd Stuurman. His command in the name of God to drive away the Midianites, i.e. the whites, and his promises to endow Witboi’s warriors with invulnerability and to guarantee their victory found only too fertile ground with the gullible Hottentots.148

145 Ibid.: “[…] die Verschärfung des Rassengegensatzes durch äthiopische Agitation […] die rücksichtslose Proselytenmacherei der äthiopischen Gemeinden und die sich hierbei häufig offenbarende sittliche Laxheit.” 146 Ibid., p. 544: “Da ist es von der allergrössten Bedeutung, wenn diese afrikanisch-christliche Bevölkerung von revolutionären Ideen erfüllt wird und dem Gedanken Raum gibt, die südafrikanischen Eingeborenen könnten und sollten sich von der Herrschaft der Weissen befreien.” Emphasis in original. 147 Ibid., pp. 546–7: “Bei früheren Aufständen standen die christlichen Eingeborenen stets auf seiten der Weissen, in Zukunft könnte das anders sein, und die Stimmung der eingeborenen Christen wird um so mehr ins Gewicht fallen, als ihnen die geistige Führung ihrer heidnischen Volksgenossen infolge ihrer höheren Bildung mehr und mehr zufällt.” Emphasis in original. 148 Ibid., p. 543: “[E]s ist bekannt, das [sic] Hendrik Witboi, der mit seinen aufständischen Hottentotten unsern braven Truppen in Südwestafrika so viel zu schaffen macht, durch den Einfluss, den der Äthiopier Schepherd Stürmann auf ihn gewann, zum Aufstand gegen uns ermutigt

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Witbooi was mortally wounded in a skirmish with the Schutztruppe less than three weeks after the conclusion of the congress on October 29, 1905. His last words are reported to have been: “It is enough now. It is all over with me. The children shall now have peace.”149 Whether authentic or not, this plea attributed to the charismatic chief by his son and successor Isaak articulated the recantation of his enthusiastic beliefs and indicates Witbooi’s weariness and resignation after a year of ultimately futile guerrilla warfare. Already in 1870, long before the establishment of the protectorate, it had been noted by a missionary that the Nama tribes were infected with the compulsive obsession to migrate: “Each tribe considers itself chosen to enter the Promised Land and to gain its hereditary possession.”150 Hendrik Witbooi was also affected by this unrest. He experienced visions which inspired him since 1880 to search for another promised land toward the north – which repeatedly provoked violent confrontations with the Herero through whose territory Witbooi’s treks were plotted.151 In 1894, Witbooi eventually negotiated a settlement with the German administration of the protectorate and, after having fought against the Schutztruppe, became a valuable ally of the colonial power. As such he still fought in the Herero War against his old enemies. His sudden and unexpected defection in October 1904 was explained at least in part with the influence of the “prophet” Shepherd Stuurman who allegedly was an “agent” of the Ethiopian Church.152 In April 1905 an eyewitness report was published in Reports of the Rhenish Missionary Society (Berichte der Rheinischen Missions-Gesellschaft) which asserted that Stuurman, possibly himself of Hottentot descent,153 had incited the worden ist. Sein Befehl im Namen Gottes, die Midianiter, d. h. die Weissen zu vertreiben, und seine Verheissungen, den Kämpfern Witbois Unverwundbarkeit und gewissen Sieg zu verschaffen, fanden bei den leichtgläubigen Hottentotten einen nur zu fruchtbaren Boden.” Emphasis in original. 149 Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, II, 180: “Es ist jetzt genug. Mit mir ist es vorbei. Die Kinder sollen jetzt Ruhe haben.” 150 Quoted in Menzel, “Widerstand und Gottesfurcht,” p. 23: “Jeder Stamm hält sich für berufen ins gelobte Land einzuziehen und dasselbe erblich zu besitzen.” 151 Ibid., p. 207. 152 See, e.g., Tilman Dedering, “The Prophet’s ‘War against Whites’: Shepherd Stuurman in Namibia and South Africa, 1904–7,” The Journal of African History 40.1 (1999): 1–19, 7. Missionary Christian Spellmeyer, however, cautioned in a report to the Rhenish Missionary Society (Rhei­ nische Missions-Gesellschaft) that Stuurman’s radicalism went beyond the aims of the Ethiopian Church and that he assumed that “the prophet” acted on his own initiative, see Anonymous, “Missionarische Friedensarbeit während des Aufstandes in Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika,” Berichte der Rheinischen Missions-Gesellschaft 62.4 (1905): 73–86, 76. 153 See Dedering, “The Prophet’s ‘War against Whites’,” 7. In the report, Stuurman is referred to as a Kapenaar, a Bastard from the Cape Colony, see Anonymous, “Missionarische Friedensarbeit,” 76.

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Nama and was aiming to take the holy war of liberation from Namaland to the Cape Colony and, eventually, on a bridge across the ocean further to Germany where all those were to be killed who were not needed as drudges: Further, Stuurmann [sic] says that, when they are done here (in Namaland), they also want to go to the Cape Colony; then, he wanted to build a bridge across the ocean (!) and kill all the people in Germany itself (!), with the exception of those they used as their skivvies [Bambusen] (a somewhat derogatory expression for servants).154

While Witbooi may not fully have shared Stuurman’s millenarian vision of a complete reversal of the colonial order, he had nevertheless articulated his belief in the divine redemption of the Hottentots as his motivation. In a letter to the Nama Kapteins Johann Christian Goliath (Berseba) and Paul Frederiks (Bethanien), seeking their support for the rebellion he was planning, he maintained: “The time has been fulfilled and the savior now wants to labor himself. He wants to redeem us through his great mercy and compassion.”155 To the missionary Ludwig Holzapfel,156 immediately prior to the outbreak of the revolt, Witbooi wrote: “The time has come in which the Lord, the Father, will deliver the Hottentots.”157 154 See ibid., 77: “Ferner sagt Stuurmann, daß, wenn sie hier (im Namaland) fertig seien, sie auch nach der Kapkolonie wollten; dann wolle er eine Brücke über den Ozean schlagen (!) und alle Leute in Deutschland selbst töten (!) ausgenommen diejenigen, die sie zu ihrem Bambusen (etwas verächtlicher Ausdruck für Diener) gebrauchten.” Exclamation marks in parentheses in the original. The report is a digest of various communications from missionaries of the Rhenish Mission. Missionary Spellmeyer, based in Gibeon, the home of Hendrik Witbooi, extracted this information from the report of a Rehobot Bastard who spent four days as a spy in the Kaptein’s camp. The missionary nevertheless cautions: “I certainly do not believe that all these claims are trustworthy. But one thing I ask myself, is not this people smitten with blindness? [Ich halte diese Aussagen freilich nicht alle für glaubwürdig. Aber eins frage ich mich, ist dieses Volk nicht mit Blindheit geschlagen?]” For the Rhenish Mission and its attempts to protect Africans, see, e.g., Richard Pierard, “The Rhenish Mission and the Colonial War in German Southwest Africa,” in Ulrich van der Heyden and Holger Stoecker (eds.), Mission und Macht im Wandel politischer Orientierungen: europäische Missionsgesellschaften in politischen Spannungsfeldern in Afrika und Asien zwischen 1800 und 1945 (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 2005), pp. 389–401 and Kurt Panzergrau, Die Bildung und Erziehung der Eingeborenen Südwestafrikas (Hereroland und Groß-Namaqualand) durch die Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft von 1842–1914: Ein Beitrag zur Beziehung von Pädagogik und Kolonialismus (Munich: Akademischer Verlag, 1998). 155 Dated October 1, 1905 and quoted in Menzel, “Widerstand und Gottesfurcht,” p. 181: “Die Zeit ist abgelaufen und der Heiland will jetzt selber arbeiten. Er will uns erlösen durch seine große Gnade und Barmherzigkeit.” 156 Holzapfel was another missionary of the Rhenish Mission Society, who considered himself a friend of Witbooi’s but who was killed by the rebellious Nama only days before the uprising when he refused to hand over his gun to them. 157 Dated October 3, 1904 and quoted in Menzel, “Widerstand und Gottesfurcht,” p. 188: “[D]ie Zeit ist voll, da Gott der Vater die Hottentotten erlösen soll.”

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Witbooi’s visionary ambitions are also acknowledged in the second volume of The Campaigns of the German Troops in South-West Africa. The report, following on his death, appears to be paradigmatic of the ambivalent response the notorious chief of the Nama provoked in Germany: With this withdrew from the ranks of our enemies that man who had created more trouble for the young colonial power of the German Empire than any other, that man who once had dreamt about a great independent Hottentot Empire, who subsequently for years enjoyed the favor of the German government, only treacherously to break the so frequently protested bond of loyalty. The soul of the revolt of the Hottentots was no more. A quick soldier’s death had saved the Captain whose martial abilities demanded respect also from his enemies from his impending disgraceful end.158

The text celebrates not only the death of the vanquished enemy but at the same time, in stark contrast to the fate of the Herero, accords him individuality, respect, and even military honor while still emphasizing a potentially disgraceful alternative end as befitting to the traitor. Although the rebellion was continued by Jakob Morenga, nicknamed “the black Napoleon” (“der schwarze Napoleon”) by his German antagonists,159 Witbooi’s death was a decisive success for the Schutztruppe and it was, in effect, the beginning of the end of the revolt. Yet even so, as Tilman Dedering has observed, “[t]he prospect of a chain reaction throughout ‘white’ southern Africa was […] always in the minds of Europeans.”160 The race war proclaimed by von Trotha certainly had touched deeply rooted anxieties. With the advent of the First World War the race struggle seemed to have been transplanted to Europe and, during the French occupation after the war, to Germany itself. The decision to deploy black contingents in the Rhineland has been interpreted as a deliberate strategy to humiliate the vanquished enemy and was frequently denounced in Germany

158 Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, II, 180: “Damit schied der Mann aus der Reihe unserer Gegner aus, der der jungen Kolonialmacht des Deutschen Reiches am meisten von allen zu schaffen gemacht hatte, der Mann, der einst von einem großen, unabhängigen Hottentottenreich geträumt hatte, der sich dann jahrelang in der Gunst der deutschen Regierung gesonnt hatte, um schließlich doch hinterrücks die so oft beteuerte Treue zu brechen. Die Seele des Hottentottenaufstandes war nicht mehr. Ein schneller Soldatentod hatte den Kapitän, dessen kriegerische Eigenschaften auch seinen Gegnern Achtung abzwangen, vor dem ihm drohenden schimpflichen Ende bewahrt.” 159 See, e.g., Christian Volkmann, Geschichte oder Geschichten? Literarische Historiographie am Beispiel von Adam Scharrers “Vaterlandslose Gesellen” und Uwe Timms “Morenga” (Hamburg: Igel, 2011), p. 137. 160 Dedering, “The Prophet’s ‘War against Whites’,” 17.

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as “black disgrace” (“schwarze Schmach”).161 The bridge envisioned by Stuurman, it might be said, had been built by the rivalling colonial powers.

Mbwapwa, Kreplach, and Anticolonial Subversion That the creators of Schlemiel were not only aware of, but intimately familiar with, the format of the parliamentary reports discussed in previous sections of this chapter is evidenced by the eponymous parody (“Parlamentsbericht”162) which appeared somewhat later in the final issue of the magazine in February 1907 in close proximity to Mbwapwa’s last communication from Texas and less than five weeks after the so-called Hottentottenwahlen on January 25.163 The anonymously published satirical travesty of the parliamentary debates alludes to contemporary figures in the Reichstag whose well-known views and attitudes associate additional levels of meaning. Most significant among them are the “Reichs­kanzler” (Chancellor) and the “stellvertretender Kolonialdirektor” (Deputy Director of the Colonial Office), in real life Bernhard von Bülow and Bernhard Dernburg, and – only thinly disguised – the antisemitic delegate Lie­ bermann von Sonnenberg, von Mondberg in the parody, whose racist harangues we have already encountered. It is von Mondberg who challenges the production in, and the import to, the German Reich and its Schutzgebiete of Jewish kreplach which he seeks to prohibit on pain of death. Kreplach are dumplings filled either with meat or mashed potatoes and traditionally eaten on Purim, which commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people from persecution in the ancient Persian Empire. Accordingly, in the Purim issue of Schlemiel, the topicality of the association with kreplach is clear enough, but it is then deftly extended to address the controversial topics of antisemitism, assimilation and conversion, anticolonial subversion, and colonial rivalry. In the parody, von Mondberg alleges that kreplach are subversive revolutionary tools which, disguised as a national dish, glorify a bygone revolution and 161 See, e.g., Christian Koller, “Die ‘schwarze Schmach’ – afrikanische Besatzungssoldaten und Rassismus in den zwanziger Jahren,” in Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst and Reinhard KleinArendt (eds.), AfrikanerInnen in Deutschland und schwarze Deutsche: Geschichte und Gegenwart: ­Beiträge zur gleichnamigen Konferenz vom 13.–15. Juni 2003 im NS-Dokumentationszentrum (ELDE-Haus) Köln, exhibition catalogue, Cologne (Münster: LIT, 2004), pp. 155–69. 162 This was a common format of political satire, see, e.g., J[ohn] S[chikowski], “Deutscher ­Reichstag,” Der wahre Jakob 23.511 (February 13, 1906): 4956–7. 163 Berkowitz, Zionist Culture, p. 17 notes that the stenographic records of the Zionist Congresses “recalled the functioning of European national assemblies, such as the Reichstag.”

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threaten to kill a multitude of people. The antisemitic delegate’s claim is confirmed when the Kolonialdirektor blames the previous colonial administration for allowing German East Africa to have been inundated with the pernicious dumplings. Indeed, he attributes the latest colonial insurrection to the death by kreplach of ten natives loyal to the Reich and asserts that the rebellion was successfully suppressed only once all the dumplings had been destroyed. The plot thickens when the Kolonialdirektor reveals that the attack on the protectorate was launched from the Jewish republic in Uganda and that it was masterminded by none other than Mbwapwa: “From the Jewish Republic Uganda kreplach were imported by the fanatic, orthodox negro chief Mbwapwa Jumbo by the caravan load” (PR, 5).164 The distribution of kreplach is clearly paralleled with the pernicious trade in brandy which, as we have seen, was instrumental to the German colonial venture in combination with missionary efforts. Both are parodied, and effectively condemned, here. As the notorious chief’s ulterior motif the Kolonialdirektor identifies his objective of proselytizing in the German Schutzgebiet. Yet he assures the House that the situation has been resolved: “In future nothing of the sort needs to be feared; because our colonies are daughterlands of a Christian state, Christian they shall remain.” (PR, 5–6)165 The Mbwapwa described by the Kolonialdirektor – “the infamous Mbwapwa Jumbo,” fanatic and orthodox (PR, 5)166 – can hardly be reconciled with the amiable and naive tattler as which he emerges from his letters from New-­Newland. Any reader of Schlemiel familiar with the retired chief, who appears here to be reinstated, would clearly see through the attempt to demonize the Jewish African by ‘blackening’ him discursively. As such, the “Parliamentary Report” arguably denounces in analogy the same practice as it had been applied to representations in the parliamentary debates of the Herero and Nama. The text patently incorporates a challenge to the accuracy and sincerity of the portrayal of the other which appears to articulate hysterically exaggerated stereotypes that the better informed and fairminded reader is in a position and indeed under an obligation to deconstruct. There is, however, once again also a more palpable rationale for the satiric representation of Mbwapwa. In fact, events appear to have caught up with Jung­ mann’s daring identification of Jews and black Africans. At the end of November 1906, Bernhard Dernburg was appointed the new Director of the Colonial Division of the Foreign Office and immediately took what has been described by Christian 164 “Aus der jüdischen Republik Uganda sind von dem fanatischen orthodoxen Negerhäuptling Mbwapwa Jumbo Karawanenladungen von Kreppchen eingeführt worden.” 165 “In Zukunft ist derartiges nicht mehr zu befürchten, denn unsere Kolonien sind Töchterländer eines christlichen Staates und sollen christlich bleiben.” 166 “[D]er berüchtigte Mbwapwa Jumbo.”

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S. Davis as an “energetic stance” toward accusations of atrocities and administrative inefficiency in the colonial context.167 In the ensuing parliamentary debates, which eventually led to the dissolution of the Reichstag on December 13 and new general elections in January 1907, Matthias Erzberger of the Catholic Center Party challenged August Bebel’s critical position with the question: “Does the Right Honorable Bebel consider the rabbi’s son Morris more trustworthy than the Colonial Director?”168 Erzberger’s passing reference to Abraham Morris alludes to earlier allegations that one of the military leaders of the Bondelzwart, one of the rebellious Nama tribes, was of Jewish ancestry. The Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums was quick to denounce the suggestion as a fabrication and in turn accused “Messrs Antisemites” of instrumentalizing the long-since refuted contention in a “brutal” and dirty election campaign.169 Three months later – eight days after Mbwapwa’s final appearance – the topic was addressed once more in Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums in a slightly different, yet no less relevant, context. The main purpose of Meier Spanier’s article was to respond to a neologism he had encountered in the official report of the General Staff on the fighting in South-West Africa and with which he chose to entitle his contribution: “Jewish Fright” (“Judenangst,” 1907). The second volume of The Campaigns of the German Troops in South-West Africa (1907) on the Hottentott War, already discussed in the previous section of this chapter, included excerpts from the interrogation of Samuel Isaak, an Onderkaptein of the Witbooi who had surrendered in November 1905. Referring to fighting at Swartfontein earlier in the year, Isaak was recorded to have described the demoralization of the Nama under heavy artillery fire: “In front and behind,” says Samuel Isaak, “right and left, the grenades exploded, we were all completely pale, such a Jewish fright we had and thought, o God, o God, how is this going to end?”170

Like Mbwapwa, about to be sent to Russia as an ambassador, the black Africans turn ‘white’ in fear. In Isaak’s words, they experience a “Judenangst” – a Jewish fright.

167 Davis, Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent, p. 197. 168 StBR (December 4, 1906), p. 4151 (C): “Hat der Abgeordnete Bebel zum Rabbinersohn Morris mehr Vertrauen als zum Kolonialdirektor?” 169 Anonymous, “Die Woche,” Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums 70.52 (December 28, 1906): 614–16, 615. 170 Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, II, 60: “‘Vor uns und hinter uns,’ sagt ­Samuel Isaak, ‘rechts und links krepierten die Granaten, wir waren alle ganz bleich, solche ­Judenangst hatten wir und dachten, o Gott, o Gott, wie soll das enden?’”

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It is this neologism to which Spanier takes exception in his article. It does not, he maintains, occur in any dictionary. So what, the Jewish author asks, is it actually supposed to mean? But first, Spanier pre-emptively asserts his patriotism and in the process identifies wholly as German: “The heart of every German must leap in his bosom,” he enthuses, when it reads about the heroic feats of our troops in far-away Africa. What wonderful heroism in the struggle against a savage enemy and against an inimical wilderness which, with its aridity, demands the most awful sacrifices of the brave!171

Spanier is not concerned about the representation of the black other in the report. Indeed, he appears to have internalized all the current stereotypes about the “savages” and attests the publication of the General Staff to be “[n]oble, simple, and matter-of-fact, as one is wont.”172 Were it not for the one suspicious word: “Judenangst.” Indeed, it seems enough to puncture the author’s sense of belonging in a way which he describes as a shared Jewish experience of discrimination and rejection: “Which of us has not on occasion had that feeling? With all one’s heart one devotes oneself. One feels one with one’s nation. Then comes the word, the pin prick.”173 Spanier’s unease is compounded by the suspicion that a word such as this cannot originate with the black native: “More than likely he never saw a Jew in all his life and most certainly not a scared one.”174 Invoking once again Jewish patriotism and emphasizing Jewish valor in direct refutation of the implicit accusation, he continues: I do not know how many Jews fought in South-West. From the names in the casualty lists alone it is not possible to conclude anything. I know only by chance that the promising son of Jewish parents from the neighborhood here fell in action at Ovikokorero. […] He was lieutenant in the reserve, the Bavarian of course.175

171 M. Spanier, “Judenangst,” Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums 71.10 (March 8, 1907): 113–14, 113: “Jedes Deutschen Herz muß höher schlagen, wenn es von den Heldentaten unserer Truppen im fernen Afrika liest. Welch wundervoller Heroismus im Kampfe gegen einen wilden Feind und gegen eine feindliche Wildnis, die mit ihrer Dürre den Tapferen die schlimmsten Opfer auferlegt!” 172 Ibid.: “Vornehm, schlicht und sachlich, wie man es gewohnt ist, ist die Darstellung des Generalstabswerkes.” 173 Ibid.: “Wer von uns hat nicht schon jenes Gefühl gehabt? Mit ganzem Herzen gibt man sich hin. Man fühlt sich eins mit seiner Nation. Da kommt das Wort, der Nadelstich.” 174 Ibid., 114: “Jedenfalls hat er in seinem Leben kaum einen Juden gesehen und sicherlich keinen ängstlichen.” 175 Ibid.: “Ich weiß nicht, wieviel Juden in Südwest mitgekämpft haben. Nur aus der Art der Namen in der Verlustliste kann man nicht schließen. Ich weiß nur zufällig, daß der ­hoffnungsvolle

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Spanier’s reference to the Bavarian reserve officer corps reflects the exception provided by the Bavarian army to the general rule that entry to the German army officer corps was barred to Jewish citizens even after emancipation.176 The author thus confronts the Jewish readiness to make sacrifices for the German nation with the persisting disabilities of which the verbal pin pricks referred to before are another, more subtle manifestation; and he concludes with obvious understatement: “Jewish fright? The word appears rather odious in this context.”177 Having challenged the validity of the offending neologism, Spanier links it to the etymology of the word in analogy to which it appears to have been formed. In German the prefix “Heiden-,” derived from the word for “heathen,” signifies an emotional amplification. “Heidenangst,” literally “heathen fright,” therefore means to experience extreme fright. Ironically suggesting a more literal understanding of “Heidenangst” and in the process confirming the savage nature and otherness of the African, Spanier assumes that Samuel Isaak sought to avoid any such implications: Perhaps Samuel Isaak is a sensitive man, he surely still has some “heathenish” relatives, and he is in all likelihood himself a recent convert to Christianity as well – so he considerately and proudly did not say “heathen fright.”178

Yet Spanier also allows for more serious, and sinister, explanations: He may perhaps also be so civilized that he knows that it is always permitted to turn the Jew into the scapegoat. Or did Isaak never utter the word, after all? Is it just the interpreter’s subtle humor that crept in? I do not know. I would like to be permitted to assume that it may have been a typographical error. There is a typographical error in the publication of the General Staff.179

We have encountered the cynical association of civilization and antisemitism before, in Rosenberger’s article and – as discussed at the beginning of this

Sohn jüdischer Eltern hier aus der Nachbarschaft im Gefecht bei Owikokorero gefallen ist. […] Er war Leutnant der Reserve, bayerischer natürlich.” 176 See, e.g., David J. Fine, Jewish Integration in the German Army in the First World War (Berlin and Boston, MA: de Gruyter, 2012), pp. 105–11. 177 Spanier, “Judenangst,” 114: “Judenangst? Das Wort macht sich häßlich in diesem Zusammenhang.” 178 Ibid.: “Vielleicht ist Samuel Isaak ein feinfühlender Mann, er hat ja gewiß noch ‘­heidnische’ Verwandte, und er ist ja wohl auch selbst noch ein junger Christ – da hat er rücksichtsvoll und stolz nicht ‘Heidenangst’ gesagt.” 179 Ibid.: “Er ist vielleicht auch schon so kultiviert, daß er weiß, den Juden darf man immer zum Sündenbock machen. Oder hat am Ende Isaak das Wort überhaupt nicht gesagt? Ist es nur der eingeschmuggelte feine Witz des Dolmetschers? Ich weiß es nicht. Am liebsten möchte ich annehmen dürfen, es wäre ein Druckfehler. Es ist ein Druckfehler im Generalstabswerk.”

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chapter  – in Mbwapwa’s letters. It is almost a trope, which once again finds poignant articulation in Spanier’s article. In this instance, however, it is only the overture to alternative suggestions: That the ominous word was included with malice, as mischief – or by mistake; the latter being an obvious palliative to alleviate the mistrust engendered by the neologism, to restore demonstratively the trust in German-Jewish relations that had been compromised in the report of the General Staff with the word “Judenangst.” At the same time Spanier does not fail to refute the deep-seated antisemitic mistrust of the Jews which, in turn, had found expression with the suggestion of the Jewish ancestry of Abraham Morris. “Who is Samuel Isaak?,” he asks: “The name sounds suspicious. As suspicious as Moses Meier.”180 The latter was another Onderkaptein of the Witbooi and father-in-law of the ‘prophet’ Shepherd Stuurman.181 Discounting the potential ‘Jewishness’ of both the Africans’ names, Spanier insists: “But Moses Meier and Samuel Isaak are no coreligionists – not ours, anyway.”182 The issue of trust was addressed also in Erzberger’s initial comparison between the rebellious Bondelzwart and the Colonial Director. Intriguingly, as he presented it, the choice of whom to trust more – patently a rhetorical question – was between an alleged black Jew and another, German, Jew. In a different section of the earlier editorial in the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums, responding to and rejecting the allegation of Abraham Morris’ Jewishness, the ­controversial and unsubstantiated claim had been suggested to be part of a more comprehensive antisemitic stratagem with the aim of expelling the Jews from Germany: It is the antisemites who trample underfoot in the most brutal way the highest principle of the modern state, the call for the equality of all citizens. The antisemites want to expel from the country all Jews and even all Jews converted to Christianity and their descendants, whom they call Jew striplings, or at the very least they want to disenfranchize them. But who is it, these days, who is celebrated by a large part of the German people like no other man for a long time, to whom the antisemites themselves have not denied their appreciation? Well, this man is a Jew stripling.183

180 Ibid., 113: “Wer ist Samuel Isaak? Der Name klingt verdächtig. Ebenso verdächtig wie Moses Meier.” 181 See Dedering, “The Prophet’s ‘War against Whites’,” 9. 182 Spanier, “Judenangst,” 113: “Aber Moses Meier und Samuel Isaak sind keine Glaubensgenossen – von uns.” 183 Anonymous, “Die Woche,” 615: “Die Antisemiten sind es, die den obersten Grundsatz des modernen Staates, die Forderung der Gleichberechtigung aller Staatsbürger, in brutalster Weise mit Füßen treten. Die Antisemiten wollen alle Juden und selbst alle zum Christentum überge­ tretenen Juden und deren Nachkommen, die sie Judenstämmlinge nennen, zum Lande hinaustreiben oder wenigstens sie entrechten. Wer aber ist es, dem in diesen Tagen ein großer Teil des

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The reference is to the new Colonial Director Bernhard Dernburg whose unlikely but energetic appearance on the stage of colonial politics had indeed ensured him instant popularity and, paradoxically, even the appreciation of, and collaboration with, the various procolonial antisemitic factions in the Reichstag. On the very day before the publication of the “Parliamentary Report” in Schlemiel, von Sonnenberg – the model for von Mondberg – had asserted that he gave Dernburg “without any reservation full recognition for the energetic manner in which he has begun to redress the insalubrities in his office.”184 As Davis emphasizes: Dernburg’s tenure in office demonstrates that colonialism offered the possibility of cooperation between representatives of the antisemitic movement and those they persecuted, even when the two were in close proximity on a regular basis. Colonialism provided a common enemy in the opponents of empire and furnished common identities as colonizers.185

It is therefore no surprise that in addition to the black Jew Mbwapwa, whose Jewishness is confirmed but whose alleged savagery is suggested to be a misrepresentation in the “Parliamentary Report,” Dernburg too became a target of the satire in Schlemiel in the guise of the Colonial Director. By this time, the Uganda project had long since been abandoned. That Mbwapwa nevertheless endured in Schlemiel – not only in his own letters but also in a cameo appearance, such as the “Parliamentary Report” – indicates not only the figure’s popularity but also its variable polysemic potential. It allowed the satirists to shift their focus from Uganda to German colonialism and alternative Jewish settlement schemes, such as the Galveston Plan, while still retaining its implicit relevance to the colonization of Palestine. The main focus, however, is in this case on the German colonialist venture which had gained much prominence in public discourse during the election campaign of 1906–07. The critical stance of Schlemiel toward Jewish involvement in colonialism shifts here toward collusion in the German colonial project. As we have noted before, the dubious colonial practices in the African protectorates resonated throughout Mbwapwa’s letters and did so more particularly also in his last communication from Texas included in the very same issue of Schlemiel. In the parliamentary report, Jewish complicity in the German colonial enterprise is confronted primarily in the guise of the Colonial Director. Indeed, deutschen Volkes, wie seit langer Zeit keinem Manne, zugejubelt hat, dem Antisemiten selbst ihre Anerkennung nicht versagt haben? Nun, dieser Mann ist ein Judenstämmling.” 184 StBR (February 27, 1907), p. 96 (B): “Wir zollen dem neuen Herrn Kolonialdirektor […] ohne jeden Vorbehalt volle Anerkennung für die energische Art und Weise, wie er angefangen hat, Unzuträglichkeiten in seinem Amt abzustellen.” 185 Davis, Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent, p. 200.

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the real Dernburg was of Jewish ancestry, although his father had already been baptized as a child. Hence the reference in the satirical text to the Colonial Director’s memory of his grandfather’s conviction “that it was possible to convert anyone of a different faith to Judaism with kreplach soup.” (PR, 5)186 Indeed, the mere thought of kreplach is enough, in the mock minutes, to make the Social Democratic delegate Paul Singer salivate.187 Singer, whom we will encounter again in the following chapter, was also of assimilated Jewish heritage. An unlikely choice for the office of Colonial Director, the banker Dernburg nevertheless assumed his new position with immediate resolve and aplomb after having been introduced in November 1906 by Chancellor von Bülow to the Reichs­ tag.188 Dernburg moreover became a very visible public figure in the campaign for the elections of January 1907. He lectured on the colonies to large audiences in the major German cities and in his speeches, as Davis observes, “he called upon Germans to unite behind the national project of empire building, and he repeatedly presented colonialism as something that could subsume political, religious, and social differences and unify the nation.”189 Dernburg’s reformist spirit is indicated in the “Parliamentary Report” with his implied criticism of the previous colonial administration whose negligence he makes responsible for the influx of kreplach in the protectorate and for the native uprising this occasioned. His assertion that all of this has been dealt with and that future crises have been pre-empted therefore also relates to the Jewish Colonial Director’s decisive interventions. Davis sums up the phenomenon of Dernburg’s initial success against the odds: Dernburg was widely perceived to be a Jew. Even so, he gained a reputation as a patriot and a man above politics, a crusader against colonial critics and the special interests of Catholicism and Social Democracy. For a time, he enjoyed unprecedented public popularity for a colonial director. Moreover, he helped alleviate many problems plaguing German

186 “[D]ass man durch eine Kreppchensuppe jeden Andersgläubigen zum Judentume bekehren könne.” 187 See (PR, 5). At the Seventh International Socialist Congress later in the year, Singer, like many a kindred spirit, was to endorse the notion that a policy of imparting civilization in the colonies was necessary in order to protect the oppressed natives; see Dieter Kramer, “Internationalismus in den deutschen Arbeiterkultur-Organisationen: Eine Problemskizze,” in Frits van Holthoon and Marcel van der Linden (eds.), Internationalism in the Labour Movement: 1830– 1940 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), pp. 217–32, p. 222. 188 When, in May 1907, the Colonial Division of the Foreign Office was turned into an independent ministry, Dernburg achieved cabinet status as State Secretary. 189 Davis, Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent, p. 203.

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colonialism, instituting reforms that fulfilled some of the long-standing wishes of colonial enthusiasts, antisemites among them.190

The Jew Dernburg thus appeared to be a willing and indeed an inspired and inspiring collaborator in the colonial project. But he, too, like Chaskel and Mbwapwa turned colonizers in Texas, is divested of any residual Jewishness in order to explain and to facilitate his complicity. The Colonial Director is baptized and conceives of Mbwapwa’s alleged intervention in the German protectorate in religious terms, suggesting as its objective Jewish proselytization which he confronts with the promise of perpetual Christian dominance. In this way he precludes further ‘Jewish’ participation in the colonial endeavor and confirms the Christian nature of colonialism. In the contemporary satirical press, it was, intriguingly, precisely his Jewishness which was emphasized and, as will be discussed in the following chapter, Dernburg was even styled as a “New Moses” in relation to the promised lands of German colonial expansion. An intriguing corollary to the de-Jewification of Dernburg in Schlemiel is that in the “Parliamentary Report” open conflict with the German hegemonic power is envisaged in the colonial periphery. The Jewish kreplach emerge as an intrinsically Jewish symbol of anticolonianism. As in the earlier letters from New-­Newland, the shared experience of persecution and suffering is suggested to create a bond between blacks and Jews. But there is also a sense of bonding in relation to the resistance to colonial oppression. The Jewish incursion into the colony may therefore also be of a metonymic nature and the question is, whether the “Parliamentary Report” is not, just possibly, also a rallying call for Jews to resist their own internal colonization. The insidious impact of internal colonization is demonstrated with the figure of another Jewish delegate in the “Parliamentary Report.” Identified as a member of the liberal Free-minded Union, the Right Honorable Duckmann emphasizes that he converted three years earlier. He exemplifies the assimilated Jew who, in response to social pressure, has divorced himself from his national and religious Jewish heritage: “I have been a Christian for too long to remember whether kreplach are merely a national custom or a religious craving.” (PR, 6)191 Duckmann, whose name suggests “cowering” and, by implication, “coward,” is possessed of the short memory of the assimilationist; and even while he professes a comprehensive liberalism, this is nevertheless subtly challenged by the delegate’s obviously opportunistic conversion. He, no less than his ‘free-minded’

190 Ibid., p. 199. 191 “[I]ch bin zulange Christ, um noch zu wissen, ob die Kreppchen lediglich eine nationale Sitte oder ein religiöses Bedürfnis sind.”

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party, is denounced as hypocritical inasmuch as he eschewed living according to its ostentatiously promoted belief that “no citizen must be prevented from seeking heaven in his own fashion” (PR, 6).192 While this provides Duckmann with a rationale for his conversion it should also have allowed him to remain Jewish. But then, as the “Election Song” (“Wahllied,” 1907) immediately following on the “Parliamentary Report” in Schlemiel suggests: “Come to think of it, the Jews are all / A little antisemitic nowadays.”193 The suggestion in the “Election Song” is moreover that the Chancellor deliberately sought to mobilize German Jews in support of his election campaign and that the appointment of Dernburg may then be considered part of a larger strategy to secure the backing of the Jews: “The Chancellor thought, what may be done / To bait the Jews?”194 The ambivalence of “bait” suggested in the translation (associating also Jew-baiting) is not inherent in the German original. Yet the notion of temptation and seduction to garner support for the colonial enterprise was certainly pervasive. Dernburg, for instance, was represented in the musical Jahresrevue of the Metropol-Theater for 1907 only thinly disguised as the “wholesale colonial goods merchant” Bernburg. In You’ve Got to See This! (Das muß man seh’n!, 1907), he led a troupe of five young women onto the stage who personified the German protectorates and colonies in South-West Africa, East Africa, Cameroon, Samoa, and Kiautschou.195 Playing with established stereotypes and female allegories of geographical locations, Bernburg presented the young ladies in his retinue like a pimp his ‘girls.’ The suggestion is not only, as discussed before, of sexual exploitation but of tempting the German public with the exotic female charms allegorically standing in for the colonies. The identification of Bernburg as a colonial goods merchant is moreover ambivalent in that it not only indicates his pandering but also, on a more literal level, the seductive value of colonial goods and commodities in order to make the idea of the colonial project palatable to the German public. Bearing in mind Dernburg’s Jewish ancestry, there is, quite possibly, also a playful nod toward antisemitic stereotypes intended, which evoke the alleged mercantile disposition of the ‘Jew’ as demonstrated also – if on 192 “[M]an [darf] keinen Staatsbürger zwingen, nach anderer Facon als der seinigen selig zu werden.” The German phrase “Jeder soll nach seiner eigenen Façon selig werden,” expressing enlightened religious tolerance, is attributed to Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia and has variously been translated as “Let every man seek heaven in his own fashion” or “Each must live as he sees fit.” See also, following on the “Parliamentary Report,” Oi., “Wahllied,” Schlemiel (February 28, 1907): 6 in which mention is made of being “verschwarzt” (blackened) and of “‘schwarz’ wählen” (to vote ‘black’). 193 Ibid.: “Im Grund ist jeder Jude heut / Ein bischen antisemitisch.” 194 Ibid.: “Der Kanzler dacht,’ was tut man blos, / Dass ich die Juden ködre?” 195 Becker, Inszenierte Moderne, p. 186: “Kolonialwarenhändler en gros.”

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a different level – in Arthur Thiele’s postcard design of the “Bankruptcy Clearance Sale” (see Figure 18) and with Theodor Herzl’s deference to the Warenhaus discussed in Chapter 2. As the satirical engagement with the colonial situation in the Jahresrevue and in the “Parliamentary Report” indicates, the topicality of colonial desire and colonial conflict was pervasive in imperial Germany in the first decade of the twentieth century. Mbwapwa’s letters from New-Newland in which the convergence of colonial concerns with Zionist deliberations on and aspirations toward a territory for national Jewish settlement become palpable clearly need to be seen within this wider context of the satirical engagement with the colonial venture. The following chapter will elaborate some further contextualization and will situate Schlemiel and its response to both the German colonial encounter and the Zionist attitude toward colonialism in relation to other contemporary satirical magazines of the Kaiserreich.

Chapter 4 Imag(in)ing the Other: Satire and Colonial Conflict As is only to be expected, the Herero War achieved much prominence in ­satirical magazines of the Kaiserreich.1 Probably the three most influential satirical magazines in Wilhelmine Germany were Der wahre Jakob, Simplicissimus, and Kladderadatsch. All three, as did many others and although occupying very different positions in the political spectrum, made mention of the Herero War and critiqued German colonial policy. In the early years of the war hardly a week went by in which not some reference was being made in Simplicissimus to the military engagement in South-West Africa. Indeed, in May 1904 a whole issue was dedicated to the colonial conflict. Simplicissimus was an enormously popular satirical weekly, founded in 1896 and based in Munich, which had developed into a forum for the artistic and literary avantgarde in Germany; it was decidedly anticlerical and antifeudal and espoused a fundamental democratic stance. Less references to the Herero uprising, though no less poignant, were included in the bi-weekly Der wahre Jakob, which had been established already in 1879. As the mouthpiece of the Social Democratic opposition, it too was highly critical of imperialist expansion and colonial practices and was in fact the most widely read satirical magazine at the time. Kladderadatsch had started in 1848 as a moderately reform-­ oriented satirical weekly, but by the beginning of the twentieth century had been transformed into a more conservative enterprise. Though also very popular, its circulation was much smaller than that of Simplicissimus and Der wahre Jakob.2 The Berlin-based magazine, perhaps to be explained with its political leanings, was much less interested in the African theater of war, though the conflict is

1 It should be emphasized, however, that this chapter cannot offer a comprehensive and systematic study of the representation of the Herero War in the relevant satirical magazines. ­Rather, I  chose those pieces of visual and verbal satire which seemed pertinent to me within the ­Mbwapwa rhizome. In particular, my analysis concentrates on those pieces which suggest a comparison with Schlemiel, though others are occasionally included for context. 2 For the circulation of these satirical magazines, see, e.g., Ann Taylor Allen, Kladderadatsch and Simplicissimus, 1890–1914 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1984), pp. 3–4. In 1890, Kladderadatsch had a circulation of 50,000 which remained more or less constant until the ­beginning of the First World War. Simplicissimus, two years after its inception, had a c­ irculation of 15,000 in 1898 which, within a decade, rose to 86,000 in 1908. In the same year Der wahre Jakob, appearing since 1879 in Hamburg and since 1884 in Stuttgart, had a circulation of 230,000, more than doubling the print-run of in excess of 100,000 it had in 1890, see W. L. Guttsman, Art for the Workers: Ideology and the Visual Arts in Weimar Germany (Manchester: Manchester ­University Press, 1997), p. 34. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-005

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addressed in some of its pages too. Much more attention was given, for instance, to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The majority of the few references to the colonial enterprise are either to its mounting costs or to administrative bungles, especially with regard to the question of reparations to the German victims in the South-West African protectorate. As another satirical magazine, Schlemiel, as previously suggested, must be understood also in relation to these leading publications which, in part, it emulated and with which, at least to some extent, it competed. Clearly, in order to position Jungmann’s “Letters from New-Newland” and Schlemiel in German colonial discourse, and especially in the anticolonial counter-discourse in which the majority of these satirical publications participated, the comparative outlook advanced in the following chapter is indispensable. Schlemiel, as we know, also referred to the African theater of war and to contemporary colonial practices, if with a motivation very different from any of the other satirical magazines. After all, its main focus was on the Uganda Plan and, if more obliquely, on the Zionist colonization aspirations for Palestine. And yet, none of the German magazines was as consistent in its response to the colonial confrontation as Schlemiel with its column devoted to Mbwapwa’s communications which, though over time with less regularity, nevertheless established a recognizable, consistent image of the fictional Jewish colony in East Africa and consequently invited also a more coherent response and engagement from its readers. References to the German colonial enterprise were coincidental to this but served not only as a general backdrop to the Jewish particular but as a potent reminder of the ethical dilemma presented by the colonial enterprise as such.

Colonial Resolve and Psychopathic Aberration Prompted by the grim reality of the Herero War, the colonies increasingly gained prominence in public discourse and also in the satirical press of imperial Germany. The bloody conflict in Africa encouraged critical reflection not only on the fortunes of war but also on the very idea of colonialism. A special issue on the colonies of Simplicissimus, published in May 1904, carried among other trenchant engagements with the ills of colonialism a cartoon by Bruno Paul which interrogated “The Origins of the Colonies” (“Die Entstehung der Kolonien,” 1904).3

3 Bruno Paul, “Die Entstehung der Kolonien,” Simplicissimus, special issue: Kolonien 9.6 (May 3, 1904): 53.

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The four panels of the visual narrative project the vicious circle of exploitation and presumption suggested to be responsible for the bloodshed in the ­protectorate. The origin of the colonial misery is ascribed in the first panel to the restless proselytizing of missionaries who boast their success in turning the savage pagans into devout Christians. The second panel denounces the blessings of civilization which accompany the natives’ conversion: “Trade is thriving,”4 the caption maintains, but the corresponding picture shows the white trader selling nothing but brandy to the blacks. The “brandy plague” condemned by Adolf Stöcker in his parliamentary confrontation with Adolph Woermann, briefly ­mentioned in Chapter 1, accordingly begins to spread. Its effects are evident in the third panel, in which the intoxicated natives have killed the armed trader and, guzzling the alcohol directly from the broken vat, brandish spears and shields in a savage dance. The fourth and final panel brings the inevitable conclusion: The murderous deed has opened our eyes to the true character of these negro hordes. Since lenience won’t achieve anything with them, it will be necessary to coerce them by force of arms to keeping order and morality.5

The drawing accompanying this caption graphically illustrates the massacre of the blacks at the hands of charging white colonial troops. The cartoon’s simplistic but therefore no less poignant, nor any less trenchant, claim is that proselytizing and economic exploitation have perverted the natives. Responsibility for the conflict is clearly attributed to the colonizers whose warped logic is cited in obviously ironic inversion as the hypocritical legitimation of the atrocities in the colonies. The pattern of colonial conquest unfolded in Paul’s cartoon was further elaborated by Thomas Theodor Heine in the same issue of Simplicissimus. With his “Colonial Powers” (“Kolonialmächte,” 1904), the prolific caricaturist offered a comparative satirical appreciation of the different European colonial ventures.6 The first of the cartoon’s four panels, with the caption “Thus colonizes the ­German,”7 is conspicuous within the series for being the only one that does not include the representation of any human natives. Against the background of a wide plain with some palm trees on the horizon, it shows a long line of giraffes marching abreast in goose step to the command of a soldier with Pickelhaube,

4 Ibid.: “Der Handel blüht empor.” 5 Ibid.: “Die Mordtat hat uns über den wahren Charakter dieser Negerhorden die Augen g ­ eöffnet. Da mit Milde bei ihnen nichts auszurichten ist, wird man sie mit Waffengewalt zu Ordnung und Sitte zwingen müssen.” 6 Thomas Theodor Heine, “Kolonialmächte,” Simplicissimus, special issue: Kolonien 9.6 (May 3, 1904): 55. 7 Ibid.: “So kolonisiert der Deutsche.”

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while a notice affixed to another palm tree prohibits littering. On a hillock in the foreground, a muzzle is put on a fearsome but apparently docile crocodile by another soldier, a reference to German censorship. The panel is elucidated on the following page by Otto Julius Bierbaum’s “African Distichs” (“Afrikanische Distichen,” 1904),8 a much abbreviated but poignant cynical history of German colonialism which might as well have accompanied Paul’s “The Origins of the Colonies.” The first of Bierbaum’s d ­ istichs invokes von Bülows notorious phrase of Germany’s claim to a “place in the sun,”9 staked out, as he continues, by civil servants, officers, and ecclesiastics of the two rivalling denominations. In concert they impose order, disciplin, police, and morality on the savages – even the giraffes, as visualized by Heine’s cartoon, receive “collar and tag and muzzle.”10 The following distichs describe the program of education to which the natives are subjected, the introduction of alcohol, and the violent abuse suffered by the blacks, only to exclaim: “Mutiny? What is the matter? Why? Wherefore? How now? / What? A lieutenant has impaled his black?”11 Ironically deploring the ingratitude of the mutinous natives, the following distichs explain that it was in fact neither impalement nor abuse which prompted the uprising – but: “Prussian they don’t want to be.”12 Like Heine’s cartoon and so many other satirical pieces of the period, both visual and verbal, ­Bierbaum’s distichs draw a scathing connection between the colonial periphery and the metropole: What in the sand of the Margraviate generations of civil servants / Have achieved at snail’s pace is not going to work in Africa / In just one decade; the black scoundrels have / For all too long felt nude and free like the devils.13

To implement all these changes, Bierbaum maintains, is just as impossible as it is for the Prussian civil servant to learn overnight the art of being a man without the police. As the real target of Bierbaum’s satire consequently emerge the Prussian authoritarian state and its civil servant facilitators. Colonialism per se and the German place in the sun are not condemned in principle. Yet Bierbaum scornfully 8 Otto Julius Bierbaum, “Afrikanische Distichen,” Simplicissimus, special issue: Kolonien 9.6 (May 3, 1904): 56. 9 Ibid.: “An der Sonne den Platz, der uns Deutschen gebührt.” 10 Ibid.: “Jede Giraffe erhielt Halsband und Marke und Korb.” 11 Ibid.: “Aufruhr? Was ist denn los? Warum denn? Wieso denn? Weshalb denn? / Wie? Ein Leutnant had seinen Schwarzen gepfählt?” 12 Ibid.: “[P]reußisch woll’n sie nicht sein.” 13 Ibid.: “Was im Sand der Mark Assessorengenerationen / Langsam nur fertig gebracht, geht doch in Afrika / Nicht in einem Jahrzehnt; die schwarzen Hallunken [sic] haben / Allzu lange sich nackt frei wie die Teufel gefühlt.”

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censures the Prussian spirit and its manifestation in German colonial practices when he concludes: “Our place in the sun, for sure, this we want to seek, / Yet, pray, do not straightways with your own shadow darken it.”14 In contrast to the other colonial powers, the Prussian spirit of the German colonial venture is critiqued as self-serving with nothing to be gained and nothing sought to be gained beyond the implementation of order. The shaky economic basis of the German protectorate was indeed another issue that was frequently addressed in the satirical press of the Kaiserreich. In the Reichstag the value of the colonial enterprise to the German Reich had also seriously been questioned, foremost by Bebel. The Chancellor responded during a sitting on December 5, 1904: Now, the Right Honorable Bebel has said that the value of South-West Africa was only very small, South-West Africa is said to be, as I have read more than once in the related press, a sandy desert which mocked any effort made on its behalf.15

Von Bülow may have referred, among others, to Hans Gabriel Jentzsch’s cover image of Der wahre Jakob of July 26, 1904, entitled “The Yield of Our Colonies” (“Der Ertrag unserer Kolonien,” 1904).16 Here, the Chancellor is shown as an impoverished carter touting in concert with his ragged wife, Germania, the useless sand he has to offer, very much to the amusement of the other European nations.17 In the Reichstag, however, the Chancellor argued the converse and claimed that expert opinion was very favorable. As an example, he cited the ­privately built and very costly railway from Swakopmund to Otavi which he understood to be a pledge to the capitalist expectation of exploiting the protectorate with profit. At the same time von Bülow acknowledged the need to invest further in the protectorate and emphasized, in particular, the moral obligation to support the stricken colonists in their endeavors and to pay them reparations for the losses they sustained during the uprising. This he rationalized further by insisting on the value of the settlers’ experience for the future of the German colonial interest: 14 Ibid.: “Unsern Platz an der Sonne, gewiß, den wollen wir suchen, / Aber verdüstert ihn, bitte, nicht gleich mit euch.” 15 StBR (December 5, 1904), p. 3376 (B): “[N]un hat der Herr Abgeordnete Bebel auch wieder gesagt, der Wert von Südwestafrika sei ein sehr geringer, Südwestafrika sei, wie ich schon mehr als einmal in der ihm nahestehenden Presse gelesen habe, eine Sandwüste, die aller für sie gemachten Aufwendungen spotte.” 16 H[ans] G[abriel] J[entzsch], “Der Ertrag unserer Kolonien,” Der wahre Jakob 21.470 (July 26, 1904): 4415. 17 Ibid.: “Bülow: Buy sand, buy sand, buy, people, white sand! [Bülow: Kooft Sand, kooft Sand, kooft, Leute, weißen Sand!]”

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The uprising in South-West Africa has already demanded from our colony such a toll of valuable strength that it would be irresponsible if we were to drive those settlers who remained unscathed out of the country with an inequitable course of action or one that they themselves consider to be inequitable. We need this capital of experience gathered in many years, we need the old South-West Africans as instructors, as guides to the future.18

A cartoon by Ludwig Stutz, entitled “A-hoping and A-waiting” (“Hoffen und ­ ladderadatsch,19 Harren”), published almost five months earlier on July 17, 1904 in K had already picked up in this context on the ubiquity of the sand in the protectorate while criticizing the government’s slow response to the colonists’ appeal for reparations. The first in the series of panels shows a rather emaciated abundantia figure identified as “Fiskus” (exchequer) emptying her cornucopia of useless things – including mittens, long johns, shoes, and hats – above the dry African plain and the burnt ruins of a farmstead and the carcass of a horse. The following rows of panels depict the deputation of farmers from South-West Africa asking Chancellor von Bülow for reparations and then, returned to the sand dunes of the protectorate, looking out to sea in hopeful expectation of the promised relief. Yet it is only after they have finally been swallowed by the treacherous sand that “Fiskus” makes her next appearance in the concluding panel and bestows some measly coins from her ‘cornucopia’ on the waste land. The sense of the colonists having been abandoned by the Reich pervades other cartoons as well. Already in February 1904 Kladderadatsch had published “Fata Morgana in South-West Africa” (“Fata Morgana in Südwestafrika”).20 The cartoon, once again by Stutz, includes similar elements of the destruction – the burnt ruins and the equine cadaver  –  but adds to them, for greater emotional and sensational impact, the image of a dead white woman and of a male settler staring forlorny at the ruins of his life. The fata morgana of the title, hovering above the scene of destruction, shows an image of the relief operation for Ålesund. Kaiser Wilhelm II had frequently visited the Norwegian town and sent four vessels to provide aid when it was completely destroyed by fire in January 1904. The cartoon’s caption reads: “News of the relief operation for Ålesund is received by every German patriot even in the most distant protectorates with

18 StBR (December 5, 1904), p.  3376 (D): “Der Aufstand in Südwestafrika hat unsere K ­ olonie schon so viel wertvolle Kräfte gekostet, daß es unverantwortlich wäre, wenn wir durch eine unbillige oder von ihnen selbst als unbillig empfundene Handlungsweise die verschont ­ ­gebliebenen Ansiedler aus dem Lande treiben wollten. Wir brauchen dieses in langen Jahren angesammelte Kapital von Erfahrungen, wir brauchen die alten Südwestafrikaner als Lehrmeister, als Wegweiser für die Zukunft.” 19 Ludwig Stutz, “Hoffen und Harren,” Kladderadatsch 57.9 (July 17, 1904): 414. 20 Ludwig Stutz, “Fata Morgana in Südwestafrika,” Kladderadatsch 57.9 (February 28, 1904): 125.

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great ­enthusiasm.”21 The implications are obvious. Help is provided to others according to the majesty’s whim, but much closer to home  –  if geographically much further away – those settling under the empire’s protection in the colonies are left to fend for themselves in the face of bloody destruction and brutal war. Kladderadatsch was not so much critical of the colonial enterprise or the ongoing attempts to restore the Prussian order invoked in Heine’s “Colonial Powers” and in Bierbaum’s “African Distichs.” Rather, it condemned the failures of the system and the collapse of that order which had emerged from Heine’s cartoon as the distinguishing characteristic of German colonialism. The remaining panels of his “Colonial Powers” exhibit with satirical acuity the supposed colonial practices of the British, the French, and the Belgians. The Prussian compulsion to impose order is compared here to the British greed for profit, to the French penchant for amorous entanglements, and to Belgian cruelty. In each of these cases the representation of human natives, conspicuously elided from Heine’s representation of German colonial rule, is integral to the respective ­caricature. The British, infusing their native with whisky, have clamped the unfortunate man in a mechanical press and grind coins out of his body while a clergyman stands by, unctuously reading in the bible. The French colonizers are shown as they dally with their black belles, driven by irresistible desire, as suggested in particular by the group in the background which is reminiscent of dogs sniffing at each other. The final panel depicts the Belgian King Leopold II sitting at a dining table put up in a starry jungle night enjoying his food and a bottle of wine. Roasting on a spit over the open fire behind him is the beheaded carcass of a native, his head served on a salver with a fruit in his mouth like a suckling pig. While superficially lacking in critical introspection where German colonial practices were concerned, Kladderadatsch too was not beyond taking notice of the Belgian atrocities in the Congo. Only months after the Herero had been starved in the Omaheke sandveld by the German Schutztruppe under the command of Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha, the magazine published “The New Congo Anthem” (“Die neue Kongohymne,” 1904),22 a cartoon which attacks the ruthless exploitation of the Congo Free State by the Belgian king. No similar criticism had been articulated throughout the satirical weekly about any German atrocities in Africa. And yet, the lyrics of the anthem are a parody of the imperial German anthem, “Hail to Thee in Victor’s Crown” (“Heil Dir im Siegerkranz”). The singing of the anthem was mentioned by Bierbaum in his “African Distichs” as one of the 21 Ibid.: “Die Nachricht von der Hilfsaction für Aalesund wird von allen deutschen Patrioten selbst in den fernsten Schutzgebieten mit großer Begeisterung aufgenommen.” 22 Anonymous, “Die neue Kongohymne,” Kladderadatsch 57.50, Fünftes Beiblatt (December 11, 1904): 731.

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educational measures imposed on the natives in the German ­colonies. A tenuous connection is thus suggested between both majesties and their respective ­colonial endeavors. The lyrics read: “Hail to Thee in victor’s crown, ruler of the ­Congoland, Hail Leopold! Ivory we bring, caoutchouc we win, and as a reward to the ground our heads have roll’d.”23 Accordingly, in the cartoon, proffering the score of the anthem on three staves, the stems of the notes are represented as spears on which black heads are spiked, to quavers have been added little pennants, and ledger lines are stilettos penetrating the skulls; the mouths of the heads representing minims are wide agape, as if screaming.24 It is not quite clear how this cartoon was to be understood. Ostensibly, it is of course an indictment of the exploitation and inhumane colonial practices in the Belgian king’s private Congolese venture.25 However, the parody of the imperial anthem may suggest another layer of criticism in that it offers a proxy for German colonial practices. Yet if so, it remains vague and, ultimately, oblique. Indeed, the satirical energies of Kladderadatsch were generally focused rather on those critical of the colonial confrontation and of the political and military establishment in Germany. In a particularly nasty cartoon of March 1904, Paul Singer, alongside Bebel co-chairman of the Social Democratic party (since 1890), was attacked by the satirical magazine. Singer was of Jewish descent and the cartoon clearly employs contemporary racial stereotypes.26 It shows a disgusting old man, obese and hairy with a stereotypical Jewish profile and dressed only in his underpants in a tent, attended by two repulsive naked African women 23 Ibid.: “Heil Dir im Siegerkranz, Herrscher des Kongolands, Heil Leopold! Elfenbein bringen wir, Kautschuk erringen wir, und unser Kopf dafür zu Boden rollt.” 24 According to the Cambridge Companion to Human Rights Law, eds. Conor Gearty and C ­ ostas Douzinas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), p.  118n10, the practice in Belgian Congo “was to cut off the limbs or heads of victims (including many children) in order to prove administrative competence.” In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the house of Kurtz is surrounded by natives’ heads, showing that he “lacked restraint in the gratification of his various lusts,” Heart of Darkness, p.  131. See also Adam Hochschild, King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa (1998; London: Pan Macmillan, 2006), p. 145. The melody in the cartoon is not that of the imperial anthem which, at the time, was identical with “God Save the Queen,” nor is it that of the Belgian anthem, “La Brabançonne.” 25 Officially, the Congo became a Belgian colony only in November 1908; before then, it was a private economic venture of Leopold II. For the historical background, see Guy Vanthemsche, Belgium and the Congo, 1885–1980 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012). 26 For Singer, see Ursula Reuter, Paul Singer (1844–1911): Eine politische Biographie ­(Düsseldorf: Droste, 2004), who suggests that Singer anticipated socialism to complete Jewish ­emancipation and put an end to antisemitism, p.  531. The assimilated politician of Jewish descent was ­frequently subjected to antisemitic attacks and, in turn, criticized the antisemitic movement and, in particular, Court Chaplain Adolf Stöcker, the leader of the Christian Social Party.

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offering him champagne and, one assumes, their favors. The salacious cartoon is entitled “The Friends of the Herero” (“Die Freunde der Herero,” 1904).27 This claim is explained with the caption which alludes to the refusal of the Social Democrats to satisfy any further demands for an increase of the war expenditure, a position which Singer had outlined in an article in the Vorwärts earlier in the same month.28 The Social Democratic stance was prompted not least by ethical considerations in response to the atrocities committed by the Schutztruppe which, as we have seen in the previous chapter, were vociferously attacked by Bebel during previous and subsequent sittings of the Reichstag, and for which he too was accused of partisanship with the Herero. The cartoon references this position subtly with the book held by one of the native women, identified by its title as First-Class Men (Erstklassige Menschen, 1904).29 The novel, written by Wolf Count Baudissin and published under the pseudonym Freiherr von Schlicht, strongly condemned the moral depravity of the German officer caste. It provoked a wide-ranging scandal which not only had an impact on the deliberations on the defence budget in the Reichstag but eventually also led to a trial against its author who was duly sentenced for defamation of character, if leniently – after all, von Baudissin himself was of the vituperated caste (if retired) and of the German high nobility. The reference to his novel in the cartoon is nevertheless highly significant and, in line with the allusive nature of satire, suggests further webbings of allusions which interweave with those of the Mbwapwa rhizome as discussed in the chapters of this book. First-Class Men was cited by August Bebel in the Reichstag as an indictment of the deplorable depravity of the officers’ corps and of the system that produced them. In his speech, Bebel invoked also the similar case of Fritz Oswald Bilse who, in the previous year, had been sentenced much more harshly for defamation of character for his novel A Little Garrison (Aus einer kleinen Garnison, 1903),30 in which he castigated in fictionalized form the behavior of officers in 27 Anonymous, “Die Freunde der Herero,” Kladderadatsch 57.12, Drittes Beiblatt (March 20, 1904): 177. 28 See Horst Drechsler, Südwest-Afrika unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft: Der Kampf der Herero und Nama gegen den deutschen Imperialismus (1884–1915), 2nd edn. (1966; Berlin: Akademie-­ Verlag, 1984), p. 57. 29 See Freiherr von Schlicht [i.e. Wolf Count Baudissin], Erstklassige Menschen: Roman aus der Offizierskaste (Berlin: Janke, 1904) and for the novel’s anonymous translation into English, FirstClass Men: Novel of German Army Life (New York: Schnitzer, 1904). 30 See Fritz von der Kyrburg [i.e. Fritz Oswald Bilse], Aus einer kleinen Garnison: Ein militärisches Zeitbild (1903; Braunschweig: Sattler, 1904) and for the novel’s translation into English, A Little Garrison: A Realistic Novel of German Army Life of To-Day, transl. Wolf von Schierbrand (New

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a small g ­ arrison town. Initially similarly dismissed as a fabrication, the subsequent inquiry revealed that Bilse’s novel was in fact a fairly accurate portrait of the scandalous conduct of the officers at Forbach in Lorraine. Against the background of the atrocities of the Herero War, both Bilse’s and von Baudissin’s novels are thus used by Bebel and in the Social Democratic press to attack the “system” of which they considered the colonial war to be a product. It was in particular the latter which offered the more damning critical substance. Indeed, as the Vorwärts was eager to assert later in the year: “Bilse’s book sketched particular single individuals. Baudissin’s First-Class Men refers to a whole class, to the type of the most noble officer, the officer of the guard.”31 Unsurprisingly, in liberal and conservative circles, both in the press and in the Reichstag, First-Class Men was widely denigrated as a vile and obnoxious concoction. Intriguingly, the Secretary of War, Karl von Einem genannt von ­Rothmaler, denounced von Baudissin’s book in the Reichstag in the same breath with ­Simplicissimus, quoting from the National-Zeitung, in which the satirical magazine had been vilified as a “deadly bacillus which seeks to kill each and every ideal, one after the other.”32 Once again, the debate was also joined by Adolf Stöcker who objected fiercely to the Vorwärts referring to the budget for the Reichsheer as the “budget for first-class men,”33 which he considered an inadmissible defamation because it implied not only the validity of the allegations but moreover extended them to the army as a whole. Implicitly adopting the ­distinction between individual and class made by the Social Democrats, Stöcker nevertheless acknowledged that individual cases of misconduct did in fact occur. The example he cites is that of Prince Prosper von Arenberg, a case which had indeed fully illustrated the bestial brutality of the officer as well as the determined efforts of the judiciary to rehabilite the offender.34 In January 1900, von Arenberg had brutally tortured and killed a Herero policeman in South-West Africa, supposedly so he could ‘possess’ the native’s wife, although he alleged that the man was a spy and traitor. A court martial York: Stokes, 1904). The pseudonym Fritz von der Kyrburg was used by Bilse in later editions of the text. 31 Anonymous, “Erstklassige Sühne,” Vorwärts (October 25, 1904): “Das Buch Bilses zeichnete einzelne bestimmte Individuen. Die ‘Erstklassigen Menschen’ Baudissins trafen eine ganze Schicht, den Typus des vornehmsten Offiziers, des Garde-Offiziers.” Emphasis in original. 32 StBR (March 4, 1904), p. 1531 (D): “Der ‘Simplicissimus’ stellt den tödlichen Bazillus dar, der jedes Ideal, eines nach dem anderen zu ertöten sucht.” 33 StBR (March 8, 1904), p. 1643 (B): “Etat der erstklassigen Menschen.” 34 For von Arenberg, see Dominik J. Schaller, “Folter im kolonialen Ausnahmezustand,” in Karsten Altenhain und Nicola Willenberg (eds.), Die Geschichte der Folter seit ihrer Abschaffung (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011), pp. 169–88, pp. 169–72.

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in the protectorate sentenced the lieutenant to a mere ten months in prison. Public dissatisfaction with this lenient punishment led to a new trial in Germany in which the death penalty was imposed. This, however, was commuted by a pardon of the Kaiser to fifteen years imprisonment. In March 1904, finally, an appellate court martial pronounced von Arenberg not guilty after he had been declared non compos mentis. At this time, against the backdrop of the Herero War and the resultant sway in public oppinion toward the natives, the scandalous revision remained largely unchallenged. Moreover, the result, as Dominik J. Schaller ­suggests, was entirely satisfactory for the military and for the pro­colonial ­establishment. To make the “Tropenkoller,” or tropical neurasthenia, allegedly suffered by the lieutenant responsible for his crime35 was a blatant attempt to normalize his behavior by tracing it to a known disorder that was adduced to the mental strain to which the colonizer was exposed in the tropical other-world. ­Ultimately, culpability then lay with this other-world which insinuated itself into the moral and mental fabric of its victim – the colonizer who assumed, in Rudyard Kipling’s notorious words, “the White Man’s burden” in good faith.36 As we have seen in Chapter 3, in the wake of the Herero War the same strategy of exculpation was also applied on a wider scale to the experience of the fighting men and, at least implicitly, employed to explain any acts of atrocity. In other words, if the deed was that of a psychopathic individual it was an exception and as such was no challenge to colonial rule and its legitimation with the mission civilisatrice.37 Which is precisely why the Social Democratic ­Leipziger Volkszeitung, after unfolding the perpetrator’s psychopathic anamnesis, emphasized that von Arenberg was “unleashed as lieutenant of the South-West African Schutztruppe on the Herero” despite his earlier transgressions. The paper insisted: “This monster, who murdered a human being with ingenious malice and cannibalistic cruelty in order to possess his wife, is not an individual exception but a class type.”38 Stöcker, too, acknowledged the special requirements of the colonial ­situation. We have already seen his later comments on the inevitability of the

35 See also Stephan Besser, “Tropenkoller. 5. März 1904: Freispruch für Prinz Prosper von ­Arenberg,” in Alexander Honold and Klaus R. Scherpe (eds.), Mit Deutschland um die Welt: Eine Kulturgeschichte des Fremden in der Kolonialzeit (Stuttgart: Metzler, 2004), pp. 300–9. 36 See Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden,” McClure’s Magazine 12.4 (February 1899): 290–1. 37 See Schaller, “Folter im kolonialen Ausnahmezustand,” pp. 169–72. 38 Leipziger Volkszeitung (March 5, 1904): “Dieses Scheusal, das einen Menschen mit raffinierter Heimtücke und kannibalischer Grausamkeit hinmordete, um dessen Weib zu besitzen, ist keine individuelle Ausnahmeerscheinung, sondern ein Klassentypus.”

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brutalization of the colonizer through the colonial encounter and on the impact of what p ­ ostcolonial theorists later were to call “colonial desire.”39 In response to the von Arenberg case and the allegations drawn from von Baudissin’s novel, he demanded that in future not “common” but only “exceptional soldiers” should be sent to the colonies:40 People infused with a high degree of Christian and moral ideas so that they are equal to the great tempations of the tropics and of living among a pagan population.41

It was also Stöcker who, disgusted with Bebel’s pervasive criticism of the military, demanded that the Social Democrat verify his claim that at least a third of von Baudissin’s book was based on historical truth and ironically suggested that a commission of inquiry be established with Singer as chairman.42 Hence the caption of the cartoon in Kladderadatsch, which mocked both Singer and his party and their position on the issue: After having declared at a voters’ meeting that his party would reject any further additional fiscal demands for the suppression of the South-West African insurrection, Singer betook himself in person to the scene in order to gather material against the government with the desert Schettler.43

The reference to the desert Schettler (“Wüsten-Schettler”) evokes Singer’s ‘scandalous’ association with the bordello owner Gustava Schettler; yet since the native woman in the foreground is shown to be reading von Baudissin’s novel, the allusion may also extend to Paul Schettler, a journalist and minor dramatist, who became notorious for his article on “Women in Poetry” (“Frauen in der Dichtung,” 1895/96) in which he ­envisioned the encroaching trivialization of literature as a consequence of the increasing number not only of female writers but of female readers.44 The ­reference to Schettler may then be meant to indicate the

39 See, e.g., Young, Colonial Desire. 40 StBR (March 8, 1904), p. 1646 (D): “[…] nicht gewöhnliche, sondern ausgezeichnete Soldaten.” 41 Ibid.: “Leute, die ein hohes Maß von christlichen und sittlichen Ideen in sich tragen, sodaß sie den großen Versuchungen der Tropen und des Wohnens unter einer heidnischen ­Bevölkerung gewachsen sind.” 42 See StBR (March 8, 1904), p. 1647 (D). 43 Anonymous, “Die Freunde der Herero,” 177: “Nachdem Singer in einer Wählerversamm­ lung erklärt hat, seine Partei werde alle ferneren Nachforderungen für die Niederwerfung des süd­westafrikanischen Aufstandes ablehnen, begibt er sich in höchsteigener Person auf den Schauplatz, um bei der Wüsten-Schettler Material gegen die Regierung zu sammeln.” 44 For the so-called Schettler affair, see Reuter, Paul Singer, pp. 420–4 and for the writer’s controversial article, see Paul Schettler, “Frauen in der Dichtung,” Die Frau 3.3 (1895/96): 149–53.

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trivial and sensationalist nature also of the book in which the black woman is engrossed. It is then, in effect, a claim as to its fictionality and irrelevance. Singer, as we saw in the previous chapter, was also mentioned in S­ chlemiel, if in a much less contentious manner, as salivating over the mere thought of Jewish kreplach. The objective here appears to have been rather to suggest a deeply rooted sense of the politician’s Jewishness, in analogy to the conditioned reflex famously observed by Ivan Pavlov in his dogs. Indeed, the physiologist had received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for his research on the digestive system in 1904 and may well have inspired Schlemiel. In Singer’s case Jewishness as symbolized by his reaction to the kreplach is a physiologically conditioned, inescapable reflex. Yet once again the satire is not, of course, limited to this still easily decoded level. On a more arcane level, it moreover evokes the antisemitically motivated attacks of Adolf Stöcker in which the minister had accused the Social Democrats of having developed an association with Jewry “as close as can be”45 and which he decried as a tremendous danger to the fatherland, to Jewry (Judaism), and to Social Democracy.46 Although the Herero War and other colonial conflicts are frequently alluded to in Schlemiel, its choice of detail and trajectory differed much from those of references to the colonial conflict in other German satirical magazines. While in terms of its anticolonialist stance it was comparable to Simplicissimus and Der wahre Jakob, its engagement with colonial concerns is much more consistent and coherent than theirs. Neither included a regular column like Mbwapwa’s ­correspondence. And while Thöny’s Herero in Simplicissimus (see Figure 4) may have offered a similarly sympathetic reading of the natives’ plight, as we have seen in Chapter 1, it certainly stopped short of the identification with the native, much less the sustained identification as embodied in Mbwapwa. Kladderadatsch was even less appreciative of the insurgents’ motives. The implicit association of Mbwapwa with Friedrich Maharero and Hendrik Witbooi, which is established through the medium of the Jewish African’s portrait in Schlemiel (see Figures 1, 3, 10), was categorically countered in Kladderadatsch with caricatures such as Arthur Krüger’s “The Colonial Scorpion” (“Der Kolonialskorpion,” 1905).47 The cartoon, celebrating the death of Hendrik Witbooi, likens the charismatic Kaptein of the Nama to the venomous stinger of the scorpion which, finally, has been cut off by the soldier of the Schutztruppe engaging undauntedly with 45 StBR (March 8, 1904), p. 1646 (A): “[…] wie sie enger gar nicht sein kann.” 46 See ibid. 47 Arthur Krüger, “Der Kolonialskorpion,” Kladderadatsch 58.50, Erstes Beiblatt (December 10, 1905): 713.

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the monstrous arachnid. He is now faced with the two claws, inscribed with the names of two other rebellious Nama Kapteins, Cornelius (Frederiks) and (Jakobus) Morenga. The caption anticipates the imminent end of the war with the removal of the claws – a misapprehension, as the further course of the guerilla warfare conducted in particular by the eminent tactician Morenga was to prove, until he, too, was killed in a skirmish with a joint German and British contingent in September 1907. Typical of the response of Kladderadatsch to the war in South-West Africa, there is no room, in this cartoon, for any doubt. While the colonial war might be criticized in the satirical magazine as futile and the sacrifices in German lives might be deplored, it did not offer a more self-interrogating reflection on the ­conflict. This was pursued more probingly by Simplicissimus and by Der wahre Jakob. The relativism articulated by Bebel in the parliamentary debate on the colonial confrontation, for instance, was also expressed in a joke published in the special issue on the colonies of Simplicissimus in May 1904. At the same time, the quasi anecdotal jape emphasizes the pervasive censorship imposed on German society: In one of the higher classes of a grammar school pupils were given “The Wars of Liberation” as an essay topic. The essays turned out to the full satisfaction of the professor, with only one exception. This was awarded a fail, the pupil was advised to leave the school, and his father, a civil servant, had to take early retirement. The pupil had discussed as a “War of Liberation” the uprising of the Herero.48

The pupil’s offence is twofold. It is not only that the insurrection of the Herero is suggested here to be a justified struggle for liberation from foreign, i.e. German, oppression. More specifically, in contemporary German usage the “Wars of ­Liberation” (“Freiheitskriege”) referred to the efforts of the German lands to free themselves from the domination of the First French Empire during the ­Napoleonic Wars. Their patriotic impetus was initially celebrated in particular by the liberal bourgeoisie that saw in them the origins of national unity in defiance of the ancien régime. More specifically, if always subordinate to that of the foundational ­Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, in the mythography of the Kaiserreich, the memory of the Wars of Liberation was increasingly invested with völkisch-­ national significance in support of the authoritarian imperial state.49 48 Simplicissimus 9.6 (May 3, 1904): 60: “In einer höheren Gymnasialklasse erhielten die Schüler als Aufsatzthema ‘Die Freiheitskriege.’ Die Arbeiten fielen zur Zufriedenheit des Professors aus mit Ausnahme einer einzigen. Diese bekam die Note ‘Ungenügend,’ der Schüler erhielt das ‘consilium abeundi’ und sein Vater, ein Beamter, mußte in Pension gehen. Der Schüler hatte als ­‘Freiheitskrieg’ den Aufstand der Hereros behandelt.” 49 See Jakob Vogel, Nationen im Gleichschritt: Der Kult der “Nation in Waffen” in Deutschland und Frankreich, 1871–1914 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1997), pp. 170–8.

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The Wars of Liberation accordingly had developed into a symbol of the German aspiration toward and affirmation of national autonomy. That such an aspiration was implicitly tied to the notion of the Kulturvolk and was conversely denied to the Naturvolk has already been discussed in Chapter 3. The freedom aspired to by the Herero was therefore frequently considered to be that of a lawless brigandism, as claimed for instance by Oskar Wilhelm Stübel and Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg in the parliamentary debate on the Herero War also mentioned in the previous chapter. Just as Bebel had sought to create some empathy with the African insurgents by emphasizing the parallel with the anticolonial resistance of the Teutonic tribes against Roman rule, the short anecdotal text offers a similar suggestion in relation to the vaunted Wars of ­Liberation. In both instances, the admonition is to admit a conciliatory perspective of cultural relativism into the perception of and dealings with the colonial other, to which is added in the anecdote at least implicitly the reflection on the discursive appropriation of the concept of freedom to the hegemonic national interest. As we have seen in Chapter 3, such a cultural relativism had been advocated already by Johann Gottfried Herder. As a further poignant articulation of his ideas, the philosopher maintained: “The negro paints the devil white.”50 ­Herder’s suggestion that the ultimate evil is vilified as the respective other intriguingly appears to be vividly visualized within the context of the Herero War in a cartoon by Heine.51 Published in the same colonial issue of Simplicissmus in May 1904, the untitled cartoon pictures “How the negroes in our colonies imagine the devil” (1904; Figure 24):52 Emphasizing the notorious attributes of Wilhelm II  –  his moustaches, fierce look, Pickelhaube, and exaggerated military bearing  –  the drawing shows a grotesquely distorted image of the Kaiser all in white against a stark black background. Whether the cartoon was meant to be an allusion to Herder’s aphorism is immaterial, though the similarities are striking. What is important, however, is that the image graphically visualized and mediated to the satirical magazine’s large readership the cultural relativism as it was advanced by Herder and, a century later, forcefully expressed by Bebel in the contemporary

50 Herder, Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität, XVIII, 224: “Der Neger mahlt den Teufel weiß.” 51 Heine was of assimilated Jewish heritage. For the artist’s biography, see Franz Menges, “Thomas Theodor Heine (1867–1948), Karikaturist und Zeichner,” in Manfred Treml and Wolf Weigand (eds.), Geschichte und Kultur der Juden in Bayern: Lebensläufe (Munich, etc: Saur, 1988), pp. 243–9. 52 Thomas Theodor Heine, “Wie die Neger in unsern Kolonien sich den Teufel vorstellen,” ­Simplicissimus, special issue: Kolonien 9.6 (May 3, 1904): 60: “Wie die Neger in unsern Kolonien sich den Teufel vorstellen.”

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Figure 24: Thomas Theodor Heine, “How the Negroes in Our Colonies Imagine the Devil” (“Wie die Neger in unsern Kolonien sich den Teufel vorstellen”), Simplicissimus (1904). © DACS 2018.

parliamentary debate on the Herero War as well as in the anecdote in the very same issue of Simplicissimus.53 It has been argued that in Simplicissimus representations of colonial conflict which suggest a connection between social conditions in Germany and those in South-West Africa occur much less frequently than those showing the Herero to 53 A similar sentiment is expressed in Georg Koch’s cartoon “Kindererziehung am Kiliman­ dscharo” (“Parenting at the Kilimanjaro”) in Der wahre Jakob 24.549 (July 31, 1907): 5497, in which the white man is invoked by the native mother toward her wayward child as the bogeyman: “The negro mother: Be quiet, or else the white man will come – he will beat everything to death! [Die Negermutter: Sei still, sonst kommt der weiße Mann – der prügelt alles tot!]” This issue of Der wahre Jakob is mostly dedicated to the trial of Carl Peters who is implicitly identified with the white bogeyman in analogy to the children’s game of “Wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann” [Who’s afraid of the black man]; for the game, see, e.g., Lisa-Marie Rohrdantz, Weis(s)heiten im postkolonialen Deutschland: Das Konzept des critical whiteness am Beispiel der Selbst- und Fremdwahrnehmung von Menschen afrikanischer Herkunft und Weißen Deutschen in Deutschland (Frankfurt am Main and New York: Lang, 2009), p. 61.

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be directly affected by the events.54 It seems to me that my readings of the cartoons discussed here suggest otherwise. If, for instance, Heine’s devil is depicted as white in response to the imagined perception of the native, the same devil is nevertheless recognizable as such also from the metropolitan perspective. In this configuration it may be less its color that becomes operative, but the figure’s militaristic attributes speak to the internal subaltern of the authoritarian state as well as to the colonial subaltern. In either case this devil threatens subjugation and oppression. The colonial periphery is in this way closely linked to the colonial metropole inasmuch as it provided a veiled way of pointing the finger at a devil that otherwise must remain unnamed. The cartoon as such crucially relies on the recognition effect and on the awareness of correspondence and empathy it produces. The cover cartoon of Simplicissimus on April 19, 1904, if perhaps more obviously, operates in a similar way. Once again by Heine, “The African Peril” (“Die afrikanische Gefahr,” 1904; Figure 25) showed Herero warriors advancing with red flags on industrial installations in Germany and joining forces with the oppressed proletariat. The caption reads: “It is about time that the government take action with all its might against the Herero, otherwise the black beasts will eventually come to Germany and abolish slavery here.”55 Converging with the ideological interests of the Social Democratic Der wahre Jakob, the cartoon not only emphasized the oppression of the proletariat in Germany but also adopted, and thus challenged, discourse on the natives which styled them as black beasts, a designation ironically subverted by the redemptive agency attributed to them in relation to the suffering of the white workers. Intriguingly, the image moreover virtually seems to be a visualization of Shepherd Stuurman’s vision of black warriors pushing across a vast bridge into Germany, intent on slaughtering all whites with the exception of those made to serve the new masters. The similarity is almost uncanny in that the cartoon was published nearly exactly a year before Stuurman’s vision was reported in print in Germany. To assume in turn that the Ethiopian “prophet” may have been inspired by the cartoon would seem far-fetched, if not preposterous.56 And yet, Heine’s drawing not only includes the bridge and the advancing black warriors, but its

54 See Ulrike Ziegler, Die Rezeption des Hererokriegs in der Satirezeitschrift “Simplicissimus” (Munich and Ravensburg: GRIN, 2012), p. 21. 55 Thomas Theodor Heine, “Die afrikanische Gefahr,” Simplicissimus 9.4 (April 19, 1904): 31: “Es ist höchste Zeit, daß die Regierung mit aller Macht gegen die Hereros vorgeht, sonst kommen die schwarzen Bestien schließlich noch nach Deutschland und heben bei uns die Sklaverei auf.” 56 Though one may wonder if it was entirely beyond the missionary to embellish his report with recourse to a rousing cartoon with which he may have been familiar.

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Figure 25: Thomas Theodor Heine, “The African Peril” (“Die afrikanische Gefahr”), Simplicissimus (1904). © DACS 2018.

caption mentions white slavery. Of course, in the cartoon, these details narrate a very different story. But the very same elements nevertheless define Stuurman’s vision and its own narrative of resistance. Where the prophet envisions the straightforward reversal of the colonial order, the cartoonist’s intentions seem to be more subtle. The satire is once more predicated on the identification of white and black and, via the tertium comparationis of slavery, denounces the treatment at the hands of the ruling classes of both the German proletariat and the African natives. While it obviously is not the objective of the cartoon to advocate the mere

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reversal of conditions, it nevertheless suggests a profound commonality between the white and the black subalterns which, in the progress of the Internationale symbolized by the prominent red flags in the picture envisages the solution to both social and colonial injustice. More piquantly, the cartoon indicates that it is the African theater of war which will help to rouse the oppressed proletariat. It in effect proposes that the subalterns, here and there, should join forces in the interest of their common aim and of their common humanity.

Commemoration and Oblivion The brotherhood of humankind and, more specifically, the brotherhood of the pursued was invoked also in Mbwapwa’s first letter from New-Newland. Of course, the letters do not call for the revolution. Rather, they are in this respect, as ­suggested in Chapter 1, principally a commentary on Herzl’s celebration of tolerance. Accordingly, Mbwapwa’s response to the invasion of the colonizers is to absorb them and, in effect, to become one with them. Yet he retains his own voice which, in the disputatious Jewish community, is frequently and ­uncontestedly ­nonconformist – in contrast to more rigid conceptions of ‘brotherhood.’ The pressure to conform implicit in such notions of brotherhood was critiqued by Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow in a slightly different context but was made productive in various satiric ventures, among them also Jungmann’s letters from New-Newland. During the parliamentary debate on the general financial budget for 1904 and in particular for the Schutzgebiete in December 1903, just weeks before the escalation in German South-West Africa, von Bülow polemically challenged the internal commitment of the Social Democratic opposition to the freedom of expression, alleging that their guiding principle was: “If my brother you don’t want to be, / I’ll bash your head in, you’ll see.”57 His quip, as we will see in Chapter 5, was picked up by Jungmann in the letters from New-Newland. But long before then its critical potential in the context of the Herero War had also been recognized by other satirists. In the Berlin satirical weekly Lustige Blätter, for instance, appeared a cartoon purporting to be a “contribution to the shortly to be published ‘almanac of decorations’.”58 The drawing, probably by Franz Albert Jüttner, presents the two sides of a medal supposedly to be awarded to veterans of the Herero War

57 “Und willst Du nicht mein Bruder sein, / So schlag’ ich Dir den Schädel ein.” See StBR ­(December 10, 1903), p. 58 (B). 58 F[ranz Albert] J[üttner], “Beitrag zum demnächst erscheinenden ‘Ordens-Almanach’,” Lustige Blätter 19.10 (1904): 11.

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Figure 26: F[ranz Albert] J[üttner], “Contribution to the Shortly to be Published ‘Almanac of Decorations’” (“Beitrag zum demnächst erscheinenden ‘Ordens-Almanach’”), Lustige Blätter (1904).

(Figure 26). On the obverse, it shows an officer in the distinctive uniform of the Schutztruppe extending his hand to a bemused African with the inscription of the first line of von Bülow’s doggerel, “Willst du nicht mein Bruder sein,” which is completed on the reverse: “schlag’ ich dir den Schädel ein!” The accompanying image shows the same officer, his moustachioed face not unlike von Trotha’s, attacking the collapsing African with his sabre. The cartoon preceded the real medal by three years and the latter obviously bears no resemblance to the former. It is nevertheless illuminating to include the genuine medal in this discussion because its design arguably situates it within the discourse of a race war that, as we have seen in the previous chapter, had evolved in conjunction with the colonial campaign and that must be considered a crucial nodal cluster in the Mbwapwa rhizome. The South-West Africa Campaign Medal (Südwestafrika-Denkmünze) was instituted by Wilhelm II in March 1907 and had been designed by the Kaiser ­himself.59 The dies were cut by Otto Schultz, chief-die-sinker at the Royal ­Prussian Mint in Berlin. The medal’s obverse shows a helmeted bust of Germania in low

59 For the medal, see Jörg Nimmergut, Deutsche Orden und Ehrenzeichen, 1800–1945, 18th edn. (1977; Regenstauf: Battenberg, 2010), p. 692, no. 3165.

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Figure 27a, b: German South-West Africa Campaign Medal, obverse: “SOUTH-WEST AFRICA” (“SUEDWEST AFRIKA / 1904–06”); reverse: “TO THE VICTORIOUS COMBATANTS” (“DEN SIEGREICHEN STREITERN”) (bronze; 1907).

relief with the legend “SOUTH-WEST AFRICA” (“SUEDWEST AFRIKA”) on the left and “1904–06” on the right (Figure 27a). Its reverse displays the imperial cypher “W II” surmounted by the German imperial crown with ribbons and a pair of crossed swords below; the legend reads: “TO THE VICTORIOUS COMBATANTS” (“DEN SIEGREICHEN STREITERN”) (Figure 27b). The choice of Germania is intriguing and not as predictable as might be expected.60 In fact, the female personification of Germany was more ambivalent than the Kaiser may have realized – or, if he did, he may deliberately have intended to assimilate the figure more fully to the assortment of symbols sustaining the imperial claim to power. Initially associated with the Wars of Liberation of 1813–15, and since the revolutions of 1848–49 with the emancipatory aspirations of liberal-democratic forces, it was only since the latter half of the nineteenth century that “the figure of an armed Germania defying an enemy” became popular.61 The most iconic representation of this type which asserted the unity of state and nation was p ­ robably

60 For Germania, see Bettina Brandt, “Germania in Armor: The Female Representation of an Endangered German Nation,” in Sarah Colvin and Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly (eds.), Women and Death 2: Warlike Women in the German Literary and Cultural Imagination since 1500 ­(Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2009), pp. 86–126 and, in more detail, Bettina Brandt, Germania und ihre Söhne: Repräsentationen von Nation, Geschlecht und Politik in der Moderne (Göttingen: ­Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2010). See also Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, Beauty or Beast?: The Woman Warrior in the German Imagination from the Renaissance to the Present (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 8–10. 61 Brandt, “Germania in Armor,” p. 88.

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Figure 28: Germania, Niederwald Monument, Rüdesheim on the Rhine (b/w postcard; Germany; c. 1900).

the Niederwald Monument which had been initiated after the victory against France in 1871 and was eventually completed in 1883 (Figure 28).62 Indeed, as Bettina Brandt observes, following the foundation of the Empire, Germania “metamorphosed from the bride of liberty to the Siegesbraut (victory bride),”63 which 62 See ibid., p. 86. 63 Ibid., p. 99.

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was also reflected in the consolidation of her iconography as a woman warrior. At the same time, it was precisely her female nature which, in a culture-critical discourse emerging in the 1880s, was increasingly vitiated and described as demeaning to German masculinity.64 However, in the context of the South-West African campaign, it may have been precisely her feminitiy which, in conjunction with her martial bearing, was meant to be invoked. In contrast to monumental representations of Germania in Germany, or even other contemporary artistic, literary, and satirical renderings of the personification, the campaign medal did not celebrate the woman warrior as defender of the German lands. Rather, it was predicated on the notion of Germania abroad and was thus situated, to some extent, in a different context, even though the overseas possessions were progressively incorporated into the idea of the Reich. In addition, the miniature format of the medal and the choice of a bust portrait in profile significantly reduce the semantic potential conveyed by the representation as compared, for instance, to the Niederwald Monument with its supporting figures and array of attributes. The figure nevertheless retains attributes of sufficient semantic value to suggest that its femininity offers an implicit contrast to constructions of the savage other, both male and female. It not only displays features of classical beauty diametrically opposed to racially informed stereotypical ­representations of ­blackness. In the racialized context of the war, Germania moreover evokes ­associations of the white woman whose honor is heroically defended by the ­“victorious combatants” against the natives’ base desires and the threat of ­violation. In addition, German women, as we have seen in the discussion of the official report on the Herero War in the previous chapter, were extolled for their heroic composure and devotion during the conflict. In all these respects, the image accordingly corresponds to the type of the ‘victory bride’ identified by Brandt “as the object of male fantasies,” compared to which “a combatant ­Germania appeared less ­frequently.”65 Yet the representation on the campaign medal in fact offers an amalgamation of both. The Germania of the Niederwald Monument is crowned with an oak wreath. In the medal, her martial aspect is evoked more conspicuously with her winged helmet which appositely carries connotations of Nike, the ancient Greek winged goddess of victory. Its almost operatic quality  –  reminiscent, for instance, of countless contemporary Brünnhilde performances66  –  moreover associates the 64 See Brandt, Germania und ihre Söhne, p. 356. 65 Brandt, “Germania in Armor,” p. 104. 66 See, e.g., the well-known photographs of Rosa Sucher, Ellen Gulbransson, Lucie Weidt, and others performing as Brünnhilde in Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung cycle (Ring des

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clichéd representation of Teutonic heroes (see, e.g., Figure 34) which since the nineteenth century prominently included the winged helmet, most famously in the monument to Arminius erected in Detmold in 1875 and, like the Niederwald Monument, born from a spirit of national self-assertion. Her warlike nature infuses this Germania with a masculine element which confirms the semantic ambivalence and potentially even transgressive quality observed by Brandt in the iconography of the figure due to the challenge it was perceived to pose to constructions of German masculinity.67 In this case, however, in particular against the background of the implicit racial other as the vanquished enemy, the amalgamation of feminine and masculine characteristics, of Nordic beauty and of martial prowess, in a word of Germanness, suggests a collective engagement and comprehensive inclusivity which indicates that the whole nation is subsumed under the idea of Germania, where in fact the German power base was slim at best, consisting of a few thousand settlers and the military presence of the Schutztruppe.68 A comparison with British campaign medals during the reign of Queen ­Victoria is illuminating in this context. These usually show on the obverse a bust portrait of the monarch in profile and on the reverse frequently an image which identifies the locale and occasion. Representations of Britannia occur, but are relatively rare. Thus, the reverse of the Indian Mutiny Medal (1857–58) presents a helmeted Britannia, standing in front of a lion, bearing a wreath in her right hand and with a union shield on her left arm. Closer to the German South-West African campaign, both chronologically and geographically, is the depiction of Britannia on the reverse of the Queen’s South Africa Medal awarded during the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902). In this case, the reverse shows Britannia with the Union flag in her left hand and a laurel wreath in her right. In the background are marching troops and two men-of-war; in the foreground are displayed Neptune’s trident and Britannia’s shield.69 On both medals, Britannia appears in a context elaborated through further attributes and in full-length representations, which suggests a less distanced and elevated, less idealistic, engagement than the bust portrait of Germania.

­Nibelungen; first performed in 1876) which consistently feature the winged helmet across Europe and the United States. 67 See Brandt, Germania und ihre Söhne, p. 356. 68 For the demographics of the protectorate in South-West Africa, see Schnee (ed.), Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon, I, 410–46, especially sections 7 and 8. 69 For British campaign medals, see Robert W. Gould, Campaign Medals of the British Army 1815–1972 (London: Arms and Armour Press, 1972).

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The design of the Herero medal is indeed unusual in that the bust of Germania is in effect substituted for that of the monarch who, in this particular case, is represented only on the reverse through his imperial cypher. This further supports the construction of Germania as a comprehensive symbol of the collective of state, nation, and imperial authority which legitimates and elevates the campaign commemorated by the medal. Schultz’s rendering of Germania is a far cry from the figure of the “bloodthirsty Fury” which emerged only a little later in the context of the First World War.70 Significantly, Germania’s serene poise on the medal, bringing to bear the very idea of Germany in the colonial conflict, ­pre-empts any notion of willful aggression. At the same time, the absolute ­prominence given to Germania not only construes the vanquished enemy by implication as an other in relation to all of the attributes and values attached to the image of the personification but effectively excises it from the medal and thus from memory. The satirical imagination in the cartoon in Lustige Blätter offered a strikingly different conception. Instead of the lofty idealism of the real medal, its two sides tell a coherent narrative that visualizes the actual confrontation between native and colonizer. In this more narrative approach the satirist follows established practice, as for instance in some of the British medals mentioned above. Yet at the same time he shows the colonizer to be the unprovoked aggressor and challenges the nature of his heroism, the victim of which is delineated in equal pictorial detail. No less importantly, the aggressor does not represent the German collective, although he is identified by his uniform as a soldier of the Schutztruppe. In fact, as mentioned above, its facial features suggest that the figure may even be a portrait of Lothar von Trotha himself, who would then in effect be singled out as a transgressive individual in the act of committing murder. The utter destruction of the Herero in the sandveld is poignantly reflected in Hans Gabriel Jentzsch’s “After the ‘Victory’” (“Nach dem ‘Siege’,” 1904).71 The cartoon in fact anticipates the twice removed distancing from the cruel fate of the Herero in the Omaheke desert encapsulated in the view through Captain Klein’s field glasses discussed in Chapter 3. In Jentzsch’s cartoon, von Trotha and another five officers of the Schutztruppe are depicted on a sandy hillock with their field glasses to their eyes. The caption has the general wonder: “The battle at the Waterberg I won; but where the Herero are, whom I vanquished, the gods may know.”72 Emphasizing the discrepancy of the general’s indifferent arrogance with 70 See Watanabe-O’Kelly, Beauty or Beast?, p. 10. 71 H[ans] G[abriel] J[entzsch], “Nach dem ‘Siege’,” Der wahre Jakob 21.476 (October 1, 1904): 4492. 72 Ibid.: “General v. Trotha: Die Schlacht am Waterberg habe ich ja gewonnen; aber wo die Hereros stecken, die ich besiegt habe, das mögen die Götter wissen.”

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the horrible fate of the Herero dying from thirst and hunger, in the foreground of the cartoon a black askari pulls bottles of sparkling wine from a well-stocked picknick hamper for the perplexed officers. In addition, the inverted commas in the title, in analogy to the drastic image on the mock medal, shrewdly interrogate the nature of such a victory: The hesitation they suggest poses a clear challenge to its putative heroism and honor. Unlike Jentzsch’s cartoon, the genuine campaign medal of 1907 construed the colonial conflict as a heroic and honorable victory attained by ‘Germania.’ But like “After the ‘Victory’,” it eliminated the vanquished enemy of the war from its commemorative purpose, in analogy to the actual destruction of the Herero in the sandveld. In turn, the perpetrators – so graphically sketched in the person of Lothar von Trotha in the medal’s parodic avatar and in Jentzsch’s cartoon – were expunged from another revealing cultural engagement with the colonial conflict. Not a satirical cartoon in its own right but inscribed into an advertisement for New Departure rear brake hubs was a particularly obnoxious drawing which flippantly alluded to the destruction of the Herero. The manufacturer’s marketing concept was founded on comic contradictions and earlier advertisements had included drawings, for instance, of a grasshopper with an umbrella, botanist’s drum, and magnifying glass holding also one of the acclaimed rear brake hubs. The accompanying text notes the nimble insect’s bafflement at being bested by the mechanical contraption. Another shows a beautiful lady rapt in contemplation of the device in her hand next to the claim that the New Departure rear brake hub is the most beautiful in the world. These advertisements for the product, printed in 1906 in Simplicissimus and Der wahre Jakob respectively,73 were obviously tailored to the anticipated appreciation of the readership of those satirical magazines. In the following year, another ‘humorous’ advertisement in Lustige Blätter depicted a black native, naked but for his loincloth and some exotic head-dress, racing on a bicycle a running ostrich, both raising clouds of dust (1907). The headline is the beginning of a sentence – “The last of the Herero escaped”  –  which is then concluded in smaller font: “because he stole a cycle with New Departure rear brake hub.”74 The cynicism of the advertisement can hardly be surpassed. Although it is divested of any obvious notions of a race war, its emphasis on “the last of the Herero” reveals that it is in fact predicated on the actual cataclysmic conclusion of the genocidal conflict which it even exacerbates by discursively slaughtering 73 See Simplicissimus 11.13 (June 25, 1906): 213 and Der wahre Jakob 23.513 (March 20, 1906): 4985. 74 Lustige Blätter 22.17 (1907): n. p.: “Der letzte Herero entkam, weil er ein Rad stahl mit New-­ Departure Freilauf-Bremsnabe.”

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any other survivors.75 Yet, escape is possible for the native only by making use of a product of civilization which, moreover, has been stolen by him. The implications are once again clichéd: The blessings of civilization are not rightfully those of the Naturvölker, and the native is a thief. The stolen bicycle allows the fugitive to maintain, or even to surpass, the speed of the fleet-footed ostrich which is, after all, known to be the fastest animal on two legs. The speed and momentum of the native’s flight reflect on the overwhelming force which compels him to flee, and yet there is no obvious indication of violence as none of the pursuers are seen in the drawing. The cartoon in this manner maximizes the comic potential of the representation while at the same time distancing the reader – and the ­military executioners of the Herero  –  from the real outcome of this pursuit, sufficient knowledge of which is obviously taken for granted. Indeed, the advertisement nonchalantly trivializes the genocidal massacre of the Herero as well as their gruesome fate in the sandveld which is implicitly identified as the setting of the chase by the dust raised by bicycle and ostrich. That an advertisement like this should not only have been thought to promote the manufacturer’s product adequately but was even conceivable is a compelling indication of the increasingly dissociated manner in which the Herero War was perceived after the elimination of the imminent threat to German colonial rule and German lives in the protectorate. There is absolutely no discernible critical value attached to the New Departure advertisement, and while it might be argued that the placement of the advertisement in a satirical magazine may suggest some subversive impetus, it is difficult to see which shape this should have taken, nor is such an intention in fact likely.

Capitalist Complicity and Clerical Collusion In its own way, the New Departure advert is a macabre exploitation of the bloody outcome of the colonial conflict. The actual war’s allegedly capitalist motivation, invoked also by Bebel and other Social Democrats, is graphically portrayed in Willy Lehmann-Schramm’s “From Our Colonies” (“Aus unseren Kolonien,” 1906) in Der wahre Jakob. The cartoon shows two well-dressed men in profile as they contemplate the human remains scattered across the desert, from which they are distanced by their slightly elevated position. When, immune to the grim view, 75 The phrase may also be meant to evoke the title of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans (1826); implicit reference to this novel was also made by Jungmann in the last of ­Mbwapwa’s letters, as discussed in Chapter 5.

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they consider how to profit from the conflagration, the taller of the two is identified by his accent as Prussian  –  impossible to render adequately in English: “Even though there hasn’t been any profit and though none of the higher goods may be fetched he-ahh, it’s still worthwhile to set up a bone mill!”76 Given the increasing currency of rampant antisemitic stereotypes at the time, it should perhaps be noted that neither of the two displays any of the clichéd markers of ­Jewishness. Instead, according to the class divisions persistently deplored by Der wahre Jakob, they appear to embody the fattened capitalist entrepreneur and the dry and paunchy Prussian Junker.77 The cartoon correspondingly condemns not only the brutality of the war and the massacre perpetrated on the Herero. Indeed, though easy to overlook, there is more than one indication in Lehmann-Schramm’s drawing that the Herero were not the only victims of the capitalists’ war in South-West Africa. From among the skulls and bones in the sandveld protrudes an abandoned sabre, and in the very foreground of the image forlornly rests the characteristic hat of a rider of the Schutztruppe with upturned brim and tri-colored cockade. In an earlier anonymously published cartoon, “The New Transports to South-West Africa” (“Die neuen Transporte nach Südwestafrika,” 1904), Der wahre Jakob had already denounced the manner in which German troops were turned into “Canon fodder” in the colonial war in the protectorate.78 In Lehmann-Schramm’s cartoon, the German fallen, indistinct from those of their enemies, are clearly identified as the victims of capitalism alongside the Herero. As such, the cartoon was critical not so much of the soldiers who fought the dirty war but of the system that compelled them to do so. At the very least implicitly, it extended its criticism also to the colonial metropole itself where the same system held sway. In another cartoon, published about four months earlier, once again in Der wahre Jakob, the cadavers of the fallen – of Germans, Herero, and horses – are not yet reduced to skulls and bones. In a composition similar to that of ­Lehmann-Schramm’s drawing, the dead litter the plain. Yet here, a hugely oversized vulture is prominently sitting on the body of one of the German soldiers, while more of the carrion birds are descending toward the rich feast provided

76 Willy Lehmann-Schramm, “Aus unseren Kolonien,” Der wahre Jakob 23.511 (February  13, 1906): 4959: “Wenn et ooch nischt einjebracht hat und höhere Güter dabei nicht zu holen sind, für die Aufstellung einer Knochenmühle lohnt et sich doch noch!” 77 A perplexing curiosity is that the flag rising from the bones in the desert is clearly not the imperial black-white-red but rather suggests the black-red-gold linked with the revolutionary movement of 1848 and democratic liberalism. 78 Anonymous, “Die neuen Transporte nach Südwestafrika,” Der wahre Jakob, Illustrirte Unterhaltungs-Beilage 21.467 (June 14, 1904): 4383: “Kanonenfutter.”

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for them. The caption of the anonymously published “The Blessings of Colonial Policy” (“Der Segen der Kolonialpolitik,” 1905)79 makes macabre reference to the meat shortage suffered in the early years of the twentieth century in Germany and whose apex occurred in 1905: “There is no Shortage of Meat in South-West Africa.”80 Although both cartoons are distinct, the general similarity of their composition and their poignant captions nevertheless suggest that in the later sample the vultures have been replaced by vultures of a different kind. The rich pickings promised in the former drawing have gone and it is the bare bones, indiscriminately of friend and foe, which – after the carrion birds had their fill – remain to be exploited by the human vultures.81 The brutality and futility of the colonial war as well as its exploitative nature, evoked so graphically in these cartoons, informed also many others.82 ­Moreover, complicity. capitalist culpability was frequently augmented with clerical ­ ­Kladderadatsch was predictably reticent on this issue, yet both Simplicissimus and, even more vigorously, Der wahre Jakob condemned the alleged bigotry of the missionaries of both denominations and were rather explicit in their criticism. In its special issue on the colonies of May 1904, Simplicissimus included Wilhelm Schulz’s “Modern Apostles” (“Moderne Apostel,” 1904).83 The cartoon shows the advancing columns of the Schutztruppe firing on fleeing natives, fallen black bodies, and  –  in the background  –  burning huts. Towering above these much smaller figures are three black-cassocked missionaries, two Catholic and one Protestant, brandishing the cross and the bible, respectively, and marching alongside the soldiers. The caption reiterates the great commission: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations!”84 While obviously taken from the bible, the command is ambivalent in that its emphasis on teaching coincides also with the objectives of the mission civilisatrice. Yet the lesson shown to be taught in the cartoon is one that mocks and violates both the spirit of the bible and of civilization.

79 Anonymous, “Der Segen der Kolonialpolitik,” Der wahre Jakob, Illustrirte Unterhaltungs-Beilage 22.502 (October 17, 1905): 4833. 80 Ibid.: “In Südwestafrika herrscht keine Fleischnot.” For a contemporary source on the meat shortage, see, e.g., Ernst Grünfeld, “Die Fleischteuerung in Deutschland im Jahre 1905 und ihre Ursachen,” Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, Dritte Folge 32.1 (1906): 58–80. 81 Lehmann-Schramm’s “Aus unseren Kolonien” was followed on the very next page by another reference to the meat shortage in Germany with a cartoon by R[ichard] H[erdtle], “Im Zeichen der Fleischnot” (“In the Sign of the Meat Shortage”), Der wahre Jakob 23.511 (February 12, 1906): 4960. 82 See, e.g., Olaf Gulbransson, “Kolonisation,” Simplicissimus 9.3 (April 12, 1904): 30. 83 Wilhelm Schulz, “Moderne Apostel,” Simplicissimus, special issue: Kolonien 9.6 (May  3, 1904): 58. 84 Ibid.: “Gehet hin in alle Welt und lehret alle Völker!” See Matthew 28:19.

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In Der wahre Jakob, the alleged cynicism of the missionaries in the colonies was castigated in a cartoon by Rudolf Grieß. His “From the Bismarck Archipelago” (“Vom Bismarck-Archipel,” 1904) is set in the Pacific colonial theater. It nevertheless poignantly illustrates the bigotry attributed by the anticlerical magazine to the missionaries, no less than their supposed collusion with the imperial power in order to promote their own hegemonial aims.85 Approaching a naval officer, who reclines in a deckchair in the jungle clearing around the government house, the missionary in the drawing gripes: “After we have succeeded with God’s help in destroying the natives, I am impatiently awaiting the requested coolies in order to be able at last to do some missionary work.”86 Emil Erk’s “No Quarter will be Given” (“Pardon wird nicht gegeben,” 1905),87 also published in Der wahre Jakob in the following year, cites in its title the infamous “Hun Speech” of the Kaiser in which Wilhelm II had admonished the German expeditionary force sent to fight in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 to take no prisoners.88 Similar sentiments, though in this case not attributed to the emperor, were also current during the Herero War in South-West Africa, as reported for instance by the horrified missionary August Elger to the Rhenish Mission in F ­ ebruary 1904.89 And yet, in Erk’s cartoon, it is ironically a missionary who, w ­ itnessing the brutal murder of a native at the hands of two soldiers of the ­Schutztruppe, is seen in the background, piously lifting his eyes to heaven and, as the caption ­indicates, intoning the Lord’s Prayer: “.... and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”90 Where Schulz’s “Modern Apostles” and Grieß’s missionary appear 85 For a detailed study of the interaction of ecclesiastic mission and colonial administration in German South-West Africa, see Nils Ole Oermann, Mission, Church and State Relations in SouthWest Africa under German Rule (1884–1915) (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1999); for the period of the Herero War, see esp. pp. 93–112. 86 R[udolf] G[rieß], “Vom Bismarck-Archipel,” Der wahre Jakob, Illustrirte Unterhaltungs-Beilage 21.477 (November 1, 1904): 4511: “Missionar: Nachdem es uns mit Gottes Hilfe gelungen ist, die Eingeborenen zu vernichten, erwarte ich mit Ungeduld die bestellten Kulis, um endlich wieder etwas missionieren zu können.” 87 Emil Erk, “Pardon wird nicht gegeben,” Der wahre Jakob, Illustrirte Unterhaltungs-Beilage 22.483 (January 24, 1905): 4591. 88 See Thoralf Klein, “Die Hunnenrede (1900),” in Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst and Jürgen ­Zimmerer (eds.), Kein Platz an der Sonne: Erinnerungsorte der deutschen Kolonialgeschichte (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2013), pp. 164–76. 89 Elger’s account, in which he reports that the talk throughout the protectorate was of “sorting out, stringing up, shooting down each and every one of them without giving any quarter [aufräumen, aufhängen, niederknallen bis auf den letzten Mann, kein Pardon],” is quoted in Drechsler, Südwest-Afrika unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft, pp. 146–7. 90 Erk, “Pardon wird nicht gegeben,” 4591: “Missionär: ..... und vergib uns unsere Schuld, wie wir vergeben unsern Schuldigern.” See Matthew 6:12.

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to go along with and to legitimate the atrocities committed by the colonial power, Erk’s drawing shows the clergyman not only powerless to intervene in the perpetration of the crime but deferring justice by implication to the hereafter. His prayer is a farce: Its Christian moral is mocked by the horrid deed and by the absolution implicitly offered. Conversely, the notion of guilt – “Schuld,” as the German translation of the biblical text has it – is explicitly invoked. The image is unambiguous in apportioning it to the soldiers; yet the missionary’s lack of engagement makes him complicit and reveals the discrepancy between holy sentiment and unctuous inaction. To collusion and complicity in the atrocities perpetrated in the protectorate was added the accusation that the ecclesiastics were possessed of a harmful enmity toward culture and civilization. They were in this respect even identified with the savage natives via the tertium comparationis of the color black, just as Jungmann identified in the letters from New-Newland the Mizrachim with Mbwapwa and his ­ lackness. There were of compatriots based on the common denominator of their b course different degress of subtlety to such identifications, but they all refer more or less obliquely to the Kulturkampf and the influence of the churches in Germany by drawing a connection between the colonial periphery and the metropole. Relatively subtle is Eduard Thöny’s “Return from South-West Africa” ­(“Rückkehr aus Südwestafrika,” 1904),91 which shows an old couple sitting forelornly on the quay, with the caption: “You know, my dear, we’ll settle well enough again in Germany. After all, we’re used to the blacks.”92 Published in May 1904 in the Simplicissimus special issue on the colonies, the backdrop to this assertion is the Herero War, far from being concluded at this time. The old couple are obviously refugees from the protectorate who reflect wistfully on their return to Germany. The suggestion is not only that the black presence of the clergy is as ubiquitous in the colonial metropole as that of the natives in the periphery; the attribute of the black color moreover insinuates that both share a primitive ­savagery and enmity to culture as their common characteristic. In the same issue of Simplicissimus, the anticultural affinity of clerics and natives was suggested even more graphically in a cartoon by Josef Benedikt Engl. His “From a Colonial Report” (“Aus einem Kolonialbericht,” 1904) shows three black natives performing a war dance in grotesquely exaggerated movements not unlike those of the cakewalk which, as we will see in the following chapter, was hugely popular in Europe at the time. The savages are armed with 91 Eduard Thöny, “Rückkehr aus Südwestafrika,” Simplicissimus, special issue: Kolonien 9.6 (May 3, 1904): 60. 92 Ibid.: “Weißt du, Alte, wir werden uns in Deutschland schon wieder einleben. Wir sind ja an die Schwarzen gewöhnt.”

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spear, knive, and rifle with bayonet; and they are dressed in the spoils taken from their ­(presumably) massacred victims: The cassocks of both Catholic priests and ­Protestant vicars. The caption reads: “When the savages began their war dance, some of them dressed in the garments of their former missionaries, this increased most gruesomely the impression of enmity toward culture!”93 In this instance, it is explicitly their common hatred of culture which provides the tertium comparationis between the black-skinned natives and the black-cassocked clerics. Yet the cartoon visually emphasizes once again blackness as the common denominator expressive of their shared savagery toward culture. The black-on-black of the figures, strongly highlighted by the white contours of facial features and drapery, is in effect the construction of another double blackness, like that discursively construed also in the letters from New-Newland. It is obvious that the anticlerical sentiment in Schlemiel is analogous to these depictions of ecclesiastics in the liberal and left-oriented satirical press in Germany. Jungmann was clearly able to refer to a recognizable tradition of representations of clerics as black with all the connotations this would have invoked. That Mbwapwa, at least as visualized by Rosintal, is not dressed in black but in a plaid caftan is then an intriguing detail which deviates at least partially from this tradition. It implicitly emphasizes his persisting difference and may indeed have been intended to do so. After all, Mbwapwa is an amiable character who, to some extent, emerges as the conscience of the black Mizrachim and, even though he becomes complicit in some of their anticultural excesses, is proffered as an identification figure to the reader.

The New Regiment and the Jewish Spirit In “A New Master in the House,” or perhaps better “The New Regiment,” (“Die neue Herrschaft,” 1907)94 which appeared just days before the Reichstag elections of January 1907, the anticlerical stance of Simplicissimus emerged quite clearly in relation to the colonial venture and in particular to the ecclesiastic entanglements of the Colonial Office. In the cartoon by the Norwegian-born Olaf Gulbransson, the scruffy rotund priest having collected morsels from the kitchen

93 Josef Benedikt Engl, “Aus einem Kolonialbericht,” Simplicissimus, special issue: Kolonien 9.6 (May 3, 1904): 63: “Als die Wilden ihren Kriegstanz begannen, einige angetan mit den Kleidern ihrer früheren Missionäre, vermehrte dies auf das Schauerlichste den Eindruck der Kulturfeind­ lichkeit!” 94 Olaf Gulbransson, “Die neue Herrschaft,” Simplicissimus 11.43 (January 21, 1907): 703.

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of the house for many years is thrown down the stairs by the new master with his basket empty and the suds of the cleaning water poured on him. The new master is of course Bernhard Dernburg, the new Colonial Secretary, who had commenced his incumbency at the Colonial Office not long before with the promise to purge it from scandal. Over the course of the following years, with the various colonial conflicts in Africa soon to be concluded, Dernburg’s “new regiment” was to prompt much satirical engagement. This focused not only on the colonies and their administration but also on the person of the unlikely new Colonial Secretary – in particular on his background in banking and on his, albeit assimilated, Jewish heritage. The latter, gleefully mentioned also in the “Parliamentary Report” in Schlemiel, was frequently addressed in the satirical press to differing degrees of piquancy or even affrontery. In Olaf Gulbransson’s cartoon sequence “Dernburg’s Bliss” (“Dernburgs Glück,” 1908),95 for instance, the supposedly oriental descent of the Jewish ­Colonial Secretary was graphically illustrated with his representation in Assyrian ­ ardanapal costume. The cartoon alludes to the historical ballet and pantomime S about the eponymous last (and presumably mythical) Assyrian ruler, commissioned by Wilhelm II and performed in Berlin in 1908.96 The by all accounts boring production was notable mostly for its lavish and painstaking recreation of the architecture of Babylon and Ashur, the latter excavated by Walter Andrae who also designed the sets for the Royal Opera.97 The cartoon sequence is thus also  –  and perhaps even predominantly, though obliquely  –  a critique of the orientalist fantasies of the Kaiser who, in the second panel, is shown to watch a rehearsal of the ballet. The suggestion may even be that the colonies, of which Dernburg has become a symbol, are similar fantasies of a megalomaniac ­imagination. In the first of the three panels, Dernburg, returning from Africa, dreams of being invested with the accoutrements of military honor whose lack he feels so keenly: Pickelhaube and sabre. It is during the Sardanapal rehearsal that the

95 Olaf Gulbransson, “Dernburgs Glück,” Simplicissimus 13.24 (September 14, 1908): 404. 96 See Michael Seymour, Babylon: Legend, History and the Ancient City (London: Tauris, 2014), pp.  204–6. For the pantomime text, see Friedrich Delitzsch, Sardanapal: Große historische ­Pantomime in 3 Akten oder 4 Bildern unter Anlehnung an das gleichnamige Ballett Paul Taglionis neu bearbeitet von Friedrich Delitzsch (Berlin: Grave, [1908]). 97 See Seymour, Babylon, p. 205; see also Kay M. Kohlmeyer, Wiedererstehendes Babylon: Eine antike Weltstadt im Blick der Forschung. Ausstellung des Museums für Vor- und Frühgeschichte der Staatlichen Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, exhibition catalogue, Berlin (Berlin: Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, 1991), pp. 14–16.

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Kaiser is inspired to present his Colonial Secretary with a uniform in answer to this dream. The final panel reveals this to be a loin cloth and hat in Assyrian style which leaves the wide-eyed Dernburg otherwise exposed. The caption of the last panel caustically maintains that he was much pleased with his new uniform, which “besides also corresponded to his tradition.”98 The reference is of course to Dernburg’s Jewishness which was associated with the ancient Assyrians through the allegedly oriental heritage of both. Though exuding a whiff of antisemitism in Gulbransson’s cartoon, the same association was also evoked in Zionist discourse, if with a very different objective. In this case it was not invoked to emphasize Jewish difference with an exclusivist trajectory but to invest such a difference with national ethos and a glorious “tradition.” The liberal Zionist Elias Auerbach, for instance, wrote in 1907 that [t]he pictorial representations of the Assyrians and the Babylonians that we have not only show a great conformity with the ancient representatives of Jews, but also a striking similarity with today’s Jewish type.99

The latter claim clashes conspicuously with Moritz Merker’s observation on the predominance of the Hittite type among modern Jews, discussed in Chapter 1. Indeed, Auerbach maintains: “We are also justified in speaking of a general Semitic type, to which Jews belong.”100 The claim to the Jewish affinity with the ancient Assyrians was already observed in the discussion of Theodor Herzl’s beard in Chapter 1. Yet while the Zionist leader deliberately sought to evoke the noble connotations of this affiliation, the association of Dernburg with his Jewish and, even more removed, his putative Assyrian heritage was externally imposed and effectively stamped the assimilated banker turned politician as a racially determined outsider. Gulbransson had dwelt on Dernburg’s Jewishness already in another cartoon published in Simplicissimus in the year before. In the eponymous drawing, he styled the Colonial Secretary as “The New Moses” (“Der neue Moses,” 1907; Figure  29).101 Earlier, I suggested that Schlemiel may not have had much of an impact beyond the Zionist in-group and may, more particularly, not have been perceived by those involved in the various other satirical ventures of the K ­ aiserreich. ­Nevertheless, as with Thöny’s Herero, similarities recur which may indicate – if

98 Gulbransson, “Dernburgs Glück,” 404: “[…] im übrigen auch seiner Tradition entsprach.” 99 Quoted in John M. Efron, German Jewry and the Allure of the Sephardic (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016), p. 72. 100 Quoted in ibid. 101 Olaf Gulbransson, “Der neue Moses,” Simplicissimus 11.50 (March 11, 1907): 806.

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Figure 29: Olaf Gulbransson, “The New Moses” (“Der neue Moses”), Simplicissimus (1907). © DACS 2018.

not, perhaps, a direct influence – at least the diffusion of similar motifs and their putative applicability to the colonial context. Gulbransson’s “New Moses” appeared less than two weeks after Rosintal’s drawing of Mwapwa and Chaskel’s return from Texas was published in S­ chlemiel.

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While compositionally distinct from the earlier cartoon which does not include the figure of Moses and is of course a parody of E. M. Lilien’s cover art for ­Palaestina, Gulbransson nevertheless employs the same iconographic set piece of the ­biblical spies returning from the land. In this case, they no more carry the proper fruits of the land than Mbwapwa and Chaskel. Below a roiling cloudscape, Moses with the easily recognizable features of Dernburg and wrapped in a voluminous faux biblical robe lifts eyes and arms in prayer as the two spies return. Similarly dressed in imaginary biblical garments and headdresses, they carry on their pole an old opened tin can, the meagre exploits of their expedition. The caption reads: And Dernburg went forth to explore the Promised Land which is called Africa. And he sent forth spies and they returned, after they had explored the land, after forty days. And they had found a tin can, and it was empty. Then Dernburg said: “The land is good, which the Lord our God has given to us.”102

In this persiflage of the biblical promise of the land, Africa is another land allegedly promised by divine grace; and the promise, it is implied, has been made to Germany through the mediation of the Jew. The cartoon mocks celebratory ­discourse on the colonies by equating it with the conquest of Canaan which, in the early twentieth century, was of course still largely a mythical projection, its biblical fertility contrasted by its latter-day desolation. At the same time it ridicules the notion of chosenness and of the legitimation derived from the supposedly divine promise: The land is barren, its only fruits the refuse of civilization in the shape of the empty tin. Less obviously, the cartoon moreover mocks the Jewish propensity to believe in chosenness and the promise of the land. As a Jew, Dernburg appears to be predestined to adopt the role of the visionary Moses, but if so, he is a ‘false prophet.’ The suggestion almost seems to be that it was the Dernburg Moses who led the Germans astray into the desolate protectorates. The cartoon thus inverts a contemporary pamphlet by Wilhelm Mannes in which Dernburg had been celebrated not only for his patriotic spirit but also as “a new Moses” leading the German people to Africa.103

102 Ibid.: “Und Dernburg ging hin, um das gelobte Land zu erkunden, welches da heißet Afrika. Und er schickte Kundschafter aus, und sie kehreten um, nachdem sie das Land erforscht hatten, nach vierzig Tagen. Und sie hatten eine Konservenbüchse gefunden, und sie war leer. Da sagte Dernburg: ‘Das Land ist gut, das der Herr unser Gott, uns gegeben hat.’” 103 See Wilhelm Mannes, Von Lassalle bis Dernburg: Eine kolonial-sociale Betrachtung (Braunschweig: Pfankuch, 1907) and Davis, Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent, p. 243.

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Figure 30a, b: Thomas Theodor Heine, “Carnival 1908” (“Karneval 1908”), Simplicissimus (1909); detail. © DACS 2018.

The motif of the spies was picked up once more in Simplicissimus in a vindication of the colonial enterprise diametrically opposed to the earlier ­disenchantment. In February 1909, Heine’s “Carnival 1908” (“Karneval 1908,” 1909; Figure 30a, b)104 offered in a cartoon sequence a review of a choice of momentous events of the past year. It includes also a pair of panels commemorating the discovery of diamonds in South-West Africa in June 1908 which prompted a diamond rush and by the beginning of the First World War had developed into a profitable industry.105 104 Thomas Theodor Heine, “Karneval 1908,” Simplicissimus 13.47 (February 22, 1909): 796–7. 105 See, e.g., W. O. Henderson, Studies in German Colonial History (London: Cass, 1962), p. 52.

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The first of the pair of panels depicts Dernburg, encumbered with an enormous sabre and with cavalry boots and spurs as well as, incongruously, a bowler hat. Like one of the biblical spies, he carries a pole on his shoulder, sharing the burden with a stereotypically drawn black native in a loin cloth. This time, instead of the empty tin, a colossal diamond is suspended from the pole. Palm trees and a prancing elephant in the background complete the picture. Its companion drawing shows a blind hog with spectacles and wearing a fool’s cap following the trail of a sheep’s droppings. The caption for both reads: We can also report a happy occurrence. Our Dernburg has found diamonds in our colonies. Now we only need to send a blind hog there, then we’ll also get pearls.106

The allusion to pearls in the concluding sentence is based on the proverb of “casting pearls before swine” which, in turn, is taken from the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” (Matthew 7:6) There is, however, also another, much more ambivalent subtext to the presence of the hog. In conjunction with the well-known Jewishness of Dernburg, though this is not explicitly mentioned in this particular cartoon, the hog associates the Judensau.107 The motif of the Judensau  –  the ‘Jews’ Sow’ or ‘Jewish Sow’ – originated in medieval German art. Its purpose was to disparage Judaism and to promote the exclusion of the Jewish other from Christian society. The motif, which perverted the religious injunction of Judaism against the impure animal, maintained currency also in subsequent centuries and was easily adapted in the nineteenth century to antisemitic discourse. Eduard Fuchs notes that the ­Judensau was in fact the most persistent, widely disseminated, and pernicious of all caricatures of Jews.108 A graphic illustration of the Judensau, describing the iconography of the motif as he found it displayed on the town church of Wittenberg, infamously occurs in Martin Luther’s Of the Unknowable Name and the Generations of Christ (Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi, 1543):

106 Heine, “Karneval 1908,” 797: “Auch ein fröhliches Ereignis können wir melden. Unser Dernburg hat in unsern Kolonien Diamanten gefunden. / Jetzt brauchen wir bloß noch eine blinde Sau dorthin zu schicken, dann kriegen wir auch Perlen.” 107 See Isaiah Shachar, The Judensau: A Medieval Anti-Jewish Motif and its History (London: Warburg Institute, 1974). 108 Eduard Fuchs, Die Juden in der Karikatur: Ein Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte (Munich: Langen, 1921), pp. 129–30.

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Here on our church in Wittenberg a sow is sculpted in stone. Young pigs and Jews lie suckling under her. Behind the sow a rabbi is bent over the sow, lifting up her right leg, holding her tail high and looking intensely under her tail and into her Talmud, as though he were reading something acute or extraordinary, which is certainly where they get their ­Shemhamphoras.109

The Shem ha-Mephorash describes a hidden name of God. Luther’s endorsement of the stone carving, which is inscribed “Schem Ha Mphoras,” cynically mocks the Talmud and Rabbinic exegesis. It suggests that Jews are filthy and perverted; not only as individuals and a religious community but, as later antisemitic caricatures would gleefully enlarge, as a racially defined collective. The second panel of the Simplicissimus cartoon is conspicuously devoid of any human figures which might openly contribute to such an antisemitic reading. If anything, the pig ostentatiously seems to symbolize the greed, gullibility, and stupidity which make it mistake the unclean droppings of the sheep for pearls and devour them. Yet the parallelism of sending, after Dernburg, the blind sow to the colonies for further profit not only associates rampant Jewish stereotypes of insatiable greed. In conjunction with the biblical imagery of the first panel, it moreover suggests a ‘Jewish’ perversion of values similar to that derived from the rabbi’s examination of the sow’s backpassage insidiously described by Luther. Intriguingly, the recurrence of the motif of the biblical spies in relation to Dernburg seems to suggest the application of a Jewish paradigm to the colonization of Africa which is in effect used to devaluate its idealistic foundation and, once it has been vindicated with the ‘fruits’ borne by the spies, to denigrate its materialistic motivation. The discovery of diamonds in South-West Africa inspired also another caricature of Dernburg by Olaf Gulbransson among the figures of his “Contre-Tour” (1910),110 where Diamond Bernhard  –  “Der Diamantenbernhard”  –  appears in the “Section of the Arts and Colonial Goods” (see Figure 31).111 The portrayal of the Colonial Secretary once again shows him to be an outsider, although in this case his difference is not obviously predicated on his Jewishness, though it may perhaps be explained with current stereotypes of the protean nature of the

109 Translation quoted from Michael Wolffsohn, Eternal Guilt?: Forty Years of German-Jewish-­ Israeli Relations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), p.  194. For the complete translation of ­Luther’s pamphlet, see Gerhard Falk, The Jew in Christian Theology: Martin Luther’s Anti-­Jewish Vom Schem Hamphoras, Previously Unpublished in English, and Other Milestones in Church ­Doctrine Concerning Judaism (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1992). 110 Olaf Gulbransson, “Contre-Tour,” Simplicissimus 14.45 (February 7, 1910): 775–80. 111 Ibid., 778: “Gruppe der Kunst und Kolonialwaren.”

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Figure 31: Olaf Gulbransson, “Contre-Tour”, panel: “Diamond Bernhard” (“Der Diamantenbernhard”), Simplicissimus (1910). © DACS 2018.

Jews.112 He is depicted among natives in native costume, carrying a presentation cushion with a big sparkling diamond and, protruding from his ample behind, a single peacock feather. As with Gulbransson’s earlier ‘Assyrian’ cartoon, Dernburg is once again depicted in the flesh, tubby and flabby. The presentation of the diamond with an orderly entourage of natives playing the bagpipe and beating drums is a spectacle which goes beyond the mere vindication of the colonial enterprise. The irreverent representation of Dernburg suggests exaggeration and oriental self-aggrandisement which alienates him from the white majority. Indeed, Dernburg was soon forced to retire from his position which he had taken up with so much panache but which appears to have worn him down.113 This, certainly, was how it was perceived by Heine, whose “Dernburg’s Farewell” (“Dernburgs Abschied,” 1910) was published in Simplicissimus in June 1910.114 The setting of the cartoon associates the Reichstag – this “sorry circus”115 – with the arena in which Dernburg takes his last bow as the trainer of the African ­(colonial) elephant, decorated with a medal and doffing his pith helmet. Sitting on the trained elephant’s back is Bebel in clown’s costume and the caption, once again drawing a connection between the colonial periphery and the metropole, asserts that with energy and stamina even the most savage animal may be tamed

112 See Gilman, Jewish Self-Hatred, p. 307. 113 See Davis, Colonialism, Antisemitism, and Germans of Jewish Descent, pp. 202–7. 114 Thomas Theodor Heine, “Dernburgs Abschied,” Simplicissimus 15.13 (June 27, 1910): 213. 115 Ibid.: “[…] diesen traurigen Zirkus.”

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if its skin is not too thick. Yet emphasizing his success in Africa, the cartoon Dernburg in frustration adds that “to train the Prussian pachyderm is beyond all art.”116 The paralysing Prussian inflexibility denounced here evokes the exhortative conclusion of Bierbaum’s “African Distichs.” And yet, Dernburg’s ascendancy had initially inspired much confidence, as discussed in Chapter 3. Just before the elections of 1907 Simplicissimus carried the first and only issue of the supplement The Green Pug (Der grüne Mops, 1906), edited by Heine and entitled The Re-Awakening of Liberalism (Das Wieder-­ Erwachen des Liberalismus).117 Mops, the pug, is portrayed as the anthropomorph representation of liberalism. In his younger years, he is said to have suffered from megalomania and to have mistaken himself for a hunting dog as which he participated in hunting wild boar (“Schwarzwild”). The black wild boar with a priest’s head is clearly a representation of the Catholic clergy and the reference to the boar hunt is then another graphic allusion to the Kulturkampf. This, as discussed in the previous chapter, was also referenced in various ways in S­ chlemiel. More specifically, as we have seen, it provided another model for anticlerical representations associated with the color black which clearly must be considered a significant influence on the construction of Mbwapwa and the Mizrachim in Jungmann’s texts and which, as such, constitutes also a nodal cluster in the Mbwapwa rhizome. Over the course of time, Mops is domesticated and eventually the fattened pug, in a death-like state, is buried in a corner of the garden. It is only with the ministrations of a new gardener seeking to prepare the soil for some “rare African plants” that Mops, bloated and blown up to gigantic proportions, is briefly resuscitated until a vicious kick in his backside from the majesty sees him deflated and his empty skin settling on a dry branch.118 The gardener, as the cartoon clearly indicates, is of course Bernhard Dernburg. Intriguingly, Heine’s drawing cites Gulbransson’s cover art for the left-­ liberal journal März (March), presumably as an indication of the resuscitation of ­liberalism: The image shows new shoots growing from the stump of a felled tree. Yet, considering the rapid disproportionate growth and undignified end suffered by Mops, the allusion to März, for which many of the contributors to ­Simplicissimus wrote as well, is highly ambivalent. The following panel shows Mops ballooning under the influence of the sun: “Mightily he expands in the sunshine lacking for

116 Ibid.: “Den preußischen Dickhäuter zu dressieren ist keine Kunst imstande.” 117 Thomas Theodor Heine, Der grüne Mops: Das Wieder-Erwachen des Liberalismus, supplement to Simplicissimus 11.54 (December 31, 1906): 1–4. 118 Ibid., 4: “[…] seltene afrikanische Gewächse.”

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so long.”119 In the context of the colonial enterprise this sentence gains additional significance. The notorious phrase of aspiring to “a place in the sun,” coined once again by von Bülow and already alluded to in Bierbaum’s “African Distichs,”120 was famously adopted in 1901 by the Kaiser to articulate Germany’s ambitions for colonial expansion for which it has become synonymous: In spite of the fact that we have no such fleet as we should have, we have conquered for ourselves a place in the sun. It will now be my task to see to it that this place in the sun shall remain our undisputed possession, in order that the sun’s rays may fall fruitfully upon our activity and trade in foreign parts, that our industry and agriculture may develop within the state and our sailing sports upon the water, for our future lies upon the water.121

Heine, invoking the salutary power of the sun, thus represents the colonial enterprise and Dernburg’s more liberal colonial policy implicitly as a treacherous and short-lived semblance of a more tolerant outlook which is, however, quickly ­obliterated. The regeneration of the political health of the colonial metropole promised by a more discerning policy toward the colonial periphery accordingly is shown to fail miserably, of which Mops’s deflated skin hanging forlornly from the dry branches of a tree is a poignant symbol.

Colonial Desire and Sexual Excess Thomas Theodor Heine’s “Colonial Powers” suggested that amorous entanglements in the colonies were particular to the French. In Max Jungmann’s letters from New-Newland they are indeed a conspicuous lacuna. It would seem that the satirist deliberately skirted a potentially explosive issue, though anxieties of miscegenation were otherwise attached to any colonial enterprise almost by necessity, as was acknowledged by Stöcker in the parliamentary debate on the Herero War discussed in Chapter 3. In New-Newland, Mbwapwa and his compatriots turn into Jews by conversion. Racial hybridization is never mentioned in

119 Ibid.: “Mächtig dehnt er sich im lange entbehrten Sonnenschein.” 120 StBR (December 6, 1897), p. 60 (D): “In one word: We do not want to eclipse anyone else but we too demand our place in the sun. [Mit einem Worte: wir wollen niemand in den Schatten stellen, aber wir verlangen auch unseren Platz an der Sonne.]” 121 Quoted in Christian Gauss, The German Emperor as Shown in his Public Utterances (New York: Scribner, 1915), p. 181. Wilhelm II used the phrase in a speech given in Hamburg to the North German Regatta Association, see, e.g., Klaus Kramer, Vom Gondelcorso zum ­Ocean-Race: Als Kaiser Wilhelm II. den Yachtsport nach Deutschland brachte; eine Dokumentation zur deutschen Yachtgeschichte 1815–1915 (Schramberg: Kramer, 2002), p. 189.

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the letters and the precarious situation is defused from the beginning. In contrast, the other satirical magazines mentioned in this chapter engage frequently with colonial desire and miscegenation, which were not as unthinkable in the context of Germany’s colonial fantasies and the realities on the ground in the early twentieth century as Susanne Zantop’s claim about the pre-imperial period might suggest.122 Cunningly entitled “The Dark Side” (“Die Schattenseite,” 1904), a cartoon published by Hans Gabriel Jentzsch in Der wahre Jakob critiques the nonchalance with which native women were sexually exploited by German officers in the ­colonies. Its caption  –  “That is what you get when you disseminate ­civilization  –  now even the black women demand alimonies from the likes of us!”123  –  has the monocled and arrogant military man align himself with the obnoxious officer caste castigated only a few months earlier in von Baudissin’s First-Class Men. He is quite obviously not only of the caste, but his dismissive behavior denounces that of his peers both in the colonies and at home, where alimonies are the disagreeable consequence of their depravity. The cartoon thus once again emphasizes the connection between the exploitative and immoral behavior of the upper classes in the colonial periphery and in the metropole. The colonial arena, it is suggested, offers opportunities of circumventing supposed social and moral strictures much more easily than at home. The expectation in the colonies, as the cartoon suggests, is that they offer a moral vacuum which allows any sort of excess with impunity. Realization that this may not be the case, after all, is slow on the part of the offender, and is met with the disdain for others typically attributed to his ‘caste.’ Yet other cartoons indicate that immorality is not only a vice of the refined upper classes but that the colonial encounter and its asymmetrical power relations may easily result in the brutalization of the morally feeble of any social strata. Bebel, as discussed in Chapter 3, had scathingly challenged Otto Arendt’s claim that only the very “best elements of the German people” took up the colonial ­challenge; and Stöcker, as we saw earlier in this chapter, called for the soldiers sent to the colonies to be “exceptional” rather than merely “common” because of the temptations to which they were exposed. Ferdinand von Reznicek’s “The Force

122 Zantop too acknowledges this shift in German colonial fantasies toward the end of the nineteenth century, see Zantop, Colonial Fantasies, pp. 194–5. 123 H[ans] G[abriel] J[entzsch], “Die Schattenseite,” Der wahre Jakob 21.468 (June 28, 1904): 4394: “Das hat man nun von seiner Kulturverbreitung – jetzt verlangen die schwarzen Weiber von Unsereinem auch schon Alimente!”

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of Habit” (“Die Macht der Gewohnheit,” 1904)124 is a perceptive denunciation of the moral laxity not necessarily produced but prompted and facilitated by the colonial encounter on a much more vulgar level than Jentzsch’s indictment of the officer’s dalliances. The sequence of six pictures was also included in that wonderfully complex special issue of Simplicissimus on the colonies published in May 1904. The first of the six individual images shows the white settler in the colony sitting on the floor with legs spread far apart. Perched on his left thigh and snuggling up to him is a naked black woman. In his right hand the fiercely bearded and moustachioed settler (or possibly a soldier125) holds a whip. The second picture shows the colonist arriving back at home in Germany, where he is welcomed on the quay by his wife with an embrace and kiss. The color scheme, indicating the man’s moral blackening, his ‘going native’ as it were, is now inverted: He wears a black coat and his wife is drawn all in white. The third image shows the same fellow, small and wizened, no longer in his colonial garb but in plain workingman’s dress with a bottle of spirits next to his chair, deep in contemplation of his wife as she is busy black-leading the oven flue. The following three pictures see him re-transform into the colonizer as he starts painting his wife with the black lead, dressing in his desert garments, rolling up his sleeves, and taking up the whip to which he makes his blackened wife dance. The circular structure of the cartoon emphasizes the brutality and sexual sadism the colonizer has learned to indulge in in the colony and which he then rediscovers and reassumes in the domestic setting in Germany. Yet the cartoon offers not only a denunciation of the brutalization experienced by the white man and visited upon his poor wife. It suggests that the image of the wizened old man in his slippers is in fact another re-transformation, that it is this kind of man who had earlier arrived in the colony, there to metamorphose into the bully introduced in the first picture. Without meaning to devalue Hannah Arendt’s phrase of the “banality of evil,” coined of course in the context of the Eichmann Trial,126 it is precisely this what von Reznicek’s cartoon projects: The potential of the simple man to turn into a monster – and it is the intoxication with the unaccustomed

124 Ferdinand von Reznicek, “Die Macht der Gewohnheit,” Simplicissimus, special issue: ­Kolonien 9.6 (May 3, 1904): 52. 125 The settler’s clothes are interesting. They suggest the blouse, trousers, putties, and hobnailed boots of the native askaris to which have been added spurs and a hat similar to that of the riders of the Schutztruppe. It is not, however, an accurate or consistent uniform of any actual troops. 126 Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York: Viking, 1963).

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power in the other-world of the colony which is exposed as the catalyst of this repugnant metamorphosis. Leaving aside any further considerations of the gender aspect with which the cartoon obviously also reverberates, the mistreatment of the natives and in particular the sexual abuse they suffered as a corollary of colonial desire is clearly articulated and criticized here. The sickening case of von Arenberg has already been mentiond; that of Carl Peters was perhaps even more notorious in imperial Germany and, like von Arenberg’s, was dragged out over years in courts and across the media. Peters, whom we have briefly encountered in the introduction and in Chapter 1, was a highly controversial figure vis-à-vis the colonial project. It has even been suggested that the German Africa explorer may have been the model for the fiendish Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899).127 While it is more likely that the European turned savage was in fact the author’s genuine creation inspired by a number of real-life models among which Peters may also have been,128 the explorer certainly indulged in horrific excesses against the natives which finally, in 1897, led to his conviction for inhumanity and dismissal from the colonial service.129 His case was once again brought to public attention in the context of the ongoing colonial wars in July 1907 when the editor of the Social Democratic Münchener Post, Martin Gruber, was found guilty of defamation.130 The journalist had called the explorer “Gibbet Peters” (“Hänge-Peters”) and had blamed him for the “ruthlessly ingenious sex murder” of Jagodja (also Jagodjo),131 a native servant and concubine who had tried to flee Peters’ compound at the Kilimanjaro and who was first forced to six months hard labor in chains and eventually executed in January 1892.132 With Olaf Gulbransson’s “The Peters Trial” (“Der Prozeß Peters,” 1907),133 Simplicissimus intervened in the public debate prompted by the Gruber trial which Peters sought to harness to his exculpation. The two-page pictorial 127 See Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism, p. 189. 128 See Zdzisław Najder, Joseph Conrad: A Life, transl. Halina Najder (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2007), p. 159 and Peter Edgerly Firchow, Envisioning Africa: Racism and Imperialism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2015), pp. 67–8. 129 See Arne Perras, Carl Peters and German Imperialism 1856–1918: A Political Biography ­(Oxford: Clarendon, 2004), pp. 227–9. 130 For a contemporary report on the trial, see Anonymous, “Der Fall Peters vor Gericht,” Volksstimme (Magdeburg) 18.147 (June 27, 1907): Erste Beilage. See also Perras, Carl Peters and German Imperialism, p. 239. 131 Quoted in ibid. 132 See ibid., pp. 197–200. 133 Olaf Gulbransson, “Der Prozeß Peters,” Simplicissimus 12.17 (July 22, 1907): 265–6.

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­ arrative is interesting in particular because it parallels the sadistic and psychon pathic behavior of Peters with the colonial enterprise and with colonial practices more ­generally. Gulbransson’s sequence too, like von Resnizek’s, is circular. It commences with an image of Peters standing on the back of the prostrate Jagodja, planting the imperial flag in order to found “that immense empire by the Indian Ocean” which showered Germany with immeasurable riches, as the caption ironically explains.134 The final picture in the sequence shows the kneeling Peters against a background of gibbets from which swing black bodies as he receives the blessings of a bloated, foolish and blasé looking Germania with a hugely oversized sword for erecting on the bodies of his victims “the immense empire by the Indian Ocean.”135 The sequence of images and text recounts how Jagodja first showed herself to be “a feeble woman,” lustfully sighing in Peters’ arms before “the fiendish hatred toward our great empire by the Indian Ocean” rose within her and transformed her into “the serpent of the Kilimanjaro, the most terrible foe of Germany,” into a “dehumanized monster,” into a “blood-thirsty” and “hideous hyena.” ­Throughout, Gulbransson’s drawings have a voyeuristic quality which invest the figure of Jagodja with the sexual appeal which corresponds to the ­allegations of sexual perversion and sadism of which Peters had been accused. The narrative explains how this “mortal enemy,” clearly a ridiculous exaggeration, which mirrors the shift in the perception of the African natives in the wake of the Herero War, was chased and tracked down on her flight by the medical assistant Wiest. Peters’ unscrupulous henchman is first introduced in the second panel in a way that once again quite disturbingly appears to anticipate the notion of the ­“banality of evil”: And here stands his [i.e. Peters’] friend, the terrible medical assistant Wiest, the terror of Africa. But now he lives in Entenbachstraße in Munich and doesn’t do no harm to anyone anymore.136

The story then continues with the tribunal formed by Peters, Wiest, and his dog sentencing the heavily chained Jagodja to her death, which is paralleled with the

134 Ibid., 265: “Hier sehen Sie den stillen, ernsten Pastorensohn Dr. Karl Peters, welcher am ­Indischen Ozean jenes unermeßliche Reich gründete, in welchem Deutschland die unvergleichliche Quelle seiner ungeheuren Reichtümer gefunden hat…” Emphasis in original. 135 Ibid., 266: “[…] um auf ihren Leichen das unermeßliche Reich am Indischen Ozean aufzurichten.” 136 Ibid., 265: “Und hier steht sein Freund, der furchtbare Lazarettgehilfe Wiest, der Schrecken Afrikas. Er lebt aber jetzt in der Entenbachstraße in München und tut keinem Menschen nichts mehr.” Emphasis in original.

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tribunal in Germany sitting in judgment over Peters and the expert witnesses from the military, the sciences, and the church who confirm that the natives not only do not feel the pain of being beaten but that only through generous t­reatment of their behinds can they be transformed into proper human beings possessed of the truths of salvation of Mother Church. The outcome of the trial is briefly ­summarized as follows: “Thus all the authorities of the fatherland helped in faithful fulfillment of their duties to cleanse the German flag from the filthy stains of humanity.”137 This powerful indictment is further aggravated with the concluding image of Germania blessing the perpetrator (Figure 32). This Germania is clearly a parody of that of the Niederwald Monument (see Figure 28). Yet where the colossal brass statue, herself crowned with an oak wreath, holds up high the imperial crown in her right hand, its double-chinned and complacent caricature bears it on her own head. Gulbransson’s Germania, created only three months after the bust portrait on the campaign medal, challenges the poise, beauty, and righteousness inscribed into both the miniature representation in low relief and the monumental manifestation of the figure on which it is based. Turning the values associated with the personification on the head, it mocks the very idea of Germanness vis-àvis the atrocities endorsed by Germania. Persiflage and parody are of course among the tried and tested vehicles of satirical innuendo. With cartoons, the visual recognition effect adds a further dimension to such references. As Gulbransson parodied the Niederwald ­Monument with his Germania and Rosintal alluded to E. M. Lilien’s cover art for Palaestina, Arthur Krüger published a parody of Franz von Stuck’s The Kiss of the Sphinx (Der Kuss der Sphinx, 1895) in Kladderadatsch, entitled “The Colonial Sphinx” (“Die Colonialsphinx,” 1904).138 The implications are intriguing, in ­particular if compared with the profound and precise critique of the colonial enterprise proffered in Simplicissimus and Der wahre Jakob. The identification of the sphinx with the colonial territory in Africa not only evokes the fatal sexual attraction of the other and carries associations of colonial desire. It moreover implies the innocence of those lured by the treacherous charms of the beast toward their doom and ­perdition. The subtly orientalized representation of the sphinx in von Stuck’s painting has been turned here into that of an unmistakably black woman, while the naked youth in the original picture has been transformed into a young soldier of the Schutztruppe who has discarded his rifle and is

137 Ibid., 266: “So halfen alle Autoritäten des Vaterlandes in treuer Pflichterfüllung zusammen, um die deutsche Fahne von den schmutzigen Flecken der Humanität zu reinigen.” 138 Arthur Krüger, “Die Colonialsphinx,” Kladderadatsch 57.17, Erstes Beiblatt (April 24, 1904): 237.

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Figure 32: Olaf Gulbransson, “The Peters Trial” (“Der Prozeß Peters”), Simplicissimus (1907); detail. © DACS 2018.

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caught in the deadly embrace of the chimera and its lion’s paws, her kiss sealing his death. The riddle posed by the sphinx in the ancient Greek myth is not mentioned in the caption which, in the shape of a stanza of five lines, contextualizes the image: In stony desert lurking she lies and awaits The young heroes, whose blood the arid ground Of the thorn brush, the ever thirsty, shall sate. – When will the savior come, who the unfortunate land Shall redeem from the man-murdering corruptress?139

Yet like in the ancient myth, it is the sphinx who represents evil and the question is, really, what the black female chimera is meant to signify: Is it the native population? If so, the implications are startling. For it is the sphinx of whom the unfortunate land needs to be delivered. Indeed, the notion of the unhappy land, suffering from the cruelty of the chimera construes her destruction almost as an ethical imperative. The colonial invaders are accordingly cast as victims whose sacrifice is heroized. Yet the land still awaits redemption, the savior as yet tarries. So far, all sacrifices have been in vain and the cartoon as such emphasizes a profound sense of weariness engendered by the brutality and prohibitive losses of the colonial war against the apocalyptic mood conveyed through the flaming red background to von Stuck’s original dark painting. The question posed by the cartoon is not only when the savior will come but if the whole colonial endeavor itself is not a chimera unworthy of the sacrifice. The colonial wars and other engagements with Germany’s overseas possessions represented so trenchantly in the satirical press of the Kaiserreich clearly had an impact on the representational mode employed in the creation of Mbwapwa in Schlemiel. But blackness was experienced also much closer to home. In fact, the white majority was confronted with racial otherness in different contexts in everyday life. Not only did some African ‘compatriots’ elect to live in Germany, but blacks – both ‘genuine’ and enacted by others in blackface, were also prominent in (popular) entertainment. Clearly, these encounters with racial difference represent another significant nodal cluster in the Mbwapwa rhizome which is explored in the following chapter.

139 Ibid.: “In Steiniger Wüste lauernd liegt sie da und harrt / Der jungen Helden, deren Blut den dürren Grund / Des Dornenwalds, den immer durstigen, tränken soll. – / Wann wird der Retter kommen, der das Unglücksland / Erlöst von der männermordenden Verderberin?”

Chapter 5 Black Faces and Blackface: Mbwapwa, Mpundo, and the Variété As we have seen in Chapter 2, the Jews’ colonial adventure in Texas is a complete disaster in Schlemiel. Their colonial hopes are dashed not only due to the natives’ doughty resistance but also because of the aberrant motivation and lacking conviction of the would-be colonizers. Another reason appears to be the ultimate invalidity of their claim to the land which is symbolized by the strange ‘fruits’ they bear away in a parody of the biblical spies sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan. Theirs are not the grapes, pomegranates, and figs (Numbers 13:23) of a land that flows “with milk and honey” (Numbers 13:27) – nor old tins or diamonds as in Gulbransson’s cartoons – but the external markers of their Jewishness which they brought with them but of which they have been divested in the process of the attempted colonization. As such, the last of Mbwapwa’s letters is arguably an indictment of the ITO and its efforts of securing areas for Jewish settlement outside Palestine and expresses once more, if in a different register, fears of a (de)formative colonial encounter with the other. It is, moreover, yet another carefully formulated critical response to the controversial contemporary German colonial policy which was so poignantly articulated also in the satirical publications discussed in the previous chapter. More specifically, not limiting itself to its oblique anti-imperial critique, the text once again elaborates in the satirical mode an associative connection between German colonial practice and Zionist colonial aspirations. Indeed, originating in and inscribed into the convergence of colonial and Zionist discourse, Mbwapa’s last communication – and it may not have been meant to be his last – consequently needs to be understood in relation to both. It is therefore the purpose of this chapter to trace some of the more peripheral nodes of the Mbwapwa rhizome. Of special significance are in this context competing constructions of racial difference, especially – but not exclusively – of blackness. In particular, this chapter inquires into blackness as a contested racial signifier with a strongly developed subversive potential as it emerges in public discourse and in the shape of the popular stage practice of blackface and the sudden advent of the cakewalk. But it also explores the impact of touring Wild West shows and their Indian performers as another node in the Mbwapwa rhizome, all of which contribute to the dynamic connotative potential of ­Jungmann’s creation. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-006

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Colonial Scandal and Colonial Swamp After the disappointment of the colonial failure suffered by Mbwapwa and Chaskel in Texas, the scribe, as we have seen, yearns to return to Uganda, to his ‘free’ country: I will go back to Uganda, to my free country. With us and in all of Africa, as the German colonial administration can confirm, the proverb is: Do you want to be my little cousin? Or I’ll bash your head in, you’ll see. (LNN IX, 52–6/59–63)

The couplet, while intelligible in and of itself, in fact combines two highly topical references to contemporary parliamentary and public political discourse which significantly expand its satiric scope and substance. Its second line alludes to the notorious quip made in December 1903 by the German Chancellor, Bernhard von Bülow, which we have already encountered in the previous chapter in the discussion of the fictitious commemorative medal of the Herero War published in Lustige Blätter (see Figure 26): “If my brother you don’t want to be, / I’ll bash your head in, you’ll see.”1 Chaskel’s reference is obviously to the brutal colonial wars waged by Germany – and by von Bülow’s government – in Africa. Given the quip’s original context, discussed in Chapter 4, the suggestion then seems to be that the Chancellor applies double standards in his dealings with the black natives in the colonies, as it had been conveyed also by the mock campaign medal. The first line of Chaskel’s couplet has been read by David A. Brenner as suggesting that “the inglorious recipient of aggressive, violent German imperialism is marked as a diminutivized linguistic female (Kusine).”2 Such a suggestion may indeed resonate with the text. More specifically, however, the “Cousinchen,” the “little cousin,” refers to a popular music hall song which evokes its own complex web of allusions hugely pertinent in the (anti)colonial and antiracist context of “Letters from New-Newland.” “Do you want to be my little cousin?”3 was one of the numbers of the Jahresrevue of the Metropol-Theater in Berlin for 1906. We have previously encountered The Devil Laughs about It! with music by Victor Hollaender and lyrics by Julius Freund in Chapter 2 as an example of a subversive color play which conveyed an anticolonial critique. Originally performed by the celebrated Fritzi Massary and

1 See StBR (December 10, 1903), p. 58 (B): “Und willst Du nicht mein Bruder sein, / So schlag’ ich Dir den Schädel ein.” 2 Brenner, German-Jewish Popular Culture, p. 38. 3 “Willst du mein Cousinchen sein?”

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Henry Bender as the “Cousinchen” and the black African Prince Akwa, respectively, the song was a huge popular success and it too is an intervention in the colonial debate of its day.4 It was inspired by the scandal provoked by the affair of the German Colonial Governor of Cameroon, Jesko von Puttkamer,5 with a denizen of the Berlin demimonde whom he had given the false identity of a Freiin von Eckardstein and presented to the colony as his cousin – hence the innuendo, “Do you want to be my little cousin? / Later, I will marry you,” and the lady’s insistence on first seeing her suitor’s cheque book and on walking with him, on the way to the registrar’s office, past the Deutsche Bank.6 Rather than deflecting from the scandal, the substitution of Akwa for the Governor in fact added to the poignancy of the satire. The figure of the prince takes its name from Mpundo Akwa, the son of the former King Dika Akwa of Cameroon. Mpundo had gained notoriety two years earlier when he was arrested in April 1904 and eventually tried for altogether eight counts of fraud and the fraudulent use of the title of nobility in Hamburg in June 1905. The Duala prince was well-known in Germany and had close links with aristocratic and bourgeois circles, which may explain the flurry of reports his trial generated in the national press.7 His case and the allusion to it carried by the “Cousinchen” song no less than the scandalous circumstances by which the latter was inspired suggest yet another dimension to the rhizome into which Jungmann inserted the figure of Mbwapwa Jumbo. The case of Mpundo Akwa is of interest in particular because it engaged public opinion on issues closely related to the concerns articulated in Jungmann’s “Letters from New-Newland” and assimilated into Zionist discourse with the creation of the figure of Mbwapwa Jumbo. It moreover elicited national interest and media coverage at a time when the response to black identities was being

4 It was not only the popularity of its lead singers, such as Henry Bender (born Harry Bandheimer) and Fritzi Massary (born Friederike Massaryk), who acted the Cousinchen and who was a singer of Jewish background famous throughout Germany, which established the theater’s attraction. Yet, as observed by Otte, Jewish Identities in German Popular Entertainment, p. 236: “A Massary premiere was the unquestioned high point of the season.” 5 Jesko (sometimes also Jesco) von Puttkamer was Colonial Governor of Cameroon from 1887–1906. 6 “Willst Du mein Cousinchen sein?” [1906], in Walter Freund (ed.), Auf ins Metropol: Melodien aus Revuen von Victor Hollaender (Berlin and Wiesbaden: Bote & Bock, 1956), pp. 16–17, p. 17: “Willst du mein Cousinchen sein? / Später mach’ ich dich zur Frau.” A contemporary recording of the song with Fritzi Massary and Leo Haskel accompanied by the Metropol-Orchester (no date) is available at www.dismarc.org/index.php?form=display&oaiid=GHT%3A001%2F0P6729A13045&db=0 (last accessed March 3, 2018). 7 Elisa von Joeden-Forgey (ed.), Mpundu Akwa: The Case of the Prince of Cameroon. The Newly Discovered Speech for the Defense by Dr. M. Levi (Münster: LIT, 2002), p. 113.

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r­ enegotiated in a Germany engaged in bloody colonial wars. Finally, it is also of interest because the second important historical figure in this case, Dr. Moses Levi, the Jewish lawyer of the African prince, made reference to the insalubrious “Cousinchen” story in a later version of his defense speech proposed for publication in order not only to discredit the allegations made against the African but, more specifically, to criticize German colonial practice and to castigate the political machinations of which he believed his client to be a victim: I felt bound to indulge in these reminiscences in order to draw for the Court a realistic and sharp picture of the manner in which the Cameroons were administrated as well as make it possible for you to assess the degree of reliability of the reports concerning the accused, which came in from over there through all sorts of channels and have reached the prosecution over here and ultimately this Court. This is especially important since the circles connected with Governor von Putkamer [sic] intend to depict the accused Mpundo Akwa as an inferior subject, a frequently convicted swindler, as the scum of humanity, a liar of the worst order, whose words should never be trusted. In fact, no means have been shunned to shut up this most inconvenient Mpundo Akwa for ever in Germany.8

Mpundo had indeed been a thorn in the side of the colonial government in Cameroon and had achieved some notoriety in Germany as a campaigner against the injustices perpetrated in the colony. The young prince, born in 1879, had received his education in Paderborn and Altona from 1888 to (presumably) 1893.9 Back in Cameroon, Mpundo was active as a translator and interpreter and worked, for some time, in this capacity for the Colonial Governor, Jesko von Puttkamer, which brought him “into the orbit” also of the sham Freiin von Eckardstein.10 He resigned from his post in protest after his complaints about the inhumane treatment of his people had provoked an offensive rejoinder by the Governor.11 In 1902 Mpundo returned to Germany

8 Ibid., pp. 65–6; for the original German, see pp. 23–4: “Ich mußte diese Reminiscenz hier vorbringen, damit das Gericht eine drastische und plastische Vorstellung hat von der Art, wie in Kamerun verwaltet worden ist, und von dem Grade der Zuverlässigkeit, mit welchem Berichte über den Angeklagten, die von drüben her durch alle möglichen Kanäle an die hiesige Staatsanwaltschaft und auch bis an das Gericht gelangt sind, zu bewerten sind. Wird doch jetzt der Angeklagte Mpundo Akwa von den Kreisen um den Gouverneur v. Putkamer [sic] hingestellt als das minderwertigste Subjekt, als ein vielfach vorbestrafter Schwindler, als Auswurf der Menschheit, Lügner schlimmsten Grades, dem man nicht ein Wort glauben dürfte, und wird doch kein Mittel gescheut, um diesen lästigen und für das Gouvernement unbequemen Mpundo Akwa für alle Zeiten für Deutschland mundtot zu machen.” 9 See Heinrich Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa: Ein Beitrag zur Rassenfrage (Berlin: Schwetschke and Sohn, 1907), p. 47. 10 Von Joeden-Forgey (ed.), Mpundu Akwa, p. 128n23. 11 Ibid., pp. 109–10.

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as interpreter for his father and as a member of an Akwa delegation protesting against the abuse suffered by the Duala under German colonial rule. While the delegation soon returned to Cameroon under the misguided impression that their complaints against von Puttkamer’s strict regiment had been noted and would be acted upon, the Colonial Office never took any steps to address the issues that had been raised. Mpundo remained in Germany as the official representative of the Akwa and in order to explore some business opportunities for his family. It was during this period that the accusations of fraud were brought against him. Acquitted of the charges, Mpundo continued to criticize German colonial practice. His publication of a bilingual journal, Elolombé ya Kamerun (The Sun of Cameroon), with which he sought to further mutual recognition and understanding between the colonial power and its colony, intensified the antagonism he experienced in Germany and revived earlier plans of deporting the irritating African.12 While Mpundo eventually seems to have left Germany by his own volition in 1911, he nevertheless soon fell foul of the colonial government in Cameroon, was imprisoned and, after an unsuccessful attempt to escape, is believed to have been shot for subversion in August 1914.13 The notoriety of the black prince in Germany during the period of the Herero and Nama wars, and coinciding also with the ephemeral existence of Mbwapwa Jumbo, serves to turn his biography and in particular his anticolonial endeavors into another significant node in the emerging Mbwapwa rhizome. Mpundo Akwa has been described as a man whose complex and nuanced vision of political possibilities were directed towards the reasonable management of colonial regimes through the increasing inclusion of African representatives in decision-making processes.14

It has also been observed in this context that “[t]his vision does not fit neatly into categories of resistance and collaboration, which unnecessarily limit analyses of human agency and power under colonialism.”15 More importantly, with the attention to his person and his political opinions resulting from his not always voluntary high visibility in public discourse, Mpundo Akwa succeeded in further polarizing the already controversial debate on Germany’s colonial engagement in the second half of the first decade of the twentieth century.

12 Ibid., pp. 123–4. 13 This biographical overview is based on ibid., pp. 105–32. 14 Ibid., p. 125. 15 Ibid.

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Though not immediately relevant to the construction of Mbwapwa Jumbo, because by this time Schlemiel had already been discontinued, another trial, in which Mpundo was not the defendant but the plaintiff, should be mentioned here. In 1906, Mpundo Akwa brought a lawsuit for libel against Heinrich Liersemann whose rancorous description of Mpundo’s father and his umbrella we have already encountered in Chapter 1. The retired naval officer had published an article in defense of the by then dismissed former Colonial Governor of Came­ roon, Jesko von Puttkamer, in which he referred to Mpundo as “inferior” (“min­ derwertig”) and alleged that he had been imprisoned in the colony for theft.16 By the time the trial was actually brought to court, in January 1908, Liersemann had published a book with the ironic title “H. R. H. Prince” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa: A Contribution to the Race Question (“S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa: Ein Beitrag zur Rassenfrage, 1907) in which he further denigrated the African. More specifically, as indicated by its subtitle, he used this publication to situate his impending trial in the larger context of racial conflict and to elaborate, in his defence, a racist rationale for challenging the presence of Africans in Germany as well as for questioning the in his opinion all too egalitarian approach to colonial rule in the German ­possessions.17 A feuilletonistic collection of various press reports and ethnographic observations rather than a coherently argued résumé,18 Liersemann’s text is much indebted, among others, to Eberhard von Schkopp’s Bananas from Cameroon (Kameruner Bananen, 1906), a substantial section of which is prominently excerpted under its original title, “We savages are the better humans yet.”19 The episode from von Schkopp’s travel book is particularly illuminating in this context not only because it offers another allusion to and, more importantly, a subversive re-interpretation of Seume’s poem which we have variously encountered in previous chapters, but because it introduces the outsider perspective of an English traveler on what is represented as the perplexing and misguided lenience of German colonial practice and racial policy. 16 Liersemann offered a reprint of the offending article in his “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, pp. 30–3. See also von Joeden-Forgey (ed.), Mpundu Akwa, pp. 121–3. 17 See Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, pp. 25, 29. 18 See ibid., p. 3. 19 See ibid., pp.  13–24: “Wir Wilde sind doch bessere Menschen!”; see also Eberhard von Schkopp,  Kameruner Bananen: Fortsetzung der “Kameruner Skizzen” (Berlin: Winckelmann, 1906), pp. 136–48. Liersemann’s spelling differs from von Schkopp’s in some instances, but altogether his is a faithful reproduction of the earlier text. The title of von Schkopp’s chapter is a quote from Johann Gottfried Seume’s poem “Der Wilde” (1793), see Werke in zwei Bänden, I, 127–30.

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In this chapter, which invokes the dangers of treating the allegedly inferior black Africans as equals, von Schkopp recalls the reception with full military honors of King Manga Bell in Berlin in 1902.20 Alongside Dika Akwa, Manga Bell was the second, and rival, Duala king of Cameroon. Von Schkopp’s narrator is first alerted to the presence of the Englishman, taking in the spectacle next to him, when he hears that rather gruff and stereotypically sketched individual exclaim: “Damned Nigger.”21 In the presumably fictional account of the ensuing dialogue, von Schkopp’s construction of the English other is no less pertinent than that of the black Africans. Mr. Lionel Bethune from Liverpool – referred to as “the noble Briton”22 and sporting “the displeased face of a true son of Albion”23 – upbraids his German interlocutor with the lack of the proper awareness of racial difference and enlightens him as to the real (in)significance of the Duala king: A miserable village head ruling over a thievish […] and degenerate little coastal tribe, a puffed-up fellow who, despite all cultural whitewash, prefers to run around over there with no more than a loin cloth to cover him and who at best dons a greasy hat!24

20 A similar situation is implicitly mocked in Eduard Thöny’s cartoon “Seine Hoheit” (“His Highness”) in Simplicissimus 11.45 (February 4, 1907): 731 which shows a black and a white man in livery on a coach box; the caption reads: “‘Was the negro really a prince?’ – ‘Yes, with them blacks you never don’t know. With them a prince don’t look any dumber than the others’ [‘War der Neger wirklich ein Prinz?’ – ‘Ja, bei die Schwarzen da kennste dich nich aus. Da sieht ein Prinz auch nich dämlicher aus als wie die andern’]” – the implication being of course that the German nobility can easily be recognized by their foolish looks. The practice to award military honors and medals to black Africans is ridiculed, e.g., in R[ichard] Graef’s “Aristokratie aus Kamerun” (“Aristocracy from Cameroon”) in Simplicissimus 14.10 (June 7, 1909): 160, showing two black African dandies dressed all white in fashionable European dress with the caption: “‘And now I want to go to Germany. Only, I don’t know yet, should I go to Berlin or to Munich.’ – ‘That depends, Caesar, on what you prefer: The Eagle medal or the order of St. Michael.’ [‘Und jetzt will ich nach Deutschland. Ich weiß nur noch nicht, gehe ich nach Berlin oder nach München.’ – ‘Da fragt sich’s nur, Cäsar, was dir lieber ist: Adlerorden oder Michaelsorden.’]” 21 Von Schkopp as quoted in Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 14; see also von Schkopp, Kameruner Bananen, p. 137. 22 Von Schkopp as quoted in Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 15: “der edle Brite”; see also von Schkopp, Kameruner Bananen, p. 137. 23 Von Schkopp as quoted in Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M ­ ’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 15: “das verärgerte Gesicht eines echten Sohnes Albions”; see also von Schkopp, ­Kameruner Bananen, p. 137. 24 Von Schkopp as quoted in Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 15: “Ein elender Dorfschulze über einen diebischen […] und verkommenen kleinen Küstenstamm, ein aufgeblasener Patron, der trotz aller Kulturtünche drüben am liebsten nur mit dem Lendentuch bekleidet herumläuft, oder wenn es hoch kommt, einen fettigen Hut aufsetzt!”; see also von Schkopp, Kameruner Bananen, p. 138.

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The disparaging description of Manga Bell not only evokes the much more sympathetic visual representation of the Herero in Thöny’s cartoon (see Figure 5), in which the similarly incongruous sartorial ensemble suggests the negative transformative impact of western culture on the black African. It is also reminiscent of a photograph of Manga Bell’s father, King Ndumbé Lobé Bell (Figure 4; 1886), with which the writer may well have been familiar and which shows the king in bare feet and wrapped in a large traditional cloth but with a western-style jacket and a shiny black top hat, the “African crown” discussed in Chapter 1.25 Moreover, von Schkopp’s reference to “cultural whitewash,” suggesting the entirely superficial influence of European culture and civilization on the black African, is another, if perhaps oblique, allusion to Seume’s “The Savage” which is reminiscent also of von Luschan’s contempt of the Hosenneger from Cameroon in his report on the human exhibits of the colonial exhibition of 1896 which has been discussed in Chapter 1. However, in the poem, it is the Europeans whose “whitewashed civility”26 is denounced as deceitful and of which the American native, “untainted by culture yet,”27 is still innocent. Yet while in the eighteenth-century poem culture (i.e. European culture) is seen as corruptive and corrosive, von Schkopp emphasizes the unsuccessful mimicry of the black Africans. His derision, relayed through the imagined British colonial gaze, suggests the natives’ inability to internalize the blessings of that European culture which in Bananas from Cameroon as well as in Liersemann’s pamphlet is represented as an absolute and non-negotiable value. Throughout, von Schkopp’s text articulates intense admiration of the British colonial enterprise. Accordingly, Bethune’s opinions, represented as paradigmatic of the attitudes informing British colonial practice, are imbued with additional authority. However, the text not only suggests that the tried and tested model of British colonial practice be emulated by Germany in her more recently acquired possessions.28 The pains taken by von Schkopp to construe discursive parity between the German colonizers and their admired British paragons moreover betray a deep-seated sense of inferiority offset by the fervent desire to be like

25 An engraving after an original photograph of 1881 shows King Brisso Bell in European dress with top hat, including the golden plaque of the “African crown,” as well as trousers and shoes (Figure 6), from E. Jung, “Deutschlands Colonialbestrebungen” (1884); the engraving clearly shows the “African crown” with the golden plaque into which the majesty’s name was inscribed and the cuff links worn by the king’s wives. 26 See Seume, “Der Wilde”, I, 127: “Übertünchte Höflichkeit.” 27 See ibid.: “Von Kultur noch frei.” 28 See also Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 33: “Wir sollten uns das englische Kolonisationssystem mehr zum Muster nehmen.”

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the other, a form of mimicry which, once again and in a very different context, evokes Bhabha’s well-known formula of almost, but not quite and is, in fact, very similar to that of the African rulers denigrated by Bethune. Appellations, such as “the English cousin,”29 suggest a particular affinity between the German and the Englishman, while the latter in turn approvingly asserts: “[T]he German naval officers are gentlemen!”30 The anecdotal account of the German naval officers’ disdain toward black Africans furthermore elicits Bethune’s appreciation: “Any Englishman would have acted the same way!”31 When the narrator finally relates how Mpundo Akwa was literally thrown off a German naval vessel into the river for his presumption of announcing himself with a visiting card, his purpose is to demonstrate “that in our colonies too the impertinence of the blacks is not always abetted.”32 The incident was prefigured to some extent with von Luschan’s irritated bewilderment when he was confronted by one of his subjects with visiting cards, as discussed in Chapter 1. The enactment and enforcement of perceived racial superiority advances, in von Schkopp’s text, to becoming the measure of the comparative success of the colonial venture. Once again Bethune, “the Englishman, whose sense of racial difference was offended,”33 is sketched as paradigmatically articulating the English innate sense of racial superiority. However, alarmed that even that bastion of white racial supremacy, the British Empire, has recently begun to crumble, Bethune is challenged by the narrator: But take a look at your own colonies and how the blacks are pampered there. Anywhere in Accra, in Lagos and so forth you have a black Court that sits in judgment on whites. Do you deem this appropriate in the interest of the white race?34

29 Von Schkopp as quoted in ibid., p. 19: “der englische Vetter”; see also von Schkopp, ­Kameruner Bananen, p. 141. 30 Von Schkopp as quoted in Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 19: “[D]ie deutschen Seeoffiziere sind Gentlemen!”; see also von Schkopp, Kameruner Bananen, p. 141. 31 Von Schkopp as quoted in Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 20: “So hätte jeder Engländer auch gehandelt!”; see also von Schkopp, Kameruner Bananen, p. 142. 32 Von Schkopp as quoted in Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 21: “[…] daß auch in unsern Kolonien der Unverschämtheit der Schwarzen nicht immer Vorschub geleistet wird”; see also von Schkopp, Kameruner Bananen, p. 143. 33 Von Schkopp as quoted in Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 16: “[D]er in seinem Rassegefühl beleidigte Engländer”; see also von Schkopp, Kame­ runer Bananen, p. 138. 34 Von Schkopp as quoted in Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 17: “Aber seht Euch einmal Eure eigenen Kolonien an, wie man die Schwarzen dort

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Yet the narrator’s concerns are dissipated when he is assured by the Englishman that further in-land conditions are very different: “O no, Sir! But you should move further into the interior and you will look in vain for any such institutions as exist at the coast.”35 The suggestion is that under the egalitarian cloak displayed to the world, the actual workings of the colonial enterprise are still determined by the clear demarcation between the races, and Bethune smugly concludes: “In Old-England we still know better how to deal with the niggers than in Germany.”36 Of course it needs to be remembered that, no matter whether Bethune’s assertions be truthful or not, this is an exhortation of the German colonial administration articulated through the fictionalized perspective of the admired ­Englishman as reported by the German writer’s narrator. Consequently, once the Englishman has taken his leave, von Schkopp’s narrator ruminates: “Sure enough, the best negro would be spoilt, were he to live in Europe for any length of time; you will find the evidence a hundred-fold. And not for the least part, we Europeans bear the blame.”37 Exposure to civilized life in Europe and democratic notions of equality as well as, most perniciously, the exoticist and frequently sexual fascination with the African other – also disdainfully alluded to by von Luschan38 – are made responsible by von Schkopp for the corruption of even the best of negroes. The conclusion of his chapter accordingly offers a re-interpretation of Seume’s moral. Quoting from the poem, von Schkopp alleges the black Africans to think: “We savages are the better humans yet!” only to subvert this ironically with the observation: “Who could blame them!”39 What he means is that, spoilt against their better knowledge by the adulation of the

verhätschelt. Überall in Accra, in Lagos usw. habt Ihr einen schwarzen Court, der über Weiße zu Gericht sitzt. Haltet Ihr das im Interesse der weißen Rasse für angebracht?”; see also von Schkopp, Kameruner Bananen, pp. 139–40. 35 Von Schkopp as quoted in Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 17: “O no, Sir! Aber kommt mal weiter ins Innere, und ihr werdet vergeblich nach solchen Einrichtungen Umschau halten, wie sie an der Küste sind”; see also von Schkopp, Kame­ runer Bananen, p. 140. 36 Von Schkopp as quoted in Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 17: “In Old-England versteht man immer noch besser mit den Niggern umzugehen, wie in Deutschland”; see also von Schkopp, Kameruner Bananen, p. 140. 37 Von Schkopp as quoted in Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 22: “Gewiß würde auch der beste Neger, wenn er eine Zeitlang in Europa lebte, verdorben; dafür gibt es hunderte von Beweisen. Und nicht zum kleinsten Teil tragen wir Europäer selbst Schuld daran”; see also von Schkopp, Kameruner Bananen, p. 144. 38 See von Luschan, Beiträge zur Völkerkunde der deutschen Schutzgebiete, p. 36. 39 Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 24: “Seht, wir Wilde sind bessere Menschen! […] Wer könnte es ihnen verübeln!”

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Europeans, it is no wonder that the inferior black Africans exploit and abuse the misplaced deference in which they are allowed to bask. In Liersemann’s estimation, the dismissal of Jesko von Puttkamer indicates a retrospective acknowledgement of the natives’ complaints. As such he considers it a weakness, similar to those elaborated by von Schkopp, which gives rise to and sustains the unfounded and impertinent sense of superiority experienced by the cossetted blacks. To Liersemann, in a time of colonial conflict – with the ongoing wars in German South-West and East Africa40 – and, as we will see below, re-­ interpreted by the retired naval officer as an incipient racial war of existential consequence, this gives all the wrong signals: This was a sign of weakness and a momentous tactical mistake, in particular in the current critical situation, which in Africa threatens to develop into a gigantic struggle of the black race against the white. There probably never was a time in which the Ethiopian Movement has been more in flux than at this precise moment, and never did the cry “Africa for the Africans” resound more loudly than now.41

We may remember Jungmann’s pun in the first of the letters from New-Newland here, where the ‘black’ Mizrachi Jews insist: “Africa for the blacks! Africa for the blacks!” (LNN I, 49–50/51) This exemplifies not only the topicality of Mbwapwa’s letters and their alertness to the intricacies of the colonial debate. The satirical engagement with these issues moreover identifies and addresses the question of the autochthonous claim to the land and, perhaps even more significantly, the subversion of autochthony through the appropriation of the markers by which it is determined – in this instance the color ‘black’ which is shifted from epidermal to sartorial and, in effect, from biological to discursive ‘blackness.’ In view of the projected colonization of Palestine so prominent in early Zionist discourse this is potentially a rather ambiguous point to be made. The ‘black’ Jews are of course not really black, and this poses the question if the ‘Jewish’ blacks are really Jewish. Indeed, the very figure of Mbwapwa interrogates prevalent conceptions of Jewishness and highlights their conflictual potential. It may very well be possible to ‘become’ Jewish by conversion in a religious

40 Liersemann’s “Akwa Triumphator,” reprinted in his pamphlet, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, pp. 55–7, was first published in Preußischer Korrespondent (May 22, 1906). It was this article which triggered the second Mpundo Akwa trial. 41 Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 55: “Das war ein Zeichen von Schwäche und ein großer taktischer Fehler, zumal in der jetzigen kritischen Lage, die sich in Afrila [sic] zu einem Riesenkampfe der schwarzen gegen die weiße Rasse auszuwachsen droht. Wohl zu keiner Zeit ist die ätiopische [sic] Bewegung stärker in Fluß gewesen, ist der Ruf: Afrika den Afrikanern lauter ertönt als gerade jetzt.”

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sense. Yet how permeable is the Zionist conception of national affiliation and, in fact, in how far has it already assumed the character of a biological definition which then operates alongside the racial and immutable definition promoted in antisemitic discourse? Color as a category of demarcation and discrimination may be challenged with the discursive blackness of the Mizrachi Jews, but their clamor of “Africa for the blacks!” effectively exposes it as the discursive construction it is and consequently confounds their claims to the East African territory. As an ironic inversion it in fact confirms the title of the black indigenes to their land. This, however, in analogy, also affirms the Jewish claim to Palestine. Does this then also suggest that the ‘blacks,’ in turn, have no claim to Palestine? – which excludes not only Mbwapwa, whose face after all remains black, just as that of the little boy in the Pears’ soap advertisement; it then potentially also excludes the discursive blacks of the orthodox persuasion. Their Jewishness, in the Zionist sense, is compromised by their ‘blackness.’ In this sense the cry of “Africa for the blacks!” may then also be the call for the exclusion and banishment of the allegedly intolerant orthodox element from the Jewish commonwealth. The call of “Africa for the Africans!,” as we have seen in Chapter 3, was also an articulation of the vision which inspired the resistance against German colonial rule of the Kaptein of the Nama, Hendrik Witbooi.42 Liersemann is obviously scandalized by the very idea, yet nonetheless grudgingly comes to the unwelcome conclusion: “As soon as the equality of the negroes will be no longer hypothetical but a fact we will need to vacate their land.”43 It is for this reason that he embraces von Schkopp’s text, which articulates his own apprehensions; and it is for this reason, too, that he stylizes his impending trial not only as an example of the overweening black African confronting the artless white European but as an early skirmish in the imminent race war: The trial is then, on Akwa’s part, the blatant attempt to claim legal equality as well as, ultimately, the abolition of colonial rule; and, on Liersemann’s, a personal sacrifice in the stout defense of white superiority and privilege as well as imperial authority. The Liersemann trial, at which Mpundo Akwa was once again represented by Dr. Moses Levi, indeed attracted much public attention. It was for the very first

42 See Hendrik Witbooi, Afrika den Afrikanern!: Aufzeichnungen eines Nama-Häuptlings aus der Zeit der deutschen Eroberung Südwestafrikas 1884 bis 1894, ed. Wolfgang Reinhard (Berlin: Dietz, 1982). 43 Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 62: “Sobald die Gleichberechtigung der Neger keine bloße Theorie mehr, sondern Tatsache ist, müssen wir aus ihrem Land.” Reprint of his article, “Kameruner Rassenfragen,” in Leipziger Neueste ­Nachrichten, of July 24, 1906.

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time in German legal history that a black African had availed himself of the law against a white German and, even more sensationally, had done so in defense of his honor.44 In his representations to the court, Levi strongly attacked racist attitudes of which he saw his client to be a victim. Liersemann was indeed found guilty, but his sentence was very mild and was overturned in an appeal in the following year, 1909. The clear antiracist commitment of Mpundo Akwa’s lawyer had already informed his earlier defense of the prince. It had then been coupled with a pervasive criticism of colonial practice in which Levi called for the reform of the ­colonial system. As Elisa Joeden-Forgey notes: Unlike many liberal thinkers of his time, Levi also displayed a keen awareness of the legal contradictions created by the act of colonization and the challenges these posed for universal and Enlightenment institutions such as law. He clearly believed that colonization was contributing to the perversion of the very concept of the rule of law and the Rechtsstaat. His solution in the case of Mpundu [sic] Akwa was to push for the extension of metropolitan law and judicial process to colonial subjects.45

When Levi had referred in the earlier trial of 1905 to the indefensible behavior and abusive colonial practice of the Colonial Governor as an illustration of the mismanagement in the colony, he had implied that Jesko von Puttkamer’s illicit affair had discredited not only the administrator but had brought into disrepute the whole colonial system of whose corruption it was then to be considered symptomatic. His emphasis on the enormous popularity of the “Cousinchen” song and the widespread knowledge of its historical background moreover suggests von Puttkamer – and by implication his colonial government – to have become a laughing stock:46 Today the affair is notorious, and every Tom, Dick and Harry talks about it, and the whole of Germany is familiar with the story of the “little cousin,” especially since the Metropol Theater in Berlin had devoted a whole act of its “Revue” to it and played every night to a sold-out house. Fritzi Massary had never before made a more celebrated and jubilant appearance than in the role of the “Little Cousin” with her most popular song and dance with the also immortalized and acted out role of Mpundo Akwa. Today the popular tune of the couplet “Dont [sic] you want to be my little cousin”?… sounds from everyone’s lips, and

44 See von Joeden-Forgey (ed.), Mpundu Akwa, p. 121. 45 Ibid., pp. 105–6. 46 Levi’s reference to the Metropol Jahresrevue may have been a later addition to his defense speech as the dates do not correspond. The Devil Laughs about It! premiered in September 1906. Elisa von Joeden-Forgey points out that the lawyer continued to re-work his speech after the event, see ibid., pp. iii–vi.

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everyone is familiar with the picture-postcards, which star this famous scene with Fritzi Massary, and also depicting Mpundo Akwa.47

In fact, different photographic representations of the scandalous couple of the Cousinchen and the African prince were circulated as postcards. Showing the two actors dressed and made-up in character, and sometimes also in staged action, such postcards give an indication of the setting and the outward appearance of the pair on the stage. The management of the Metropol-Theater obviously considered them an effective advertisement of their shows and Levi’s claim would seem to confirm the popular impact of the campaign and of the widely disseminated images.48 But the popularity of the Jahresrevue was not restricted to such visual representations. Julius Freund’s lyrics appeared also in contextual reconfigurations in conjunction with seemingly completely unrelated images. The third stanza of the “Cousinchen” song, for instance, was reproduced in another postcard with remarkable incongruity between the printed image and the text: Do you want to be my little cousin? “I go to all the balls, without fail I’ll wear only frocks that are stylish and pretty!” “With cleavage or without, even Pietsch will enthuse about them in the Vossische!” “If at long last along came a little mestizo, that would be the highest trump!” “The stork can already go rummage in the swamp!” “Do you want to be my little cousin? Later, I will marry you.” “No, I won’t fall for that, for that I’m much too shrewd!”49

47 Ibid., p. 65; for the German original, see pp. 22–3: “Heute pfeifen es die Spatzen vom Dache, und die Geschichte des ‘Kusinchens’ ist Allgemeingut von ganz Deutschland geworden, nachdem das Metropol-Theater in Berlin einen ganzen Akt seiner Revue damit ausfüllt und allabendlich bei überfülltem Hause über die Bühne laufen läßt, und eine Fritzi Massary noch nie eine so gefeierte und bejubelte Rolle gespielt hat als die Rolle des Kusinchens in ihrem bekannten Couplet und Tanz mit dem ebenfalls auf der Bühne verewigten und dargestellten Mpundo Akwa. Heute singt jeder die bekannten Melodien des Couplets ‘Willst nicht mein Kusinchen sein …..’ Jeder kennt die Ansichtskarten, in denen diese Glanzscene der Fritzi Massary und gleichzeitig auch der Mpundo Akwa verherrlicht sind.” 48 For reproductions see, e.g., Becker, Inszenierte Moderne, Figure 14 and Kusser, Körper in Schieflage, Figure 5. 49 See also “Willst Du mein Cousinchen sein?” [1906], in Freund (ed.), Auf ins Metropol, pp. 16– 17: “Willst du mein Cousinchen sein? / ‘Ich geh’ auf alle Bälle, ich trag’ auf alle Fälle nur Roben, chic und fein!’ / ‘Ob Ausschnitt, ob geschlossen, selbst Pietsch wird in der Voßen davon begeistert sein! / ‘Wenn schließlich ein Mestizchen käm’, das wär der höchste Trumpf! / ‘Der Storch kann ja mal suchen geh’n im kolonialen Sumpf!’ / ‘Willst du mein Cousinchen sein? Später mach’ ich dich zur Frau.’ / ‘Nein, drauf laß ich mich nicht ein, dafür bin ich zu schlau!’”

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In stark contrast to the idyllic scene presented in the picture, which shows a white couple in tender embrace and exchanging a kiss, the innuendo of the text suggests not only the glitter and frivolity of metropolitan night life50 but also illicit and exploitative sexual relations between the races and, with the particularly obnoxious image of the stork foraging for babies in the colonial swamp, miscegenation as their outcome.51 Postmarked April 27, 1912, the postcard confirms that racial and interracial encounters were of continuous concern in early twentieth-century Germany. Indeed, the contextual reconfiguration of the stanza it offers is almost certainly a topical reference to another colonial scandal that had flared up in Samoa in 1911, and it may well have been produced in its aftermath.52 The affair had been provoked when the young life reformer Carl Eduard Michaelis condemned the lack of ‘racial hygiene’ in the German Schutzgebiet in an open letter to the Samoanische Zeitung in April 1911.53 The offender subsequently had to be taken into protective custody against a mob of enraged half-caste “Amazons”54 and was eventually deported to Hawaii. Michaelis continued to vociferate in a pamphlet against

50 The reference in the doggerel is to Ludwig Pietsch who was a prominent literary critic, artist, society journalist, and fashion feuilletonist. Pietsch wrote among others for the liberal bourgeois Vossische Zeitung (i.e. “Voßen”) in Berlin. 51 The image of the stork harvesting black babies in an African swamp was already used in W. S., “Schneider und Storch,” Fliegende Blätter 71.1771 (1879): 1–4 to which the illustrations were contributed by Adolf Oberländer. The brief narrative records the tit-for-tat of the stork after two of his eggs are exchanged by a mischievous tailor for those of a raven. After much marital distress occasioned by the black color of the fledglings, the stork realizes that not Mrs. Stork is the culprit but the tailor. Returning from Africa in spring, he revenges himself with a black changeling he picked up in the swamp. The illustrated narrative has no obvious colonial connotations and precedes the acquisition of Germany’s overseas possessions but nevertheless graphically anticipates the image of the Kolonialsumpf. 52 Reference to the “Kolonialsumpf” was topical also in the run-up to the general elections of January 1907. In this context the term referred to the exorbitant costs of maintaining the colonies and their apparent mismanagement, see, e.g., the election leaflet published on behalf of the Social Democratic candidate Ernst Kräuter in Freiburg, www.freiburg-postkolonial.de/Seiten/ Dokumente-1907-Nr-15.htm (last accessed March 3, 2018) and, in defense of German colonial practice, the speech made by Professor Ernst Fabricius, www.freiburg-postkolonial.de/Seiten/Dokumente-1907-Nr-09.htm (last accessed March 3, 2018). For the significance of postcards as a mass medium in colonial discourse in imperial Germany, see Axster, Koloniales Spektakel in 9 x 14, pp. 47–79 and, more specifically on representations of interracial relationships between the sexes, pp. 121–68. 53 Carl Eduard Michaelis, “Offener Brief an den Pflanzerverein von Samoa,” Samoanische Zeitung (April 1, 1911); the open letter was reprinted as “Open Letter to the Planter’s Association of Samoa” in the The Fiji Times (April 13, 1911). 54 Anonymous, “Trouble in Apia for a Bold Young Man. Threatened Lynching,” The Fiji Times (April 13, 1911).

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what he called the “bastard hydra” (“Bastardhydra”) and the “mongrel brood” (“Mischlingsbrut”) in the “colonial swamp” (“Kolonialsumpf”).55 The issue was heatedly debated also in the German press which, picking up Michaelis’ (and earlier Freund’s) odious metaphor, decried the goings-on in the Samoan colonial swamp.56 Yet the affair is of interest in particular because in its course arguments were proffered also in favor of racial hybridity. Indeed, in his response to Michaelis’ open letter, the trader Wilhelm Haensell maintained that only hybridization would ensure the lasting survival of the colonists and claimed that the “mongrel brood” denigrated by Michaelis was in fact superior to white children born in the colony, both mentally and physically.57 Another, anonymous, contribution to the debate similarly emphasized in particular that only by its hybridization with the indigenes was the adaptation of the European race to tropical climes to be assured.58 This argument was based on the acclimatization theory proposed by the physician, anthropologist, and politician Rudolf Virchow in 1885 and applied to the Samoan context by the botanist and anthropologist Franz Reinecke in 1902.59 As Thomas Schwarz has shown, the discursive strategies engaged in by Reinecke strongly recommend mixed marriages between colonizers and indigenes in the interest of both racial and colonial ­sustainability and progress.60 It should, however, be noted that the endorsement of hybridity did not transcend the parameters of racist and colonial discourse.61 Reinecke’s image of the Polynesian woman was that of a pliable, faithful, and sexually exciting housewife and represents a clear manifestation of colonial desire which was i­ nstrumentalized in the interests 55 Carl Eduard Michaelis, Wozu hat Deutschland eigentlich Kolonien? Wie es einem Deutschen in einer deutschen Kolonie erging (Berlin: Meinecke, 1911). 56 Anonymous, “Weiber-Aufstand auf Samoa,” Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitung (June 27, 1911). For a collection of relevant newspaper clippings, see Bundesarchiv Lichterfelde RK 3066, Bl. 80–185. 57 Wilhelm Haensell, “Erwiderung auf den offenen Brief des Herrn Michaelis,” Samoanische Zeitung (April 8, 1911). 58 Anonymous, “Zur Rassenfrage in Samoa,” Samoanische Zeitung (April 15, 1911). 59 See Rudolf Virchow, “Acclimatisation,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 17 (1885): 202–14 and Franz Reinecke, Samoa (Berlin: Süsserott, 1902). 60 See Thomas Schwarz, Ozeanische Affekte: Die literarische Modellierung Samoas im k­ olonialen Dis­­kurs  (Berlin: TEIA—Internet Akademie und Lehrbuch Verlag, 2013), at: www.teialehrbuch. de/­Kostenlose-Kurse/Ozeanische-Affekte/3.1.3-Der-Kolonialismus-auf-Samoa-als-­Hybri­ disierungsprojekt.html (last accessed March 3, 2018). See also Gabriele Dürbeck, Stereotype Paradise: Ozeanismus in der deutschen Südseeliteratur, 1815–1914 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007), pp. 253–7. 61 The “political economy of miscegenation” had also been discussed half a century earlier within the contexts of British colonialism and the American Civil War, see Young, Colonial Desire, pp. 142–4; in fact, the very term Miscegenation was derived from an eponymous pamphlet published anonymously in London and New York in 1864, see p. 144.

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of colonial propaganda.62 Besides, the hybridization envisaged by him as well as by the anonymous contributor to the debate is not primarily based on c­ onceptions of human equality but rather on notions of eugenics and racial e­ ngineering and is looking to achieve a regenerative impulse. The ­anonymous writer moreover claimed that there was a particular racial proximity – a “­Völkerverwandtschaft” – between the German colonizers and the Polynesians whom he defined as three quarters Caucasian. This was supposed to set Samoa apart from Germany’s other colonies where, as we have seen, miscegenation was not to be tolerated.63 There is of course no reason to assume that Jungmann, or the majority, if any, of Schlemiel’s readers, would have come across the postcard. They might, however, have been familiar with the third stanza of the “Cousinchen” song. Moreover, in 1912, the scandal the postcard implicitly refers to, though Schlemiel was no longer in circulation by then, would have been another colonial concern of sufficient consequence to permeate also into Zionist awareness. The ensuing debate foregrounded issues and fears which had also been articulated in the discussion of the Uganda proposal less than a decade before. We may remember Alfred Nossig’s apprehensions of the evolution of a new Jewish sub-species in East Africa as well as the representation in Schlemiel of the repulsive black imp “Made in Uganda” (see Figure 17) that were discussed in Chapter 2. Even the issue of racial proximity had its equivalent in the debate on the alleged semitic origins of the Maasai, referred to in Chapter 1. The postcard is, moreover, useful as an indicator not only of the enduring popularity of the original lyrics, but also of its unequivocal situatedness in colonial discourse. That Jungmann would have been familiar with the original of the “Cousinchen” song is likely, not only because he offered his own bowdlerized version in Mbwapwa’s letter, but also because the Jahresrevue at the MetropolTheater was a notable cultural event spread in detail across the pages of Berlin’s feuilletons. Indeed, revues at the Metropol attracted curious crowds even in front of the theater and brought to an almost complete standstill any traffic at its prominent location in Behrenstraße. As Marline Otte notes: The show at the Metropol began long before the curtain went up; through the delicate interplay of press, street, audience, and performers, the Metropol choreographed a truly total piece of art (Gesamtkunstwerk), seen on many stages, on the street and in the theater, before and behind the curtain.64 62 See Reinecke, Samoa, pp. 7, 230. Dürbeck, Stereotype Paradise, p. 255, notes that the promotion of the marriage of German men with Samoan women utilised exoticism for German colonial propaganda. 63 Anonymous, “Zur Rassenfrage in Samoa.” 64 Otte, Jewish Identities in German Popular Entertainment, p. 207.

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Whether Jungmann had actually attended a performance of The Devil Laughs about It! must, for the time being, remain concjectural. While, as Otte observes, “[b]y 1905 Berlin’s Jewish upper middle class seems to have permanently established itself among the Metropol regulars,”65 there is currently no evidence that Jungmann was among the crowd. Yet the popularity of the Metropol and in particular of its Jahresrevuen was of such magnitude that the latter not only ran into hundreds of showings but also attracted German tourists from all over the country “with the explicit plan of seeing one of the fabulous shows they read about in the boulevard press.”66 But even if Jungmann did not see the performance, the stage practice of blackface, of which it is an example, would have been known to him and his readers and must be considered another potential influence on the creation and reception of Mbwapwa Jumbo. In the original Metropol production of 1906, Prince Akwa was a fashionable dandy with rings glittering on every finger. While the real Mpundo Akwa was known for his fastidious and fashionable dress sense,67 his portly stage double was a racially stereotyped exaggeration whose substitution for the Colonial Governor was implicitly itself a play on color and the associations evoked by it. Not only is the whole “Cousinchen” ploy exposed a priori as a ridiculous fraud by the protagonists’ different skin color, but the voracious libido stereotypically attributed to black Africans – as was also observed by Fanon – is by implication ascribed to the Governor as the instigator of the stratagem. The stage act moreover subversively blurs the lines of racial difference insisted on by the Governor in support of his notion of white supremacy. Potentially even more pertinent in terms of the play on color is that the figure of Mpundo was of course played by a white actor made up to look black. Bender, who initially played Akwa, had gained early acting experience in the New World from the age of nineteen and may have been exposed during his wanderings to the stage practice of blackface. Yet it is not clear whether he performed in blackface himself before his return to Europe some five years later, in 1891, to engagements first at the famous Folies Bergère in Paris, then in London and, finally, at the Metropol in Berlin.

65 Ibid., p. 213. 66 Ibid., p. 210. 67 See von Joeden-Forgey (ed.), Mpundu Akwa, p. 113. See also the reprint of an article entitled “Fürstenblut” and originally published in the evening edition of Frankfurter Zeitung (November 24, 1906) in Liersemann’s pamphlet, in which Mpundo’s dress sense is ridiculed and his appearance portrayed as dandyish and effeminate, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, pp. 47–8.

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Much has been written on the stage practice of blackface in America. It has in particular been noted that, paradoxically, in the American context the blackface can also become a marker of whiteness: “By transgressing black identity, through racist codes, whites transformed themselves into Americans.”68 Possibly the best-known example of a performer having engaged in this metamorphosis is Asa Yoelson. Born in a Lithuanian shtetl, the singer was later to become famous as Al Jolson.69 By assuming the mask of the black other, Jolson, like other white performers, not a few of whom were Jewish, marked his integration into American society. Most people will associate Jolson as blackface with the 1927 film The Jazz Singer in which the son of a Jewish cantor attempts to escape the constraints of his cultural background and performs as blackface. The plot is reminiscent of Jolson’s own biography.70 The performer had started the vaudeville circuit as blackface already in 1904,71 almost simultaneously with the creation of Mbwapwa Jumbo and the appearance of Prince Akwa on the stage of the Metropol.72 Indeed, while blackface did of course originate in America where it gained much popularity, neither it nor minstrelsy in general, which may be considered “the first and most popular form of mass culture in the nineteenth-century United States,”73 were confined to the New World.74 In Germany too blackface was a significant part of the popular entertainment culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, albeit with a very different social function. That it was viewed with some suspicion in this country has been attributed by Jonathan Wipplinger to its perception in Germany “as threat to racial and national identities” because its presence “had the effect of forcing a reevaluation and reinterpretation of the very notion of what it meant to be German in modernity.”75 As Wipplinger argues, it was in particular the deceptive quality of blackface, the racial insecurity it embodies, the “racial ruse,” as he calls it, which aroused unease and suspicion. In Jungmann’s letters from New-Newland,

68 Don B. Wilmeth and C. W. E. Bigsby, The Cambridge History of American Theatre, vol. II: 1870–1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 186–7. 69 See Gilman, Jew’s Body, p. 238. 70 See ibid., pp. 236–8. 71 Wilmeth and Bigsby, Cambridge History of American Theatre, II, 186. 72 It may also be worth noting that Victor Hollaender, the composer of the “Cousinchen” song and “the Metropol’s principal composer” had traveled and worked extensively in England and America “where he conducted and socialized with artists such as Al Jolson and Irving Berlin,” Otte, Jewish Identities in German Popular Entertainment, p. 231. 73 Michael Rogin, Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), p. 5. 74 See, e.g., Michael Pickering, Blackface Minstrelsy in Britain (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007). 75 Wipplinger, “Racial Ruse,” 458.

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it is p ­ recisely these issues – the ambiguity of national identity, modernity, and the racial ruse – which emerge as central concerns. Blackface is, in fact, crucial for understanding the construction and the function of Mbwapwa within both the early Zionist and the German colonial discourses within which Jungmann situates his satire. Arguably, blackface performers on the German stage, alongside those who were “Genuinely Black!” (“Wirklich schwarz!”),76 were an inspiration for the writer not only when he created his Jewish African epistolarian but may have had, as in the case of Prince Akwa, an impact also on Mbwapwa’s further development. A clear indication of this contiguity is apparent on the stylistic level. Like in many contemporaneous texts referring to popular entertainment and in which, as Wipplinger observes, “untranslated English words and phrases regularly crop up,”77 Mbwapwa’s diction is also characterized by Anglicisms in both lexis and syntax although, as discussed in Chapter 1, a subtle shift occurs when his correspondence is increasingly shaped by Yiddish idioms and sentence structure. In addition, the influence of black and blackface performers on the construction of Mbwapwa is manifest also on the conceptual level in that it introduces to the series of letters the notion of performativity in relation to the discourses on race and color. This interacts with the more prominent Zionist and colonial discourses and, in fact, serves to re-evaluate and re-interpret both of the ventures at the center of these discourses. Needless to say, Mbwapwa’s case is different from the practice of blackface on the metropolitan stage. Yet, the notion of transgressing color codes is, as we have seen, variously inscribed into “Letters from New-Newland.” Moreover, as noted by Brenner, performing is clearly thematized in Jungmann’s text – “by a Black African portrayed in what might be called ‘Jewface’.”78 And while I am not entirely happy with Brenner’s play on words because it neglects to consider the meta-level of this color play where the Jewish author poses as narrator in blackface as an African posing as a Jew, it nevertheless correctly calls attention to the performative aspect of Mbwapwa’s transformations. Besides, there is the conceptual blackening of the Mizrachi Jews in the colony in what may perhaps be described as a discursive blackface which, in some convoluted logic, is then re-applied to the converted black natives. Finally, the figure of Mbwapwa himself was, in fact, turned into a blackface act when its creator appeared in its guise at

76 See Lotz, “Musical Clown,” 117, 122. 77 Wipplinger, “Racial Ruse,” 459. 78 Brenner, German-Jewish Popular Culture, p. 38.

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a charity ball organized by Schlemiel.79 All this suggests that the paradox posed by Sander Gilman – “Does black-face make everyone who puts it on white?”80 – is indubitably relevant in this context too, although it is expanded in Jungmann’s “Letters from New-Newland” to encompass alternative color transgressions which, in effect, challenge the very notion of racial stereotyping.

Variété, Cakewalk, and the Wild West So far, I have implicitly assumed that Mbwapwa is offered by Jungmann’s text as an identification figure. Recent approaches to blackface minstrelsy have made similar observations about the emerging practice from the late 1820s to the 1840s: “The act of putting a blackface over white skin was not only a means of expressing difference, it was also an act of identification.”81 The predominant view, however, is that “not only did minstrelsy enact racial division, it was one of the means by which the modern senses of the racial categories ‘black’ and ‘white’ came into being. The distorted racial caricatures of minstrelsy were an enabling device around which the disparate white working class coalesced.”82 What, then, if Mbwapwa was designed as another such “enabling device” by emphasizing the difference of the black Mizrachim with whom he was associated? If this were to have been Jungmann’s initial rationale, which is not at all unlikely, it would nevertheless seem that it was modified by Mbwapwa’s creator over the course of the nine letters. While the figure of the Jewish African clearly operates on various levels, he is still construed as such an amiable and guileless character that any negative identification would at most remain partial. As such he offers a spectrum of potential identifications which make him a mediator rather than a repulsive or ridiculous monstrosity. In order to explore further the node of ethnic difference in the Mbwapwa rhizome, I would like to return, for a brief moment, to Arthur Thiele’s “Bankruptcy Clearance Sale” (Figure 18), discussed in Chapter 2, and to the (Leder-) Hosenneger represented in the cartoon. The image suggests another performative act in which the black African poses in a costume that carries its own ­connotations

79 The lawyer and writer Sammy Gronemann, co-editor of Schlemiel, describes the occasion in his posthumously published memoirs as indicated in Chapter 1, note 45. 80 Gilman, Jew’s Body, p. 238. 81 Richard Osborne, “‘Blackface’ minstrelsy from Melville to Moby,” Critical Quarterly 48.1 (2006): 14–25, 16. 82 Ibid.

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of incongruence by mixing Bavarian, or Tyrolean, leather pants with a stiff white collar and cuffs, and otherwise displaying the native’s black skin in lieu of formal evening dress. At the same time it records the singular failure of the black to achieve whiteness, or equality, by means of his costume. In his case, his black skin assumes – metaphorically – an even darker hue, his difference is only emphasized. Thiele’s drawing is of interest here not only because it connects with the practice of blackface of which it is, in a manner of speaking, an inversion. It may moreover usefully be compared to a reminiscence of Oskar Panizza’s which the provocative writer recounts in his essay “Classicism and the Invasion of the Variété” (“Der Klassizismus und das Eindringen des Variété,” 1896).83 In this “Study of Contemporary Taste,” Panizza remembers four lanky white Americans – “Yankees” – appearing in blackface in Tyrolean costume yodeling with an English accent “O’er Hill and Dale” (“Über Berg und Thal”). The audience in the German theater initially was simply struck dumb by the “brutal” vigor of the performance but, once it was understood for what it was, there was an outburst of convulsive laughter. The occurrence, described in much evocative and comic detail, serves Panizza to illustrate the naively destructive nature of the variété, the music hall or vaudeville. He explains the provenance of the act with the popularity in America for almost half a century of a group of Tyrolean singers – the Tyroler Sänger-Gesellschaft Rainer from Achensee84 – and observes, if not quite accurately, that this was eventually parodied by negro performers who in turn were then imitated by white performers in blackface who “turned the musichall act by means of further exaggeration into such a mockery made of dirt and fire that the same, when it returned across the water to us, could hardly be recognized anymore.”85

83 Oskar Panizza, “Der Klassizismus und das Eindringen des Variété: Eine Studie über zeitgenössischen Geschmack,” Die Gesellschaft 12.10 (1896): 1252–74. 84 For the popularity of the Tyrolean ensemble in America, see Martin Reiter, Die Zillertaler Nationalsänger im 19. Jahrhundert (Ried: Artina, 1989). For the so-called Tyrolese or Tyrolean Minstrels, see also Dale Cockrell, Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and their World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 151–2. An image of the Rainer Family singers, depicted on the cover of contemporary sheet music (1841), is discussed by Daniel H. Foster, “Sheet Music Iconography and Music in the History of Transatlantic Minstrelsy,” Modern Language Quarterly 70.1 (2009): 147–61, Figure 4. 85 Panizza, “Der Klassizismus und das Eindringen des Variété,” 1266: “Von den niggers übernahmen es dann die Yankees, die Amerikaner selbst, und machten nun durch weitere Übertreibung aus dieser music-hall-Nummer eine derartige Spottgeburt aus Dreck und Feuer, daß selbe, als sie wieder über das Wasser zu uns zurückkam, kaum mehr erkannt wurde.” For the inclusion of Tyrolean songs and burlesques in the playbills of blackface minstrel acts already in

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In reality, probably unknown to Panizza, black minstrelsy was preceded by blackface minstrelsy.86 But this is not the point. Rather, it is intriguing that the writer’s model of explanation anticipates echoes of Freud’s uncanny: While the humor of the performance obviously depended on its transmogrified familiarity, the hesitation experienced by the audience is likely to have been the effect of its belated recognition which eventually produced the, by Panizza’s account, almost hysterical relief of laughing it off. As with the fashion accessories in Thiele’s cartoon, the umbrella and the turban, the reimport of the transmuted Tyroleans divests the ‘original’ of its meaning; nor is it apparently re-invested with another intended meaning. More specifically, Panizza insists that what was essential to the act, “the performance of the Tyroleans as negroes,” had such an overwhelming comic effect, that any potential intention of mere mockery was deflated and “the whole was elevated to the serene heights of the variété genre.”87 Another contemporary humoristic postcard is interesting in this context because it connects the imaginaries of blacks and Jews in relation to the performative representation of yet an other. It depicts four dancers in Tyrolean costume grotesquely throwing their limbs about in a Schuhplattler (see Figure 33). Like the four Yankees in blackface these are not genuine Tyroleans – contrary to their apparent whiteness and contrary to the clearly ironic claim prominently inscribed into the postcard: “The real genuine Schuhplattler” (“Die wirklich Schuhplattler”). As facial features, enormous flat feet, misshapen echten ­ bodies, and stereotypical movements would unequivocally have proclaimed to ­contemporaries, the four are Jews pretending to be the other. The accompanying quatrain explains: “And is Shrove Tuesday today, / Righteous God what joy! / And this ev’ning we’re Tyrolean / And tomorrow of our tribe again. / Holdrio!” Both pictorial and verbal elements, reverberating with Yiddish inflection, in this manner conspire to insist on the immutable otherness of the white Jews. antebellum America, see, e.g., William John Mahar, Behind the Burnt Cork Mask: Early Blackface Minstrelsy and Antebellum American Popular Culture (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999), pp. 30, 46, 49–50. 86 Blackface minstrelsy developed since the late 1820s, though in its established form it originates in the 1840s, at which time black performers also began to take to the stage; however, it was not before the 1860s that black minstrelsy began to proliferate, mostly in accord with by then established blackface stereotypes, see, e.g., Robert C. Toll, Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-Century America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974), p. 180. 87 Panizza, “Der Klassizismus und das Eindringen des Variété,” 1266: “[D]as eigentlich ­Wesentliche an der Nummer, das Auftreten der Tyroler als Neger, [war] von derartig prädominie­ render komischer Wirkung, daß jede etwa vorhandene spottsüchtige Absicht niedergeschlagen, und das Ganze in die heitere Höhe des Variété-Genres gerückt wurde.”

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Figure 33: “The real genuine Schuhplattler” (“Die wirklich echten Schuhplattler”; postcard; Germany; c. 1900).

They are no closer to being the ‘real thing’ than any black performers in Tyrolean costume or than the doubly removed Yankee artistes. Their charade is at the same time no less convoluted than that of the Yankees. They too, though in a different way, are twice removed. They are obviously assimilated Jews, as is indicated by their fashionably barbered facial hair. Like the Yankees putting on blackface, these Jewish assimilationists put on a form of imaginary whiteface, an act of mimicry further hyperbolized – like that of the Yankees – by donning on top of that another layer with the characteristic Tyrolean, or Bavarian, costume and the attempt to perform the distinctive dance. Obviously, like the performance of the Yankees in blackface, the postcard image was supposed to amuse its beholders. Yet by substituting the familiar but much more ambivalent aspect of the stereotypical Jew for the clearly demarcated pretend blackness, it would probably have lacked the variété character attributed by Panizza to the Tyrolean blackface act. It projects, adapting the writer’s way of putting it, not so much ‘Tyroleans as Jews,’ but Jews unsuccessfully feigning to be something other than Jews. The joke, in this case, rests mostly on the failure of the racial ruse, rather than the play on blatant contradictions. While some reassurance would have been derived from the suggestion that Jewishness may not really be disguised, the implication is at the same time that the mere attempt of doing

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so is not so much grotesque in the hilarious way of the blackface performance of the Yankees but grotesque in its presumption. We will come across the critical interrogation of a similar sentiment in the following chapter with the exploration of Panizza’s literary grotesque “The Operated Jew” which intriguingly concludes with another assimilating Jew’s mad and presumably fatal danse macabre. As emerges from his discussion of the Yankee pseudo-Tyroleans in blackface and in Lederhosen, the variété is for Panizza effectively a parasitical art form possessed of an almost viral fierceness, which attaches itself to established forms of artistic expression which it then subverts and destroys. It seeks to surprise, deceive, and offend the philistine; more even, it seeks to shock and to hurt. For Panizza this is by no means a negative; to the contrary, he asserts that “mockingbirding can become a fine art and its destructive power is of immense significance for the entirety of social and public life.”88 The variété, the writer maintains, “is the complete lack of character in art.”89 He sees in it the expression of a new, slow, and almost imperceptible development which is so little interested in morals that it does not even bother anymore with attacking them.90 More significantly, the variété as an aesthetic process is perceived by Panizza to have already penetrated over the course of the previous two decades all forms of artistic expression. Thiele’s cartoon, it might be argued, ultimately also records a manifestation of the variété. Obviously the drawing does not represent a performance and as such the depicted scene lacks the, for the variété in Panizza’s sense, constitutive element of artistic intentionality. Nor does the humor in Thiele’s cartoon, such as it is, derive from its naively destructive potential but from the ridicule to which the naive natives are exposed for aping und unsuccessfully appropriating the paraphernalia of civilization, a process of which the Jew is the unsavory agent. To the more discerning observer, capable of stepping outside the interpretive mould

88 Ibid., 1261: “[D]as Spottdrosseln kann eine feine Kunst werden, und seine zerstörende Kraft ist für das gesamte gesellschaftliche und öffentliche Leben von unnennbarer Wichtigkeit.” 89 Ibid., 1253: “Das Variété ist die absolute Charakterlosigkeit in der Kunst.” 90 See ibid., 1252. Friedrich Schiller’s 1784 lecture “Was kann eine gute stehende Schaubühne eigentlich wirken?,” first published in 1785 as “Die Schaubühne als eine moralische Anstalt betrachtet” (“The Theater Considered as a Moral Institution”) and in its final revised version in 1802, was hugely influential in nineteenth-century Germany. See Friedrich Schiller, “Was kann eine gute stehende Schaubühne eigentlich wirken?,” in Werke: Nationalausgabe, ed. Benno von Wiese (Weimar: Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1962), XX.1, 87–100. As Gary D. Stark observes in Banned in Berlin: Literary Censorship in Imperial Germany, 1871–1918 (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 2012), p. 10: “By the imperial era, Schiller’s idealized cult of the theater as an institution of personal cultivation and national consciousness was so pervasive that nearly every social stratum expressed reverence for the stage’s uplifting spiritual power and national mission.” Panizza ­suggests that these predominant classicist precepts are simply ignored by the variété.

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­ rescribed by contemporary viewing habits, the effect would nevertheless have p been similarly anarchic to that of the variété – or, indeed, to the more explicitly performative acts of resistance by Bismarck Bell and August, discussed in Chapter 1. Panizza, had he not been sectioned in an asylum by then (since 1904), might have rejoiced in the exuberant dis-order which it was clearly Thiele’s intention to denounce but which even so challenges the exclusivist self-image of a civilization supposedly predicated on systemic coherence and immutable order, but in truth rather more fragmented than its outward projection would suggest. Indeed, the inexorable and destructive incursion of the variété into cultural production is for Panizza a cause for celebration. Hence he concludes his essay with a triumphant “Variété! – Variatio delectat! – ”91 Indeed, the writer adopts a salvific discourse when insisting that, in contrast to the decadence, the variété “is not inimical to life, not misanthropic, not sickly and malcontent. It is serene, vigorous, pressing forward. It is not concerned with our scruples of being and societal discontent. It elevates us into a new sphere. It brings redemption.”92 The negro performer is for Panizza the very embodiment of the redemptive variété principle. Defying contemporary racist conceptions of the negro as animal-like and barbaric,93 the writer identifies the “nigger” as the real “variété component” and catalyst of its transformational potential.94 He argues that the “‘nigger’ element” has influenced “our art” softly and invisibly from America via

91 Panizza, “Der Klassizismus und das Eindringen des Variété,” 1274. 92 Ibid., 1268: “Dieses, das Variété, ist nicht lebensfeindlich, nicht misanthropisch, nicht krank und unzufrieden. Es ist heiter, kraftvoll, vordrängend. Es beschäftigt sich nicht mit unseren Daseins-Skrupeln und gesellschaftlichen Unzufriedenheiten. Es hebt uns in eine neue Sphäre. Es bringt Erlösung.” 93 Ibid., 1266: “Thus, in the course of the last twenty or twenty-five years we were influenced imperceptibly and slowly by an aesthetic movement from a country barbaric in artistic matters, yes, even by a racial type which Blumenbach quoad art presumably would have categorized with the animals. Quietly and gently it has invaded our way of seeing, of listening, and of enjoying art, of finding aesthetic pleasure in things grotesque. [So hat uns denn im Laufe der letzten zwanzig bis fünfundzwanzig Jahre eine Kunstrichtung aus einem kunst-barbarischen Lande, ja ein Rassentypus, den Blumenbach quoad Kunst wohl eher noch zu den Tieren gerechnet hätte, leise und langsam beeinflußt, und ist still und behutsam in unsere Art zu sehen, zu hören, künstlerisch uns zu freuen, an Groteskheiten ästhetisches Gefallen zu finden, eingedrungen.]” The reference is to Johann Friedrich Blumenbach’s On the Natural Variety of Mankind (De generis humani varietate nativa, 1775). 94 Panizza, “Der Klassizismus und das Eindringen des Variété,” 1266: “Und dieser Variété-Komponent war eben hier der nigger.” The designation “nigger,” as discussed by Astrid Kusser, signified in German usage around 1900 a black, frequently transgressive performer and was the expression of a form of racism subtly different from “Neger” which descriptively delineated an essentialist and biological difference, see Kusser, Körper in Schieflage, pp. 304–5.

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England through the variété and “the grotesquely comical.”95 Yet even though Panizza challenges racial prejudice and celebrates the invasion of the variété, he nevertheless adopts stereotypes from racist discourse which are redolent, for instance, of the carefree (or careless) way in which Herzl referred to the negro lustily blowing his horn atop the touring car in Old-New Land: For the negro possesses an extraordinarily fine muscial genius. And not only this, he moreover has an extraordinary talent for imitation. There is hardly anything that the negro hears and does not immediately attempt to imitate. But with the qualification that he impresses on everything a personal note with a comical bent. He is the real mockingbird among men. But it is impossible to be mad at his song; he knows to give his little song such an amusing and mischievously amiable quality, although he in the process actually destroys the original song and cancels its purely poetic effect. He consequently is, as it were, the variété genre personified.96

Albeit derived from and sustained by stereotypes, such as they also resurge in Thiele’s cartoon, Panizza’s observations about the negro element are not intended to be disparaging. Rather, his focus is on the grotesque quality it introduces to the variété which, as a distortion of the real, is intrinsically based on the twisted imitation and reconfiguration of reality. He considers the impact of this new element on all forms of artistic articulation to be of such magnitude that it not only challenges classicism but in effect displaces it. With its success he explains also the practice of blackface: What does all this mean, then? That the niggers in America became the most popular musichall singers and that without their silhouette consisting of the shrillest color contrasts real fun and amusement was no longer imaginable on the vaudeville stage. What did this mean over the course of time for the American performers? That, the more easily to find engagements and to be assured from the very beginning of their act of a certain striking impact, they were forced to paint themselves black.97 95 See Panizza, “Der Klassizismus und das Eindringen des Variété,” 1263. 96 Ibid.: “Der Neger besitzt nämlich eine außerordentlich feine musikalische Begabung. Und nicht nur das, er hat auch ein außerordentliches imitatorisches Talent. Es giebt kaum etwas, was der Neger hört und nicht sofort nachzuahmen versuchte. Aber mit der Einschränkung: daß er Allem eine persönliche, ins Komische getriebene Note aufdrückt. Er ist die wirkliche ­Spottdrossel unter den Menschen. Man kann aber seinem Liede nicht böse sein; so erheiternde und schelmisch-liebenswürdige Züge weiß er seinem little song zu geben, obwohl er e­ igentlich dabei das Original-Lied zerstört und dessen rein-poetische Wirkung aufhebt. Er ist also s­ ozusagen das personifizierte Variété-Genre.” 97 Ibid., 1264: “Was ergiebt sich nun aus dem allen? Daß die niggers in Amerika die beliebtesten music-hall-singers geworden sind und ohne ihre aus den schärfsten Farben-Kontrasten bestehende Silhouette wirklicher fun und Spaß auf der Singspiel-Bühne nicht mehr denkbar war. Was ergab sich aber hieraus mit der Zeit für die amerikanischen Artisten? Daß sie, um leichter

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Panizza’s model of explanation, as we have seen, is historically untenable. But it is a model which is nevertheless pertinent inasmuch as it ascribes agency to the negro performer and suggests – albeit in historical reversal – the merely reactive nature of white performers in blackface. As such, it conveys the notion of black empowerment. Indeed, given the grotesque and ludic quality of Panizza’s own work, discussed in more detail in the following chapter,98 replete with the desire to surprise, deceive, and offend, the writer himself may be putting on an act of literary blackface – not of course in a literal manner but by actively advancing the invasion of the variété into the belles lettres. Yet in his essay, Panizza does not even mention his own work. Instead, as an example of the triumphant incursion of the variété into contemporary literature, he refers to Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening (Frühlingserwachen, 1891). The play, he argues, is the exemplar of a new genre that requires a new name. For satire, Panizza contends, falls far short of adequately describing the scope and impact of Wedekind’s text which inexorably destroys the idealistic innocence it projects. Himself the victim of German censorship and just having been released from twelve months incarceration for blasphemy when he published his essay on the variété, Panizza is contemptuous of the cultural establishment: “Germany will never,” he claims, “not in a hundred years, and no matter how much it interbreeds with the Jews, be able to suck from the honeycombs the sweet honey buried in this delightful book.”99 Intriguingly, there is a suggestion here of the dour philistine taste of the German being balanced, to some extent, by the Jewish disposition which, by implication, is thus construed as the opposite of the former. There are certainly echoes here of the contemporary debate on the alleged Jewification of German culture.100 But perhaps unexpectedly, the insinuation in this instance is that the Jewish influence – like the negro element – is, aesthetically, a redeeming factor.

e­ ngagiert zu werden und gleich zu Beginn des Auftretens einer gewissen schlagenden Wirkung sicher zu sein, genötigt waren, sich schwarz anzustreichen.” Emphasis in original. 98 See also Axel Stähler, “The Author’s derrière and the Ludic Impulse: Oskar Panizza’s ‘The Operated Jew’ (1893) and Amy Levy’s ‘Cohen of Trinity’ (1889),” in Ulrike Brunotte, Jürgen Mohn, and Christina Späti (eds.), Internal Outsiders – Imagined Orientals? Antisemitism, Colonialism and Modern Constructions of Jewish Identity (Zurich: Ergon, 2017), pp. 111–28. 99 Panizza, “Der Klassizismus und das Eindringen des Variété,” 1270: “Deutschland wird nie […], auch in hundert Jahren nicht, und wenn es sich noch so sehr mit den Juden kreuzt, imstande sein, den süßen Honig, der in diesem reizenden Buche vergraben liegt, aus den Waben zu holen.” 100 See, e.g., Steven E. Aschheim, “‘The Jew Within.’ The Myth of Judaization in Germany,” in Jehuda Reinharz and Walter Schatzberg (eds.), The Jewish Response to German Culture: From the Enlightenment to the Second World War (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1985), pp. 212–41.

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While it may be of too little impact to overthrow the staid German philistinism, it nevertheless enhances the appreciation of the new taste in art which is at the same time the expression of a new and liberated way of life. The point seems worth making here because Panizza – mainly because of his literary grotesque “The Operated Jew” – has frequently been accused of a rabid antisemitism. This accusation is critically interrogated in the following chapter in which three of the writer’s grotesques which address ethnic difference and the ruthless disciplining imposed by society on those who dare to challenge the received racial boundaries, including “The Operated Jew,” are discussed in more detail. It may be debatable whether Mbwapwa operates on the level of the variété, rather than mere satire. Yet there are a number of convergences which to my mind make Panizza’s deliberations on the role of the negro element in modern cultural production another nodal cluster in the Mbwapwa rhizome, because they reverberate in Jungmann’s creation. First of all, there is of course the practice of blackface and the color play associated with it, including the virtual blackface of the author. Jungmann, as we have seen, engaged both in the virtual blackface of writing from the perspective of a black African and in actually posing and ‘performing’ as Mbwapwa at a charity ball. Perhaps even more pertinently, there is to Mbwapwa, as to the blackened Yankee Tyroleans, an added twist in that the impersonation of the black native then once again turns into a Jew and, similar to the performer in Panizza’s literary grotesque “A Negro’s Tale,” attempts to change his skin color in what is potentially a transgressive move, even though this remains unacknowledged in the text. While the pervasive satirical bent of Jungmann’s “Letters from New-­Newland” emerges clearly from their very connectivity to the historical occurrences and circumstances outlined in this book, and many more besides,101 the question of whether they are destructive in the sense proposed by Panizza is a moot point. However, they certainly are, as is the variété, a persiflage – not least of Herzl’s Old-New Land and of the process of colonization; and in both instances the glee with which the assumptions underlying them are dismantled is palpable. The letters offer moreover also a persiflage of the orthodox Judaism of the Mizrachim which, in a manner of speaking, destroys their conception of Jewish identity. And once again a clear sense of mischievous enjoyment pervades this destructive manoeuvre. On an even more basic level, the very image of Mbwapwa confronting the ‘innocent’ Zionist reader upon turning the first page of the new journal (see Figure 1) is virtually a slap in the face whose shock effect, like that created by

101 An indication of which is given in the notes to the text in the appendix.

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the Yankee Tyroleans in blackface, needs to be dissipated before it can be assimilated and appreciated. The ‘uncanny’ embodied by the black Jew needs to be recognized and ‘normalized.’ And yet this is followed by successive shock effects which – though perhaps of a lesser impact, such as Mbwapwa’s changes of epidermal hue, his complicity in the massacre of the dachshunds, and the frightening confrontation with the Ugandan imp – nevertheless sustain the potentially destructive force of the letters and the illustrations associated with them. Another such moment is the suggestion in the third of Mbwapwa’s letters of the rabbi and rebbetzin dancing the cakewalk (see LNN III, 8–9/8–9). The ostensible reason for their unceremonious enjoyment is the construction of new roads in the Jewish colony. Indeed, their surface is so perfectly smooth that it invites the rabbi and the rebbetzin to dance. While Mbwapwa’s actual turn of phrase remains to some extent ambiguous – do they really dance, or is it just that they could if they wanted to?102 – the new roads are obviously evidence of the civilizatory progress made by the settlers à la Old-New Land. Yet once again, the associations evoked by Mbwapwa’s communications are much more ambiguous than that, not least in that they point to another reinscription of meaning by turning the roads as routes of communication into dance floors and thus into conduits for a very different kind of communication far removed from their original purpose. More specifically, in contemporary discourse, the cakewalk was widely connoted as a regression into savagery and primitivism,103 which clashes conspicuously with the notion of progress in the colony. To the mostly secular or assimilated Zionist readership of Schlemiel the idea of dancing rabbis may have seemed peculiar, although ritual dance is not foreign to Judaism. At Simhat Torah, celebrating the completion of the annual cycle of Torah reading in the synagogue, the worshippers join in a joyful dance with the Torah.104

102 He says: They “kenn tanzen” which might equally mean that they “can” or “may” dance on the roads as either a factual or a potential performative act (see LNN III, 8–9/8–9). 103 As argued, for instance, by Jody Blake, Le Tumulte noir: Modernist Art and Popular Entertainment in Jazz-Age Paris, 1900–1930 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), p. 18; this notion has, however, been challenged by Davinia Caddy in “Parisian Cake Walks,” 19th-Century Music 30.3 (2007): 288–317, 290–1 who suggests that the reception of the cakewalk was much more ambiguous and included also identifications with American chique. 104 Norman Solomon, Historical Dictionary of Judaism (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015), s.v. “Dance,” p. 119: “[B]y the late Middle Ages the custom of dancing in the synagogue to celebrate completion of the cycle of Torah reading on Simhat Torah was widespread. Hasidism encouraged dance as a form of joyful worship even on Sabbaths and festivals. Traditional dancing was always single sex.” For recent trends of including dance worship in New Reform Judaism, see Dana Evan Kaplan, The New Reform Judaism: Challenges and Reflections (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013), p. 297.

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In orthodox Hasidism, dance was also encouraged “as a form of joyful worship even on Sabbaths and festivals.”105 Considering the orthodox persuasion of the Jews in New-Newland it is this, probably, rather than the ritual dance at Simhat Torah, which is intended with the reference. There may also be some biblical echoes of Miriam and of King David dancing before the Lord (see Exodus 15:20 and 2 Samuel 6:14–16). Yet liturgical dance in contemporary manifestations of Judaism would certainly not have included women, and least of all the rebbetzin. That rabbi and rebbetzin should dance the cakewalk together is even less likely. Supposed to originate among African slaves in America, the cakewalk emerged toward the end of the nineteenth century as a modern popular dance with syncopated rhythms and exaggerated, parodistic movements that “was intended as a mocking imitation of the upper-class mannerisms of white society.”106 When it reached Europe in the early years of the twentieth century via Paris,107 its immediate success was likened to the spreading of an epidemic which was described as a “dance fever” (“Tanzfieber”).108 In addition to popular dance establishments, an important gateway for its dissemination were dazzling performances in the variété, in music hall theaters, in the vaudeville, and in similar spaces of public entertainment.109 And even though its popularity in the variété began to vane as quickly as it had arisen, the cakewalk continued to thrive in everyday culture.110 Although it entered popular culture only after the publication of Panizza’s essay, the cakewalk, with its black provenance, with its grotesque and asymmetric movements no less than its ambivalence in relation to the color line and its spiraling impulse of mimicking, nevertheless appears to have been another instance of the incursion of the variété in the writer’s sense. Its culturally and socially ‘destructive’ potential emerges not least in the attempt to describe its displacement of more conventional dances in epidemiological terms. The cakewalk was moreover associated with epilepsy and regression; and it breached the

105 Solomon, Historical Dictionary of Judaism, s.v. “Dance.” 106 Caddy, “Parisian Cake Walks,” 291. 107 The introduction of the cakewalk to Paris is sometimes dated with the performance of the Elks in the Nouveau Cirque in November 1902, see, e.g., Rae Beth Gordon, “Les rythmes contagieux d’une danse noire: le cake-walk,” Intermédialités/Intermediality 16 (2010): 57–81, 64. However, Davinia Caddy suggests that the concerts of John Philip Sousa’s band at the Exposition Universelle in May 1900 effectively introduced what to Parisians became known as “cake walks,” see her “Parisian Cake Walks,” 292. 108 See Kusser, Körper in Schieflage, p. 47. 109 See ibid., p. 55. 110 See ibid., p. 226.

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­ arriers between classes and races.111 More specifically, as quoted by Davinia b Caddy from a contemporary article in Paris qui chante (1903), there is also a suggestion of the subversive potential of the cakewalk in the context of the colonial enterprise: “The black race seems to want – an ironic reversal! – to bring to the white race the benefits of its civilization. It begins by trying to renovate among us the art of the dance.”112 The observation is intriguing in particular for the ambivalence with which it conveys notions of both the subliminal anxieties and the thrill produced by the incursion of the other. Its ironic detachment is an articulation of what has been described by the anthropologist John F. Szwed as minstrelization, a technique which refers to a process by which it becomes possible to “emulate the Other in a socially approved context.”113 The insistence on the “ironic reversal” and the presumably no less ironic acknowledgement of its renovative potential not only concede the imbalance of the previous power relation but recognize the imposition of “civilization” as a tool of oppression and, at the same time, as a battle ground between the races of which the invasion of the cakewalk is only the beginning.114 In relation to the colonial project, Astrid Kusser has identified the cakewalk moreover as a pervasive metaphor for colonial dis-order.115 Examining its success in the German imperial metropole, she notes that the eccentric and grotesque quality of the new dance not only re-negotiated social norms but that it was even perceived to have a democratizing impetus because, as one contemporary critic claimed, eccentricity creates equality.116 With its grotesque element, as anticipated in Panizza’s anatomy of the variété, the cakewalk moreover answered contemporary trends in cultural production. Attempting to explain the sensation created by the new dance, the short-lived journal Das Variété declared:

111 See Gordon, “Les rythmes contagieux d’une danse noire,” 75. 112 “La race noire semble vouloir – o ironique retour des choses d’ici-bas! – apporter à la race blanche les bienfaits de sa civilisation. Elle débute en essayant de rénover chez nous l’art de la danse,” “Le Cake Walk des Négrillons,” Paris qui chante (January 31, 1903): 7, quoted and translated in Caddy, “Parisian Cake Walks,” 317. 113 John F. Szwed, “Race and the Embodiment of Culture,” Ethnicity 2.1 (1975): 19–33, 27. 114 However, situating the cakewalk craze within the modernist reception of primitivism, of l’âme noire, Davinia Caddy underlines its pervasive ambiguity particularly in the French context and argues that it “anticipated and inhibited a climate of modernist negrophilia,” Caddy, “Parisian Cake Walks,” 291. 115 See Kusser, Körper in Schieflage, pp. 241, 366–70. 116 See ibid., pp. 297–8.

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“A ­grotesque streak pervades our time.”117 The cakewalk moreover prompted a proliferating spiral of parody and persiflage.118 As such it thrived also in various subversive subcultures and was present in particular wherever the separation between the sexes, classes, races, and cultures was contested. As Kusser suggests, against the utopia of the colony with its dreams of purity and segregation emerged in the metropole the heterotopia of imitation and exaggeration, of camouflage and transformation. Its ambivalences in turn incited colonial racisms and sustained even the logic of internal colonization.119 More specifically, the cakewalk, like the figure of Mbwapwa in Schlemiel, challenged racial boundaries in that it offered identification with the other. As Kusser observes, a cartoon by David Ossipovich Widhopff representing a cakewalk act performed at the Nouveau Cirque in Paris in 1902 showed a disorderly crowd of dancers, both black and white – all of them subsumed under the caption “The Happy Negroes” (“Les Nègres Joyeux”). The implication is, as Kusser points out, that whoever danced the cakewalk with the blacks challenged their own status of belonging to the ‘white race.’120 In the following year, a musical supplement to the London weekly The Graphic by the composer Arthur Trevelyan, entitled The Cake Walk. The Ethiopian’s Ecstasy, appeared with the illustration of a cartoon by the French artist Albert Guillaume showing a similarly mixed crowd in the characteristic and, by then, familiar contortions.121 The connotations evoked by the reference to Ethiopian ecstasy hint not only at a similar conflation of black and white or the “Ethiopian” sketches of blackface minstrelsy; they moreover suggest, as Kusser notes, an allusion to the Ethiopian Movement and its political objective of achieving black autonomy in Africa and in the African diaspora.122 The cakewalk’s contagious rhythm and savage movements – to which all of society succumbs in Guillaume’s cartoon, from the helmeted policeman to the dog on its hindlegs – in this sense indicate not so much merely the invasion of the variété but the triumphant incursion of Ethiopianism. This adds a political dimension to the cakewalk which palpably raises its stakes as a space of contestation between black and white.

117 Anonymous, “Der neue Sensationstanz,” Das Variété 2.1 (1903): 18: “Ein grotesker Zug geht durch unsere Zeit.” 118 See Kusser, Körper in Schieflage, pp. 227, 299. 119 See ibid., p. 246. 120 See ibid., p. 311. See in contrast Szwed’s concept of minstrelization, “Race and the Embodiment of Culture,” 27. 121 Arthur Trevelyan, The Cakewalk, the Ethiopian’s Ecstasy [sheet music], supplement to The Graphic (May 2, 1903). For a reproduction of the cartoon, see Kusser, Körper in Schieflage, Figure 9. 122 See ibid., p. 311.

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In effect, as implicitly suggested by the article in Paris qui chante, the cakewalk was perceived by prophets of racial doom as another, musical, bridge for phantasies of black retaliation as that envisaged by Shepherd Stuurman in a more palpable and violent sense; and as such it not only provided the stage for wide-spread minstrelization in Szwed’s sense, but it also spawned anxieties of cultural infiltration with the primitive and the resurgence of savagery. Indeed, Heinrich Liersemann, whom we encountered earlier in this chapter as a fierce advocate of a race war between black und white, foresaw as the cataclysmic result of the dreaded African emancipation that “then the ground will shake with the stamping of the jubilant niggers dancing the cakewalk.”123 There is an almost apocalyptic quality to the retired naval officer’s vision of a black ascendancy of which he possibly considered the advance of the cakewalk in Europe the culture-corroding spearhead, shaking the foundations of civilization and mocking in its triumph. The cakewalk performed by the rabbi and rebbetzin thus acquires a multifaceted and highly ambivalent potential of signification. It is, most importantly perhaps, another means of typifying, or perhaps even of stereotyping, them as black. And it invests this blackness with further polysemic proliferation, derived from its own rhizomatic environment; similar to the incessantly dynamic creation of Mbwapwa being informed by the nodes in the Mbwapwa rhizome, of which blackness is itself of course an integral part. Leaving aside the incongruity of the supposedly venerable figures adopting the jerky and off-balance movements of a fashionable and “sensational” dance (“Sensationstanz”), which in itself has a comical potential that was frequently exploited in visual representations, it is more specifically the cakewalk’s connotations of primitivism and savagery which support the consistent identification of the Mizrachim as barbarians in ­Mbwapwa’s letters. It is perhaps worthy of note that of the plethora of postcards, posters, cartoons, and other visual documents of the cakewalk craze I have come across none feature any representations of orthodox Jews. And yet, many of these images, as suggested above, emphasize precisely the inclusive diversity of those succumbing to the dance fever and the incongruity of the grotesque and eccentric movements in which it manifests itself. Jungmann’s insertion of the orthodox Jews into the imaginary crowd is more than just the insistence on the supposedly primitive origins of the dance and their alignment with it. It aligns them also with contemporary popular culture. Yet the emphasis is on the paradox this produces which

123 Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 45: “[D]ann wird die Erde dröhnen unter dem Stampfen der jubelnden, Cakewalk tanzenden Nigger.”

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ultimately, in another of Mbwapwa’s missives, is attributed to an assimilatory impulse. In Mbwapwa’s fifth letter, it is implied that the colony has in the meantime attracted also non-orthodox Jewish immigration; in this context the black Jewish special correspondent refers to efforts of introducing worship dance as a concession to native customs. While there is no explicit mention of the cakewalk in this context, the earlier reference and the incongruous image it conveyed would still have been fresh in the minds of the readers of Schlemiel. Moreover, given its contemporary popularity and supposedly savage African origins,124 the cakewalk would probably have offered the most likely association in any case. Yet whatever the dance, the object of Jungmann’s scorn through Mbwapwa’s innocuous observations is the alleged Jewish disposition for assimilation which is perceived to compromise more essentialist notions of Jewishness. The cakewalk craze, which generated similar anxieties also in the European majority cultures, accordingly suggests a relevant point of reference. External to specifically Jewish concerns, these anxieties originate in colonial discourse and its potential subversion: They are the oppressor’s fears of the subaltern gaining agency and turning the tables. While these externally derived anxieties of the loss of identity and of power are not made explicit in Mbwapwa’s letters, they are nevertheless invoked implicitly throughout his missives. Mbwapwa’s change of epidermal hue is just one instance of this. Yet Jungmann is more explicit about internally generated anxieties peculiar to the Jewish precedent. Thus the suggested introduction of the dance service is paralleled in Mbwapwa’s account with the introduction of the organ to reform synagogues in Germany. As with Mbwapwa’s impending ambassadorship to Russia and the previously required immersion in reform Judaism, it is once again the reform community of Berlin which is suggested to promote the necessary assimilatory spirit. At this junction in the letters from New-Newland, the cakewalk – or any other African dance – is therefore no longer associated with the orthodox Mizrachim, who in fact resist the introduction of the dance worship, because “none of them have had any dancing lessons yet” (LNN V, 40–1/41–2). Indeed, as Mbwapwa reports, the question of the dance service incites a “great culture war” (LNN V, 41/42–3) – between assimilatory and modernizing forces and those rejecting change and seeking to maintain with their primitivism a theocratic society. The allusion is once again to a historical precedent from German imperial history. Mbwapwa’s turn of phrase suggests a parallel within the Jewish context to efforts mainly of the former German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck during the

124 For the prevalence of this misconception, see Caddy, “Parisian Cake Walks,” 289–91.

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first decade of the German Empire to effect the separation of state and church and in particular to challenge the influence of the Catholic Church. The scientist and left-liberal politician Rudolf Virchow, whom we encountered earlier in this chapter in relation to his acclimatization theory, was the first, in 1873, to refer to this confrontation as Kulturkampf (“culture struggle” or “culture war”). To project the notion of a Kulturkampf onto the internecine strife of the polarized Jewish factions in New-Newland is another instance of seeking to define and to explain the fictional goings-on in the colony with the recent history of the metropolitan center which, in turn, is subjected to satirical scrutiny. In brief, the Kulturkampf was enacted since the first half of the nineteenth century in response to the increasing popularity of Catholicism between liberal forces of progress and those considered to be subject to alleged Catholic backwardness:125 Reform Jews and Mizrachim, respectively, in Mbwapwa’s reports from New-Newland. In imperial Germany this confrontation eventually led to intolerant and coercive legislation which has been said to have subverted, and tainted, the initially progressive trajectory of the Kulturkampf.126 In Mbwapwa’s letter, too, neither party escapes unscathed. Dance worship, the assimilation of native customs to be substituted for Jewish tradition, is implicitly presented as the impending corrosion of a core element of Jewish identity. Nor is this what colonizers do, or are expected to do, even if Mbwapwa – reminded of his own native identity and thus challenging his own assimilatory progress – is intrigued by the idea whose fairness he emphasizes (see LNN V, 34–7/35–8). Indeed, the explicit analogy with the introduction of the organ to reform services in Germany shows the principle at work here to accord with the subaltern giving in to the pressure of the dominant majority culture. The rationale proffered for the advisability of introducing the “customs of their fatherland” (LNN V, 37/38) to Jewish religious practice is highly ambivalent: Like they [i.e. the Jews] worshipped their God in Europe by means of the organ, so they have to worship Him here by means of dancing after the manner of the Negroes, because the blacks otherwise could easily become antisemites. (LNN V, 37–40/38–41)

125 See, e.g., David Blackbourn, “Progress and Piety: Liberalism, Catholicism and the State in Imperial Germany,” History Workshop Journal 26.1 (1988): 57–78. See also the very useful overview in Michael B. Gross, The War against Catholicism: Liberalism and the Anti-Catholic Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004), pp. 3–22. 126 See, e.g., Gross, War against Catholicism, pp. 11–22, who challenges this view, see pp. 21–2. See also, as a contemporary engagement, the supplement of The Green Pug by Thomas Theodor Heine to Simplicissimus, discussed in the previous chapter.

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Assimilation, it is suggested, is employed as a defence against antisemitism. It means to abandon particularity so as not to be disciplined for it and it is as such the very opposite of the orthodox intransigence implicitly criticized throughout Mbwapwa’s communications: The letters from New-Newland endorse change, but they denounce such a strategic use of assimilation, offering instead – at least implicitly – the alternative of Zionism. The futility of assimilation as a deflective strategy had moreover become sufficiently clear with the rise of antisemitism in Germany in spite of attempts to pre-empt or assuage Jewish alterity with its help. After all, as we have seen, antisemitism is considered in Schlemiel a corollary of civilization. The projected introduction of dance worship in the colony with its connotations of primitivism and regression is therefore intrinsically different from the introduction of the organ. Just like the orthodox Mizrachim are discursively construed as doubly black and as savage in Mbwapwa’s letters, the disposition toward assimilation makes also the liberal element vulnerable to a metaphorical blackening and the contagion of savagery. We may be reminded here of the specter of the black imp “Made in Uganda” (see Figure 17) with which readers of Schlemiel would be confronted a few months later. There is, like with most of the satire in Schlemiel, also a more immediate incentive for Jungmann’s reference to the liturgical use of the organ in reform synagogues. Indeed, the introduction of the organ had been not only one of the most controversial synagogal reforms in the previous century, but early in 1904 – triggered by an expert assessment by the Berlin Rabbinate, like the one requested by the Jews in New-Newland (see LNN V, 42–4/43–5) – the use of the organ in synagogues was once again hotly debated.127 The conflation of the topical case at home with the imaginary one in the fictional colony is another example of the way in which Jungmann uses the latter as an instrument of poignant criticism. But it also demonstrates the relevance of the nodes of the wide-spread Mbwapwa rhizome and the plurality of interpretations originating in this more comprehensive approach to the satirist’s densely woven and layered text. But whatever the particular target, the universal message of the letters remains unambiguous: The real opportunity to be free of the assimilatory blemish and to create a tolerant

127 For the publication of the assessment, see Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums 68.6 (­ February 5, 1904): 65–8; see also the anonymously published articles “Die Orgel” (“The Organ”) and “­Nochmals die Orgel” (“The Organ, Again”) in subsequent issues, 68.11 (March 11, 1904): 121–2 and 68.30 (July 22, 1904): 349–50, respectively. For the organ as a symbol of the division between reform and orthodox congregations in Germany, see Tina Frühauf, The Organ and its Music in German-Jewish Culture (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

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Jewish commonwealth is not to be sought in any African Zion but, as insisted quite emphatically also in Rosintal’s cartoon with the black imp, in the Jewish Zion proper. Another, perhaps less pervasive and, arguably, also less conspicuous element of the proliferating rhizomatic texture of Mbwapwa’s letters is his reference to Buffalo Bill and, by extension, also the former scout’s notorious Wild West shows. Yet this, too, though only emerging in the context of the last of his communications from Texas and originating in yet another continent is nevertheless more than just a single skein in the rhizome accruing around the representation of ethnic difference with which the tendrils and nodes of the Mbwapwa rhizome interconnect. Wild West shows had been organized by Colonel William F. Cody, known as Buffalo Bill, since 1883. They toured with much success not only in America but also in Europe.128 In 1890–91 and, once again, in 1906, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West visited Germany and both of these occasions are nodal clusters in the Mbwapwa rhizome. In particular the latter series of performances would have been fresh in the mind of both the creator of Mbwapwa and of his readers when, in the final Texan letter of 1907, the would-be colonizing Jews are received in the New World by Buffalo Bill and figures from James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking tales. Buffalo Bill is only briefly mentioned in the letter when the Jewish spies, expecting to be met in Galveston by the writer and president of ITO, Israel Zangwill, find in his stead the famous Wild West impresario. When they eventually seek food with their Indian hosts, Buffalo Bill quickly takes his leave (see LNN IX, 42–6/47–52). But his name carries many connotations which operate within the discourse on ethnic difference, relating in particular to the confrontation of civilized with primitive and the performative negotiation of identities but also, I would suggest, to modes of (anticolonial) resistance. It is moreover in many ways perhaps an obvious choice as paradigmatic of the popular representation of America in Europe. The question nevertheless remains, what the cypher of Buffalo Bill would have suggested to the reader of Schlemiel and in which ways it would have contributed to the dynamic development of Mbwapwa. In many ways similar to the familiar ethnographic shows mentioned in Chapter 1, but much more spectacular and involving much more personnel, the typical program of the Wild West show would have featured among other attractions a bareback pony race, the Pony Express, an attack on the Deadwood Mail 128 Indeed, Buffalo Bill’s, while probably the most famous, was not the only show of this kind. For the many different Wild West show enterprises, see, e.g., L. G. Moses, Wild West Shows and the Images of American Indians, 1883–1933 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996), p. 317n4.

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Coach, races of Indians and of Cowboys, shooting exhibitions, and – as the final pièce de résistance – the “Grand Hunt – including a battle with the Indians.”129 Most importantly, the audience would have been presented with real Indians – not performers in ‘redface.’ The performances of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West were therefore not billed as “shows” but “as an entertaining and educational experience that exposed a factual account of events in ‘actual life’.”130 Indeed, a significant part of the attraction of the earlier shows, and correspondingly advertised, was that the Show Indians had in fact been among those actively involved in the battles of the recent Indian Wars. However, with the increasing historical distance to these events occured an inevitable shift. As L. G. Moses observes: “It had been the real-life experiences that had made Show Indians; now they increasingly represented just another class of actor. They were authentic because of their ‘race,’ if not for their deeds.”131 In addition, new spectacular features had therefore been developed to maintain the shows’ popular appeal, including the Congress of the Rough Riders of the World with an international cast of celebrated horsemen.132 The impact of the Wild West show on the imaginary of America in Europe remained undiminished and its popularity continued to soar until the First World War, like that of its manager. In Germany in particular “[a]n entire industry of new books, magazines and comics stemmed from his performances” and Buffalo Bill – or Büffel-Wilhelm, as he was also known – became, as H. Glenn Penny observes, “a household name.”133 The huge success of the Wild West show in Germany has been explained by Paul Reddin inter alia with the country’s Zeitgeist, which “set a mood of acceptance for the show,”134 and more specifically with a wide-spread enthusiasm for the American West promoted by a predilection for the adventure fiction of writers such as James Fenimore Cooper, Bret Harte, Mayne Reid, Gustave Aimard, and Karl May.135 It is certainly no surprise that in the Texan letter the Indian natives encountered by Mbwapwa and Chaskel in the company of Buffalo Bill are figures 129 Ibid., p. 8. For the Wild West shows in their wider context of exhibiting otherness in Germany, see Dreesbach, Gezähmte Wilde, pp. 89–90, 100–2, 173–6. 130 Scott Magelssen and Heidi Nees, “‘“Real Live” Indian’: Sitting Bull’s Performance of Self in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West,” Popular Entertainment Studies 2.1 (2011): 22–40, 29. 131 Moses, Wild West Shows, p. 171. 132 See ibid., pp. 118–19. 133 H. Glenn Penny, Kindred by Choice: Germans and American Indians since 1800 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2013), p. 64. 134 Paul Reddin, Wild West Shows (Chicago and London: University of Illinois Press, 1999), p. 111. 135 See ibid.

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inspired by, or indeed taken from, James Fenimore Cooper’s famous novels. The ­Leatherstocking tales were immensely popular in Germany ever since the “Cooper mania” (“Cooper-Manie”) of the 1820s.136 In the popular imagination of the final decades of the nineteenth century and of the beginning of the twentieth, Cooper’s novels, the Wild West shows, and the American adventure narratives of Karl May interpenetrated one another and coalesced into a hegemonic image. In Büffel-Wilhelm, for instance, as Reddin maintains, “many Germans saw James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking”;137 but the Wild West shows were also interpreted in the light of May’s popular fiction. As Daniele Fiorentino notes, the press in Germany “had been more concerned with identifying in the various performances of the Indians the brave deeds of Karl May’s heroes than observing the actual performances of the Native Americans.”138 Yet it is neither May’s noble and heroic Apache chief Winnetou nor the writer’s alter ego Old Shatterhand who greets the Jewish would-be colonizers in Mbwapwa’s Texan letter. The reason may simply have been personal preference. Besides, May’s protagonists would have evoked subtly but significantly different associations from Cooper’s, which arguably would have made them less suitable for Jungmann’s purpose. May’s work promoted a basically conservative and bourgeois Germanness that was moreover strongly informed by Christian values, as we have seen in Chapter 3. Not that Jungmann was too much bothered about accuracy; his use of Cooper’s characters is certainly creative. Uncas, the Indian chief who welcomes Mbwapwa and Chaskel is indeed, as Jungmann has it, the son of Chingachgook (Chingagoch in the Texan letter) in the Leatherstocking tales; Wah-ta-Wah (Watawah), however, is not his wife but, in The Deerslayer (1841), his mother. She is also, in the novel, taken captive by an enemy tribe to be forcefully married, yet is rescued by her betrothed, Chingachgook. Wah-ta-Wah is, moreover, resourceful on her own and a strong character which, I suggest, supports my earlier reading of Chaskel’s punished concupiscence. More importantly, 136 Reinhold Wagnleitner, Coca-Colonisation und Kalter Krieg: die Kulturmission der USA in Österreich nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg (Vienna: Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik, 1991), p. 23. See also Karlheinz Rossbacher, Lederstrumpf in Deutschland: Zur Rezeption James Fenimore Coopers beim Leser der Restaurationszeit (Paderborn: Fink, 1972) and Richard Pells, Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated, and Transformed American Culture Since World War II (New York: Basic, 1997), p. 12, who claims that Cooper was “the most widely read American author in Europe” in the early years of the twentieth century. 137 Reddin, Wild West Shows, p. 113. 138 Daniele Fiorentino, “‘Those Red-Brick Faces’: European Press Reactions to the Indians in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show,” in Christian Feest (ed.), Indians and Europe: An Interdisciplinary Collection of Essays (1987; Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999), pp. 403–13, p. 408.

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Cooper’s Uncas is The Last of the Mohicans (1826) in the eponymous novel. His name consequently elicits associations of genocide or at least of the impending extinction of the indigenous people. Accordingly, there is a suggestion of colonial conflict and racial prejudice which resonates similarly with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show and which reverberates also in the African context with the ongoing “race war” in some of the German protectorates. In the face of Manifest Destiny, the doctrine justifying the expansion of the United States across the North American continent,139 and of the constantly shifting frontier, by the final decades of the nineteenth century the Indian nations were perceived to vanish. It is hardly a coincidence that the spectacular Wild West shows emerged at the very same time,140 even though Reddin in fact traces the romantic notion of the ‘vanishing Americans’ back to the very first Wild West shows under the management of George Catlin in the 1830s and links it to the same sentiment informing Cooper’s novels, in particular his The Last of the Mohicans of 1826141 – which takes us all the way back to Uncas. In these early representations of the native other was already embedded the ambivalence of its perception in that the romantic imaginary of the noble savage was counterbalanced by that of the savage. It is nevertheless important to note that the Wild West shows were not unambiguously limited to either of these but presented both imaginaries within the dynamics of the narrative of the vanishing natives and the progress of civilization: The structure of the shows gives a clear view of the two depictions of the Native American that white cultures expected. In the village and while running races or dancing “traditional” dances, the Native American was shown as a noble savage – different, primitive, but basically non-threatening. But during the more violent events they were depicted as blood-thirsty barbarians – screaming, shooting, and better off vanquished or dead.142

As explored by Linda Scarangella McNenly, it was not only the performances of the Wild West shows themselves that provided the sites of representation: “The visual and print media, including newspaper reports, advertisements, photographs,

139 For the concept of Manifest Destiny, see, e.g., David Stephen Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, Manifest Destiny (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2003). 140 See Moses, Wild West Shows, p. 4: “By the 1880s and the advent of Wild West shows, the last of the ‘hostile’ western tribes, the Apaches of Arizona and New Mexico territories had been subdued. It appeared to many Americans, and mostly to those who lived in the East, that the West and its native inhabitants, however wild they once may have been, were passing from existence.” 141 See Reddin, Wild West Shows, p. 16. 142 Sarah Blackstone, “Simplifying the Native American: Wild West Shows Exhibit the ‘Indian’,” in Marc Maufort (ed.), Staging Difference: Cultural Pluralism in American Theatre and Drama (New York: Lang, 1995), pp. 9–17, p. 12.

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­ ostcards, show programs, and posters, also produced and perpetuated images of p a noble savage or ‘savage Indian’.”143 As a part of this dynamic, the later Wild West shows reflect also the final subjugation of the natives within the narrative of Manifest Destiny. As McNenly observes, “[a] modification in discourse from the ‘savage and vanishing Indian’ to the ‘civilized and tamed Indian’ was hence necessary to maintain the story of a successful conquest.”144 And yet – controversial as the shows were even at the time, with the opposition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and mainly Christian humanitarian groups145 – the performances, as Scott Magelssen and Heidi Nees emphasize, “did allow, at least for a few moments, the Native performers’ bodies to become visible in a culture devoted to marginalising them.”146 Though the parameters within which colonial conquest was pursued in the German protectorates in Africa were very different, an analogy nevertheless seems to suggest itself in relation to the efforts of procolonialist forces to promote the idea of colonial expansion. The great colonial exhibition in Berlin of 1896 was, as we have seen, a similar attempt to promote the civilizing mission of the colonial power and the natives’ educability, if much less ‘spectacular.’ In what is effectively an inversion of the American pattern, the notion of a race war being waged in the African protectorates less than a decade later challenged the belief in the educability of the Africans and its most extreme supporters envisaged their extinction, which was in actual fact nearly the catastrophic result of the colonial conflict. In America, different considerations prevailed. Moses suggests that even though the Wild West shows “never offered an alternative to forced assimilation,” they nevertheless emerged “as a method to ease the transition of a proud and capable people to the cultural demands of the majority.”147 The shows moreover offered not only economic opportunities to the native Americans, restricted as they may have been, but provided also a means of keeping their traditions alive, of evoking and even celebrating their cultures.148 In fact, as Moses perceptively puts it: “‘Playing’ Indian could also be viewed as defiance.”149 This argument has been pursued further by Magelssen and Nees who argue that

143 Linda Scarangella McNenly, “Foe, Friend, or Critic. Native Performers with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and Discourses of Conquest and Friendship in Newspaper Reports,” American Indian Quarterly 38.2 (2014): 143–76, 144. 144 Ibid., 147. 145 See, e.g., Moses, Wild West Shows, pp. 3, 5, 40. 146 Magelssen and Nees, “‘“Real Live” Indian’: Sitting Bull’s Performance of Self,” 33. 147 Moses, Wild West Shows, p. 8. 148 See ibid., p. 277. 149 Ibid.

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despite its often-racist portrayals, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West became a counter-site to a mythical American West (a heterotopia in Foucault’s terminology), in which Sitting Bull and other Native performers used their “spectactular” status to tactically operate within a changing political field of ethnic stereotypes and oppression.150

In other words, the native performers in the Wild West shows assumed “communicative agency,”151 importantly also outside their stage acts.152 The famous Lakota chief Sitting Bull, for instance, joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West in the 1884–85 season and retained full autonomy over the production and sale of souvenir autographs and portrait photographs,153 not entirely dissimilar to the Kaptein of the Nama, Hendrik Witbooi, as we have seen in Chapter 1. However, like Witbooi, Sitting Bull had only limited authority over the internal and external mechanisms of producing and disseminating his image, including the iconographic tradition within which his portraits were created and beheld and the contextual reconfigurations to which they may have been subjected. Yet, as suggested by McNenly, the Lakota chief may not have been concerned so much “about constructing a particular image that resonated with the general public, so long as that image was of himself, an image he knew could be sold to the public.”154 Another channel for the communicative agency assumed by native performers of the Wild West shows was the press. In the proliferation of newspaper reports on the shows and subject to editorial intervention, they were occasionally given a voice, be it in interviews or in feature articles.155 Intriguingly, as Moses notes, the press in Germany “produced far more laudatory accounts of the Show Indian” than anywhere else in Europe, yet they included “surprisingly few quotations.”156 A notable exception is the impromptu speech delivered by the Lakota performer Rocky Bear, at the time the leader of Cody’s Indian contingent, at a dinner of the Munich Anthropological Society in April 1890. First rendered in English by the

150 Magelssen and Nees, “‘“Real Live” Indian’: Sitting Bull’s Performance of Self,” 23. 151 For this term, see Kathleen Buddle, “Media, Markets, and Powwows. Matrices of Aboriginal Cultural Mediation in Canada,” Cultural Dynamics 16.1 (2004): 29–69, 34. See also McNenly, “Foe, Friend, or Critic,” 163 who applies the term to the native performers of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. 152 Ibid., 162: “While whites were observing them, Native performers also gazed back and observed the social, economic, and ethnic differences to be found in American society.” See also the gazing back of Bismarck Bell, discussed in Chapter 1. 153 See ibid., 151. See also Magelssen and Nees, “‘“Real Live” Indian’: Sitting Bull’s Performance of Self,” 22–40. 154 McNenly, “Foe, Friend, or Critic,” 151. 155 See especially ibid., 143–76. 156 Moses, Wild West Shows, p. 92.

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show’s interpreter and thence translated into German, Rocky Bear’s address was widely reported and frequently reprinted in newspapers across the nation.157 Rocky Bear’s words are notable in particular for the candor with which he refers to the recent enmity between himself and his people and the whites. He insists that the latter’s greed for land forced the Indians into resistance and, urged by the Great Spirit, to fight for their right, for their freedom, their home, and their fatherland.158 While conciliatory, letting bygones be bygone, the Lakota nevertheless is very clear in blaming for the conflict and for the present situation of the Indians the whites and, more specifically, the political entity of the United States of America: “The American people have done us a great injustice.”159 At the same time, Rocky Bear apparently seeks to establish an empathetic bond with his German audience when he acknowledges ‘racial’ difference but insists on human equality and the universal validity of divinely promulgated moral precepts: Look at my hand! It is black, but the heart in my bosom beats just like your heart with feelings of friendship; the color of our skins is different, our hearts are one. The great lodestar in the high heavens has implanted in our bosom that feeling through which we may know what is right and what is wrong; we have been taught the way of right and righteousness and I beseech the Great Spirit that he may always keep us on it.160

It has been suggested that the Show Indians, some of whom not only performed in Europe but also met European potentates, were not aware of the imperial and colonial entanglements of the countries they visited.161 I am not entirely convinced that such naivety could actually be preserved, even given the obvious cultural difference and frequent difficulties in communication. After all, as Rita G. Napier has shown, the native American performers were tourists wherever they went, and while they may have been “tourists with a distinctly non-Western

157 See Penny, Kindred by Choice, pp. 63–5. See also Dreesbach, Gezähmte Wilde, p. 297. 158 See [Rocky Bear], “Indianer-Trinkspruch. Gehalten von dem Medizinmann Rocky Bear in der Anthopologischen Gesellschaft zu München,” Die Gesellschaft 6.2 (1890): 981–2, 981. 159 Ibid.: “Das amerikanische Volk hat uns großes Unrecht zugefügt.” 160 Ibid., 982: “Schaut auf meine Hand! Sie ist schwarz, aber das Herz in meiner Brust schlägt wie Euer Herz, in Gefühlen der Freundschaft, unsere Hautfarben sind verschieden, unsere Herzen sind eins. / Der große Leitstern in den hohen Himmeln hat unserer Brust eingepflanzt jenes Gefühl, wodurch wir wissen können, was Recht ist und was Unrecht; uns ist gelehrt worden der Weg des Rechtes und der Rechtlichkeit und ich bitte den großen Geist, daß er uns stets auf demselben halten möge.” 161 See, e.g., Moses, Wild West Shows, pp. 53–4.

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­ erspective on the sights they saw,”162 they nevertheless were observant enough p to note for instance the conspicuous social injustice of white society both abroad and at home.163 Rocky Bear understood himself to be a mediator between his people and the whites, a position whose difficulty he acknowledged.164 This perception of his own role may have been one of the reasons for the Lakota chief to address the German association at such length on what, effectively, was neutral ground. In 1890, though it was reaching out for colonies, the German Empire was as yet at the beginning of its brief spell as a colonial power. One may wonder if, sixteen years later, when the Wild West show returned to Germany toward the end of the colonial wars in the African protectorates, Rocky Bear would have been as forthcoming. In 1890, about eight months after his Munich address, the precariousness of Rocky Bear’s position, and to some extent also his failure as a mediator, became painfully manifest when more than 150 Lakota, including women and children, were killed by the Seventh US Cavalry for their association with the so-called Ghost Dance Movement in what has become known as the Wounded Knee Massacre. The religious movement, originating with the Paiute Indians in the American South-West, sought to rouse native American peoples across the continent and, by means of the ritual dance, to unite the living with the spirits of the dead in order to reverse Manifest Destiny and the colonialist expansion of the whites. In relation to the Mbwapwa rhizome, the – if only superficial – similarities of the Ghost Dance with the Ethiopian Movement and the significance attributed to primitive dance in either context are certainly suggestive. Both are religious movements with a unificatory impetus and a clear anticolonial objective. Without referring to either the Ghost Dance or the Ethiopian Movement in so many words, Jungmann’s letters from New-Newland nevertheless allude to both. We have already variously noted the adaptation of the rallying cry of the latter movement in Mbwapwa’s communications where it is attributed to the Mizrachim: “Africa for the blacks! Africa for the blacks!” (LNN I, 49–50/51) Mbwapwa’s mention of Buffalo Bill, while much more oblique in relation to the specific historical occurrence, in addition invokes the broad spectrum of associations produced by the Wild West show, including, I would suggest, the Ghost Dance. 162 Rita G. Napier, “Across the Big Water: American Indians’ Perceptions of Europe and Europeans, 1887–1906,” in Feest (ed.), Indians and Europe, pp. 383–402, p. 386. 163 See, e.g., McNenly, “Foe, Friend, or Critic,” 162. 164 [Rocky Bear], “Indianer-Trinkspruch,” 982: “My position is that of a mediator between the white and the red men, and it is a difficult position [Meine Stellung ist die eines Mittlers zwischen den weißen und den roten Männern, und es ist eine schwere Stellung].”

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Indeed, the most pervasive of these associations, shockingly supported by the events at Wounded Knee, may have been the trope of the vanishing Indians. In relation to Mbwapwa and his communications, the intention may once again have been to critique colonialism in all its different manifestations by highlighting its disastrous consequences on the indigenous peoples. This not only reiterates the admonition that Jews should not become embroiled in colonialist ventures but includes another implicit critique of the rapaciousness of German colonialist expansionism, expressed with a striking image when Mbwapwa describes himself, Chaskel, and Uncas walking down the road in Galveston as resembling the imperial German flag: “I on the left, the white Chaskel in the middle, and on the right the red Indian; we looked like a German flag.” (LNN IX, 44–5/49–50; see also below, Chapter 6 and Figure 35). As we have seen at the beginning of this chapter, the conclusion of this letter correspondingly refers with Chaskel’s words – including his bowdlerization of the little cousin song and von Bülow’s quip – to the violence exerted by the German colonial administration in Africa. It moreover dismisses the very idea of a Jewish colonization in Texas as the fruit of wishful but misguided thinking. In Germany, the romantic trope of the vanishing Indian found strong resonance and Karl May, once again, was instrumental in its promotion. In the introduction to the first volume of his Winnetou trilogy the popular writer used the metaphor of the “dying man” to give expression to the fate of the American Indians: Yes, the red nation is dying! From Patagonia to far beyond the North American lakes the sick giant lies prostrate, defeated by a relentless fate which knows no mercy. He resisted with all his might, yet to no avail; his powers waned more and more; he has but little breath left, and the spasms which from time to time rack his naked body are the convulsions which herald his imminent death.165

The writer evokes the death throes of the giant, referring obviously to futile acts of resistance such as the Ghost Dance, and the responsibility for his demise is unequivocally apportioned to the whites as the emissaries of the driving force of

165 Karl May, Winnetou, der rote Gentleman (Freiburg im Breisgau: Fehsenfeld, 1893), I, 1: “Ja, die rote Nation liegt im Sterben! Vom Feuerlande bis weit über die nordamerikanischen Seen hinauf liegt der kranke Riese ausgestreckt, niedergeworfen von einem unerbittlichen Schicksal, welches kein Erbarmen kennt. Er hat sich mit allen Kräften gegen dasselbe gesträubt, doch vergeblich; seine Kräfte sind mehr und mehr geschwunden; er hat nur noch wenige Atemzüge zu thun, und die Zuckungen, die von Zeit zu Zeit seinen nackten Körper bewegen, sind die Konvulsionen, welche die Nähe seines Todes verkünden.”

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progress. May weighs up this progress with the forever unrealized cultural potential of the native American which he laments as a loss to humanity: Yes, he has become a sick man, a – dying man, and we stand with pity at his miserable bed to close his eyes. To abide at a deathbed is a serious matter, a hundred-fold so, if this deathbed is that of a whole race. Then many, many questions arise, in particular this: What would this race have been able to achieve, had it but been given time and space to develop its internal and external powers and talents? What peculiar forms of culture will be lost to humanity because of the demise of this nation? The dying man would not assimilate, because he was a ‘character’; was it necessary to kill him for this, could he not have been saved?166

Ultimately, while still mired in the prejudiced hierarchical scale of cultural achievement of his day and in its unwavering belief in progress, May at least credits the dying ‘race’ with the potential to contribute its own peculiar achievement to that of humanity as a whole, were it but given the time to develop. At the same time the otherness of the red race is not only acknowledged but validated, both for a wistful sense of the what-might-have-been and for its own sake.167 In 1893, the same year in which the first book publication of Winnetou, the Red Gentleman (Winnetou, der rote Gentleman) appeared, Oskar Panizza published in his collection Visions (Visionen) a short story about a ‘Show Indian.’ This is intriguing because his narrative inverts and internalizes the metaphor of the dying man by turning it into the Indian’s futile death wish. More will be said about “An Indian’s Thoughts” (“Indianergedanken,” 1893) in the following chapter. Suffice it for now to mention that it was inspired in all likelihood by Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. In the German press the treatment of the Show Indians by their manager and the medical care they received in the alien climes of Europe had become a sensitive issue,168 which was exacerbated by a concurrent inquiry in America, conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.169 Against this backdrop

166 Ibid., I, 4–5: “Ja, er ist ein kranker Mann geworden, ein – sterbender Mann, und wir stehen mitleidig an seinem elenden Lager, um ihm die Augen zuzudrücken. An einem Sterbebette zu stehen, ist eine ernste Sache, hundertfach ernst aber, wenn dieses Sterbebett dasjenige einer ganzen Rasse ist. Da steigen viele, viele Fragen auf, vor allem die: Was hätte diese Rasse leisten können, wenn man ihr Zeit und Raum gegönnt hätte, ihre inneren und äußeren Kräfte und Begabungen zu entwickeln? Welche eigenartigen Kulturformen werden der Menschheit durch den Untergang dieser Nation verloren gehen? Dieser Sterbende ließ sich nicht assimilieren, weil er ein Charakter war; mußte er deshalb getötet, konnte er nicht gerettet werden?” 167 It is perhaps worthy of note that talking about the dying man of America, May at the same time elaborates the parallel with the “sick man” of Turkey, another metaphor current at the time and of orientalist provenance, which nevertheless revaluates its object. 168 See Fiorentino, “‘Those Red-Brick Faces’,” p. 408. 169 See Moses, Wild West Shows, pp. 92–104.

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Panizza lets his Indian reveal to the medical man who is the story’s narrator not so much his physical plight but his mental anguish (see IG, 348). “An Indian’s Thoughts” may, moreover, also have been motivated more specifically by (reports on) Rocky Bear’s impromptu address to the Anthropological Society in Munich. Indeed, less than twenty pages separate Panizza’s essay “The Devil in the Oberammergau Passion Play” (“Der Teufel im Oberammergauer Passionsspiele”) from a reprint of the Lakota chief’s “Indian Toast” (“Indianer-Trinkspruch”) in the same issue of the journal Die Gesellschaft (1890);170 and he may even have been present during the occasion itself. Knowledge of the atrocity at Wounded Knee, which was the last armed conflict of the war against the native American peoples, may have further contributed to Panizza’s interest in the fate of the Indians and to his imaginative rendering of the unnerving thought processes of his native performer. Strong criticism of the white man’s encroachment on the native Americans, articulated in very different ways by both May and Panizza, was provoked in Germany also by the Wild West shows. Though generally received with much romantic enthusiasm, there were besides, as noted by Paul Reddin, much more critical voices, one of which even “charged the Wild West show with demonstrating the ‘full bestiality of racial war’.”171 The phrasing eerily foreshadowes discourse on the Herero War and the anxieties by which it was shaped – no less than the atrocities concurrent with it. The German reception of the Wild West shows and the imaginary of the vanishing Indian reveals also a peculiar contradiction inherent in the perception of and response to different ethnic others. While the fate of the far-away American Indians apparently commanded sympathy and their imminent extinction elicited loathing and a pervasive sense of nostalgia, the situation was very different in relation to the African colonial theater. Not only was this characterized by the direct hostile interaction with the other. Moreover, clearly lacking in the German imagination the nobility ascribed to the noble savages of the American continent, the savages of the Dark Continent were not protected by a romantically informed imaginary but at best by a universal humanitarianism. At worst, they were not only considered the lowest on the scale of human development but bloodthirsty beasts that needed to be put down. Some of this ambivalence is trenchantly captured, though not endorsed, also in Oskar Panizza’s stories. Thus, although the main objective of this chapter was

170 See Oskar Panizza, “Der Teufel im Oberammergauer Passionsspiele,” Die Gesellschaft 6.2 (1890): 997–1022 and the address by Rocky Bear, published as “Indianer-Trinkspruch,” 981–2. 171 Reddin, Wild West Shows, p. 113.

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the exploration of the nodes of ethnic difference within the Mbwapwa rhizome, and although preceding the creation of Mbwapwa by about a decade, both Panizza’s fiction and his non-fiction emerged as entangled with all the salient nodes discussed in this chapter. In addition to his theoretical reflections on contemporary taste and the incursion of the variété, he poignantly addressed in “A Negro’s Tale” the relentless disciplining of a black performer and in “An Indian’s Thoughts” created a sense of horrified awe in relation to the imagined mental process of his Show Indian. Panizza, as has already been mentioned, published with “The Operated Jew” moreover a frequently denigrated literary grotesque on Jewish assimilation. The following chapter therefore investigates in more detail the complexity of the controversial writer’s literary engagements with ethnic difference as another node in the Mbwapwa rhizome.

Chapter 6 Human Meat and Tortured Souls: Oskar Panizza Blackface marks everyone who puts it on as non-black, as merely masquerading as the black other.1 It is a mask to be stepped out of after the performance and as such it is crucially different from the practice of black performers on the imperial stage. In effect, the return to an existence outside their performance – which for the blackface actor was ‘whitened up’ through their oscillation between both – was denied to these performers. Instead, their blackness, on the stage the same as off it, was re-inscribed onto their bodies. The psychological strain of this situation has been compellingly imagined by the German writer Oskar Panizza in “A Negro’s Tale” (“Eine Negergeschichte,” 1893).2 As briefly mentioned in Chapter 2, the deeply affecting black performer in this short story is horrified when, for the first time in his life, he is confronted with his physiognomy in the reflection of a shop window. Indeed, at first he does not even recognize the apparent monster glaring at him as his own mirror image. Eventually, acknowledging his difference, his anguished mind disintegrates in the attempt to reconcile the contradiction: In a transgressive move, he paints himself white in his imagination, only to be disciplined with being locked away in an asylum. The short narrative was published a decade before Mbwapwa was created. While there is no direct evidence that Jungmann would have been familiar with this literary grotesque, the notoriety of its author may well have provoked the Jewish satirist to engage with his texts. In particular Panizza’s “The Operated Jew” (“Der operierte Jud’”), first published together with “A Negro’s Tale” in Visions (Visionen, 1893), may well have been known to Jungmann and, indeed, other Zionist writers for its ostensible antisemitic bias and shocking conclusion. In 1922, the year following Panizza’s death and arguably an homage of sorts, the philosopher and modernist writer Salomo Friedlaender, writing as Mynona, 1 An intriguing inversion of blackface is the social and theatrical practice of whiteface in which “people of African descent appropriate white-identified gestures, vocabulary, dialects, dress, or social entitlements,” Marvin McAllister, Whiting Up: Whiteface Minstrels and Stage Europeans in African American Performance (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), p. 1. See also the discussion of the cakewalk in early twentieth-century Cape Town and the ambiguous use of both whiteface and blackface by blacks in Kusser, Körper in Schieflage, pp. 269–93, esp. pp. 286, 291. 2 It is intriguing that Faitel’s transformation includes an almost literal inversion of blackface reminiscent of whiteface as described by Marvin McAllister: “Naturally, the tint – the wheat color of Faitel’s skin – had to yield to a fine, pastel lead tint, which Itzig learned to exhibit in a superb way. [Der Teint, die weizengelbe Gesichtsfarbe Faiteles’, mußte natürlich einem feinen, pastösen Bleiteint weichen, den Itzig vortrefflich aufzutragen verstand.]” (OJ, 57/225) See McAllister, Whiting Up, p. 1. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-007

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responded with a counter-narrative called “The Operated Goy: A Side Piece to Panizza’s Operated Jew” (“Der operierte Goj: Ein Seitenstück zu Panizza’s operiertem Jud’”). Mynona’s text is not only a neat inversion of Panizza’s but an astute indictment of racial stereotyping which relies very much on irony, bizarre exaggeration, and dazzling stylistic pyrotechnics. Ultimately, however, even though it is succinct and acute, it remains playful and lacks the agonizing cruelty and the raw emotional impact of the story to which it proposes to be a “Side Piece.” On one level it is the very persona of the narrator – covert in Mynona’s third-person narrative but overt in Panizza’s first-person narrative and a character of chilling detachment that is exacerbated rather than tempered by his seemingly affectionate declarations of amity – which imbues the earlier story with its emotive potential as the reader feels increasingly uneasy with the implied point of view no less than with the unfolding narrative.3

The Grotesque, the Uncannny, and the Ludic Impulse Both of Panizza’s short stories address questions of identity and race in a profoundly disturbing manner. In fact, a third short story of his which is similarly disconcerting and which was published in the same volume should also be considered here. Already mentioned in the previous chapter, “An Indian’s Thoughts” (“Indianergedanken,” 1893), like “A Negro’s Tale,” features a medical man as narrator who describes the strange visit of an outsider. Up to a point, the stoic Sioux (Lakota) chief is drawn according to stereotype which reflects to some extent on the narrator and the assumptions he shares with the reader: “The chief’s haggard face displayed those misanthropic features which distinguished most of his tribesmen and which points to a discontent and rancour that, I would say, have become organic as they have been nurtured for centuries” (IT, 349);4 centuries that were, of course, determined by the ever more rapidly encroaching hegemony of the white invaders. However, Panizza’s narrative choices subtly invest the Indian with more depth; through his imagery but also through the profound and disturbing thought processes, indicated by the title, which we are made to follow and which, once again, induce a distinct sense of unease in the reader.

3 See Stähler, “The Author’s derrière and the Ludic Impulse,” pp. 111–28. 4 “Der Häuptling hatte jenen misanthropischen Zug in dem mageren Gesicht, der die meisten seiner Stammesgenossen auszeichnete, und der auf eine, ich möchte sagen jahrhundertelang genährte und organisch gewordene Unzufriedenheit und Verbitterung des Gemüts hinwies.”

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The chief is a performer in a Wild West show. Like the Negro in the other story, he is forced to exhibit his difference far from his native land and to the delectation of the supposedly more civilized nations. The associations, however, are in striking contrast to those evoked in either the Negro or the Jew’s case, as are their responses to the predicament with which they are faced. While all three protagonists are clearly marked as victims of their social environment, the Sioux chief is the noble savage abused; he chooses death but despairs of the means of killing himself and his entire people and finally must heroically reconcile himself to his painful continued existence, suffering in silence, but without relinquishing his identity, and deferring the resolution of his quandary to the return to his ancestral land: “Well, Doctor, we shall see about all that, when we are coming home,” he concludes the story in English (IT, 356). The black African, in contrast, is the alleged savage who recognizes his external difference, his anguished mind disintegrating in the attempt of reconciling the insoluble contradiction; his act of imaginary whitening, giving in to the metropolitan mode of thinking, is the expression of an inferiority complex and a form of mental mimicry which is doomed to failure – his lot, predictably, is the lunatic asylum. Intriguingly, in describing the Negro’s impossible desire for whiteness and his attempt at resolving the impasse, Panizza appears to have unwittingly anticipated Fanon’s notion of black skin and white masks. The Jew, finally, endeavors not only the imaginary reconciliation which drives the black African over the edge; he rather attempts the full-scale ‘holistic’ transformation into the desired other, both physically and psychologically and losing the last vestiges of his identity in the process. Contrary to Fanon’s assertion, Itzig Faitel Stern as well as the intended readership of Panizza’s story seem to be in absolute agreement on the physical markers of Jewishness which must violently and cruelly be re-formed; Faitel cannot pass as non-Jewish before he undergoes the most painful surgery. But even more is required and the process is carried further to absurd lengths. In order to complete his transformation, the Jew needs to exchange his soul for a Germanic one. The first question, of course, debated at length by his advisors, is whether Faitel in fact has a soul. Undeterred, the Jew himself, having heard about the nature of the Germanic soul, is determined to have one just like it: Faitel had heard about the chaste, undefined Germanic soul, which shrouded the possessor like an aroma. This soul was the source of the possessor’s rich treasures and formed the shibboleth of the Germanic nations, a soul which was immediately recognized by all who possessed one. Faitel wanted to have this soul. (OJ, 59)5

5 “Faitel hatte von jener keuschen, undefinierbaren, germanischen Seele gehört, die den Besitzer wie einen Duft umkleide, aus der er [sic] das Gemüt seine reichen Schätze beziehe, und die

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However, the most recent scientific research suggests to Faitel that it will not be possible to adapt his own inferior soul (OJ, 59/227) and eventually, convinced that the soul resides in the blood, he resolves to purchase Christian blood and to have a blood transfusion. Crowing in glee, “mit Frohlocken,” he chants: “I gonna buy me sum Chreesten blud! I gonna buy me sum Chreesten blud!” (OJ, 60)6 The accent is atrocious and suggests the stereotypical image of the sinister Jew of antisemitic provenance, cackling and rubbing his hands; the repetition is, moreover, reminiscent of fairy-tale Rumpelstiltskin dancing around the fire and gloating in his illicit desire. When the first set of blood donors realize that the beneficiary of their sacrifice is to be a Jew they withdraw, invoking the blood spilt by the Jews on the Cross (OJ, 60/228). But finally eight strong peasant women from the Black Forest agree to the procedure. The dangerous operation works but its long-term success is doubtful: [Faitel] never allowed himself to be thoroughly questioned about its success and the psychological effect. It appeared that it had not been very great, for after a few weeks we found him again making new attempts to gain possession of the German soul. (OJ, 61)7

With this powerful image Panizza shrewdly alludes not only to the blood libel, perennial – and entirely unfounded – allegations of ritual murder and unholy mystic practices of the Jews; he also invokes the blood and soil doctrine, nascent in the nineteenth century, and the Romantic myth of the German soul. All are revealed as mythical, mystical or ideological constructions which are exposed by the physical reality as chimeras of over-agitated minds and of disastrous effect. After his initial success, the ultimate abject failure of the Jew to pretend to be a normal human being (OJ, 56/223), more specifically his failure to transform himself “so he could become the equivalent of an Occidental human being” (OJ, 57),8 is the more devastating. At the end, during the celebration of his wedding with a German maiden, his body – and presumably also his soul – inexorably revert to their essence. What remains, exposed to the disillusioned gaze of his ‘creator,’ the narrator, and the reader, is the violated body of the Jew, writhing and exuding the horrible foetor judaicus:

das Schiboleth der germanischen Nationen bilde, jedem Besitzer beim anderen sofort erkennbar. Faitel wollte diese Seele haben.” (OJ, 226) 6 “Kaaf ich mer ä christlich’s Blut! Kaaf ich mer ä christlich’s Blut!” (OJ, 227) 7 “Aber über den Erfolg, den psychischen Erfolg, wollte er sich nie recht vernehmen lassen. Allzu groß schien derselbe nicht gewesen zu sein, denn nach mehreren Wochen fanden wir ihn schon wieder bei neuen Versuchen, sich in den Besitz der deutschen Seele zu setzen.” (OJ, 228) 8 “[E]in gleichwertiger abendländischer Mensch zu werden” (OJ, 224).

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A terrible smell spread in the room, forcing those people who were still hesitating at the exit, to flee while holding their noses. Only Klotz remained behind. And finally, when even the feet of the drunkard were too tired to continue their movements, Klotz’s work of art lay before him crumpled and quivering, a convoluted Asiatic image in wedding dress, a counterfeit of human flesh, Itzig Faitel Stern. (OJ, 73–4)9

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Panizza’s short story has been read as an antisemitic diatribe.10 Much is also made of the fact that “The Operated Jew” was re-published in 1927 in the Münchener Beobachter, a supplement to the Völkischer Beobachter, the “fighting paper of the National Socialist movement of Greater Germany.”11 While Itzig Faitel Stern may in some way be similar to antisemitic caricatures published in magazines such as Der Stürmer, the posthumous appropriation of the author by the Nazis not only does an injustice to Panizza but seems also to be based on the fundamental and reductive misreading of his story.12 9 “Ein fürchterlicher Geruch verbreitete sich im Saal, der die noch am Ausgang Zögernden mit zugehaltenen Nasen zu entfliehen zwang. Nur Klotz blieb zurück. Und schließlich, als auch die Füße des Betrunkenen vor Mattigkeit nicht mehr standzuhalten vermochten, lag zuckend und gekrümmt sein Kunstwerk vor ihm auf dem Boden, ein vertracktes asiatisches Bild im Hochzeitsfrack, ein verlogenes Stück Menschenfleisch, Itzig Faitel Stern. – ” (OJ, 242) 10 See, e.g., Jens Malte Fischer, “Deutschsprachige Phantastik zwischen Décadence und Faschismus,” in Rein A. Zondergeld (ed.), Phaïcon 3: Almanach der phantastischen Literatur (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1978) pp. 93–130, who denounces the story as the “explosion” of a furious antisemitism, its acerbity equalled only by the Stürmer, see p. 102. Jack Zipes, too, stated succinctly: “[O]ne fact that we are sure about is the matter of his [i.e. Panizza’s] anti-­ Semitism,” though he qualified this allegation by elaborating on the way in which Panizza “took sides in his own inimitable fashion – against both the Jews and the German racists.” See Jack Zipes, “Oskar Panizza: The Operated German as Operated Jew,” New German Critique 21.3 (1980): 47–61, 53. Jakob Egholm Feldt more recently described Panizza as both an “anti-Semite” and an “anti-anti-Semite,” Transnationalism and the Jews: Culture, History and Prophecy (London and New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), p. 88. 11 The sub-title of the Völkischer Beobachter identified the paper as the “Kampfblatt der ­nationalsozialistischen Bewegung Großdeutschlands.” Panizza’s grotesque was introduced by a short biography of the author in which an attempt was made to appropriate the writer to the i­deological agenda of the Nazis, see Völkischer Beobachter [Bayernausgabe] (November 8, 1927): 2; the text of the ‘novella’ was published in six installments in the Münchener Beobachter from N ­ ovember 10–16 (on p. 3). As Michael Bauer has shown in Oskar Panizza: Ein literarisches Porträt (Munich: Hanser, 1984), p. 24, the biographical note is riddled with factual errors, such as the date of P ­ anizza’s death (in 1921 and not in 1922), and misrepresentations which are calculated to portray the author as a persecuted exile yearning to return to his fatherland. Usually media-savvy, the re-publication of Panizza’s narrative – included as a filler between instalments of Gustav Renner’s novel The Cry from the East (Der Schrei aus dem Osten, 1927) and Ludwig Tieck’s novella A Poet’s Life (­Dichterleben, 1825) – seems to me an error of judgment on the part of the Nazis. While superficially determined by antisemitic stereotypes, the narrative is in fact highly critical of these very constructions. 12 See, e.g., Stähler, “The Author’s derrière and the Ludic Impulse,” pp. 111–12.

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This misreading may have been suggested not least by a contemporary view of Panizza which is, in fact, still sometimes cited as evidence for the antisemitism of the author and in particular his “The Operated Jew.” In his literary portrait of Panizza, the writer and journalist Otto Julius Bierbaum, also known by his pseudonyms Martin Möbius and Simplicissimus and whose “African Distichs” we encountered in Chapter 4,13 referred to the short story as the only antisemitic work of art known to him. The paradox framed by Bierbaum is certainly evocative. In particular his clear stance on the alleged incompatibility of antisemitism and art is intriguing, if perhaps naive. However, when used as evidence against Panizza, the wider context of Bierbaum’s perceptive analysis is usually, and misleadingly, ignored. More recent notions of political correctness additionally compound the distorted view on this challenging writer. The salient characteristics to emerge from Bierbaum’s account are Panizza’s powers of psychological scrutiny and his almost pathological fear of becoming insane. Related to both and identified by the critic as the defining feature of the writer’s work is its ludic aspect.14 Accordingly, he cautions that “whoever does not enjoy gameplay”15 should steer clear of the author. Indeed, the writer’s playfulness is frequently macabre and ghoulish to the point of being obscured. While sensitive to his purely literary shortcomings, Bierbaum clearly admired Panizza and his essay is a serious attempt to reveal the author’s face as it emerges from his writings. The face the critic ultimately discerns in Panizza’s texts is weirdly grinning and Bierbaum expressly notes the malicious and derisive character of the twinkle in its eyes: “[T]hus one notices already in the background a strangely grinning face in whose winking eyes a lot can be read, most of it rather wicked and sneering.”16 Indeed, tempered with mischievous mocking, it is Panizza’s humor which to the critic seems to be idiosyncratic and which, though all-pervasive in his work, he nevertheless finds difficult to grasp: In all of these books by Panizza an idiosyncratic kind of humor walks about which is very difficult to describe. It is not the humor of the caricaturist which prompts laughter through exaggeration, nor is it the humor of life which takes reality as it is and laughs about it through highlighting all the comical little wrinkles of reality brightly exposed in all their

13 As the latter he is referred to, for instance, by Liersemann, “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa, p. 48. 14 For a discussion of the ludic aspect in Panizza’s work, see Stähler, “The Author’s derrière and the Ludic Impulse,” pp. 111–28. 15 Otto Julius Bierbaum, “Oskar Panizza,” Die Gesellschaft 9 (1893): 977–89, 984: “[…] wer nicht Freude am Spiel hat.” Emphasis in original. 16 Ibid.: “[S]o bemerkt man schon im Hintergrunde ein absonderlich grinsendes Gesicht, in dessen Augenzwinkern mancherlei zu lesen ist, recht Böses, Höhnisches zumeist.”

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ridiculousness. It is a special kind of humor, more akin to the comic than to the proper German sentimental humor – it most strongly reminds me of the comic effects in Balzac’s contes drolâtiques. Yet there is added a stronger dose of satire.17

Bearing in mind Panizza’s enthusiastic celebration of the variété, this may offer another explanation of his destructive humor. Be that as it may, Crepuscular Pieces (Dämmrungsstücke, 1890) and Visions (Visionen, 1893), Panizza’s two collections of literary grotesques, are characterized by Bierbaum accordingly as “spookily intricate books, hell-breughelings of a madly burlesque imagination – each a series of grotesque roly-polies which mostly exhibit the esteemed author’s quattre lettres.”18 It is not so much the writer’s face, then, that emerges from these writings, in the critic’s opinion, but rather his backside. If couched in the politely distancing French translation of a German euphemism for the anatomical term, the graphic description nevertheless aptly captures the playful and frequently irreverent nature of the writer’s artful and artistic contortions. More specifically, and explicitly making mention among others of the three narratives discussed here, Bierbaum identifies as Panizza’s preferred satirical method the adoption of an unusual and bizarre perspective from which the whole world appears in monstrous foreshortening.19 It is crucial, as observed once again very astutely by Bierbaum, that the perception of the world as a whole is distorted through this kaleidoscopic shift and that, in order to make sense of the writer’s grotesques, the reader must be intellectually nimble enough, and willing, to follow him to the same vantage point because “otherwise everything will remain incomprehensible to them.”20 This readiness to accept the twisted satiric logic of the writer is particularly important when approaching a text like Panizza’s “The Operated Jew.” For Bierbaum this short story is precisely such a “virtuoso piece of the art to describe what is most extraordinary.” It is, moreover, for the critic, as mentioned above,

17 Ibid., 986–7: “In allen diesen Büchern Panizzas spukt eine eigene Art Humor, der sich sehr schwer schildern läßt. Es ist nicht der Humor des Zerrbildzeichners, der durch Übertreibungen Lachen macht, aber es ist auch nicht jener Lebenshumor, der die Realität nimmt, wie sie ist, und mit Schlaglichtern über sie herlacht, daß all die komischen Fältchen der Wirklichkeit plötzlich hell da liegen in ihrer Lächerlichkeit. Es ist eine eigene Art des Humors, dem Komischen mehr verwandt als dem eigentlichen deutschen Gemütshumor – am stärksten erinnert er mich an die Komik der Balzacschen contes drolâtiques. Doch kommt eine stärkere Dosis Satire dazu.” 18 Ibid., 984: “[…] gruselig verzwickte Bücher, Höllenbreugheleien von einer toll-burlesken Phantastik, – jedes eine Reihe von grotesken Purzelbäumen, bei denen man zumeist die quattre lettres des verehrten Herrn Verfassers zu sehen bekommt.” 19 See ibid., 986. 20 Ibid.: “[…] sonst bleibt ihm alles unverständlich.”

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“the only antisemitic work of art known to me. Here, the eminent art makes one forget the brutality of its tendentiousness.”21 While Bierbaum sketches an image of Panizza as a writer who, with the mad antics of an inmate of Bedlam, may cast himself even as a “Hepp-Hepp-Herold,” as a herald of Jew baiting, it is once again, in the critic’s estimation, not least its satiric humor which vindicates the short narrative: “About the ‘Operated Jew’ philosemites can also laugh.”22 Of course, with Zygmunt Bauman’s denunciation of allosemitism in mind,23 the mirth of the philosemite is suspicious in itself. Yet it seems to me that with his insistence on its, albeit ghoulish, comic potential Bierbaum has indeed uncovered the interpretative key to Panizza’s “The Operated Jew” and to the mitigation of the antisemitism the text has frequently been accused of. Indeed, it would seem that rather than obfuscating what Bierbaum castigates as “the brutality of its tendentiousness,” it is Panizza’s eminent art which casts it into glaring relief in the first place. More specifically, while there can be no doubt that the “tendentiousness” (“Tendenz”) is indeed articulated to quite shocking effect in the short narrative, it appears equally obvious that it is not Panizza’s own. Indeed, it seems to me that “The Operated Jew” to the contrary offers an indictment of any form of stereotyping which clearly separates it from articulations of rabid antisemitism such as, for instance, the roughly contemporary The Song of Levi (Das Lied vom Levi, 1895) by Eduard Schwechten. A parody of Schiller’s “The Song of the Bell” (“Das Lied von der Glocke,” 1798), Schwechten’s poem charts the life of Nathan Levi from his birth to his expulsion from Germany when Nordic man finally defends his “Geist” and “Gut” – his spirit and his possessions – against “the Asiatic brood of vipers” in order to free himself in a heroic struggle from “Judah’s oppression of peoples” (SL, 45).24 The insidious Song of Levi, too, was re-published during the Third Reich, in 1933 and again in 1935,25 together with its original illustrations by Siegfried Horn. The latter was also the illustrator of the notorious Political Illustrated Broadsheets (Politische Bilderbogen), large-format antisemitic cartoon sheets which appeared in Dresden from 1892 to 1901, and there is a clear antisemitic genealogy in ­evidence in this case.

21 Ibid.: “Virtuosenstück der Kunst, Allerungewöhnlichstes zu schildern […] das einzige antisemitische Kunstwerk, das ich kenne. Hier läßt die eminente Kunst die Brutalität der Tendenz vergessen.” 22 Ibid., 985: “Über den ‘operierten Juden’ können auch Philosemiten lachen.” 23 Zygmunt Baumann, “Allosemitism: Premodern, Modern, Postmodern,” in Bryan Cheyette and Laura Marcus (eds.), Modernity, Culture and “the Jew” (Cambridge: Polity, 1998), pp. 143–56. 24 “[V]or asiatischer Schlangenbrut […] Juda’s Völkerschinderei.” 25 See Das Lied vom Levi (Düsseldorf: Knippenberg, 1933) and (Berlin: W.E.A.-Verlag, 1935).

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At his birth, “Crookedly jointed from hide and bone / Little Levi lies” (SL, 26 3), but when he reaches maturity the Jew’s appetites awaken and he desires a German maiden: And lovely, with ruddy cheeks, He sees a German maiden stand, A nameless desire grips him, – Yet, oh – this was the end of him! From his eyes gush tears, He lies broken, arm and leg come loose; The German maid, she knew his urges And she cooked his goose. (SL, 9)27

The broken figure of the rejected Jew is reminiscent of the conclusion to “The Operated Jew.” But what is crude satire throughout Schwechten’s parody gains much more ambivalence in Panizza’s frequently and, to my mind, wrongly denigrated grotesque.28 In Schwechten’s poem, quickly healed of his desire, Levi proceeds to exploit the honest and hard-working Germans, making much money in the process and being rewarded for his pains with a baronetcy.29 Ultimately, however, he and all his tribe are expelled from a Germany that has finally woken up to her sense of unity and to her Germanic roots; an image evocatively cast by Horn in the romantic guise of the Germanic dragon slayer, complete with winged helmet, wind-buffeted tunic and brandished blade, with his arched foot on the vanquished monster’s neck (Figure 34). Panizza, by contrast, does not offer any overt constructions of Germanness as an alternative to the appalling Jewishness embodied by Faitel.30 It is, indeed, wellknown that the writer was highly critical of the German state and its bourgeois constraints, an attitude which was to be exacerbated after the disastrous reception of his play The Love Council (Das Liebeskonzil), published in ­Switzerland in 1894, which saw him sentenced to twelve months in prison for blasphemy in the following year. Although this was still to happen in 1893 when “The Operated

26 “Krummgefügt aus Haut und Knochen / Liegt der kleine Levi da.” 27 “Und herrlich mit gesunden Wangen / Sieht er ein deutsches Mädchen steh’n, / Ihn packt ein namenlos Verlangen, –/ Doch ach – da war’s um ihn gescheh’n! / Aus seinen Augen brechen Thränen, / Er liegt zerknickt an Arm und Bein; / Das deutsche Mädchen kannt’ sein Sehnen / Und salzte ihm den Braten ein.” 28 See Stähler, “The Author’s derrière and the Ludic Impulse,” pp. 111–28. 29 Faitel, in contrast, never profits from anyone, but is exploited; he is also not expelled but destroyed. 30 See also Eric L. Santner, My Own Private Germany: Daniel Paul Schreber’s Secret History of Modernity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 127.

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Figure 34: Illustration by Siegfried Horn to Eduard Schwechten, The Song of Levi (1895; ed. 1933).

Jew” first appeared, the implicit image of German society conveyed in this narrative is anything but sympathetic.31 In his grotesque, Panizza captures the drivenness of the Jewish victim in this society. Faitel not only becomes the object of scientific experiments and the creation of an arguably mad physician but is left to die alone and in agony by those who, in the wider sense, were also creators of the monster into which he metamorphosed. 31 See, e.g., Feldt, Transnationalism and the Jews, pp. 86–9.

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In Schwechten’s Song of Levi, the Jewish child is born ‘naturally’ with all the telling features pre-formed and already intact, as it was similarly expressed in a cartoon which appeared almost four decades later in Der Stürmer in 1934 under the heading “The Curse in the Blood” (“Der Fluch im Blut”).32 Although of a much later date, this cartoon by Fips (i.e. Phillip Rupprecht), the regular cartoonist of the defamatory propaganda paper, is useful in illustrating rampant notions of racial determination and apprehensions of miscegenation similarly pre-formed and intact in early antisemitic discourse. What was by then called “racial defilement” (“Blutschande” or “Rassenschande”) is the subject of another cartoon from Der Stürmer, published just before the Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1935. “Legion of Shame” (“Legion der Schande”), once again by Fips, shames German women guilty of miscegenation: “Unenlightened, lured by gold – defiled, they are in Judah’s pay / Souls poisoned, their blood infected – in their womb dormant lies [our] doom.”33 Of course, in Schwechten’s Song of Levi “racial defilement” is prevented by what appears to be an innate sense of revulsion in the German maiden, an awareness which seems to be lacking in the women of the Stürmer cartoon who are “unenlightened” and mercenary. The topic of miscegenation is also addressed in Panizza’s grotesque. The crowning glory of Faitel’s metamorphosis is the anticipation of his reproduction as projected by his surgeon: “Only one thing was still missing, for it was also important to reproduce this human race, which it had cost so much to achieve. The new breed was to be grafted with the finest Occidental sprig. A blonde Germanic lass had to help preserve the results that had been garnered through fabulous efforts.” (OJ, 64)34 Yet the maiden – like Schwechten’s, though less discerning – has some vague apprehension: “She sensed something eerie [Unheimliches; i.e. uncanny] but could not confirm her suspicion” (OJ, 65).35 Panizza’s story predates Freud’s essay on the uncanny (1919) by almost three decades and also preceeds Ernst Jentsch’s earlier attempt “On the Psychology of the Uncanny” (“Zur Psychologie des Unheimlichen”) of 1906. Yet, the author’s turn of phrase must surely be thought of as considered, though it has been elided in Zipes’s translation. Given his background as a psychiatrist, it may indicate at

32 Fips [i.e. Phillip Rupprecht], “Der Fluch im Blut,” Der Stürmer 12.47 (November 1934), 1. 33 Fips [i.e. Phillip Rupprecht], “Legion der Schande,” Der Stürmer 13.37 (August 1935): 1: “Unaufgeklärt, verlockt vom Gold – Stehn sie, geschändet, in Judassold / Die Seelen vergiftet, verseucht das Blut – In ihrem Schoße das Unheil ruht.” 34 “Nur eines fehlte noch: es galt diese kostbar gewonnene Menschenrasse fortzupflanzen. Mit dem feinsten abendländischen Reis sollte der neue Stamm okuliert werden. Eine blonde Germanin mußte die mit fabelhafter Mühe gewonnenen Resultate erhalten helfen.” (OJ, 231–2) 35 “Sie ahnte Unheimliches, konnte aber ihren Verdacht nicht begründen” (OJ, 232).

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least an intuitive appreciation of the semantic ambivalence of the term later to be explained by Freud with reference to a German dictionary published already in 1860.36 In fact, the subsequent understanding of the concept, both by Jentsch and by Freud, is clearly useful in determining the uneasy relationship between Faitel and Othilie Schnack. Expanding on Jentsch’s analysis, Freud derived his conception of the uncanny from his reading of “The Sandman” by E. T. A. Hoffmann (“Der Sandmann,” 1816), a writer whom Panizza admired intensely. While he offered his first collections of grotesques, Crepuscular Pieces, to Edgar Allan Poe, Panizza dedicated his Visions to Hoffmann. He obviously saw his own work as a continuation of the tradition these authors had defined. According to Freud, Jentsch understands intellectual uncertainty to be the most important condition for the creation of the effect of the uncanny.37 Thus, Jentsch had argued with reference to the figure of Olimpia in Hoffmann’s narrative that the reader’s sense of the uncanny originates in the uncertainty as to whether she is human or an automaton. Freud, in turn, emphasized the motif of the ripped out eyes in the narrative and its protagonist’s fear of being blinded. He traces the uncanny effect of the Sandmann, the ripper-out of children’s eyes, to infantile castration anxiety.38 More specifically, Freud identified the uncanny as the “factor of involuntary repetition”39 and in particular as the return of the familiar in altered shape: “[T]his uncanny is in reality nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old-established in the mind and which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression.”40 Othilie apparently experiences intellectual uncertainty not so much as to whether Faitel is alive or not but as to who or what he is. In the course of the narrative it is indeed questioned whether he is human or not. His progressive dehumanization is moreover sustained by the extensive use of animal imagery in reference to his idiosyncracies. His gait is likened to that of a stork (OJ, 49/215–16); 36 Sigmund Freud, “Das Unheimliche,” Imago. Zeitschrift für Anwendung der Psychoanalyse auf die Geisteswissenschaften 5/6 (1919): 297–324, 299–301. 37 See ibid., 298. 38 Sigmund Freud, “The ‘Uncanny’,” in James Strachey et al. (eds.), The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XVII (1917–1919): An Infantile Neurosis and Other Works (London: The Hogarth Press: The Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1955), pp. 217–56, p. 236; see also Freud, “Das Unheimliche,” 308: “[…] das Moment der unbeabsichtigten Wiederholung.” 39 Ibid., 311. 40 Freud, “The ‘Uncanny’,” XVII, 241; see also Freud, “Das Unheimliche,” 314: “[Das] Unheimliche ist wirklich nichts Neues oder Fremdes, sondern etwas dem Seelenleben von alters her Vertrautes, das ihm nur durch den Prozeß der Verdrängung entfremdet worden ist.”

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he makes various animal noises: “Faitel meowed, rattled, bleated” (OJ, 50);41 and, once his transformation is achieved, he is compared to a difficult horse which the director of a circus has finally trained to perform in the arena (OJ, 64/231). Faitel moreover embodies on different levels the return of what is familiar but alienated after a process of repression. He is the stereotypical Jew who, though he poses in the image of the aryan, eventually reverts to his essential nature. As such he arguably is also, if hidden underneath his mask of goyishness, the circumcised and emasculated Jew who incarnates the castration anxiety of his non-Jewish environment which is exacerbated by his ultimate failure to perform, a disappointment perhaps already intuited by Othilie. Finally, as Eric L. Santner has observed in a slightly different context, repetition compulsion “which at a formal level is the distinguishing feature of the uncanny effect” is “at work when one’s actions appear to be controlled by a demonic force, lending those actions a mechanical, automatic quality.”42 The final, trance-like spasmodic dance which leads to Faitel’s complete collapse and which is, as noted by Santner, “signaled by the return of the repressed linguistic repetition compulsion” – Faitel’s idiosyncratic: “Deradáng! Deradáng!” (OJ, 72/240) – conveys this uncanny effect perfectly in relation to a denouement which reveals all. The perspicacious sense of the uncanny experienced by Othilie may well account for Panizza’s choice of the German maiden’s name. Jay Geller suggests that it is an allusion to Ottilie in Goethe’s Elective Affinities (Die Wahlverwandschaften, 1809);43 more importantly, however, St. Otilia (Odile) is the patron saint of good eyesight and is favored as an intercessor in matters of the health of body and mind. The proposed connubial union of Faitel with the maiden appears to promise both to the unnatural pretender as well as to the envisaged succession of little Faitels. Yet reproduction is denied to Faitel. Even though the wedding is celebrated in spite of Othilie’s sense of the uncanny, it is never consummated. The Jew’s revolting collapse prevents what Schwechten would have considered miscegenation. Indeed, the abomination of miscegenation was phrased by the author of The Song of Levi as follows: When the German with the Jew is pairing, With Kaffirs and with Botocudos, – The harmony’s not sweet and strong! Who, therefore, would be bound forever, 41 “Faitel miaute, schnarrte, meckerte” (OJ, 217). See also Melanie A. Murphy, Max Nordau’s Finde-siècle Romance of Race (Bern: Lang, 2007), p. 102. 42 Santner, My Own Private Germany, p. 126. 43 See Jay Geller, “The Unmanning of the Wandering Jew,” American Imago 49.2 (1992): 227–62, 241.

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Must see that by the Jew he is not plagued: Illusion’s brief, repentance long. (SL, 13; emphasis in original)44

The parodic dimension is particularly enlightening here as in Schiller’s poem the corresponding passage leads up to what has become the almost archetypal formulation of the ideals of the symbolic order of gender in nineteenth-century bourgeois German society: For when the stern and soft are sharing, And strength with gentleness is pairing, The harmony is sweet and strong. Who, therefore, would be bound forever, Must see that hearts agree together! – Illusion’s brief, repentance long. ……………………… The man must be out In life’s battle fighting ………………………… And in [the mansion] reigneth The housewife so modest.45

Yet the passage, detailing the idyll of bourgeois life, concludes with forebodings of future calamity: But with Dest’ny is there, seeming, No lasting union interweaving, And Misfortune strideth fast.46

The implication in Schwechten’s Song of Levi is, of course, that miscegenation and even the mere admittance of the racial other into the idyll is precisely such a 44 “Wenn sich der Deutsche paart mit Juden, / Mit Kaffern und mit Botokuden, – / Da giebt es keinen guten Klang! / Drum prüfet, eh’ Ihr Euch vereinigt, / Ob schließlich nicht der Jud Euch peinigt: / Der Wahn ist kurz, die Reu ist lang!” 45 Friedrich Schiller, “The Song of the Bell,” in Schiller’s “The Song of the Bell” and Other Poems, transl. Thos. C. Zimmerman (Reading, PA: [s. n.], 1896), pp. 1–8, pp. 2–3. For the German original, see Friedrich Schiller, “Das Lied von der Glocke,” in Werke: Nationalausgabe, ed. Norbert Oellers (Weimar: Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1983), II.1, 227–39, ll. 88–93, 106–7, 116–17: “Denn wo das Strenge mit dem Zarten, / Wo Starkes sich und Mildes paarten, / Da giebt es einen guten Klang. / Drum prüfe, wer sich ewig bindet, / Ob sich das Herz zum Herzen findet! / Der Wahn ist kurz, die Reu ist lang. / […] / Der Mann muß hinaus / In’s feindliche Leben, / […] / Und drinnen waltet / Die züchtige Hausfrau.” 46 Schiller, “The Song of the Bell,” p. 3. For the German original, see Schiller, “Das Lied von der Glocke,” II.1, 227–39, ll. 143–5: “Doch mit des Geschickes Mächten / Ist kein ew’ger Bund zu flechten, / Und das Unglück schreitet schnell.”

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Figure 35: Illustration by Siegfried Horn to Eduard Schwechten, The Song of Levi (1895; ed. 1933).

calamity threatening its destruction. Horn’s accompanying illustration highlights the alleged physical and cultural attributes of the three alien ‘races’ – Kaffirs, Jews, and Botocudos – in satirically exaggerated and repulsive detail (Figure 35). Significantly, all three, clearly understood to be representative of natives of Africa, Asia, and America, respectively, are suggested to be on the same rung of ­uncivilized and inferior, if not subhuman, nature. They intriguingly also represent, just like Mbwapwa, Chaskel, and Uncas in the Texan letter, the imperial German flag. Though this seems hardly intentional in this case, Jungmann’s image may nevertheless have been inspired by this representation.

Contested Humanity and a Mad Danse Macabre The subhuman nature of the inferior races insinuated in Schwechten’s text and in Horn’s illustration has no equivalent in Panizza’s narrative. “The Operated Jew” rather poses the question of what constitutes humanity and how monstrosity emerges as a cultural (and bio-technical) construct. The frequently ignored epigraph to Panizza’s narrative – it is altogether omitted by Zipes in his

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t­ ranslation of the story – offers an important interpretative framework to ­Faitel’s ­transformation into a monster. It also indicates that “The Operated Jew” is to some extent an imaginative variation on Gottfried August Bürger’s “Lenore” (1773), against which it should be read. The popular ballad relates the tale of Lenore who, assuming that her fiancé has been killed in battle, quarrels with God. When Wilhelm returns at the dead of night for her she is overjoyed. Yet their wild ride toward the wedding bed turns into a ghastly passage through the haunted midnight hour to his grave into which, now transformed into the skeletal image of death with hour glass and scythe, he draws the young woman. The lines quoted by Panizza in his epigraph from the third but last stanza of the ballad capture the gruesome transformation of Lenore’s lost lover, which – similar to Jentsch’s emphasis on Olimpia’s nature – reveals the ambiguity of the uncanny rider: But see! but see! in an eyelid’s beat, Towhoo! a ghastly wonder! The horseman’s jerkin, piece by piece, Dropped off like brittle tinder! Fleshless and hairless, a naked skull, The sight of his weird head was horrible (OJ, 213)47

This is followed, in the original text, by the maiden’s death and the mad dance of spirits in the graveyard which rebuke her for her blasphemy: The churchyard troop, – a ghostly group, – Close round the dying girl; Out and in they hurry and spin Through the dance’s weary whirl: “Patience, patience, when the heart is breaking; With thy God there is no question-making: Of thy body thou art quit and free: Heaven keep thy soul eternally!”48

47 “Ha sieh! Ha sieh! im Augenblick, / Huhu! ein gräßlich Wunder! / Des Reiters Koller, Stück für Stück, / Fiel ab, wie mürber Zunder. / Zum Schädel, ohne Zopf und Schopf, / Zum nackten Schädel ward sein Kopf.” See Gottfried August Bürger, “Leonore” [sic], in Gedichte, ed. Karl Reinhard (Göttingen: Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, 1817), pp. 68–83, ll. 233–8. For the English translation, see Gottfried August Bürger, Lenore, transl. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (London: Ellis and Elvey, 1900), p. 34. 48 Bürger, Lenore, p. 35; see also Bürger, “Leonore” [sic], pp. 68–83, ll. 249–56: “Nun tanzten wohl bei Mondenglanz, / Rund um herum im Kreise, / Die Geister einen Kettentanz, / Und ­heulten diese Weise: / ‘Geduld! Geduld! Wenn’s Herz auch bricht! / Mit Gott im Himmel hadre nicht! / Des Leibes bist du ledig; / Gott sey der Seele gnädig!’”

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The motif of the danse macabre which is alluded to here is taken up by Panizza at the end of his narrative. As in the ballad, in “The Operated Jew,” Faitel’s final frenzied dance of uncoordinated and jerky movements preceeding his complete collapse is a perverted wedding dance. It has been noted by Zipes that the name Panizza chose for his Jewish character alludes to the negatively stereotyped Veitel Itzig in Gustav Freytag’s popular novel Debit and Credit (Soll und Haben, 1855).49 Zipes reads this as another indication of the antisemitic bias of “The Operated Jew.” However, when questioning such preconceived notions, Panizza’s choice rather implies a criticism of the stereotypical representation of the Jew in his widely read intertext.50 Moreover, in relation to Bürger’s ballad and the uncanny danse macabre with which both it and Panizza’s narrative conclude, Faitel’s name acquires yet another dimension. It is presumably a secular rendering (kinnui) of Hebrew chaim (life), derived from Latin vita and the name Vitus, or Veit in German (and homophone with “Fait” in Faitel).51 It is then significant that the symptoms exhibited by the Jew closely resemble those of Huntington’s Disease (HD), a neurodegenerative genetic disorder which affects muscle coordination and results in progressive cognitive decline. HD used to be known also as St. Vitus Dance, or Veitstanz in German, and was historically frequently confused with dancing mania (choreomania) which went by the same name. While medical opinion in the nineteenth century held that many more girls than boys were affected by the St. Vitus Dance,52 it was nevertheless maintained that Jews in particular were susceptible to the disease.53 This was explained variously with their alleged hyperkinetic peculiarities and with their supposedly abnormally strong sex drive.54 The latter identification was further supported by

49 See Jack Zipes, The Operated Jew: Two Tales of Anti-Semitism (London: Routledge, 1991), p. 97. For the “powerful impact of Freytag’s stereotyped villain upon German popular consciousness,” see Larry L. Ping, Gustav Freytag and the Prussian Gospel: Novels, Liberalism, and History (Bern: Lang, 2006), pp. 114–16, p. 115. 50 For Freytag’s novel and its antisemitic tendencies, see, e.g., Mark H. Gelber, “Antisemitismus, literarischer Antisemitismus und die Konstellation der bösen Juden in Gustav Freytag’s Soll und Haben,” in Florian Krobb (ed.), 150 Jahre Soll und Haben: Studien zu Gustav Freytags kontroversem Roman (Würzburg: Könighausen & Neumann, 2005), pp. 285–300. 51 See, e.g., Leopold Zunz, Namen der Juden: Eine geschichtliche Untersuchung (Leipzig: Fort, 1837), pp. 48–52, 69. Zunz explains his interest in names with the secret history they harbor; they are, to him, “Annalen in Chiffer-Schrift,” p. 2. 52 See Friedrich Ludwig Meissner, “Der Veitstanz als Entwickelungskrankheit,” Journal für Geburtshülfe, Frauenzimmer- und Kinderkrankheiten 9 (1830): 604–47, 619–20. 53 See ibid., 620. Rather than to the more severe form of HD, this reference is to the chorea minor or Sydenham’s chorea. 54 See ibid.

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the correspondence between perceived racial characteristics and the constitution of indidual sufferers of the disease: This corresponds also to the observation that the individuals subject to the St. Vitus Dance are always vivacious, fiery, irritable, have a vivid imagination, and that in particular the girls affected by it almost always at the same time display an unmistakable disposition toward hysteria.55

Hysteria, of course, as Sander Gilman has shown, was not only considered “a uniquely feminine nervous disease,” but there ensued, with its symptoms observed in about twice as many Jewish than non-Jewish men, “a clear ‘feminization’ of the male Jew in the context of the occurrence of hysteria.”56 As a psychiatrist, Panizza was without doubt familiar with the symptoms of the St. Vitus Dance and, arguably, also with its historical interpretations. The dancing mania, which was known since the Middle Ages, was associated with being possessed by demons and the utter abandonment by God.57 It is likely that these interpretations of a phenomenon that was historically confused with HD (chorea maior) and the less severe Sydenham’s chorea (chorea minor) would have been associated with Faitel’s destructive dance by both the author and his nineteenth-century readers in addition to more recent medical explanations. According to contemporary medical opinion, an outbreak of the disease might be triggered in particular by sexual excitement – by masturbation, “stimulation of the sexual drive through the perusal of salacious novels, through the contemplation of unchaste images,” and even the merely “incidental stimulation of the genitals through inexpedient and inappropriate garments”;58 yet it might similarly be caused by alcohol consumption59 and, intriguingly, by “withheld or suppressed perspiration of the feet.”60

55 Ibid.: “Dies stimmt auch mit der Erfahrung mehr überein, dass die dem Veitstanz unterworfenen Individuen immer lebhaft, feurig, reitzbar sind, eine lebhafte Einbildungskraft und die davon ergriffenen Mädchen namentlich fast immer zugleich eine unverkennbare Anlage zur Hysterie haben.” 56 Gilman, Jew’s Body, p. 63. See also Santner, My Own Private Germany, p. 113 and Meissner, “Veitstanz als Entwickelungskrankheit,” 621. 57 See Gregor Rohmann, Tanzwut: Kosmos, Kirche und Mensch in der Bedeutungsgeschichte eines mittelalterlichen Krankheitskonzepts (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012), pp. 139–40. 58 Meissner, “Veitstanz als Entwickelungskrankheit,” 615: “Aufregung des Geschlechtstriebes durch das Lesen schlüpfriger Romane, durch das Betrachten unkeuscher Bilder […] zufällige Reizung der Genitalien durch unzweckmässige und unpassende Kleidungsstücke.” 59 Ibid. 60 Ibid., 621: “[…] zurückgehaltene oder unterdrückte Fussschweisse.”

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Faitel’s increasing intoxication is explicitly mentioned by Panizza. Nothing is said in the narrative about sweaty feet, but in medical discourse these were linked with the diagnosis of flat feet which, in turn, were considered a racial marker of Jewishness.61 Needless to say, Faitel naturally suffers of flat feet (OJ, 53/220). Finally, Faitel’s growing sexual excitement in anticipation of his wedding night is also clearly evident in the text. Even before the St. Vitus Dance galvanizes his body – or perhaps the disease is already heralded by these earlier convulsions – Faitel contorts in lewd circular movements of his pelvis, “making disgusting, lascivious and bestial canine movements with his rear end” (OJ, 73),62 while he holds forth to the assembled wedding guests “with a squeaky and entirely different tone of voice” (OJ, 72)63 in an imagined dialogue, alternating with his own voice, and performing the parody of a bleating rabbi and his pupil: “What doth he do in the next three hours, the holy Jehovah? – Deradáng! Deradáng!” With one quick swoop, his thumbs were in the pockets of his wedding vest. Now he bobbed back and forth and gave an infatuated look at the heavens. – Again with a changed voice giving the answer: “He sitteth and copulateth the men and women!” Again the first voice: “How long doth the holy Lord copulate the men and women?” the same positur; lascivious movements back and forth on the chair; jumping up and down, gurgling, clicking of the tongue. – The voice answering: “Three hours long doth he copulate the men and women!” First voice: “What doth he do in the afternoon, the holy Jehovah? Deradáng! Deradáng!” – Answer: “He doth nothing, Jehovah. He taketh a rest!” First voice: “What didst thou day [sic]? What doth [sic] thou mean? The holy Jehovah doth nothing? What doth he do? What doth Jehovah do in the afternoon? Huh?” – A young boy’s voice from the distance: “The holy Jehovah playeth with Leviathan in the afternoon!” – The first voice interjects triumphantly: “Naturally! He playeth with Leviathan!” (OJ, 72–3)64

61 See esp. the chapter “The Jewish Foot. A Foot-Note to the Jewish Body” in Gilman, Jew’s Body, pp. 38–59. 62 “[E]kelhaft lüsterne, hündischtierische Bewegungen machend” (OJ, 241). 63 “[M]it knängsender und ganz veränderter Stimmgebung” (OJ, 229). 64 “‘Was duhet er aber in den nächsten drei Stunden! Der heilige Jehova! – Deradáng! Deradáng!’ Mit einem Schwupp die Daumen im Ausschnitt der Hochzeitsweste; Hin- und Herwippen; verliebtes Nachobenblicken. – Wieder mit veränderter Stimme sich Antwort gebend: ‘Er sitzet und kopulieret die Männer und die Waiber!’ – Wieder die erste Stimme: ‘Wie lang kopulieret der hailige Gott die Männer und die Waiber?’ Selbe Positur; lüsternes Hin- und Herrutschen auf dem Stuhl, auf und ab hopfend, gurgelnd, schnalzend. – Die Antwortstimme: ‘Drei Stunden lang ­kopuliret [sic] er die Männer und die Waiber’ – Erste Stimme: ‘Waih geschrieen! Wie haißt, er duht nichts, der hailige Jehova? Wird er nichts duhn, der hailige Jehova? Was wird er duhn? Was duht der Jehova am Nachmittag? He?’ – Entfernte winzige Knabenstimme: ‘Am Nachmittag spielt der hailige Jehova mit dem Leviathan!’ – Erste Stimme mit Triumph einfallend: ‘Nadierlich! Er spielet mit dem Leviathan!’” (OJ, 240–1)

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Faitel’s mind, at this moment and at earlier occasions when he relates the same story, is obviously set on copulation. Yet even more pertinently – and blasphemously grotesque – the suggestion is that God, playing with the Leviathan, masturbates. A more highly charged image of sexual arousal than God playing with the “wriggling serpent” of the Leviathan (Isaiah 27:1) may be hard to conceive and with so much sweltering sexuality the uncontrollable spasms of the St. Vitus Dance seem an almost welcome relief. Indeed, they appear to provide the climactic release to Faitel’s pent up sexual frustration and, in an intriguing inversion of the Freudian pattern, to the displaced frustration of exclusion which marks and mars the Jew’s life. Yet with Faitel’s mounting excitement, his apprehension of being found out must also grow. As has been observed by Jay Geller, Faitel “is subjected to every possible operation except one: an epispasm, the surgical restoration of the foreskin to the circumcised penis.”65 At the wedding, all would of course have been revealed and Geller therefore finds in Panizza’s reference to Bürger’s ballad – and in particular the missing pigtail (“Zopf”) of the apparition – an allusion to Faitel’s unchanged ‘Jewishness’: “The uncanny Zopf, functioning as a displacement from lower to upper, anticipates how Itzig Faitel Stern’s gendered, Jewish identification would ultimately be revealed.”66 Faitel’s crazy and erratic whirling as a symptom of the St. Vitus Dance from which he suffers as well as the implicit reference to his circumcision re-inscribe his Jewishness into the transformed body and reaffirm his emasculation. Arguably, with the manifestation of the St. Vitus Dance, Faitel’s Jewishness is not only reasserted in essence but also in name. In the course of his transformation, he changes his name to Siegfried Freudenstern, whom he subsequently embodies by posing as a scion of the Hanoverian landed gentry. Indeed, the implied reader is explicitly admonished “to dismiss ‘Faitel’ from his mind. It is only Freudenstern who is presently the hero of the story!” (OJ, 68)67 Yet in a narrative sleight of hand, subverting the Jew’s change of identity, his admonition is consistently ignored by the narrator with his own continued and constant use of “Faitel.” Indeed, not once is Faitel referred to on the level of the story as Freudenstern or Siegfried. Nevertheless, the latter, just as much as Itzig or Faitel, is a telling name. Its tale is one of assimilatory aspirations. While the name does not yet occur in Leopold Zunz’s The Jewish Names (Die jüdischen Namen) of 1837, in 65 Jay Geller, The Other Jewish Question: Identifying the Jew and Making Sense of Modernity (Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press, 2011), p. 75. 66 Ibid. 67 “[S]ich den ‘Faiteles’ aus dem Kopf zu schlagen. Nur Freudenstern heißt jetzt der Held der Geschichte!” (OJ, 236)

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the Wilhelmine period, as noted by Ruth Gay, “Siegfried became one of the most popular names among Jewish boys.”68 It alludes to the mythical hero of the Nibelungenlied and of the operatic rendering of Nordic myth through Richard Wagner in the cycle of The Ring of the Nibelung (Der Ring des Nibelungen, 1869/1876). Siegfried, as opposed to the misshapen and cunning smith Mime by whom he is raised, is construed as the archetypal Germanic hero who kills the dwarf turned dragon, Fáfnir, the monstrously transformed brother of Mime; he is the dragon slayer alluded to by Siegfried Horn in his illustration (see Figure 34), the romanticizing image in The Song of Levi itself a reclamation of the name that was ‘appropriated’ by the now vanquished Jews. In his discussion of the Jewish character of Siegfried Fischer (known as “Fi­scherle”) in Elias Canetti’s Auto-da-Fé (Die Blendung, 1935) – whom he sees prefigured in Panizza’s Faitel69 – William Collins Donahue emphasizes the internal tension, if not contradiction, articulated through the author’s use of “the signifier of successful assimilation” (i.e. Siegfried) coupled with “a designation of indelible ethnicity that simply could not be escaped” (i.e. Fischerle).70 The suggestion is that Siegfried Fischerle, crooked as well as a crook, “is neither Mime nor Siegfried, but both. Or, better, he is a Mime who would be Siegfried, a Jew who would like to be freed of his physical markers, but within the strictures of corporeal racism, can only dream of such freedom.”71 In “The Operated Jew,” the Jew’s daring and foolish move to transgress the strictures of corporeal racism, his attempt to become a Siegfried, fails miserably. The involuntary and spasmodic movement of the St. Vitus Dance shatters the dream and re-transforms him irrevocably into Faitel. Nevertheless, it would seem a questionable simplification to read Panizza’s careful construction of the Jew through an assembly of more or less subtle stereotypes as no more than an antisemitic harangue.72 Indeed, it is the author’s reference to Bürger’s ballad, I would suggest, which gives a further indication of an alternative reading of the conclusion of Panizza’s narrative. In “Lenore,” the ghost of Wilhelm appears as an avenger to reinforce divine authority and to insist that it is humankind’s lot to submit to God’s inscrutable will. The monstrous transformation of the rider marks the instance in which the admonition is given horrid shape and gathers full force. The analogy to “The Operated Jew” is

68 Ruth Gay, The Jews of Germany: A Historical Portrait (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994), p. 184. 69 William Collins Donahue, The End of Modernism: Elias Canetti’s Auto-da-Fé (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003), p. 233n48. 70 Ibid., p. 120. 71 Ibid., p. 127; emphasis in original. 72 See Geller, Other Jewish Question, pp. 243–6 and Santner, My Own Private Germany, pp. 125–8.

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clear. Faitel, quarreling with his god-sent Jewishness, experiences (like Lenore) all the elation and all the horror of the inexorable trajectory toward his doom and the concluding danse macabre. And yet, considering Panizza’s lifelong struggle against religious and political authority,73 it could hardly have been his intention to reiterate Bürger’s moral. Nevertheless, the ultimate transformation of Faitel or, more accurately, his re-transformation serves a similarly exhortative purpose. Yet the admonition is a different one: Panizza’s story castigates those who lack faith in the humanity of the Jew. Doubts about Faitel’s humanity and the concomitant dehumanization to which he is subjected by those around him are carried to absurd lengths in a discussion with his surgeon which satirically demonstrates the clouded view of the scientific mind which precludes the identification of his human origins. Examining the bodily evidence, the eminent surgeon questions whether Faitel was in fact born to human parents. It is only when he is reassured on this point that he actually agrees to practise his art on the Jew. It is worthy of note that Professor Klotz, the Frankensteinian creator of Faitel’s new corporeality, is not led by ideological considerations but exclusively by the scientific challenge, unencumbered by any moral or ethical doubts.74 This also informs his desire to reproduce his creation, a suggestion highly repulsive to antisemites and anti-eugenicists alike, if for very different reasons. Panizza, it seems, was very much opposed to the idea of eugenics. As his submission to an essay competition invited by Die Gesellschaft, a journal which significantly influenced the Munich avantgarde with which he was affiliated, Panizza offered “Prolegomena to the Essay Competition: Improvement of our Race” (“Prolegomena zum Preisausschreiben: Verbesserung unserer Rasse,” 1893).75 In the essay, which reductively and, as I would suggest, mistakenly has been said to express his “atheistic hedonism,”76 the writer rejects eugenics because it would inevitably lead to the limitation of human freedom and culture. More specifically, he claims that, while human beings may be able to improve inferior animals through breeding, they lack the vantage point of superiority necessary to envisage and to direct any improvements of their own species. The state as a potential superior agent is vehemently rejected by Panizza as it too is composed of erring human

73 See, e.g., Peter Brown, Oskar Panizza: His Life and Works (New York: Lang, 1983), pp. 183–5, 189. 74 Eric L. Santner suggests that Klotz appears to be a “monstrous parody of Moritz Schreber,” My Own Private Germany, p. 114. 75 Oskar Panizza, “Prolegomena zum Preisausschreiben: Verbesserung unserer Rasse,” Die Gesellschaft 9.3 (1893): 275–89. 76 Brown, Oskar Panizza, p. 29.

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beings with a limited perspective. More significantly, Panizza argues that eugenics would also preclude the emergence of human genius which, he maintains, frequently has its origins in psychopathic conditions or inhabits deformed bodies. It may be the predictable fate of a satirist of Panizza’s description to be misunderstood. Yet if we accept Bierbaum’s contemporary analysis of the fundamentally ludic character of his work, and to my mind it indeed characterizes all of Panizza’s literary production, then we should see it as a pervasive strategy also in his ostensibly serious writing. To do so, I suggest, will further our understanding of this contrary writer. It will, more specifically, I hope, also absolve him of the accusation of being an antisemite. In fact, the “Prolegomena” too have frequently been invoked in support of the allegation that Panizza was an antisemite. In particular the following passage has been cited as the reiteration of antisemitic stereotypes:77 Just take the Jews with their bow legs, watery eyes, chicken breasts, short waists, smell of perspiration and flat feet. Downright ugly and decrepit, even when fed on the best Christian wet nurse’s milk, they are without doubt inferior to the Teutonic race with regard to their physical constitution. Yet their mind is developed so much better, especially into the mercantile direction, that it makes up for all the advantages of the corporeal constitution of the rival Germanic race.78

Written in close chronological proximity to “The Operated Jew,” the image of the Jew evoked in this passage from the “Prolegomena” is not only very similar to that created of Itzig Faitel Stern in the fictional narrative but indeed appears to be informed by rampant antisemitic stereotypes. Yet the very fact that it is so blatantly antisemitic should make us pause and reconsider. After all, Panizza was a highly idiosyncratic writer who, in Bierbaum’s words, delighted in presenting his “quattre lettres” to us. Indeed, it would be mistaken to take anything in Panizza’s work at face value because the face, as the critic observed tongue in cheek, is more often than not the backside. In order to gauge more credibly some of the satirical impact of the excerpt it will be necessary to reinsert it into both its immediate and its wider context. In fact, I would argue that the passage from the “Prolegomena,” just like this strange text as a whole, once again needs to be read as a cynical satire which, almost unnoticed, 77 See, e.g., ibid., p. 30. 78 Panizza, “Prolegomena,” 277: “Man nehme die Juden mit ihren Säbelbeinen, Triefaugen, Hühnerbrüsten, kurzen Taillen, Schweißgeruch and Plattfüßen. Bei ihrer ausgesprochenen Häßlichkeit und Dekrepidität sind sie der teutonischen Rasse gegenüber, trotz Aufpäpelei mit bester christlicher Ammenmilch, ihrer physischen Leibesbeschaffenheit nach zweifellos min­ derwertig. Aber ihr Geist ist, besonders nach einer, der merkantilen Seite hin, so viel besser ent­ wickelt, daß er alle bessere Körperverfassung der germanischen Konkurrenzrasse wettmacht.”

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robs the reader of the imaginary security of an imagined firm ground. The whole of the “Prolegomena,” I would suggest, is a very serious and, with its convincing appropriation of scientific discourse, at the same time a very elaborate hoax. That hidden and subtle, sometimes blatant, and not always recognizable humor described by Bierbaum, no less than the ludic character attributed by the critic to Panizza’s work, are clearly at play when the writer in the guise of serious social commentary mentions the welcome progress from the recognition of human rights to the acknowledgement of animal rights – only to then turn to the Jews, and thereby to expose suggestions of Jewish subhuman nature: Yes, the “human rights” have even developed into animal rights. And the demands of the animal rights groups and antivivisectionist societies have elicited strong resonance in parliaments and in private circles far and wide. – The protection of the Jews, whom all occidental people declare in unison to be a race not their equal in ethical matters, what is it but the consequence of the recognition of the human rights carried to an extreme? To permit the greatest destructions and devastations to the material and sentimental possessions of a people is preferred to restricting the human rights guaranteed to any specimen of homo sapiens.79

Panizza’s choice of words is intriguing. To talk about the consensus of protecting the Jews suggests that the natural state is rather one of persecution. How true, but how cynical, too; and hardly worthy of the civilized nations who feel themselves ethically superior to the Jews. What resonates with Panizza’s text is not only the implicit allusion to the actual ethical integrity of the People of the Book on whose moral system the whole edifice of occidental ethics rests. Their dehumanization at the hands of the civilized and allegedly ethically advanced nations is furthermore castigated through the suggested parallelism in relation to emerging notions of the protection of animals. Something, surely, is wrong here and Panizza clearly intends to shake matters up. When he continues, he encompasses humanity in its diversity, warts and all: This specimen may come from Poland or from Walachia, it may be infested with lice or be cleanly, it may suffer from the cholera or from scabies, it may be educated or uneducated,

79 Ibid., 281: “Ja, die ‘Menschenrechte’ haben sich sogar zu Tierrechten zugespitzt. Und die Forderungen der Tierschutzvereine und Antivivisektions-Gesellschaften haben allerorts in Parlamenten und Privatkreisen lebhaften Wiederhall gefunden. – Die Schonung der Juden, die alle abendländischen Völker unisono als eine ihnen ethisch unebenbürtige Rasse erklären, was ist sie anders als die Folge der bis zur äußersten Konsequenz getriebenen Anerkennung der Menschenrechte? Man läßt lieber die größten Zerstörungen und Verwüstungen im gemütlichen wie realen Besitzstand eines Volkes geschehen, als eine Einschränkung der jedem Exemplar von homo sapiens garantierten Menschenrechte vorzunehmen.”

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it may be closer to either animals or human beings: As soon as he steps on our soil, every Chinaman, Malay or Polynesian is granted essentially the same rights as a worker, citizen or scholar.80

Fundamental humanity and the human rights are inalienable, irrespective of health or civilization, of biological difference, and of ethnic or social background – as guaranteed by the law of the land. Or is Panizza once again satirically subversive? Because, yes, imperial Germany’s law acknowledged the human rights.81 But, as the case of Mpundo Akwa would show not much more than a decade later, when the African other for the first time availed himself of German law to protest his honor, the letter of the law was not always the same as its spirit. Of course Panizza was as yet unaware of this particular challenge to the egalitarian idea. Yet his satire nevertheless seems to deride the proliferation of hierarchical categories and the very principle of categorization which stereotypes the individual who – whatever their difference – is, after all, human. In the “Prolegomena,” the ludic quality of Panizza’s writing emerges for instance from the utterly absurd excursion into the interpretation of the ever receding hairline of modern man as an indicator of cerebral development and cultural progress. With the author’s seemingly serious discussion of the effect of wearing hats and his examination of ancient sculptures this is a clear sendup of the ‘sciences’ of physiognomy and phrenology and their respective methodologies. Nor does Panizza leave modern culture and the philistine unscathed. After graphically describing how a resurrected physiologically ‘low-browed’ Roman, and be it Caesar himself, would have fled a performance of Richard Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde (Tristan und Isolde, 1865), Panizza then extolls the aesthetic pleasure of the modern ‘high-brow’: And we, we remain for five hours in our seat in the stalls and listen and absorb, pleasantly ashiver and aquiver; and we arise intoxicated and moved to the core.

So far this reads like any exuberant reflection on civilized susceptibility to aesthetic stimuli so typical of the period. But when Panizza continues, he utterly deflates his earlier praise and the pretense of cultural elitism – “Is this nothing? Five hours! Almost a quarter of the time it takes the globe to revolve! Is not this a feat? Whoever 80 Ibid.: “Mag dieses Exemplar aus Polen oder der Walachei kommen, mag es lausig oder ­reinlich sein, die Cholera oder die Krätze haben, mag es gebildet oder ungebildet sein, der Tieroder Menschenstufe näher stehen: jeder Chinese, Malaie oder Polynesier hat mit dem Betreten unseres Bodens im wesentlichen die gleichen Rechte wie ein Arbeiter, Bürger oder Gelehrter.” 81 See Ernst Tugendhat, “The Controversy about Human Rights,” in Herlinde Pauer-Studer (ed.), Norms, Values, and Society (Dordrecht: Springer, 1994), pp. 33–41, p. 34.

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else is able to do this?” – and concludes: “No! No! We want to remain free human beings with their foreheads unencumbered and open to the experience of delight!”82 Ironically, the composer’s genius – like the less sophisticated Caesar’s – was mentioned by Panizza earlier in the essay among others in relation to his weak physique to make the point that mental greatness frequently resides in physical imperfection: Many of the most excellent spirits who had the most profound impact on their fellow human beings, both in modern times and in antiquity, your Caesar, Napoleon, Pascal, Voltaire, Frederick the Great, Byron, Richard Wagner, were all confined inside weak, little, diseased, crippled and fraught bodies.83

Panizza therefore rephrases the original question of the essay competition to focus on the mental potential rather than the physical perfection of humankind: What can we do to create a strong-minded race that has been steeled in the struggle for existence, to make accessible to as many classes of human beings as possible the mental prevalence that so far has been in the possession of the few?84

It is in this context, too, that the stereotypical image of the Jew drawn by Panizza needs to be understood: And such a question which more or less neglects the corporeal shape and constitution would not be so bad at all. Just take the Jews with their bow legs, watery eyes, chicken breasts, short waists, smell of perspiration and flat feet. Downright ugly and decrepit, even when fed on the best Christian wet nurse’s milk, they are without doubt inferior to the Teutonic race with regard to their physical constitution. Yet their mind is developed so much better, especially into the mercantile direction, that it makes up for all the advantages of the corporeal constitution of the rival Germanic race.85 82 Panizza, “Prolegomena,” 287: “Und wir, wir bleiben fünf Stunden auf unserem Parkettsitz, und lauschen und saugen uns voll, und es durchrieselt und durchströmt uns; und wir stehen trunken und innerlich aufs tiefste erschüttert auf. / Ist das nichts? Fünf Stunden! Beinahe eine viertel Achsendrehung der Erde! Ist das keine Leistung? Wer kann das noch? / Nein! Nein! Wir wollen freistirnige, freie Menschen bleiben und dem Entzücken offen sein!” 83 Ibid., 277: “[V]iele der vortrefflichsten Geister, die den weitgehendsten Einfluß auf ihre Mitmenschen ausgeübt, neuer und alter Zeit, ein Cäsar, Napoleon, Pascal, Voltaire, Friedrich der Große, Byron, Richard Wagner, staken in schwächlichen, kleinen, krankhaften, verkrüppelten und belasteten Leibern.” 84 Ibid.: “Was können wir thun zur Erzeugung eines starkgeistigen, im Daseinskampf gestählten Geschlechts, um psychische Prävalenz, bisher im Besitz Weniger, einer möglichst großen Breite von Menschenklassen zugänglich zu machen?” 85 Ibid.: “Und eine solche, die Körperform und Beschaffenheit mehr weniger [sic] vernachlässigende Fragestellung wäre nicht so übel. Man nehme die Juden mit ihren Säbelbeinen, Triefaugen, Hühnerbrüsten, kurzen Taillen, Schweißgeruch and Plattfüßen. Bei ihrer ausgesprochenen Häßlichkeit

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Read in context, another image of the Jew emerges. The alleged stereotypical physical deformity is practically turned into an asset. It is, in an unexpected inversion, the characteristic feature of those of particular psychological or mental strength which the text pits against and values above mere physical perfection because it is the psychopathic and unpredictable freak to whom humankind is beholden, not for progress exactly, but for any kind of development. Yet there lingers a whiff of ambivalence even so. After all, Wagner’s musical achievements are mocked and Caesar is decidedly low-brow. Challenging notions of biological and social Darwinism, Panizza, ever playful, appears to celebrate the notion of the freak, of the accidental and unpredictable, the antithesis to the dull product of eugenic engineering envisaged by the essay question. Yet another short story of the writer, published already in Crepuscular Pieces in 1890, encapsulates the subliminal horror of human sameness. In “The Factory of Humans” (“Die Menschenfabrik”) the lonely wanderer searching late at night for shelter experiences the uncanny nocturnal atmosphere of a factory producing people and is only undeceived in the light of dawn that the plant he was shown around by its director is the royal Meissen porcelain works. Peter Brown, like its first reviewers, was rather derisive of the short story.86 Yet its oppressive ambiance of the uncanny in the Freudian sense, long before it was formulated, remains a powerful assertion of difference and individuality. His “Prolegomena” Panizza finished with a similar affirmation of the individual. Emphasizing the right of the living and the significance of the present, the writer concluded in emulation of the Nietzschean affirmation of self with forceful insistence that we cannot be any other than we are and that, as we are, so we want to be.87 Returning to “The Operated Jew,” Faitel’s desire to be other than he is must then be considered his flaw, even though it is in response to external pressure which will not let him be as he is. In Panizza’s text, it is precisely his desire for self-abnegation and his progressive re-formation, both physically and psychologically, which turn Faitel into a monster. The process, inexorably charted with cruel detachment by the narrator, is poignantly condensed in Paul Haase’s illustration accompanying the 1914 reissue in Twilight Visions (Visionen der

und Dekrepidität sind sie der teutonischen Rasse gegenüber, trotz Aufpäpelei mit bester christlicher Ammenmilch, ihrer physischen Leibesbeschaffenheit nach zweifellos minderwertig. Aber ihr Geist ist, besonders nach einer, der merkantilen Seite hin, so viel besser entwickelt, daß er alle bessere Körperverfassung der germanischen Konkurrenzrasse wettmacht.” 86 See Brown, Oskar Panizza, p. 117. 87 For a discussion of Panizza’s views on eugenics, see especially Gie van den Berghe, De mens vorbij (Antwerpen: Meulenhoff/Manteau, 2008), pp. 190–4 and Brown, Oskar Panizza, p. 30.

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­Dämmerung).88 This, like the artist’s illustrations to “A Negro’s Tale” and “An Indian’s Thoughts,” though published more than two decades after the first edition of the three stories, is still relevant to this discussion. The cartoonist and painter Paul Haase expertly captures in his pen-and-ink drawings the salient features of the literary texts: The austere and withdrawn chief enfolded in his blanket with the startling tension of a bow, holding his rigid body upright on the very edge of the chair; and the bestial and ferocious expression on the face of the Negro who beholds his grotesque face in the mirror, snarling at what he sees. The excruciating torture of the Jew at the hands of what appears in Haase’s drawing almost as the archetypal mad scientist crouching over his creation with disheveled hair, mandible-like moustaches, and piercing eyes amplified by his spectacles and insect-like, is almost tangible. Of his victim, only the lower part of the body is visible, with broken and reset spindly limbs, stretched by crude instruments of torture reminiscent of the rack, the bone-cutting saw prominent and ominous in the foreground; the surgeon himself, ironically, is anything but a paragon of the aryan aesthetic, nor are his limbs so very different from those of the Jew. The artist’s decision to ‘withhold’ Faitel’s face is intriguing, as in run-of-themill antisemitic representations it is specifically the alleged physiognomic features of the Jew which are presented as distinctive. That his face is not shown moreover dehumanizes the operated-on body; the Levinasian moral imperative which comes into being at the precise moment of the encounter with the face of the other with the command, “Thou shalt not kill,” is effectively effaced.89 Instead, the reader’s gaze, with that of the surgeon, is directed toward the prone figure’s genitals and thus to the, arguably, adumbrated circumcision. The drawing thus reaffirms what the text cunningly elides and, in some measure, anticipates the implicit revelation at the end of the story. It also calls attention to the perverse act of creation which brings forth a monstrosity. Intriguingly, this monster is defined by its asymptotic approximation to the societal norm and not, as might by expected, by its divergence. It is, to adapt Homi Bhabha’s formula, the almost, but not quite90 which determines Faitel’s progressive monstrosity because with every new effort of becoming like the desired other he not only loses another piece of himself but engages in another racial ruse. His monstrosity is entirely externalized as his changing outward 88 This is the title of the 1914 edition which was edited by Hanns Heinz Ewers with an afterword by Hannes Ruch (i.e. Hans Richard Weinhöppel); the first edition was entitled Visionen: Erzählungen und Skizzen (Leipzig: Friedrich, 1893). 89 See Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority [1961], transl. Alphonso Lingis (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1969), p. 199. 90 Bhabha, Location of Culture, p. 86.

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­ ppearance becomes the gauge for the ever increasing divergence of interior and a ­exterior. Faitel himself remains oblivious to his monstrosity even when, at the end of the narrative, he compulsively acts it out in the climactic and shocking convulsions of the St. Vitus Dance. His is a metonymic corporeal monstrosity, the unnatural result of a transgressive creative act. “The Operated Jew” is in this respect almost the inversion of “A Negro’s Tale.” Here, too, the monster is encountered, but its creation is clearly imaginary and defined by the perception of difference. Assimilating white European aesthetic categories, the black performer perceives his own difference and, significantly, also that of his compatriots as monstrous. This perception is exacerbated by his realization that the entertainment value of his performance itself rests solely in the supposedly comical incongruity of his difference. His wish to be white results from this insight and demonstrates his desire to level the difference. As this is not possible, he resorts to his imagination and phantasizes that he turns white. He even sees himself as white in the mirror. While the Negro has thus effaced his monstrosity in his hallucinatory imaginings, to the outside world he is doubly a monster now: As a bestial black, but even more so for his transgressive delusion and the presumption to be able to turn himself into the desired other.

 nthropology of the Monstrous and the Imagined Reprieve A of Genocide In “The Operated Jew,” the monster – the operated Jew – is in significant ways similar to Frankenstein’s monster, just like Professor Klotz is to some extent reminiscent of its initially amoral creator. Yet even prior to the surgeon’s intervention, Faitel appears to be the deformed product of an intolerant society which will not let him be as he is and therefore indirectly enforces his assimilation which, at the same time, it resents. When he eventually has the professor operate on him, this is only the continuation of his desperate attempts to level the difference which, however, merely serves to make him more and more monstrous. As the narrator recounts: I observed with astonishment how this monster took terrible pains to adapt to our circumstances, our way of walking, thinking, our gesticulations, the expressions of our intellectual tradition, our manner of speech. (OJ, 52)91

91 “Mit Verwunderung beobachtete ich, wie dieses Monstrum sich die grauenhafteste Mühe gab, sich in unsere Verhältnisse, in unsere Art zu gehen, zu denken, in unsere Mimik, in die Aeußerungen unserer Gemütsbewegungen, in unsere Sprechweise einzuleben.” (OJ, 219)

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Once again, this is reminiscent of Frankenstein’s monster. However, there is a crucial difference. The reader of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s novel (1818/1831) is confronted with the monster’s voice and thought processes, with his excruciating sadness and the terrible and uncontrolled anger provoked by the unquestioning rejection he experiences and which eventually makes him transgress the moral and criminal laws of the human, but not humane, society into which he has been released by no choice of his own. Faitel is neither given an internal voice, nor does he incur external guilt. He remains the operated-on victim, the product of a crippling societal antagonism and of debilitating medical and psychological experiments. Indeed Faitel’s desperate attempts to transform himself (OJ, 54/221) intensify in response to the suggestions of the devious narrator (OJ, 53/220) who professes to have befriended him mainly because of a purely medical or rather anthropological curiosity: There was certainly a great deal of what I would call medical or rather anthropological curiosity in this case. I was attracted to him in the same way I might be to a Negro whose goggle eyes, yellow connective optical membranes, crushed nose, mollusk lips and ivory teeth and smell one perceives altogether in wonderment and whose feelings and most secret anthropological actions one wants to get to know as well! (OJ, 52)92

The motivation of the narrator’s anthropological interest as compared to the scientific curiosity evoked by the otherness of the Negro is significant in this context because it ties “The Operated Jew” to the contemporaneous “A Negro’s Tale.” In this narrative the fascination with the other is disturbingly satisfied and it indeed lays wide open the feelings and the most secret anthropological actions of the object of its curiosity as if on an operating table. Crucially, here too, the ‘monster’ is given an articulate, if strangely inflected, voice which facilitates, in a manner of speaking, the scrutiny of the viscera of his mind. Panizza’s linguistic choices for the portrayal of the Negro in “The Operated Jew” are very graphic. He relies mostly on compound words qualifying the description of individual, fragmented body parts which, taken together, draw a stereotypical image: It is not the Negro’s eyes or nose, nor his lips or teeth, but goggle eyes, a crushed nose, mollusk lips, and ivory teeth which are paradigmatically singled out by the story’s insalubrious narrator. They whet his i­nterest because

92 “Es war gewiß viel, wie soll ich sagen, medizinische oder besser anthropologische ­Neugierde dabei; ich empfand ihm gegenüber, wie etwa bei einem Neger, dessen Glotzaugen, dessen gelbe Augenbindehaut, dessen Quetschnase, dessen Molluskenlippen und ­Elfenbeinzähne, dessen Geruch man mit Verwunderung wahrnimmt, und dessen Gefühle und geheimste a ­ nthropologische Handlungen man ebenfalls kennen lernen möchte!” (OJ, 219)

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of their otherness but, as their fragmentation and the non-human descriptors suggest, they add up to somewhat less than a human whole. This is replicated to more obvious effect in “A Negro’s Tale” which, as suggested above, is driven by a similar interest and, just like “The Operated Jew,” leaves the reader with a very bad aftertaste. While altogether more closely focused on the mental processes which affect the Negro, his physical description through the eyes of the narrator, who is, once again, a medical man, sketches a similarly fragmented image. Yet this is countered by the uncanny transformation of the black performer in the perception of the narrator which mirrors the process during which the Negro aligns the imaginary picture of himself with the self-­perception of his external appearance. The doctor begins the description of his visitor with the seemingly redundant assertion of his blackness: The Negro who was standing here before me and who did not want to be seated, not for love and money, was black. This may to some appear to be a completely superfluous remark; but it is not, as the reader will realize at the conclusion of this peculiar consulting room debate. I add: The Negro was not just black; there also were none of the brown tints and lighter blemishes which may be found with some of the tribes somewhat further removed from the equator. The man was completely black; of such a black with a bluish hue as it is exhibited by our freshly polished stove pipes; in one word, he was a genuine Sudanic Negro. (NT, 245)93

The insistence on the black man’s epidermal hue – stating, but at the same time implicitly challenging, the obvious – is then complemented with the description of his apparel. Indeed, once the skin color has been noted, the reader’s gaze and attention, following the order of the narrator’s description, are directed from the Negro’s sartorial appearance to his physiognomy and his linguistic utterance. Both his garments and his language reveal the visitor to be the product of the cultural contact he experienced. He is dressed in western clothes of English, and even elegant, cut. But at the same time, he is wearing “thick, conspicuously large boots, which he seemed to have purchased ready-made and of which, ignorant

93 “Der Neger, der hier vor mir stand und sich um keinen Preis setzen wollte, war schwarz. Dies wird vielleicht manchem als eine höchst überflüssige Bemerkung erscheinen; sie ist es aber nicht, wie der Leser am Schlusse dieser absonderlichen Sprechzimmerdebatte erkennen wird. Ich füge hinzu: der Neger war nicht nur schwarz; es fehlten auch jene bräunlichen Tinten und helleren Flecke, wie man sie bei den etwas entfernter vom Äquator wohnenden Stämmen findet. Der Mann war ganz schwarz; von jener Schwärze mit bläulichem Anhauch, wie sie bei uns ein frisch gewichstes Ofenrohr zeigt; mit einem Wort, er war ein echter Sudanneger.”

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of their construction, he had confused right and left.”94 (NT, 245–6) The Negro, typical of the Hosenneger, thus displays the external trappings of civilization but at the same time also demonstrates his lack of a deeper understanding of what he imitates in an imperfect mimicry. Linguistically, he is also tainted and the narrator deduces “that he had originally experienced English cultural conditions and only then acquired German, which he spoke with an English accent.” (NT, 246)95 Phenomenologically, the depiction of the black visitor’s physiognomy is reminiscent of that given of the negro as an object of anthropological inquiry in “The Operated Jew.” Yet initially the description, though no less stereotypical, eschews the derogatory descriptors used by the narrator of the other grotesque: His whole physique was sturdy and the beardless face showed thick lips, a squashed nose, large expressive eyes and a short but well-developed forehead. (NT, 246)96

However, the mostly sympathetic image evoked with this portrayal is increasingly fragmented and ultimately revoked. The doctor feels menacingly scrutinized “with the white balls of his eyes,” he notes “two rows of large-bore teeth” (NT, 247)97 and “the giant piece of meat with the yellow fingernails” (NT, 248).98 Moreover, in the course of the story, the object of the doctor’s description is progressively dehumanized to the point of being identified with a ferocious animal. Faced with the “black hollow palm” of his increasingly agitated visitor and with its “quince-yellow dirty nails with their ape-like curvature,” he feels as if he were in the menacing presence of a stinking, fierce, and powerful beast: “[A]s I smelled the perspiration peculiar to Negroes, I felt as if I were facing an animal which, at any moment, would be able to crush me with one blow of its paw.” (NT, 247)99 This process of othering is later replicated in the story with a change of perspective when the black performer recounts how, all of a sudden, he became aware of his difference. Initially oblivious to his otherness, “I didn’t know that

94 “[D]icke, auffallend große Stiefel, die er fertig gekauft zu haben schien und, in Unkenntnis ihres Baues, mit rechts und links verwechselt hatte.” 95 “[D]aß er ursprünglich englische Kulturverhältnisse durchgemacht und dann erst sich das Deutsche angeeignet hatte, das er mit englischem Akzent sprach.” 96 “Die ganze Gestalt war kräftig, und das bartlose Gesicht zeigte wulstige Lippen, breitgequetschte Nase, ein großes sprechendes Auge und eine kurze, aber gut entwickelte Stirn.” 97 “[M]it den weißen Kugeln seiner Augen […] zwei Reihen großkalibrige Zähne.” 98 “[D]as Riesenfleischstück mit den gelben Fingernägeln.” 99 “[S]chwarze Hohlhand […] quittengelben schmutzigen Nägel mit ihrer affenartigen Krümmung […] wie ich den eigentümlichen Negerschweiß roch, kam mir das Gefühl, ich befände mich einem Tier gegenüber, welches mich jeden Moment mit einem Schlag seiner Pranke zerschmettern könnte.”

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I was black” (NT, 249),100 when he first encountered the mealy and chalky-faced Europeans with their grinning visages, he was repulsed by their ugliness. It is important to note that in Panizza’s narrative the Negro never saw his own likeness, as commanded by the great Negro Spirit – he obviously passed over the Lacanian mirror stage of the infant. Accordingly, when he is confronted for the first time with his reflection in a shop window he is horrified. Indeed, at first he does not even recognize the monster that is facing him as his own mirror image. What he sees, as he remembers it, is: “A black monster! – a snarling gorilla!” (NT, 250)101 Realization that what he encounters is actually his own form is slow: “At first I believed an animal was in the shop and was looking out; but the white people who went past also saw themselves in the block of water [i.e. the shop window] and now I saw that I was the horrid animal.” (NT, 250; emphasis added)102 Once he has internalized his difference, the Negro is able also to appreciate the nature of the perverse fascination his performance as “an excentric dancer at the Royal Garden in London” (NT, 247)103 offers to his white audience: “Now I knew that I was black and that in the evenings the English clap when I’m singing and dancing because I was a black Negro animal and that they squirt artificial light from a hundred tubes the better to see me!” (NT, 250)104 Assimilating the white perspective, he now revises his previous aesthetic assessment and is all at once struck by the prettiness of the white faces – especially those of the women. Arguably, this is another evocation of the animal libido ascribed to blacks and the text suggests an ellipsis very much like Fanon’s. Yet while Fanon of course insisted on the immutability of blackness and the “epidermalization of inferiority,” the Negro in Panizza’s narrative naively decides that he wants to become white. Against the narrator’s cynical interjection – “Well, we don’t have a pot of paint which paints everything just as we like it?!” – he insists that there is indeed a way of changing his hue: “Not pot of paint! Not fake color, real color!” The remedy is in the mind: “What? Doctor, don’t you know that we have something

100 “[I]ch hab’ nicht gewußt, daß ich war schwarz.” 101 “Ein schwarzes Scheusal! – Ein fletschendes Gorilla!” 102 “Ich glaubte zuerst, ein Tier steht im Laden und schaut heraus; aber die uaißen Menschen, die vorübergingen, haben sich auch in dem Block Wasser gesehen, und jetzt sah ich, daß ich uar das scheußliche Tier.” 103 “[A]n excentric dancer im Royal Garden in London.” Emphasis in original. 104 “Jetzt ich wußte, daß ich uar schwarz; und daß abends die Engländer applaudieren, wenn ich tu singing und dancing, weil ich uar schwarzes Negertier; und daß sie spritzen aus hundert Röhren künstliches Licht, damit sie mich besser sehen können!” Emphasis in original.

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in our head that can change everything?!” (NT, 250)105 And so, after months of suffering, tortured by the incongruity between his outward appearance and the indelible image in his mind of himself as white – “the fair image of my face, the beautiful white Negro picture…” (NT, 251)106 – he finally turns white: Well, Doctor, after two months, one day, suddenly, it was a wonderful sight! – I turned white… […] Well, one morning, in Lancaster Street, as I look into the water block [i.e. the shop window], I been had, oh, I been had white color, beautiful white face, oh, I tell you, Doctor, I was most beautiful man in Liverpool, and all the people looked at me. (NT, 251)107

The black man’s alignment of the imaginary picture of himself with the self-­ perception of his external appearance is irreconcilable with ‘reality.’ That he remains completely oblivious to the bitter irony encapsulated in the account of his imaginary transformation invites the reader’s empathy: The not really white Negro is not, of course, the object of the Europeans’ gaze for his aesthetic perfection but for his eternal and immutable epidermal difference and its implied monstrous ugliness. Yet his delusion continues and it is in fact his purpose to have himself officially certified white by the narrator: “Well, Doctor, I ask you for a certificate that I am white! – The black devils which me…” – but the doctor interjects: “But, my dear friend, you are black; you are as black as a Sudanic N… – ” (NT, 252)108 at which point he is interrupted in turn when the black man in sudden and unrestrained fury pounces and tries to strangle him: “In this moment, I felt how my throat was choked and heard a cry as it might perhaps be produced by a hyena. Before my eyes appeared the Negro’s panting, bloodthirsty face with bulging white eyeballs and searing breath.” (NT, 252)109 The close vision of the horribly transformed face of the Negro emphasizes its feral aspect; the blood-curdling

105 “Ja, wir haben doch keinen Farbtopf, der alles anstreicht, wie wir wollen?!”; “Nix Farbtopf! Nix falsche Farb, echte Farb!”; “Was? Dokter, wissen Sie nicht, daß wir haben was in unser Kopf, das alles kann ändern?!” 106 “[D]as helle Bild von mein Gesicht, das wunderschöne uaiße Negerbild…” 107 “Well, Dokter, nach ßuai Monat, eines Tages, plötzlich, it was a wonderful sight! – ich bin geworden uaiß… […] Well, eine Morgen, in Lancasterstreet, wie ich schaue in Wasserblock, ich bin gehabt, oh, ich habe gehabt uaiße Farb, wunderschöne uaiße Gesicht, oh, I tell you, Dokter, ich uar schönste Mann in Liverpool, und alle Leute haben mich angeschaut.” Emphasis in original. 108 “Well, Dokter, ich bitte Sie um ain Zeugniß, daß ich bin uaiß! – Die schwarzen Teufel, die mich…”; “Ja, mein lieber Freund, Sie sind aber schwarz; Sie sind schwarz wie ein Sudann – ” Emphasis in original. 109 “In diesem Moment fühlte ich mir die Kehle zugeschnürt und hörte einen Schrei ausstoßen, wie ihn vielleicht die Hyäne hervorbringt. Vor meinen Augen tauchte das lechzende, blutrünstige Gesicht des Negers mit vorgetriebenen, weißen Augäpfeln und heißem Atem auf.”

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acoustic identification with the hyena is later superseded and surpassed when the ferocious assailant is likened to a panther (NT, 252) – an animal known for its stealth and fierceness but also for its black color. In fact, it is quite illuminating to consult a roughly contemporary dictionary entry for the characteristics ascribed to the animal. In the sixth edition of Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon of 1905–1909, conflated with the leopard of which it is a sub-species, the panther is described as “as beautiful as it is agile, as strong as it is daring, as smart as it is cunning.” The entry emphasizes its ability to make “enormous leaps.” It is hardly a conincidence that the black performer, in a demonstration of his dancing skills, makes a jump in the doctor’s surgery which brings down plaster from its high ceiling (NT, 248). The dictionary entry further asserts of the panther: “It slaughters any creature it can overcome and frequently causes horrible carnage among the flocks.” This cruelty explains the human response to the threat posed by the predator: “Everywhere a war of destruction is waged against the leopard, it is hunted in many different ways and frequently it is caught in traps.” Once in captivity, the ferocious animal becomes docile: “Leopard and panther can be fully domesticated and trained.”110 The implications of the latter remarks are almost uncanny in relation to the identification of the black performer. They not only explain the terror experienced by the narrator as the victim of the Negro’s attack but also appear to vindicate the further development of the story. More uncannily still, they would gain gruesome topicality a mere decade after the publication of Panizza’s “A Negro’s Tale” when the rebellions of the Herero and Nama in German South-West Africa initiated not only a dramatic change in the perception of the black other in imperial Germany as bestial but resulted in a brutal “war of destruction” (“Vernichtungskrieg”) against the defiant peoples.111 Yet while Panizza’s narrator seemingly reaffirms the Negro’s blackness through the identification with the black feline predator, his narrative s­ imultaneously and 110 Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, XV, 367–8, 368: “[…] ebenso schön wie gewandt, kräftig wie kühn, klug und listig […] gewaltige Sprünge […] Er mordet alle Geschöpfe, die er bewältigen kann, und richtet unter den Herden oft ein furchtbares Blutbad an. […] Man führt gegen den Leoparden überall einen Vernichtungskrieg, jagt ihn auf die verschiedenste Weise und fängt ihn vielfach in Fallen. […] Leopard und Panther lassen sich vollkommen zähmen und abrichten.” 111 The term had been applied by the Social Democratic press specifically to the war against the Herero in order to criticize its brutality, see Sobich, “Schwarze Bestien, rote Gefahr,” pp. 301–5. For a discussion of the so-called “Vernichtungsbefehl” issued by Lothar von Trotha, the commander-in-chief of the German Schutztruppe in German South-West Africa from 1904–05, see, e.g., Spraul, “Der ‘Völkermord’ an den Herero,” 713–39 and Dominik J. Schaller, “‘Ich glaube, dass die Nation als solche vernichtet werden muss’: Kolonialkrieg und Völkermord in ‘Deutsch-Südwestafrika’ 1904–1907,” Journal of Genocide Research 6.3 (2004): 395–430; see also Chapter 3.

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unexpectedly subverts this attribution by re-enacting the process of his whitening. This paradox is articulated most clearly when the Negro’s panicked screams, calling the male nurses come to return him to the asylum black devils, are set against the narrator’s perception: “Doctor, help me against the black devils!” As he spoke, his eyes were bulging to such an extent that they seemed to cover the whole face, foaming with rage, as with a white sheen. (NT, 252)112

The white sheen emanating from the Negro’s eyes which whitens his face in the perception of the narrator and which is construed in opposition to the alleged blackness of the (white) male nurses replicates in another inversion the imaginary whitening of the performer, now from the perspective of the narrator. His observation is reaffirmed once the frantic Negro has been subdued and deprived of his voice. His gaze remains, in effect, the only means of resistance left to the black visitor, and it confirms his claims to whiteness: “He gave me a final long, horrible, white glance.” (NT, 253)113 Yet the suggested empathy and sense of culpability into which the reader too has been seduced are perfidiously punctured when the narrator abruptly concludes the story with the dispassionate and callous observation: “Then he was grabbed, carried outside, thrust into the coach and, hey! – faster than you can look – off he went to Bedlam.” (NT, 253)114 The sense of betrayal created by the ending of Panizza’s narrative is haunting. For the ‘black’ Negro the stage provided a space at the margins of society. Although as a successful performer he is not without means (NT, 249), he must never hope to transcend its boundaries. His transgressive attempt to effect his whitening, if only imaginary, accordingly pushes him even beyond the margins allocated to his black existence. He is now effectively excluded from society. The only place for the ‘white’ Negro is the asylum where he is disciplined for his ­transgression of imagining himself to be other and where, like the captive panther, he will, presumably, be tamed. As another performer, the Indian of Panizza’s “An Indian’s Thoughts” shares the stage as a space at the margins of society with the Negro. Yet, other than the black performer, he remains in the marginal space allotted to him, albeit enclosed and withdrawn into himself and thus re-interpreting the balance between center 112 ‘“Dokter, helfen Sie mich gegen die schwarzen Teufel!’ Dabei waren seine Augen derart aus ihren Höhlen getreten, daß sie das ganze, wutschäumende Gesicht wie mit einem weißen Schimmer überzogen.” 113 “Er warf mir noch einen langen, schrecklichen, weißen Blick zu.” 114 “Dann ward er gepackt, hinausgetragen, in den Wagen geschoben, und hui – hast du nicht gesehen – fort ging’s ins Irrenhaus.”

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and margins. As such, he is no less transgressive than the Negro, though less noticeably so externally. Nonetheless, his, like the Negro’s, strategy of dealing with his otherness, would also be diagnosed as insane and as monstrous by the metropolitan majority. The Indian chief’s response to the dehumanizing impulse experienced with the encroaching colonization of his country is to search for an honorable way out. While agency is denied to the Negro of the other tale against his resistance, the chief proposes to act decisively. To him, the solution seems to be genocide, the mass suicide of his people. But to him, too, agency is denied if not through outside force but ultimately through ethical considerations: We Sioux and Cheyennes […] are still too much human beings; would that we were animals!… The animal’s head is covered and a spike is shot through its brain; but the Sioux are still human beings after all. What a misfortune, to find ourselves in the middle between horse people [i.e. whites] and animals!… (IT, 354)115

Nevertheless, the chief eventually asks the narrator for a poison suitable for genocide but undetectable so that the Great Spirit, who does not condone suicide, can be fooled. Horrified by the idea, the narrator stalls but, as if inspired by his evasions, the chief’s suggestions of how to effect the mass suicide of his people become increasingly elaborate and bizarre, though never ridiculous. Finally, he suggests cannibalism, offering the cooked meat of their young women and men to the palefaces to shame them and their dead god. This last suggestion finally provokes an emotional outburst: At this moment the red man with all his war paint sitting before me on the wooden chair was wracked by violent tremors and sobs; he stretched and strained his haggard arms between his knees and hid his wrinkled face, twisted as if in a seizure, against his chest. (IT, 355)116

It is precisely because of this one demonstration of deeply felt emotion that the otherwise calm detachment of the story, but also its unemotional and uncanny reference to genocide, have their impact on the reader and emphasize the monstrous nature of the plan and of the mind that conceived it: “‘The plan is f­ iendish,

115 “Wir Sioux und Cheyennes […] sind doch noch zu sehr Menschen; wären wir Tiere!… Dem Tier verhüllt man das Auge und treibt ihm einen Stachel durch das Hirn; aber die Sioux sind doch noch Menschen. Welches Unglück, zwischen Pferdsleuten und Tieren in der Mitte zu stehen!…” 116 “In diesem Augenblick wurde der rote, kriegsgeschmückte Mann vor mir auf dem Holzstuhl von heftigem Zittern und Schluchzen befallen; er reckte und dehnte die mageren Arme vor sich zwischen den Knien und verbarg das verrunzelte, wie in einem Krampfanfall ­zusammengekniffene Gesicht gegen die Brust hin.”

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the plan is infernal,’ I shouted horror-struck, ‘which monster among you has devised this plan?’” (IT, 353)117 To execute his plan, however infernal it may be, the Indian relies on the white man’s help. The narrative creates a disturbing ambivalence between the chief’s naive, if deeply felt, thought processes and the destructive potential inherent in technical progress and civilization: The box of the white medicine man was said to contain poisons so strong that a hollow tooth was fully enough to murder thousands! And you don’t smell anything, you don’t taste anything, and nothing changes color, and everything remains the same, inside and out. (IT, 353)118

Without drawing facile connections to the genocide of the Jews some five decades later, “An Indian’s Thoughts” nevertheless demonstrates the thinkability of genocide facilitated by the superior means offered by the civilized world. It, no less than the other two narratives by Panizza discussed here, would easily support the notion of the conflagration of community suggested by J. Hillis Miller as a premonition of, and precondition for, the Shoah – among others in the work of Franz Kafka.119 All three stories are profoundly affecting and cast the outsider as the cruelly abused victim whose humanity is completely destroyed (in the case of the operated Jew), negated (in the case of the institutionalized black) or confirmed (in the case of the Indian chief). Panizza was a troubled mind and ended his days in an asylum after he had enforced his compulsory hospitalization in 1904.120 While he must certainly be regarded as a highly idiosyncratic writer who wrote, at least in part, to achieve a therapeutic effect,121 the three stories nevertheless, or perhaps precisely for this very reason, allow highly illuminating insights into the agony of alterity. Significantly, all three stories relate instances of resistance which, taken together, cover a spectrum of possible responses to the threat of dehumanization experienced by their protagonists. The Negro resorts to inarticulate violence toward those who challenge his mental whitening. The Indian withdraws into

117 “‘Der Plan ist teuflisch, der Plan ist infernal,’ rief ich voll Entsetzen, ‘welches Scheusal unter euch hat diesen Plan ausgeheckt?’” 118 “Die Schachtel des weißen Medizinmanns habe Gifte, so stark, daß ein hohler Zahn voll genüge, um Tausende zu morden! Und man riecht nichts und schmeckt nichts, und es färbt sich nichts und bleibt alles inwendig wie auswendig.” 119 J. Hillis Miller, The Conflagration of Community: Fiction before and after Auschwitz (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2011). 120 Bauer, Oskar Panizza, pp. 217–21. 121 See Brown, Oskar Panizza, p. 18 and Bauer, Oskar Panizza, p. 51.

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himself and proposes suicide and genocide. The form of resistance he contemplates, including the concern of evading the sin of suicide, is intriguingly reminiscent of the historical example of Massada. As reported by Flavius Josephus, in 73 CE, following the siege by the Roman army, close to one thousand heroic Jewish defenders of the mountain fortress overlooking the Dead Sea killed one another prior to the inevitable fall of their stronghold, leaving only one man, drawn by the lot, to kill himself and thus become guilty of suicide.122 In Panizza’s narratives, this heroic conduct is denied to the Jew; it is the brave Indian warrior who has similar thoughts. In the Jew’s case, it is his ‘essence’ which ultimately resists all attempts at his transformation and reasserts itself in a whirling St. Vitus Dance and his eventual collapse and, possibly, his death – utterly abandoned by both humankind and God. It is, finally, important to note that in all three stories the other poses a threat through transgression and resistance. This is quite tangible in “A Negro’s Tale” when the bestial whitened African attempts to strangle the narrator. The threat is more ambivalent in “An Indian’s Thoughts,” with the tomahawk suddenly flashing in the chief’s hand; it is only in retrospect, when the chief declares “the Great Spirit watched over you and protected you” (IT, 355),123 that the reader appreciates the imminent danger the narrator may have been exposed to and of which he seems to remain completely oblivious. In “The Operated Jew” the threat is suggested through the deception of the “racial ruse” and the confrontation with the monster into which Itzig Faitel Stern has been turned in a Frankensteinian process of amoral, or even immoral, creation. In fact, all three narratives describe the transformation of their protagonists into monsters. Intriguingly, they embody different stages of internalization and of externalization of the concept of monstrosity. Indeed, it appears as if it had been Panizza’s objective to explore – and to challenge – in his grotesques the very notion of the monstrous and its limits. The Indian chief has monstrous thoughts of genocide; the ‘Negro’ looks monstrous; and the Jew appears to be monstrous both with his thoughts and behavior and in the way in which he has himself transformed into “a counterfeit of human flesh” (OJ, 74).124

122 See Flavius Josephus: Selections from His Works, ed. Abraham Wasserstein (New York: ­Viking, 1974), pp. 186–300. 123 “[D]er große Geist hat sein Auge auf dich gerichtet und deinen Weg behütet.” 124 “[E]in verlogenes Stück Menschenfleisch” (OJ, 242).

Conclusion At the Fringes of the Mbwapwa Rhizome: Franz Kafka and Looming Conflagration Franz Kafka may seem an unlikely contender for occupying another node in the Mbwapwa rhizome. And indeed, his is to some extent a peripheral node. In conclusion to my exploration, I would nevertheless like to turn to the German Jewish writer. The predicament of Jewish existence in what may be described as a state of internal colonization was deeply felt by Kafka and some of his stories have accordingly been read as allegories of the Jewish experience. It is in particular his “Metamorphosis” (“Die Verwandlung,” 1913) and his “A Report to an Academy” (“Ein Bericht an eine Akademie,” 1917), both searching engagements with notions of transgression and transformation, that appear to be pertinent to the Mbwapwa rhizome which likewise is permeated throughout with processes of transformation or metamorphosis. Both stories moreover engage with notions of the monstrous. In “Metamorphosis” the construction of the monster is critically interrogated in relation to assimilatory tendencies which penetrate also Max Jung­mann’s letters from New-Newland.1 The particular relevance of “A Report to an Academy” originates in the story’s intimation of a racialized discourse, of the association of apes and black Africans with Jews, as explored also in Chapter 2. While never explicit about these possible associations, Kafka’s tale nevertheless links back also to Panizza’s grotesque of “The Operated Jew” as well as to his stories of the black and Indian performers and, potentially, to the black presence in entertainment in the German-speaking countries.

Metamorphoses, Monsters, and Mimicry In Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” perhaps typical of its author, it is not the monster which poses the real threat. Although Gregor Samsa’s metamorphosis into a giant beetle may be startling, it is the apparent monster which suffers from the rejection of others and, following their aggression, finally dies a slow and sad, a lonely and, perhaps most movingly, an acquiescent death. The persecution of

1 See Franz Kafka, “Metamorphosis” [1913], in Metamorphosis and Other Stories, transl. Michael Hofmann (London: Penguin, 2007), pp. 85–146 and “Die Verwandlung,” in Sämtliche Erzählungen (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1983), pp. 56–99. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-008

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the apparent monsters in Panizza’s stories likewise leads to their isolation, their marginalization, and their exclusion from society. Like Gregor, they are locked away (the Negro), are forced into an internal exile (the Indian) or appear to die (the Jew). More significantly, however, and again similar to Kafka’s innocent and gentle ‘monster,’ they are ultimately created by the external world which construes them as monstrous because of their difference. Sander Gilman’s allegorical reading of Kafka’s story suggests that Gregor’s transformation is in effect a re-transformation into his real, inner, state and symbolizes the undoing of Jewish assimilation.2 In this interpretation, the beetle represents the Jew who, according to Gilman, was “traditionally compared with insects and through this association with illness, specifically illness of the skin, carried by (or believed to be carried by) bugs.”3 The metamorphosis in Kafka’s eponymous story is then a reversion to an essential Jewishness which – in accordance with heterostereotypical perceptions, and potentially also with autostere­o­ types generated in response to the former – is likewise construed as monstrous. Elaborating on Gilman’s allegorical reading, Jon Stratton argues that it is not Gregor as the dung beetle who is uncanny. Rather, it is Gregor’s family, and especially Gregor as human, who, in this modern discourse of identity and essentialised radical alterity, are repressing what they are, in order to become that which they can never be, who are uncanny. They are mimics.4

Obviously, Kafka’s story is much more subtle than Panizza’s “The Operated Jew.” And yet, in structural terms, the trajectory of both narratives is very similar. Faitel strives to attain the very humanity with which Gregor is invested from the beginning of “Metamorphosis,” only to revert back to his essential Jewishness; but so does Gregor, according to Gilman and Stratton’s allegorical reading, when he turns into a vermin. Kafka thus follows what may be called the ‘ballistic curve’ of failed assimilation only from its apex to its descent and point of impact, while Panizza includes its upward arc as well. Even so, Gregor and Faitel alike are mimics whose metamorphosis emphasizes the uncanny nature of the equilibrium at the apex of the parabola. There is, of course, in Kafka’s own oeuvre another instance of a transformation which is no less relevant in the present context because, in a manner of speaking, it completes the upward curve of the assimilatory parabola missing 2 See Sander L. Gilman, Franz Kafka: The Jewish Patient (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), p. 80. 3 Ibid. 4 Jon Stratton, Coming Out Jewish: Constructing Ambivalent Identities (London and New York: Routledge, 2000), p. 78.



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from “Metamorphosis.” The self-avowedly post-Simian narrator of “A Report to an Academy” – first published in 1917 in Martin Buber’s Zionist journal Der Jude (The Jew) – also undergoes a metamorphosis. Once again notions of monstrosity are evoked but in this case are subtly shifted as the animal transforms into a civilized human being: Considering the unnatural process and the resulting hybridity of this creature, which retains most of its physical characteristics, this ‘human being’ is the real monster. Once again, the protagonist’s metamorphosis is related to scientific observation, though in this case in the form of his first-person report to a body of scientific men. Nevertheless, as with the narrators of Panizza’s grotesques, the invoked scientific or medical discourse conveys in all of these stories to varying degrees the vantage point of anthropological scrutiny. However, the authority and objectivity this suggests are subverted in each case. In Panizza’s grotesques the transformed protagonist is either betrayed more or less subtly by the narrator, which shocks the reader into an empathetic re-evaluation, or the narrator’s perception is presented as flawed. Similarly, in “A Report to an Academy,” Rotpeter must be considered an unreliable narrator, which challenges the notion of the all-­pervading Einsinnigkeit (unisensicality)5 of Kafka’s fiction in that, as Lorna Martens observes, “a second implied voice questions the narrator’s.”6 As such, all of these stories leave the reader disoriented and in doubt about the narrations – not only in regard to their truthfulness but, more significantly, with respect to their moral significance. Intriguingly, Rotpeter’s transformation is achieved by a mere act of will as the result of a rational assessment and the deduction of a corresponding plan of action, if “conceived with [his] belly” (RA, 229/150)7 – the ape is imprisoned in the cage: To escape the cage and to survive, the ape must become a man. Indeed, as noted by Walter H. Sokel, once in captivity, Rotpeter has a choice between three forms of existence. These are the tragic (the attempt to escape and perish or be consigned to an even stronger cage), the pathetic (to reconcile himself with his fate), and the realistic. The latter entails the complete self-abnegation of 5 The term, first coined by Otto Weininger, was used by Friedrich Beißner to refer to a typical stylistic feature of Kafka’s fiction in that everything is supposedly depicted exclusively from the perspective of the protagonist, see Der Erzähler Franz Kafka und andere Vorträge (1952; Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1983), p. 96. For a discussion of the term and its meaning in Weininger and Kafka, see Gerald Stieg, “Kafka and Weininger,” in Nancy Anne Harrowitz and Barbara Hyams (eds.), Jews & Gender: Responses to Otto Weininger (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1995), pp. 195–206, p. 295n19. 6 Lorna Martens, Shadow Lines: Austrian Literature from Freud to Kafka (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), p. 20. 7 “[M]it dem Bauch ausgeheckt.”

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the narrator’s Simian nature and, if only internally, his transformation into the human other.8 As such Rotpeter’s metamorphosis – reminiscent of Mbwapwa’s deliberate conversion to Judaism and simultaneous transmutation into a Jew – is essentially an inversion of Gregor Samsa’s whose transformation is only external while internally he remains as he was.9 The inversion is also reflected in the spatial setting of both stories: In “The Metamorphosis” a man involuntarily turns into an insect and is, by consequence, trapped in his room. In “A Report to an Academy” an ape turns himself into a man by dint of an extraordinary conscious effort and thereby escapes his cage.10

From Rotpeter’s perspective, though the process of his transformation itself is described as excruciatingly arduous, the decision for what is despite its empirical incredibility11 the realistic solution is simple and, as if there were nothing to it, he nonchalantly observes: “[W]ell, and so I quite simply ceased being an ape.” (RA, 228–9/150)12 The apparent simplicity of the solution is reminiscent of that arrived at by the Negro in Panizza’s “A Negro’s Tale.” Here too, one might paraphrase: “Well, and so I quite simply ceased being a negro.” Empirically, both ventures are similarly unlikely. Yet in the two stories both figures achieve their end. One turns into a human being, the other turns white. The decisive difference is that the categories are dissimilar: One develops mentally to overcome his mental difference, the other similarly attempts a mental solution but is foiled by the persistence of his corpo-reality which in the case of the ape also prevails but which, in Kafka’s narrative, is not acknowledged to be a distinctive marker. There is a significant shift in perspective from one metamorphosis to the other: For the Negro to say and believe that he is white is a transgression because the external evidence, discounting any internal evidence, contradicts his claim; for the ape to say and believe that he is a human is a marvel because the internal evidence, discounting any external evidence, supports his claim. Nevertheless, that it is not quite as simple as that has been shown by Lorna Martens who emphasizes that Kafka’s text bristles with ambiguity, that it is replete with “the possibility of a contradictory evaluation.”13 As she perceptively observes, “the ape’s narrative, purportedly an éxpose, is in fact a defense – for

8 Walter H. Sokel, Franz Kafka – Tragik und Ironie: Zur Struktur seiner Kunst (Munich and Vienna: Albert Langen Georg Müller Verlag, 1964), p. 333. 9 See ibid., p. 331. 10 Martens, Shadow Lines, p. 187. 11 See Sokel, Franz Kafka, p. 333. 12 “[N]un, so hörte ich auf, Affe zu sein.” 13 Martens, Shadow Lines, p. 194.



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the ape’s security lies in convincing audiences that he has essentially become a man.”14 Rotpeter’s alleged humanity is the product of a constant and continuous performative act and only as such can it continuously reassert itself: Only in this way can he prolong against all the odds the moment of equilibrium at the apex of the parabola. Rotpeter’s humanity is therefore after all ultimately grounded in the exotic difference of the ape-turned-human. As Martens notes: “Unable to pursue the object of his desire, freedom, he has, ingeniously, turned himself into an object of desire.”15 This sets Rotpeter in stark contrast to the blackface actor as well as to the black performer on the metropolitan stage. As we have seen, the former presents the other on the stage and therefore becomes less so of it. For the latter, it is intrinsically impossible to transcend the color divide because black is black and because, in contrast to Rotpeter, he is already human but of the supposedly lowest order. His putative transformation therefore lacks the sensational element that is inherent in Rotpeter’s and that is sustained by the ape’s unceasing performance on the variety stage and off it. Though less wide in terms of contemporary biopolitics and notions of race theory than in the case of the ape, the chasm between the Negro and civilized (western) humanity remains unbridgeable. Nevertheless, the ape-turned-human needs to keep the pretense up, if such it is, because it then is self-perpetuating: “[B]y persuading his audience that the reality of his apehood is a fiction, he manages to transform the circumstances of his existence, to turn his cage into a stage.” It is, however, important to note with Martens that “[t]he artist’s sleights of hand do not testify to the malleability of the real; instead they are desperate responses to its obduracy.”16 The catastrophic consequences if the pretense is not maintained and the real is allowed to reassert itself are shown not only in “Metamorphosis” but also in Panizza’s “The Operated Jew” and “A Negro’s Tale.” Even so it has variously been suggested that Rotpeter ultimately remains outside human society. Ritchie Robertson, for instance, argues that though his efforts “have gained him admission to human society, he has not been accepted as a human being but rather as an alien with extraordinary imitative skills.”17 Robertson further maintains that, although the celebrated ape believes himself to have become human, the real reason for his celebrity is precisely that he is not a human being but an ape with an astounding talent to mimic the human other.18 In this case, the delusion suffered by the ape is very similar to that of Panizza’s 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid., p. 196. 17 Ritchie Robertson, Kafka: Judaism, Politics, and Literature (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985), p. 167. 18 See ibid., p. 166.

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Negro when he fancies himself to be at the center of the attention of the passers-by for his white beauty, and both are more sinister echoes of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale of the emperor and his new clothes (1837). As in “The Operated Jew,” the castration anxiety of the implied reader is hinted at in relation to the protagonist.19 When captured, Kafka’s post-Simian narrator was hit by two shots, one of which grazed his cheek and caused him to be called Rotpeter, a name he detests because it connotes another ape, by the name of Peter, that had achieved some notoriety with its docility. The second shot struck him below the hip (RA, 227/148). The suggestion seems to be that Rotpeter was either castrated by the shot or, perhaps, circumcised. As such it might hint at the allegorical potential of the story and the metaphorical Jewishness of the ape turned human. Yet not enough with the mutilating shot; as Andersen’s emperor, albeit unwittingly, displays what should remain hidden, so Rotpeter is also prone to exhibiting his injury: Not long ago, I read an article by one of the ten thousand bloodhounds who follow me through the press, to the effect that my apish nature has not been altogether suppressed; the proof of which was that when I receive visitors, I still like to take down my trousers to show them my wound. (RA, 227/148–9)20

While Rotpeter agrees that a similar behavior would not be acceptable in any of the writers by whom he is censured, he nevertheless insists on his difference. And so, when he asserts: “The ape left me in leaps and bounds” (RA, 234/154),21 this is not the whole truth for, indeed, his body – with exception of his teeth (RA, 230/151) – remains that of an ape. This is why he divests himself with impunity of his trousers: I, I may take off my trousers before whomsoever I please; there is nothing there beyond a well-groomed coat of fur, and the scar left following – let me here choose a certain word for a certain purpose, which I don’t want to be mistaken – the scar left following a criminal assault. Everything is in the open; there is nothing to hide; where it’s a matter of the truth, any high-minded nature will drop the refinements of behaviour. Now on the other hand, if that scribbler were to pull down his pants in front of a visitor, that would have quite another aspect, and no doubt it is much to his credit that he refrains from doing so. (RA, 227/149)22 19 See, e.g., Stratton, Coming Out Jewish, pp. 63–8. 20 “Letzthin las ich in einem Aufsatz irgendeines der zehntausend Windhunde, die sich in den Zeitungen über mich auslassen: meine Affennatur sei noch nicht ganz unterdrückt; Beweis dessen sei, daß ich, wenn Besucher kommen, mit Vorliebe die Hosen ausziehe, um die Einlaufstelle jenes Schusses zu zeigen.” 21 “Die Affennatur raste, sich überkugelnd, aus mir hinaus und weg.” 22 “Ich, ich darf meine Hosen ausziehen, vor wem es mir beliebt; man wird dort nichts ­finden als einen wohlgepflegten Pelz und die Narbe nach einem – wählen wir hier zu einem b ­ estimmten Zwecke ein bestimmtes Wort, das aber nicht mißverstanden werden wolle – die Narbe nach einem



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The ‘bloodhound’ response to the scar so openly displayed by Rotpeter demonstrates that in this instance the absence may be just as offensive as what is absent. The ape exhibits not only the original difference which, in terms of his intellectual development has anyway been leveled, but his (socially impolite) candor adds to this another difference – of circumcision or of castration. His action is therefore at the same time threatening and it is not: Because it produces castration anxieties and because procreation and the proliferation of progeny are denied to the ape. His physical sterility means that subsequently there will be no genetically evolving generations of the likes of him but that individual animals would need to go through the same arduous process which, after all, is predicated on a rare affinity. That not every ape can follow suit is conspicuously demonstrated with Rotpeter’s apish paramour: When I come home late at night, after banquets, from learned societies, from cosy get-togethers, I have a little semi-trained lady chimp waiting for me, and I let her show me a good time, ape-fashion. (RA, 235/154)23

Rotpeter, the ape turned human in intellectual cognition and capacity but not in body, does not aspire to possessing the female of the desired other, as does Faitel. His bodily desire seems to be directed towards (or restricted to) the female of his own species as defined by his corporeality. He explicitly affirms that he seeks pleasure in being with the lady chimp “ape-fashion.” Not only miscegenation, were it even possible, is therefore explicitly excluded, but also the ‘defilement’ of female innocence which in Panizza’s grotesque loomed as a transgressive threat. In effect, the revelation deferred in “The Operated Jew” to the cataclysmic ending is anticipated by Kafka’s narrator when he explains his choice of word to refer to the shot which struck him below the hip as “criminal” (“frevelhaft”). The translation is problematic here because more than merely criminal, frevelhaft conveys connotations of an act of impiety. His ironic play on words and in particular his avowed aim to avoid any misunderstanding – “let me here choose a certain word for a certain purpose, which I don’t want to be mistaken” – in fact only obfuscate the issue. For his nevertheless evasive and allusive way of articulating his predicament, suggestive as it is, leaves everything open to the imagination.

frevelhaften Schuß. Alles liegt offen zutage; nichts ist zu verbergen; kommt es auf die Wahrheit an, wirft jeder Großgesinnte die allerfeinsten Manieren ab. Würde dagegen jener Schreiber die Hosen ausziehen, wenn Besuch kommt, so hätte dies allerdings ein anderes Ansehen und ich will es als Zeichen der Vernunft gelten lassen, daß er es nicht tut.” 23 “Komme ich spät nachts von Banketten, aus wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaften, aus gemütlichem Beisammensein nach Hause, erwartet mich eine kleine halbdressierte Schimpansin und ich lasse es mir nach Affenart bei ihr wohlergehen.”

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If Rotpeter’s procreational sterility is reassuring, so is his intellectual sterility. As articulate as the human ape is, he ultimately is unable to communicate. Of course, the text purports to be a report to an academy and as such it is its very objective to communicate the ideas of its author. Indeed, Rotpeter appears to lay bare his emotions before the academy in a bid to satisfy the anthropological interest as it was articulated by the narrator of “The Operated Jew.” Yet by eliminating from his anthropological scrutiny any deeper interest in Faitel’s humanity, Panizza’s unsavory narrator exposed his own lack of humanity. It is no more likely that the implied academicians to which Rotpeter’s report is addressed will appreciate the true import of his communications in any more depth. Indeed, the challenging, almost anarchical nature of the ape’s report is liable to preclude an empathetic understanding. In effect, Rotpeter is and remains a freak without any close social ties to either human or animal. For the former ape is clearly also unable to communicate meaningfully with those still occupying the evolutionary stage left behind by him. Indeed, the human ape’s isolation is profound. He acknowledges about the lady chimp: By day, I have no desire to see her; she has the perplexity of the trained wild animal in her eye; I alone recognize that, and it is unbearable to me. (RA, 235/154)24

Once again there is a subtle but significant difference to “The Operated Jew.” There is no sense of deceit or of the racial ruse here, as in Panizza’s grotesque. And where the Jew’s pain is fully externalized, left to the reader to imagine, in Kafka’s story, it is fully internalized. Rotpeter claims to be alone in possession of his knowledge of the “perplexity” of the animal confronted with humanity and trapped with no way out between animal and human. The original wording, incidentally, is rather less subtle than Hofmann’s otherwise mostly excellent translation would suggest. Kafka refers to the “Irrsinn” of the half-trained animal, to its “insanity” or “madness.” The pain produced by this knowledge is excruciating and it is also peculiar to the singular situation of the human ape trapped in the limbo between both worlds. The festering pain of Rotpeter’s knowledge is the product of a sensitivity and sensibility similar to that of Gregor’s acquiescence. Indeed, the human ape too has no choice but to acquiesce, once his momentous decision has been made. Any deviation will result in upsetting the precious and precarious equilibrium at the apex of the parabola and will lead to his fall. The “way out” pursued by Rotpeter is bounded

24 “Bei Tag will ich sie nicht sehen; sie hat nämlich den Irrsinn des verwirrten dressierten Tieres im Blick; das erkenne nur ich und ich kann es nicht ertragen.”



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by the seeming contradictions between his animal and human natures, a contradiction which had become palpable with his readiness to lower his trousers. In Panizza’s grotesques, with his Negro painting himself white in the imagination or his Indian contemplating genocide, a freedom of sorts is envisaged. But this freedom is thwarted in each case – also in Faitel’s, where the promise of assimilation is frustrated with his fatal reversion into the Jew. The impossibility of freedom is similarly conceded by Rotpeter. The ape nevertheless turns his performing into a form of agency which the other performers – among whom I include Faitel here – are unable to achieve because they reject compromise. In consequence, utter despondence or destruction is their lot. Conversely, this explains why Rotpeter assesses his progress in a rather dispassionate manner: “When I look back over my progress and the goals attained thus far, I am moved neither to lament, nor to complacency. […] All in all, I have achieved what I wanted to achieve. You can’t say it wasn’t worth the effort.” (RA, 235/154–5)25 Yet that Rotpeter’s reflections are conducted as he slouches in a rocking chair, neither upright nor prone in the naturally unstable piece of furniture is a strong indication of the actual precariousness of his position (RA, 235/154).

Apes, Negroes, and Zionists Following his capture, Rotpeter recalls having contemplated his future options in a way similar to the Herero in Thöny’s cartoon in Simplicissimus as articulated in its caption (Figure 5). The zoological garden is one of the alternatives either one of them faces. The other, in the case of the black African, is death; for the post-­Simian, the “variety theatre” is the second option and, unlike the Herero, he assumes the agency to choose and makes a quick strategic decision: I didn’t hesitate. I told myself: do everything in your power to get into the variety theatre; that’s your way out; the zoo is nothing but a different barred cage; if you land up in there, you’re doomed. (RA, 234/153–4)26

Rotpeter’s preference – to exhibit his difference and perform on the stage – connects him with Panizza’s Negro and Indian. Like Kafka’s post-Simian, if less

25 “Überblicke ich meine Entwicklung und ihr bisheriges Ziel, so klage ich weder, noch bin ich zufrieden. […] Im Ganzen habe ich jedenfalls erreicht, was ich erreichen wollte. Man sage nicht, es wäre der Mühe nicht wert gewesen.” 26 “Ich zögerte nicht. Ich sagte mir: setze alle Kraft an, um ins Varieté zu kommen; das ist der Ausweg; Zoologischer Garten ist nur ein neuer Gitterkäfig; kommst du in ihn, bist du verloren.”

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explicitly, they are looking for a way out. Yet for them neither their performance nor their lives as performers offer a solution to the dilemma. Rather, their predicament is exacerbated by their performance practice as it relegates both to the margins of society. Both therefore devise alternative strategies of escape and both resort to the mental realm, aiming for different forms of agency and empowerment, whose ultimate objective, in fact, is freedom: The Negro, painting himself white in the imagination, ‘normalizes’ his otherness; the Indian withdraws into himself and contemplates the terrifying potential of genocide. Both their attempts fail of course, the Negro being disciplined for his transgression, the Indian forced to retreat even further into the silent and tormented spaces of his mind. Rotpeter, in striking contrast, from the very beginning has the, initially merely intuitive insight, that to achieve freedom is impossible. Having chosen to become human, he reveals a deep understanding of what it means to be human: Freedom is all too often self-deception among people. Just as freedom is among the most exalted of feelings, so the corresponding deception is among the most exalted of deceptions. (RA, 229/150)27

The emphasis on mimicry, another form of deception, is another point of convergence between “A Report to an Academy” and Jungmann’s letters from New-­ Newland. Rotpeter maintains that it was very easy for him to imitate humans (RA, 231/152). As he claims, he did so, not because he felt tempted to mimic humans but merely for pragmatic reasons because he was searching for an “Ausweg” – a way out (RA, 233/153). At the same time, already a performer on the variety stage, he derides the, in his eyes, inadequate efforts of trapeze artists (supposedly) to mimic apes (RA, 229/150). Yet when he imputes the “travesty of sainted nature!” (RA, 229/150), his reasoning is of course flawed because it posits an intentionality which is based on his own experience. Even so, the reversal of what in postcolonial parlance would be the metropolitan perspective with the judgmental gaze of the subaltern adds another dimension to Rotpeter’s assimilatory trajectory. As Margot Norris suggests: Red Peter perfectly mimics both his captors and his audience. Post-colonial critic Homi Bhabha’s notion of colonial mimicry – what he calls “the desire for a reformed, recognizable ‘Other’” – can be invoked to describe the performance of Kafka’s ape-man, who from this perspective is less an evolved human than a colonized ape.28 27 “Mit Freiheit betrügt man sich unter Menschen allzuoft. Und so wie die Freiheit zu den erhabensten Gefühlen zählt, so auch die entsprechende Täuschung zu den erhabensten.” 28 Margot Norris, “Kafka’s Hybrids. Thinking Animals and Mirrored Humans,” in Marc Lucht and Donna Yarri (eds.), Kafka’s Creatures: Animals, Hybrids, and Other Fantastic Beings (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010), pp. 17–31, p. 22.



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A similar tension inheres in the figure of Mbwapwa who in the process of his own metamorphosis is both colonized negro and colonizing Jew. Recently, a tendency to de-allegorize Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy” as well as his other animal stories has been in evidence.29 Various real-life models have been suggested for Rotpeter, among them an ape performing as “Konsul Peter” on the vaudeville stage in Prague between 1908–0930 as well as particular apes studied by behavioral psychologists.31 And yet, Rotpeter’s report from the very first elicited allegorical readings which situate Kafka’s story in discourses on evolution, on racism, and on Zionism. In particular, the story has been understood as a satire on the western European Jew and was, as maintained by Ritchie Robertson and Iris Bruce, read as such by Kafka’s contemporaries.32 Both rely in particular on Max Brod’s appraisal which, given the writer’s strong Zionist bias, is of course problematic. Early in 1918, following a public reading of the story he had organized, Max Brod asserted in the Zionist weekly Selbstwehr: Franz Kafka tells only the story of an ape that, caught by Hagenbeck, is coerced into becoming human. And what a human! The absolute lower limit, what is scum in the human species, is the reward for his pandering efforts. Is it not the most ingenious satire ever written on assimilation! One should re-read it in the most recent issue of Der Jude. The assimilationist who is not looking for freedom, not for eternity, but only for a way out, a miserable way out! He is grotesque and sublime in the same breath. For the involuntary freedom of God is rearing up menacingly behind the animal-human comedy.33

29 See, e.g., Naama Harel, “De-Allegorizing Kafka’s Ape: Two Animalistic Contexts” in Lucht and Yarri (eds.), Kafka’s Creatures, pp. 53–66 and Norris, “Kafka’s Hybrids.” 30 Peter-André Alt, Franz Kafka: Der ewige Sohn. Eine Biographie (Munich: Beck, 2005), p. 522. 31 The South African writer J. M. Coetzee proposes in his novel Elizabeth Costello (2003) that the German psychologist Wolfgang Köhler’s study Intelligenzprüfungen an Anthropoiden (1917; translated into English in 1925 as The Mentality of Apes) may have provided a model for Rotpeter; in The Lives of Animals (1999), he already proposed a similar interpretation. Gregory Radick assumes that experiments conducted by the American psychologist Lightner Witmer in 1909 with an ape called Peter may have been Kafka’s inspiration, see The Simian Tongue (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), p. 442n119. See also Harel, “De-Allegorizing Kafka’s Ape,” pp. 53–66. 32 See Robertson, Kafka, p. 164. See also more recently Iris Bruce, Kafka and Cultural Zionism: Dates in Palestine (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2007), p. 134. 33 Max Brod, “Literarischer Abend des Klubs jüdischer Frauen und Mädchen,” Selbstwehr 12.1 (January 4, 1918): 4–5: “Franz Kafka erzählt nur die Geschichte eines Affen, der, von Hagenbeck eingefangen, gewaltsam Mensch wird. Und was für ein Mensch! Das Letzte, das Abschaumhafte der Gattung Mensch belohnt ihn für seine Anbiederungsmühen. Ist es nicht die genialste Satire auf die Assimilation, die je geschrieben worden ist! Man lese sie nochmals im letzten Heft des ‘Juden.’ Der Assimilant, der nicht Freiheit, nicht Unendlichkeit will, nur einen Ausweg, einen jämmerlichen Ausweg! Er ist grotesk und erhaben in einem Atemzug. Denn die nichtgewollte

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It has been shown by Andreas Kilcher and Detlef Kremer in their detailed examination of the intricate web of intertextual references in Kafka’s story that – preparing the ground for such an allegorical reading of Rotpeter – the polemic metaphor of Simian imitation had proliferated in Zionist discourse on assimilation since the beginning of the twentieth century.34 One of the examples they refer to, cited also by Bruce,35 is an essay by Max Mandelstamm which appeared in the influential cultural Zionist journal Ost und West in 1901 and which we have already briefly discussed in Chapter 4 in relation to Josef Rosintal’s cartoon “Matchiche.” In “A Voice from the Ghetto on Zionism,” the prominent Russian Jewish Zionist berates as “national disgrace” (“Volksschande”) what he calls the process of “dissolution and degradation within Jewry.”36 He laments: With his long “caftan” and curly side-locks, the Jew lightheartedly throws his Jewish consciousness over board and adopts all the indecent behavior of his environment and sacrifices all his respectable customs that have made his people weatherproof for centuries. Beginning with the religious service and festivals to the change of first and second names, to baptism, to the most glaring sensual excesses, a part of those most influential in Jewry has assimilated to such a degree to its environs that one does not know what one should be more surprised at: The false legend of the Jews’ critical faculties or their capacity for mimicry which surpasses the achievement of the most advanced apes, or at their masochism which stamps them as repugnant buffoons and makes them despicable in the very circles they want to push their way into.37

Freiheit Gottes steht drohend hinter der tiermenschlichen Komödie.” See also Andreas Kilcher and Detlef Kremer, “Die Genealogie der Schrift. Eine transtextuelle Lektüre von Kafkas Bericht für eine Akademie,” in Claudia Liebrand and Franziska Schössler (eds.), Textverkehr: Kafka und die Tradition (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2004), pp. 45–72, p. 67. 34 Ibid.: “[D]ie polemische Metapher der äffischen Nachahmung [zirkulierte] in der zionistischen Literatur seit 1900.” 35 Bruce, Kafka and Cultural Zionism, p. 134. 36 Max Mandelstamm, “Eine Ghettostimme über den Zionismus,” Ost und West 1.8 (1901): 585– 92, 587: “Auflösungs- und Zersetzungsprozess innerhalb des Judentums.” 37 Ibid.: “Mit dem langen ‘Kaftan’ und den gekräuselten Schläfe-Locken wirft der Jude leichtesten Herzens auch sein jüdisches Gewissen über Bord, eignet sich alle Untugenden seiner Umgebung an und entäussert sich aller guten Sitten, die seinen Stamm jahrhundertelang wetterfest gemacht hatten. Vom Gottesdienst und den religiösen Festen, angefangen bis zum Wechsel der Vor- und Familiennamen, bis zur Taufe, bis zu den krassesten sinnlichen Excessen, hat sich ein Teil des maassgebenden Judentums derart seiner Umgebung angepasst, dass man nicht recht weiss, worüber mehr zu staunen sei: über die falsche Legende vom kritischen Verstande der Juden, über ihre Nachahmungsfähigkeit, welche die Leistungen der entwickeltsten Affen überbietet, oder über ihre Selbsterniedrigung, welche sie zu widerlichen Hanswursten stempelt und gerade in denjenigen Kreisen verächtlich macht, in die sie sich hineindrängen möchten.” My translation is based on Bruce, Kafka and Cultural Zionism, p. 134. The text was reprinted soon after in the central organ of political Zionism, Die Welt 5.36 (September 1, 1901): 2–4.



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I have quoted Mandelstamm at some length because his text suggests not only the obvious parallel to Kafka’s (post-)Simian and his imitative skills explored by Kilcher, Kremer, and others but also encompasses Faitel’s initial assimilatory trajectory and post-surgical choice of name. More importantly, within the Mbwapwa rhizome, Mandelstamm provides also the ‘missing link’ between Rotpeter, Faitel, and the Jewish African. Mbwapwa, by donning the caftan and by growing side-locks, embraces precisely those external markers of Jewishness carelessly abandoned by the assimilating Jews. When he and Chaskel the Scribe jettison them later in the abortive Texan colonization adventure, it is because they too have turned assimilationists and mimics in the colonial power game – if ultimately without success. The contemporary polyvalent significance of the ape as a mimic, as biologically close to the negroes and, in the still fiercely contested Darwinian sense, as the evolutionary ancestor of homo sapiens connects Rotpeter to each and all of these discourses. It ties him also to colonial discourse as a kind of uber-discourse within which each of these becomes operative, individually and in concert. While blackness, arguably replaced with the Simian nature of the narrator, is never made explicit in Kafka’s story, it has nevertheless been read into the text. Yet the ostensive focus of the short story on cross-species metamorphosis emphasizes even more forcefully the biological aspect and the concomitant paradigm shift toward an ever more encroaching racism. Rotpeter’s internal transformation into a human is reminiscent of Mbwawa’s similarly internal metamorphosis into a Jew. Yet while the ape’s corpo-reality remains basically unchanged, Mbwapwa’s blackness appears at least to some degree mutable. Jungmann moreover introduces the notion of double blackness which, as discussed in Chapter 4, had emerged in satirical engagements with natives and ecclesiastics. As we saw in previous chapters, in the letters from New-Newland, the double blackness of the Mizrachim is determined by their orthodox habit and savage frame of mind which is confronted with Mbwapwa’s significantly different double blackness of epidermal hue and orthodox habit. If not in “A Report to an Academy,” Kafka, too, saw the affinity of the two blacknesses attributed to the Mizrachim by Jungmann. Max Brod recalls visiting in 1915 with Kafka and Georg Langer in a suburb of Prague the Hasidic court of the Rabbi of Grodeck, who had to leave Galicia at the beginning of the First World War. As Brod claims, Kafka was moved by the endurance of Jewish tradition he witnessed, yet ultimately was alienated by the superstition he perceived to inform the Hasidic practices and which prompted him to compare the eastern Jews to a savage African tribe: He was undoubtedly moved by the first original echoes of an ancient folklore, but on the way home he said, “If you look at it properly, it was just as if we had been among a tribe of

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African savages. Sheerest superstition.” There was nothing insulting, but certainly a sober rejection in these words.38

Kafka notes the same occurrence in his diary on September 14, 1915. While he does not refer to African savages here, his alienation finds clear articulation in an extensive description of the strange and squalid surroundings. “Quite dark [literally: Everything black], full of men and young people,” he says about one room.39 The blackness he invokes is that of the Mizrachi indicated in Mbwapwa’s first letter and discussed in Chapter 1. Kafka concludes his entry with a meticulous yet distanced description of the Rabbi who is characterized by the unsettling concurrence of filth and purity. In particular, the writer charts the unappetizing passage of the Rabbi’s hand from the execution of various bodily functions – scratching, and blowing his nose through his fingers – to the food on the table. Yet: “[W]hen his hand rested on the table for a moment you saw the whiteness of his skin, a whiteness such as you remembered having seen before only in your childhood imaginings.”40 The impossible whiteness is imbued through the reference to childhood imaginings with a wistful, imaginary quality which makes it symbolic in the same way that blackness has become symbolic of savagery and superstition, even as it is linked to the epidermal hue of Africans and the color of the orthodox garments which turn the very room and those in it black in the writer’s perception. In contrast, the imaginary whiteness evoked by the rabbi’s hand represents innocence and purity to Kafka. He added to the wistful invocation of childhood fantasies that this was also the time “when one’s parents too were pure.”41 It probably is no coincidence that both the visit to the court of the Rabbi of Grodeck and Kafka’s diary entry occurred on his father’s birthday with whom he had a notoriously tense and 38 Max Brod, The Biography of Franz Kafka, transl. G. Humphreys Roberts (London: Secker & Warburg, 1948), p. 121; see also Max Brod, Über Franz Kafka (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1966), p. 137: “Bewegt von den Urlauten eines alten Volkstums war er wohl, sagte aber doch beim Heimgehen: ‘Genau genommen war es etwa so wie bei einem wilden afrikanischen Volksstamm. Krasser Aberglauben.’ Es lag nichts Verletzendes, wohl aber nüchtern Abwehrendes in diesem Ausspruch.” See also Bruce, Kafka and Cultural Zionism, p. 130. 39 Franz Kafka, The Diaries of Franz Kafka, 1914–1923, ed. Max Brod, transl. Martin Greenberg and Hannah Arendt (London: Secker & Warburg, 1949), p. 129; see also Franz Kafka, Tagebücher, ed. Hans-Gerd Koch, vol. 3: 1914–1923 (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1994), p. 97: “Alles schwarz, voll mit Männern und jungen Leuten.” 40 Kafka, Diaries, 1914–1923, p. 129; see also Kafka, Tagebücher, III, 98: “[W]enn er aber ein Weilchen die Hand auf dem Tisch liegen läßt, sieht man das Weiß der Haut, wie man ein ähnliches Weiß nur in Vorstellungen der Kindheit gesehn zu haben glaubt.” 41 Kafka, Diaries, 1914–1923, p. 129; see also Kafka, Tagebücher, III, 98: “Damals allerdings waren auch die Eltern rein.”



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troubled relationship.42 The writer’s eventual rejection also of the alternative father figure of the Rabbi is tinged with a pensive regret not so much directed toward any actual innocence of his parent, but toward that of the child that is no more, and toward his long-lost and reassuring innocent imaginings of his parents’ innocence. The whiteness of the Rabbi’s hand associates that of the white gloves worn by Theodor Herzl and satirized in Sammy Gronemann’s mock minutes of the Seventh Zionist Congress. The suggestion there too was one of innocence, or rather of the pretense of innocence, with the white gloves concealing the potentially unsavory taints of the hands they cover. This, in turn, evokes the similarly deceptive whitewash of culture and civility denounced by Seume and resurfacing both in the debate on the Herero War and in Mbwapwa’s letters from New-­Newland with the insistence on the unsullied and pure humanity of the supposed savage. Kafka’s synoptic vision of black and white in his description of the Rabbi of Grodeck appears to engage the same parameters. Yet it allows them to co-exist and is predicated on their interplay. As such the interaction of black and white is evocative of the color oscillations of Mbwapwa. It has been proposed by David Suchoff that “A Report to an Academy” similarly does not present an either-or of blackness and whiteness with the ape as either negro or Jew but that it in fact offers a conversation between both. In support of his suggestion, Suchoff refers to an entry in Kafka’s diary, dated December 15, 1910, in which the writer noted his despair: It is as if I were made of stone, as if I were my own tombstone, there is no loophole for doubt or for faith, for love or repugnance, for courage or anxiety, in particular or in general, only a vague hope lives on, but no better than the inscriptions on tombstones. Almost every word I write jars against the next, I hear the consonants rub leadenly against each other and the vowels sing an accompaniment like Negroes in a minstrel show. My doubts stand in a circle around every word, I see them before I see the word, but what then! I do not see the word at all, I invent it. Of course, that wouldn’t be the greatest misfortune, only I ought to be able to invent words capable of blowing the odor of corpses in a direction other than straight into mine and the reader’s face.43

42 See, e.g., Nicholas Murray, Kafka (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2004), pp. 32–8. 43 Franz Kafka, The Diaries of Franz Kafka. 1910–1913, ed. Max Brod, transl. Josef Kresh (London: Secker & Warburg, 1948), p. 33; see also Franz Kafka, Tagebücher, ed. Hans-Gerd Koch, vol. 1: 1909– 1912 (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer, 1994), pp. 102–3: “Ich bin ja wie aus Stein, wie mein eigenes Grabdenkmal bin ich, da ist keine Lücke für Zweifel oder für Glauben, für Liebe oder Widerwillen, für Muth oder Angst im besonderen oder allgemeinen, nur eine vage Hoffnung lebt, aber nicht besser, als die Inschriften auf Grabdenkmälern. Kein Wort fast das ich schreibe paßt zum andern, ich höre wie sich die Konsonanten blechern an einander reiben und die Vokale singen dazu wie Ausstellungsneger. Meine Zweifel stehn um jedes Wort im Kreis herum, ich sehe sie früher als das Wort,

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 Conclusion

With reference to this passage and to Kafka’s unfinished novel The Man Who Disappeared (Der Verschollene, 1927; also known as Amerika),44 Suchoff elaborates a reading of “A Report to an Academy” as “a send-up” of the practice of blackface.45 He argues that Rotpeter casts aside the dualism that reads the ape figure of the story for eastern European Judaism or primitive Africans as well. While imbibing these ethnic stereotypes, Kafka’s talking animal breaks down the boundary between the national stereotypes they suggest, by alluding to a forgotten intercourse between the Jewish voice and the African American voice instead.46

While retaining its validity in a more general sense, it should be noted that Josef Kresh’s translation of “Negroes in a minstrel show”47 for “Ausstellungsneger” on which Suchoff bases his argument is not quite accurate here. A literal translation would be “exhibition negroes.” Instead of the associations with African A­­mericans suggested by Kresh’s mistranslation, the German word reverberates with the connotations evoked by the exhibition of negroes in zoological gardens and ethnographic shows as discussed in Chapter 1 of this book. The performative aspect observed by Suchoff is thus still operative but it is so in a slightly different context which ­complements the American setting of The Man Who Disappeared with a more overtly African component. Even so, I consider very persuavive Suchoff’s suggestion that Rotpeter “is neither an African stereotype nor a Jewish one, as strong readings of the story suggest, but rather a figure of exchange between African and Jewish voices, and a send-up of German cultural superiority in the period as well.”48 By evoking the different perceptions of blackness – African and American – encompassed by the nodes of the Mbwapwa rhizome discussed here, such a reading of the ape compellingly suggests a pervasive affinity between Rotpeter and Mbwapwa. After all, if in a very different manner, this was precisely what Jungmann had set out to do, or at least ended up doing, with his creation of the amiable Jewish African. aber was denn! Ich sehe das Wort überhaupt nicht, das erfinde ich. Das wäre ja noch das größte Unglück nicht, nur müßte ich dann Worte erfinden können, welche imstande sind, den Leichengeruch in einer Richtung zu blasen, daß er mir und dem Leser nicht gleich ins Gesicht kommt.” 44 The novel, on which Kafka had worked since 1911, remains a fragment and was first published posthumously in 1927 by Max Brod. 45 David Suchoff, Kafka’s Jewish Languages: The Hidden Openness of Tradition (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012), p. 117. 46 Ibid. 47 Kafka, Diaries, 1910–1913, p. 33. 48 Suchoff, Kafka’s Jewish Languages, p. 117. For a summary of such readings of the ape as either Jewish or African, see Evelyn Tornton Beck, Kafka and the Yiddish Theater (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1971), p. 182.



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Schlemiel Redivivus – Mbwapwa R.I.P. The look at Kafka’s “A Report to an Academy” allows me, if perhaps unexpectedly, to come full circle by returning to Schlemiel. Not, however, to any of the issues of the original magazine or even to Mbwapwa Jumbo and any colonial adventures. In fact, the German colonies had been lost when, in the first ephemeral resuscitation attempt of Schlemiel in 1919–20, Max Jungmann, the creator of Mbwapwa, included another letter – this time by a Simian addressed to an imaginary archetypal Teuton.49 Jungmann’s “Letter of the Ape Jim to the Ur-Teuton Wittekind Walhallerich” (“Brief des Affen Jim an den Urgermanen Wittekind Walhallerich,” 1920) demonstrates the impact of the rapidly progressing racialization of public and political discourse in Germany following the First World War also on the resurrected Schlemiel. The letter moreover includes an invocation of Count Reventlow as an outspoken antisemite, which is a reminder that the conservative politician, as briefly discussed in Chapter 3, was also one of the discordant voices clamoring about the atrocities of the Herero during the early parliamentary debates on the war in South-West Africa sixteen years earlier. Indeed, it was Reventlow who introduced to parliamentary discourse the notion of the rebellious natives as “bloodthirsty beasts.” The nodes of the Mbwapwa rhizome I have tried to trace, if inevitably incomplete, extend not only in space but also in time. They extend from a period when Germany sought to stabilize her colonial venture while Zionism explored different territorial promises to a time when the German dream of empire had come to an abrupt end with the defeat in the First World War and when the specter of the “black disgrace” (“schwarze Schmach”) signaled defeat also in the race war first waged in far-away Africa but now returned to German soil to haunt the imagination not only of white supremacists. For Zionism, on the other hand, this was the moment at which the return to the Promised Land had become a tangible reality after the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the initial British support of the Zionist efforts toward “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.”50 Contrary to the widely disseminated myth of the land without a people

49 Max Jungmann, “Brief des Affen Jim an den Urgermanen Wittekind Walhallerich,” Schlemiel no. 23 (1920): 301. 50 Quoted in Jonathan Schneer, The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (London, etc: Bloomsbury, 2010), p. 341. The first Arab riots demonstrating the instability of the situation in Palestine occurred in April 1920, see, e.g., Isaiah Friedman, British Miscalculations: The Rise of Muslim Nationalism, 1918–1925 (New Brunswick, NJ and London: Transaction, 2012), p. 65.

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for a people without a land,51 the more serious Zionists were very much aware of the presence of an ‘other’ in the old-new land, as a result of which notions of colonization were invariably complicated and shifted from agrarian c­ ultivation to ethical dilemmas similar to those besetting the Jewish colonizers of New-­ Newland and becoming to be known as the ‘Arab Question.’52 At the same time, the more familiar ‘Jewish Question’ became increasingly pressing with the rapid rise of antisemitism in the wake of the ‘dictate’ of Versailles.53 Mbwapwa, by this time, had died several deaths – with the failure of Schlemiel, with the loss of the German colonies, and with the unexpected Jewish access to Palestine which promised to make any other territorialist endeavors redundant. The node he and his narratives occupied had been eliminated by the events. Yet more than merely a curiosity, their afterimage lingers. Just as Mbwapwa had not yet been conceived when Oskar Panizza had his desperate black performer paint himself white in his imagination and his Faitel collapse in a mad danse macabre in “The Operated Jew,” the retired chief of Uganda was superseded by the reflections of Kafka’s Rotpeter – all of them negotiations of racial otherness suggesting degrees of identification with the other, even while sowing doubts about the viability, the sustainability, and – ultimately – even the desirability of such processes of metamorphosis. And then, shortly after publication of the “Report to an Academy,” Schlemiel came back. When the satirical magazine was revived in 1919, it was reincarnated in much more sophisticated form than its hapless predecessor. This was largely due to the agency of the artist and caricaturist Menachem Birnbaum who became art editor for Schlemiel which now included colorful cartoons which were equal to those of acclaimed caricaturists like Heine and Jentzsch in Simplicissimus and Der wahre Jakob. And although Mbwapwa had died his final death and remained dead and buried, the return of Schlemiel once again ignited the critical engagement with Jewish and Zionist self-definition, if in very different circumstances. It was a return, with the cover art of the penultimate issue, which also included the letter by the ape Jim, even to the Walfisch mentioned in Mbwapwa’s fourth letter; though E. E. Joel’s cartoon portrays a very different kind of fish (see Figure 36). ­This

51 See, e.g., Gudrun Krämer, A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel, transl. Graham Harman and Gudrun Krämer (2002; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), pp. 165–76. 52 See, e.g., Neil Caplan, Palestine Jewry and the Arab Question, 1917–1925 (RLE Israel and Palestine) (1978; Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2015). 53 See, e.g., Steven T. Katz, “1918 and After: The Role of Racial Antisemitism in the Nazi Analysis of the Weimar Republic,” in Sander L. Gilman and Steven T. Katz (eds.), Anti-Semitism in Times of Crisis (New York and London: New York University Press, 1991), pp. 227–56.



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Figure 36: E. E. Joel, “Election Bait” (“Wahlfisch-Köder”), Schlemiel (1920).

latter fish is not about soap powder and the washing away of skin color. Rather, the “Election Bait” (“Wahlfisch-Köder,” 1920; the pun plays on German Wal and Wahl, i.e. whale and election, respectively) reflects the ominous sway in public

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opinion after the First World War to baiting the electorate with antisemitic demagogy. The letter of the Simian Jim too needs to be understood in a very different context from Mbwapwa: The issue is no longer the internal negotiation of Jewish identities, but the response to the external threat of rampant antisemitism, as it is so graphically depicted in Joel’s cover art with the Jew spiked onto the swastika as “Wahlfisch-Köder.” It has been observed that skin color is unchangeable and that therefore Jews are less vulnerable than blacks, because they can pass; but the bait suggests rather that nothing, not even washing away the color that is not there, can help with antisemitism. The identification with Mbwapwa and his oscillation between colors is then almost akin also to a trying on for size. Can it actually be easier to be black rather than Jewish? Or, given the experience of persecution and oppression suffered by both, can the difference in these experiences engender the empathy necessary to learn from both, to know both one and the other and, ultimately, to create a humanitarian commonality?

Appendix I Max Jungmann: Briefe aus Neu-Neuland Briefe aus Neu-Neuland. (Von unserem Spezial-Korrespondenten.) I.

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Lieber Mister Schlemiel! Als meine Landsleute hörten, daß man geht zu machen eine immigration von Jews in Uganda, da haben sich alle nigger gestellt an den Victoria-Nyanza, und in ihrem Schmerz haben sie geweint ihre Tränen hinein in den See. Nur ich habe behalten meinen guten Mut. “Warum tut ihr heulen?” hab ich gefragt. “Die jewish nation wird sein freundlich zu euch; denn sie ist geworden gelyncht in Europa wie der arme nigger in Amerika. Das gleiche Schicksal bringt die Menschen einander nahe, und sie werden sehen auf euch wie Brüder.” Da haben die nigger genommen Gras vom Strand und gewischt ihre Augen, und einer hat proposed drei Cheers auf die Juden, und das Echo vom Gebirge hat mehr wie ein hundert Mal geschrien Hurra. Well, nach kurzer Zeit ist gekommen die erste jüdische Karawane mit lauter Misrachi. Man sieht gleich, es sind alles gute Leute, die es meinen ehrlich. Und fromm sind sie, o, noch mehr fromm wie die Puritans, und sie brauchen nur zu erheben ein Geschrei, so bekommt der Himmel ein großes Loch, und sie können sprechen direkt mit Gott. Man sagt, daß jeder Misrachi ist ein Heiliger und so gottesfürchterlich, daß der Engel Michael und der Engel [Gab]riel dagegen sind Sozialdemokraten. – Aber es hat [ge]wesen bei der Gesellschaft ein Mann, der Doktor Christian Schmul aus Deutschland, ein celebrated Reform-Rabbi. Auf der ganzen Seereise er hat sich gehalten versteckt in einem cabin auf dem Schiff und ist erst herausgekrochen, als die Karawane den Dampfer verließ und hereinzog in das Land. Und daß man ihn nicht soll erkennen, sondern ihn halten soll für einen Misrachi, hat er sich verstellt und immer gegeben – wie man sagt – einen Knaitsch mit dem Finger, wenn er hat geredet. So haben die Misrachi geglaubt, daß er auch ist ein Orthodoxer. Und am Plattfuß des Keniaberges haben sie Halt gemacht, wo alle nigger waren versammelt in festlicher Kleidung, da hat der Doktor betreten ein Podium und gegeben einen sermon, zu bekehren das Volk zu der jewish religion. Er hat gesagt sehr schön von der jüdischen Mission, die in dem schmalen Zeitraum von 2000 Jahren hat erreicht so viel. Während vor 400 Jahren man hat Juden geschlachtet noch beinahe jeden Tag, tut man es jetzt nur alle vier Wochen. Das muß man danken der jüdischen Mission, die die Völker hat moralised und https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-009

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aufgeklärt. Meine Landsleute haben bekommen sehr begeistert über diese Sache und sind übergetreten zum jüdischen Glauben, und sie haben versprochen, nicht mehr zu essen Schweinefleisch und Menschenfleisch, sondern nur Lokschenkuggel und Gänseleber und Schalent. Das hätte gewesen ein großer success für den Doktor, daß er hätte können sein zufrieden. Aber da hat er verlangt, daß in jeder Woche ein holiday soll werden gefeiert am Sonntag. “Warum Sonntag?” fragten die Misrachi. “Meinetwegen Montag,” sagte der Doktor. “Warum Montag?” haben die Misrachi geschrien. “Meinetwegen Dienstag,” wieder der Doktor hat geantwortet. Und so weiter bis Freitag. Jetzt ist geworden ein großer Lärm, und die Orthodoxen haben gerufen: “Schabbes, Schabbes!” Und sie haben mit den Fäusten zerschlagen die Luft und getobt und gerast, daß man mußte taub werden vor Spektakel. Um sich zu verschaffen etwas Ruhe, hat der Doktor wie in heiliger Andacht seine Augen verdreht, und das hat er gemacht so geschickt, als hätte er es geübt, schon viele Jahre. Indeed es ist geworden ziemlich still, und Herr Christian Schmul hat gesprochen zu dem Volke: “Brüder, ich bitte euch, seid nicht fanatisch! Glaubt ihr, daß dem lieben Gott daran gelegen ist, welchen Tag in der Woche wir feiern? Warum wollt ihr denn so hartnäckig am Sonnabend festhalten? Das ist ein Tag, den freilich unsere Glaubensgenossen im grauen Altertum dem Herrn geweiht haben; aber bedenkt doch, daß wir moderne Menschen sind, die gewisse Kulturpflichten erfüllen müssen. Wie wollen wir das tun, wenn wir selbst in kleinlichen Dingen noch am Althergebrachten hängen? Soll denn in unserem neuen Staate wirklich wieder die intolerante Orthodoxie herrschen?” Und da haben die strenggläubigen Misrachi gerufen: “Nieder mit ihm! – Afrika für die Schwarzen! Afrika für die Schwarzen!” Und sie haben den Doktor gepackt an seinem Bart und ihn geschleppt an den Victoria Nyanza und hineingeworfen in den See. Dort hätte er können oben schwimmen wegen seines Fettes, aber ist doch untergegangen, weil er hat getragen in seiner Brust ein Herz von Stein. Jetzt ist er tot, und niemand weint um ihn. Ich auch nicht; denn wie Sie sehen auf dem Photo, ich schicke Ihnen, bin ich selbst geworden ein member von der orthodoxen Misrachi-society. Einer hat schon gemacht den Witz und hat gesagt, daß ich darstelle einen Schornsteinfeger unter den Negern. Es segnet Sie Ihr Antipode Mbwapwa Jumbo Häuptling a. D. von Uganda. II. Lieber Mister Schlemiel! In dem ersten Briefe ich habe Ihnen geschrieben von der Ertrinkung des ReformRabbi Dr. Christian Schmul. Nachdem dieses Geschäft war gemacht, man hat

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­ ngefangen mit der colonisation von dem Land, und jeder zeigte großen Eifer a für das Werk. Die Bauern haben gesät das Getreide und gehütet ihre Rinder, ­fünf­tausend lyrische Dichter haben gesessen Tag und Nacht und geschrieben poëms, Handel und Wandel sind gekommen in die Blüte, und weil es hat gewesen zu viel Geld in Uganda, meinten einige Bürger, daß man muß herausgeben eine hebräi­sche ethymological Encyclopädie über alle Sprachen der Erde und des Mondes. Chaskel der Schreiber sagt, das ist eine wichtige Sache für die Koltorje. So unsere Regierung hat erlebt viel Freude. Wir haben nämlich ein theokratisches Regiment, was ich halte für sehr schön und lobenswert. An der Spitze stehen zwei Rabbonim, Reb Schmaje Beinbrecher aus Wilna und Reb Awrohom Korfanty aus Mainz. – Aber, wie der deutsche Dichter sagt: Es hat so schön gewesen, es hat nicht gesollt sein. Ja, leider eine schwere Zeit ist hereingebrochen über unser Vaterland. Nämlich so: Als die Reformer in Europa haben gehört von dem gewaltigen Tode ihres Freundes Dr. Schmul, da haben sie gehalten ein public meeting und beschlossen zu nehmen Rache. Jeder hat sich gebunden einen Säbel über den Bauch und ein Schießgewehr auf den Rücken und sind gefahren nach Ostafrika in einem Boot, was ihnen hat geborgt der antisemitische Ruderklub der Firma N. Israel in Berlin. Lange hat gedauert die Reise, und endlich sie sind gestiegen an das Land, wo sie haben vereinigt sich mit dem Stamm der Massai, was sind lauter wilde nigger und leben von gegenseitigem Totschlagen; und sie planten ­gemeinsam zu kämpfen gegen das Volk von Uganda. Man hat verfaßt eine Kriegserklärung, und ein reformierter Mann überreichte sie unseren beiden Herrschern. “Was?” haben diese geantwortet. “Krieg? – Wir führen nit ka Krieg, mer haben zu tun jetzt andere Sachen. Efscher später emol, aber nit in dem Johr.” Der Gesandte hat gesagt all right und ist weggegangen. Was kann er machen? Als er kehrte zurück in das Lager und brachte die Nachricht, natürlich alles war sehr constipated. Die Entente-Mächte haben sich gesetzt in einen Kreis und beraten, wie man kann am besten reizen den Feind. Da einer ist gekommen auf die Idee, zu rauben die Frauen der Rabbonim, weil vielleicht dann der Zorn der Misrachi wird sein so schrecklich zu verlangen satisfaction. Richtig, man hat zwei starke Massaimänner erwählt, auszuführen den Raub der Rabbinerinnen. Und sie sind wirklich gezogen nach Uganda und haben gefesselt die Frauen und weggeschleppt. Und da kein Bitten hat geholfen. Die eine hat geschrien: Awrohom, Awrohom! und die andere: Schmaje, Schmaje! Aber die Rabbonim haben sich gerauft die Haare und gesagt: “Was können wir schwache Menschen tun gegen solche Gaslonim!”.... Jedoch es ist verstrichen ein Tag, zwei Tage, eine Woche und eine andere Woche, und es hat sich nichts gerührt. Die Reformer sind geworden überdrüssig und haben ausgerufen: “Herrgott, sind das Kavaliere! Die scheinen sich ja

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nichts daraus zu machen. Da hat’s auch keinen Zweck, daß wir ihnen die Weiber noch länger füttern.” Und so man hat wieder losgelassen die ladies, daß sie sind gelaufen in großer Hast und atemlos angekommen in ihre Häuser. Bei ihrem Anblick die Herrscher haben geschnitten sehr grimmige Gesichter und gesagt: “Unsere Geduld ist zu Ende. Was denken sich die Apikorsim? Es wird gemacht Krieg – und zwar sofort.” Natürlich Waffen haben nicht gewesen in Uganda, auch kein Pulver. So hat man genommen zwei Feuerspritzen und ist marschiert gegen die Grenze. Voran sind geritten Reb Awrohom Korfanty und Reb Schmaje Beinbrecher, hinterher sind gekommen die Misrachi mit den Spritzen, und zu beiden Seiten waren wir nigger, was haben gemacht Musik und aufgeführt Kriegs­tänze. Als die Feinde uns sahen anrücken, sind sie sehr erschrocken und haben geschrien: “Massai to the front!” Schnell sie waren ausgerichtet in Kampfstellung, und schon kommandiert der Reformmarschall: Gebt Feuer! Da schreit Reb Awrohom: Gebt Wasser! Und das Wasser hat immer gleich ausgelöscht das Feuer, daß es hat nicht können verursachen einen Schaden. So wurde gekämpft hartnäckig bis zum Abend, und es ist kein Blut geflossen, aber viel Wasser. Man war auf beiden Seiten sehr ermattet, und so werden Sie begreifen, daß ein aufrichtiger Jubel entstand bei uns, als aus dem gegnerischen Lager ein Parlamentär zu uns kam und den Frieden antrug. Natürlich wir waren bereitwillig und haben uns alle versöhnt und geschüttelt die Hände. Dann ein schönes Friedensfest ist geworden gefeiert und man hat getrunken viele scharfe Sachen, Wein und Schnaps – großartig. Die Massai aber haben gesehen unseren Rausch und sind deswegen gegangen in unsere Ställe und haben gestohlen alles Vieh und zertreten die Aecker. Am anderen Morgen, wie wir sind erwacht und bemerkten die Kriegsverluste, nu’ Sie können sich [10/11] denken. – Eine tiefe Trauer hat alle ergriffen, und wir haben bitter geweint; denn anders wußte man sich nicht zu helfen. Schließlich man hat sich beruhigt und angefangen zu beraten, wie man kann wieder bringen auf die Beine das Land. Der eine hat gemacht diesen Vorschlag, der andere jenen Vorschlag, aber wir haben immer nur geschüttelt die Köpfe[.] Endlich sagt Chaskel der Schreiber: “Gentlemen, was redet ihr da? Gedenkt, daß ein Volk zuerst hat nötig Bildung, Kunst und Wissenschaft; denn für ein Land sind erforderlich zwei Sachen, Freiheit und Brot; und es heißt ein alter Spruch: Bildung macht frei und die Kunst geht nach Brot. Mehr brauch ich nicht zu sprechen ein Wort. Ich beantrage daher zu gründen eine Universität für die Wissenschaft und eine Akademie für die Kunst auf dem Gipfel des Kenia.” Mit der Rede hat er alle übergezeugt, und seitdem wird gesammelt Geld für die Hochschulen. Es sind bis jetzt schon einige tausend Pfund zusammen gekommen; aber von dem hat Chaskel die eine Hälfte für Agitationsreisen verbraucht und

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die zweite Hälfte für Broschüren zur Aufklärung. Die dritte Hälfte, er hat gesagt, 85 bleibt zurück als eiserner Fonds. Es grüßt Sie Ihr guter Freund Mbwapwa Jumbo Häuptling a. D. von Uganda. III.

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Teierster Mister Schlemiel! Inzwischen ich verbring die Zeit lernendig dem daitschen Loschen. Chaskel der Schreiber is mein Rebbe und sagt, daß er will bringen mich so weit zu reden dem reinen Dialekt vun Wilna und ich soll mer abgewöhnen die Anglicismen. Uganda, Gott sei dank, ist, wie der “Vorwärts” schreibt, wieder Mausche oben, es kummen plenty Menschen aus der ganzer Welt und tragen arein ­Arbeitskraft und Wohlstand. Häuser werden gebaut und Straßen gepflastert mit Asphalt, eso glatt, daß sogar Reb Schmaje Beinbrecher mit de Rebbezin kenn tanzen darauf ’n cake-walk. Im letzten Monat hat auch established sich der Parlament, wo ich bin a member vun dem konservativen Partei. Der Präsident des Reichstags ist a gewisser Lord Rothschild, ein sehr a feiner Mann. Er hat eröffnet die session mit ein Dank an die geehrten Kollegen und hat gesagt, er will leben nach den Traditionen seines erlauchten Geschlechts; denn er gehört zu einer Familie, sagt er, die Unermeßliches für das Judentum geleistet  – haben könnte. Dann hat er rausgezogen a Papier aus’n pocket und vorgelesen a Me­morandum vun Herrn Johann Kremenezky aus Wien. Genannter Johann ermahnt das hohe Gebäude zu gedenken an Palästina und an dem jüdischen Nationalfonds. “Gebt, Brüder,” schreibt er, “und die rechte Hand soll nicht wissen, was die linke giebt.” Denn man muß sein vorbereitet, schreibt er, zu kaufen Land in dem alten Heimat, und wenn man wird nicht schicken ihm Geld, er wird bleiben ein Johann ohne Land. (Heiterkeit.) Die Konservativen Jasager haben gehatt Rachmones und beschlossen zu zeigen sich weichherzig, und Chaskel der Schreiber hat gegeben a Geschrei: “Aha! In Wien blost man wieder stark auf’n goldenen Horn.” Dann einer vun dem Reformpartei hat gehalten eine Rede, daß man kenn sich nit befassen jetzt mit Politik, weil sie verderbt dem Charakter, und seine Partei weiß vun frühere Zeiten, wie leicht das kenn passieren. Ueberdem er giebt den Rat, daß jeder soll fegen vor seiner eigenen hohen Pforte und daß man soll erfüllen wörtlich den Wunsch des Herrn Kremenationalfonds, indem eine Hand wird takesch nit wissen, was die andere giebt. Er bittet also abzulehnen das Memorandum.” Nach diese Worte der Antrag war unter den Tisch des Hauses gefallen.

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Der Präsident hat vorgeschlagen ein vote of thanks für den geehrten Redner und erklärt, daß man kenn schon vun deßtwegen nit geben kein Geld für den Nationalfonds, weil man wird müssen gewähren eine Anleihe an die ­rumänische Regierung. Jetzt bin ich selber geloffen auf die Podium und hab gefragt: “Tut Ihr sein Juden? So harte Juden leben in Afrika? Wahrlich, wir nigger haben geworden rot über diese Hartleibigkeit (Chaskel: ­Hartherzigkeit!) und werden von uns aus spenden für den heiligen Zweck. Wir Wilde sind doch bessere Menschen.” Der Präsident darauf hat erwidert, daß es ist nit möglich; denn die Partei der Intellektuellen will auch nehmen in Anspruch die Staatsfinanzen. Sie nämlich hat gestellt folgenden Antrag: “Die Regierung werde ersucht, einen Fonds zu schaffen zur Hebung des Größenwahns unter den jüdischen Schriftstellern und Künstlern.” Zur Begründung der Abg. Rosen hat das große Wort: “Meine Herren! Unter den jüdischen Schriftstellern und Künstlern giebt es leider noch immer einige, die nicht glauben, daß das Judentum ihretwegen da ist. Es giebt Künstler, die da meinen, daß sie vom jüdischen Geiste inspiriert werden, während doch in Wirklichkeit sie erst jüdischen Geist und jüdisches Wesen geschaffen haben. Und wie es noch hie und da Künstler giebt, die sich bescheiden z­ urückziehen, anstatt sich überall hervorzutun, so sind auch noch immer einige Dichter vorhanden, die sich nicht bei jeder Gelegenheit citieren. Diese Banausen, meine Herren, wollen wir erziehen. Denn wahrlich! Ein Künstler ist mehr wert, als die gesamte J­udenheit; wenn diese längst vermodert ist, wird sein Werk noch immer Reklame machen.....” Schließendig dem Brief, der Redner schneuzt sich die Nase, um zu sprechen weiter. Ich aber bin Yours very affectionate Mbwapwa Jumbo Häuptling a. D. von Uganda. IV.

Teierster Mister Schlemiel! Oi! – Ich hab geweint Tag und Nacht und vargossen asoviel Trären, daß beinahe ich hätte geschrieben a letter zu Chajim Josseln, er soll borgen mir sein ­Schnupftüchel. Ich will Ihnen erzählen den Grund für die Ursache meiner 5 Traurigkeit: An einem schönen Morgen ich habe gesessen in meinem Zimmer mit Chaskel dem Schreiber und gelernt die Wörter auf “heit, keit und ung,” da kommt arain a Lakai vun der Präsidentschaft, macht a Verbeugung zur Erd und sagt: Gut Morgen, Exzellenz. Was heißt Exzellenz? frag ich. Da bringt er die

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Meldung, daß ich soll mich begeben sogleich zu den Präsidenten, denn ich habe geworden designated als Botschafter für Rußland. Vor Schreck mein schwarzes Gesicht war bleich wie Kreide, sodaß Chaskel hat genommen meine Hände und gefragt: “Mister Jumbo, Sie sind plötzlich so weiß geworden – sind Sie an Assimi­ lant?” Ich aber bin hingefallen ihm um den langen Hals und hab gejammert und geschrien: “Wie soll ich verlassen meine geliebte Heimat? Wie soll ich gehen zu a people von lauter Gaslonim, wo man wird morden mich, wenn man sieht, daß ich bin ein Jude!” Chaskel hat sich aufgerichtet, ernst und voll Würde, und wie ein Prophet hat er gesagt: “Wahrlich, über Ihnen ist gekommen das Wort des daitschen Komponisten, wo er singt: ‘Es is a Bestimmung vun Gott, daß man vom Liebsten, was man hat, muß scheiden.’ Trösten Sie sich, Exzellenz, und folgen Sie dem Rufe des Vaterlandes!” – “Never mind,” ich habe geantwortet, “ich werde sprechen zu den Präsidenten.” Ich hab gewunken mit der Hand, der Lakai is gegangen voran und ich hinterher. Im Palais beide Herrscher haben mich em­­ pfangen, und der Kabinetssekretär hat vorgelesen das Beglaubigungsschreiben, wo es steht, daß meine Exzellenz is der Geschäftsträger der Republik von Uganda am russischen Schlachthof. Präsident Beinbrecher dann hat erklärt meine Pflich­ ten, daß ich habe zu schützen unsere Stammesgenossen in Rußland gegen die offiziellen Mörder und Räuber. Ich soll aufbieten meinen ganzen Einfluß bei Rabenväterchen dem Zaren, und was sich auch immer ereignet, in jedem Falle soll ich den Russen reinen Schnaps einschänken. Nachdem er hat geendigt seine Rede, ich habe bedankt mich far die hohe Ehre und bemerkt, daß ich kenn nit gehen nach Petersburg, weil man laßt doch nit arein keine ausländische Juden. “Dann werden Sie sich taufen lassen,” ruft Reb Awrohom Korfanty. Ich war außer mir. “Wer? Ich?” frag ich. “Und das sagen Sie, der Sie kommen aus der heiligen Gemeinde Mainz?” Und Reb Awrohom sagt: “Exzellenz, das ist die Staatsräsong.” Darauf ich habe eingewendet, daß ich noch niemals habe gesehen einen Christen, daß ich nicht weiß, wieviel ein solcher muß glauben und daß ich jetzt so fest wurzle im Judentum, daß das Taufbecken mir eine Unmöglichkeit ist. Die Präsidenten aber haben beruhigt mich und gesagt, daß ich soll erst gehen nach Berlin und dort Vorübungen machen in der jüdischen Reformgemeinde; dann werde ich sein bald reif zur Taufe, und der Seifenpulver-Walfisch wird mir geben den Rest. O Gott! O Gott! Mein Verstand hat mich gelassen im Stiche, und ich habe nicht gefunden ein Wort zur Erwiderung. Nur noch einmal ich habe versucht abzuwenden dem Unglück und gesprochen: “Wie soll ich gehen zu dem Zaren? Meine Zunge ist schwer, und ich kenn nit reden kein Französisch und kein Russisch.” – “Sehr wohl, Exzellenz,” hat gesagt Reb Schmaje Beinbrecher, “dann soll Sie der sprachkundige Chaskel der Schreiber als Militärattaché begleiten.” Beide Präsidenten haben geschüttelt meine rechte Hand und mich entlassen sehr huldvoll.

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Sofort ich bin gelaufen zu meinem Lehrer und Freund und habe gebracht 50 ihm die schreckliche Kundschaft. Chaskels Augen haben geworden feucht, und er hat gesehen auf den Boden und geflüstert: “Mister Jumbo, ich bin sentimental.” Dann hat er genommen seine Guitarre, und wir sind gegangen silent, ohne zu reden ein Wort, in der Richtung nach Westen, weit — — — weit — — An den Ufern des Victoria Nyanza saßen wir und weinten. Ich habe gesungen 55 das Lied: “Muß i denn, muß i denn araus aus ’n Städtel,” und Chaskel hat begleitet mich auf der Guitarre – bis zum Abend. Die Luft war kühl und ruhig, und hoch oben auf einem Baume wir hörten den Zungenschlag der Nachtigall. Es grüßt Sie mit Herzblut, Trären und Galle Ihr 60 Mbwapwa Jumbo Häuptling a. D. von Uganda. V.

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Mein guter Mr. Schlemiel! Ich bin sehr ein glücklicher Mensch, daß ich brauche nicht zu gehen als Botschafter nach Rußland. Nämlich vun wegen dem Krieg hat geworden abgebrochen meine diplomatische Beziehung zum Zaren, und wir beobachten aso wie unser vorgesetztes englisches Government strikte Neutralität zugunsten vun Japan. Ich bleib also in Uganda, und der Seufzer, den ich hab ausgestoßen in dem letter vun Monat Februar, hat sich verwandelt in a Freudentaumel. Auch Chaskel der Schreiber wieder hat gefunden seine fröhliche Laune, daß er nicht muß begleiten mich in das wilde Land, obwohl – wie er sagt – man kenn nit wissen, zu was es hätte gut gewesen; denn schon der daitsche Dichter singt so schön: Wem Gott will eine rechte Gunst erweisen, Den laßt er in de ganze Welt rumreisen. Zwar hier is a junger Mann, mit Namen Leiser Simpelowitsch Chamerowski, a früherer Student vun Berlin, der meint, es lohnt nit zu reisen in der Welt, denn wo man kommt hin, überall sieht man lauter dumme Menschen. Die dummsten er hat gefunden unter die Zionisten in Deutschland. Die fahren rum, sagt er, zu halten Reden an das Volk, sie schreiben papers und Bücher und ­Gedichten und s­ prechen vun Palästina und colonisation, und keiner weiß etwas vun ­Vegetabilismus. Wenn Sie sollten auch nit wissen, was das heißt, so will ich ­berichten Ihnen, daß er hat erfunden das Wort und er meint damit die Lehre vun der ­Viehfütterung. Wie kenn man sein, fragt er, ein Interessent für Landwirtschaft und colonisation, wenn man ist kein Vegetabilist? – Ich hab nit gekonnt varstehn, wie eso die daitsche Juden sind aso zurückständig in der Bildung. Da er hat

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erklärt mir, daß sie leider ­meistens werden erzogen für einen praktischen Lebens­ beruf und überdem nit haben keine Zeit sich zu versenken in philosophische ­Extremitäten. Schuldig daran sind zwei Sachen: Erstens der Beruf und zweitens, daß sie werden erzogen, anstatt sich selbst zu erziehen. Hier in unserer neuen Heimat, sagt er, das muß werden anders, und deswegen er is gekommen nach Uganda zu gründen eine Hochschule für ­Autodidaktik. An dieser University die Studenten sollen ausbilden sich in allen Wissenschaften, aber so, daß keiner sich darf ­beschäftigen mit einem Fache länger als vierzehn Tage. Nach einem Semester wird gemacht die examination durch eine ­sozial-psychologisch-philosophische Arbeit über die Unwissenheit der anderen Menschen. Leiser is, wie Sie sehen, ein Mann mit Gedanken, und vun ­deßtwegen wir haben gewählt ihn in die ­synagogale ­Tanzkommission. Der ­Tanzgottesdienst nämlich ist die neueste ­Aufregung in Uganda und e­ ntstanden durch die G ­ erechtigkeit der Reformpartei, was ich muß zugeben, wenn ich auch nicht bin ihr Anhänger. Man hat gesagt, daß die Juden immer haben genommen Rücksicht auf die Sitten ihres Vaterlandes. Wie sie haben verehrt in Europa ihren Gott durch die Orgel, so müssen hier sie ihn verehren durch den Tanz nach Art der Neger, weil sonst die Schwarzen leicht könnten werden Antisemiten. Die ­Orthodoxen aber natürlich waren dagegen, weil vun ihnen noch keiner hat gehabt Tanzstunde, und so ist entstanden a großer Kulturstreit, bis man hat gewählt die Kommission. Diese hat geschrieben an einige Berliner Rabbiner wegen Gutachten, so daß man kenn hoffen mit ­Sicherheit, daß es werd nit lang dauern und man werd tanzen in der Synagoge. Einstweilen verbleib ich Euer getreuer Freund Mbwapwa Jumbo Häuptling a. D. von Uganda. VI.

Lieber Mister Schlemiel! Unsere Zukunft ist ins Wasser gefallen, und deswegen wir werden bald sitzen auf dem Trockenen. A mischief oder wie man sagt im Daitschen: a Malheur is gekommen über Uganda, und die Juden fangen an zu werden unzufrieden mit 5 ihrer Lage. Die ökonomische Lage is gut, nur die geographische Lage des Landes tut ihnen nicht gefallen. Zu meiner Schande ich muß gestehen, daß Chaskel der Schreiber am meisten is schuld an der Verwirrung, und er hat geworden ein starker Agitator. Er läuft von einem zum andern und vom andern zum einen, schreiendig: “In Rumänien, in Rußland und in Galizien es is uns gegangen 10 schlecht; aber” schreit er, “wir haben doch gelebt wenigstens unter Kulturvölker, wir haben doch gelebt unter Menschen mit Gefühl. Hier jedennoch sie sind

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wild wie die Wölfe. Und dann,” ruft er aus, “wenn wir haben gewollt machen früher eine excursion, wir sind gegangen nach Deutschland, wo man hat aufgenommen uns mit Liebe und mitgegeben Polizisten auf den Weg, daß man soll uns nicht tun etwas Böses. Hier aber, was haben wir für Nachbarn? Massai und Hereros und Bondelzwarts, schwarze Räuber und Banditen, daß Gott soll sich derbarmen.” Und aso redt er. Mir das Herz hat verkrampft sich im Leibe, und ich habe ihm zugerufen: “Was gehen uns an die Nachbarn?” Da er dreht sich arum und sagt: “Mister Jumbo, es is vorhanden das Wort vun a daitschen Dichter, wo er singt: Es kann der Beste nicht in Frieden leben, Wenn ihm die Nachbarn keine Ruhe geben.” Seine Anhänger haben geklatscht minutenlanganhaltenden, nicht enden­ wollenden, immer sich erneuernden Beifall mit Tücherschwenken, und man hat  beglückwünscht den Redner. Was soll ich Ihnen schreiben, guter Mr. ­Schlemiel? Chaskel hat durchgesetzt die Gründung vun a zionistischen Verein, und man arbeitet scharf zu bringen die Juden nach Palästina. Natürlich das bessere Publikum hält sich abseits vun der neuen Idee. Die reichen Leute sagen, es is an Utopie, daß sie sollen interessieren sich für Glück und Ehre des Judentums. Und unsere Staatspräsidenten sind Gegner, weil es is nicht sicher, ob sie werden einnehmen die gleiche Position in Palästina, auch Lord Rothschild, der Präsident des Parlaments, will nicht wissen davon, weil er hat die Gicht und is froh zu sitzen im Lande und nicht zu fahren wieder über das Meer. Die einzigen Antizionisten aus innerer Ueberzeugung sind die Reformrabbiner; denn sie warten mit Bestimmtheit auf den Messias mit’n Esel. Ein Zeichen dafür, daß die Zeit nicht mehr kann sein sehr fern, sehen sie in der immer zunehmenden Vermehrung der Esel unter der Judenheit. Die Zionisten selbst sind bis jetzt noch gering an Zahl, und man schätzt sie auf zehn members. Chaskel der Schreiber is der Oberführer; der Student Simpelowitsch Chamerowski is Führer für die Abteilung Vegetabilismus; Chaskels Sohn Pinchas, der Radfahrer, is Führer der Abteilung für Hebung des Fremdenverkehrs in Palästina; der lyrische Dichter Jankew L. Bierkäse is Führer für Poesie und Prosa; der Abgeordnete und Künstler Rosen is Führer für die Kunst, die nach Brot geht; der Athlet Chajim Brummer is Führer für die ­Abteilung Protest und Ultimatum. – Der Verein hat sofort seine ­Tätigkeit aufgenommen und veranstaltet eine Ruderpartie auf dem Victoria Nyanza mit Damen. Die Festrede hat zugesagt Herr Dr. Bodenheimer in Köln, aber er hat ­vergessen zu erscheinen. Jetzt Sie werden begreifen, wie es is zu Mute Ihrem Freunde Mbwapwa Jumbo Häuptling a. D. von Uganda.

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[VII.]

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Lieber Mister Schlemiel! Lange Zeit ich war sehr böse auf Ihnen, weil Sie haben refused zu zahlen mir das Honorar für meine letters. Trotz meiner Mahnungen Sie haben immer erklärt, dass Sie werden nicht zahlen, und als ein Kavalier Sie haben wirklich Wort gehalten und nicht gezahlt, sodass ich muss sagen: Mister Schlemiel is a gentleman, an Ehrenmensch vom Scheitel bis zum Hühnerauge. Mit a solchen Wortsmann in Verkehr zu bleiben, is a Freude für mich, und so ich habe beschlossen zu schreiben Ihnen wieder. Tun Sie sich noch erinnern an den Studenten vun Berlin Leiser Simpelo­ witsch Chamerowski? Er hat geworden zum Gespött für die Kinder vun Uganda. Nämlich um zu beweisen sein idealism und seine höhere Begabung, er is gekommen auf die Idee zu tragen die Frisur à la Gorki. Aber das Unglück hat gespielt ihm einen Streich, dass ihm sind ausgefallen die Haare. Er hat gerieben und geschmiert – alles hat nicht genützt. Immer kahler und kahler wurde sein Haupt, wie ein Berg, den man entwaldet, und jetzt leider sieht es aus wie a zerkratzte Billardkugel. Leiser hat sich die Sache sehr zu Gehirn genommen und hat geworden – wie man sagt im Daitschen – meschugge. Er läuft rum und schreit: Mein Kopf ist der Libanon, gebt mir meine Cedern wieder! Und hinter ihm rennen die Kinder und treiben ihr Gespött. Unsere Frommen meinen, dass ihn hat getroffen die Strafe Gottes, weil er is a Gegner vun der orthodoxen zio­ nistischen Partei Misrachi. Wir Misrachim haben glücklicherweise gewonnen die Oberhand in Uganda und agitieren stark für Frömmigkeit. Zwar unser Präsident Schmaje Beinbrecher hat aufgehoben seine warnende Stimme und gesagt, dass die Agitation für die Orthodoxie is sehr gefährlich; denn über hundert Jahr wird jeder wollen haben a Stück vun Leviathan, und für so viele Fromme wird der Fisch sein zu klein. Auch Lehmann aus Mainz hat geschickt a Protest, weil er is der Mann, was hat gepachtet den richtigen Glauben, und er will ziehen die Misrachim vor das Haager Schiedsgericht vun wegen unlautern Wettbewerb. Wir aber werden uns nicht lassen abhalten, sondern unsere Macht gebrauchen, solange die Reformpartei uns nicht stören tut; diese nämlich is jetzt gewaltig beschäftigt mit collections vun Geld für a protestantischen Kirchenbau in Owikokorero. Wie segensreich wir wirken, Sie können sehen aus der Strassenbahnaffäre. Chaskel der Schreiber hat gegeben die Anregung zu bauen eine elektrische Strassenbahn. Wir haben geglaubt, uns trefft der Schlag. Guter Mister Schlemiel, haben Sie schon einmal gehört, dass Rabbiner Raines oder Dr. Nobel in Leipzig hat gebaut a Strassenbahn? A ­Gelächter is entstanden, wie wenn einer hätt beantragt, man soll essen Purim keine ­Kreppchen. Das wäre sogar noch auszudenken, denn es is doch schließlich a fromme Sach. Aber was hat a Strassenbahn zu tun mit Reli-

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gion? Nach langem Reden und Beifallsklatschen natürlich der Antrag hat geworden übergestimmt und abgelehnt. Chaskel war wie ein Wilder und hat gegeben a Geschrei: “Ihr ­Misrachim seid das Unglück vun Zionismus.” Er is dann gekommen in mein Haus; wo ich hab ihm erklärt, dass die zionistische Partei ohne religiöses Programm is wie a Dachshund ohne Erziehung. Chaskel machte den ­ rziehen, Einwand, dass ein Dachshund vun der Natur is nicht geschaffen zum E und er wird sich auch nicht lassen erziehen. “Well,” ich habe erwidert, “wir werden schon finden die Mittel, wie man dressiert ihn, und wenn wir sollten ihn quälen zu Tode.” “Aha,” sprach Chaskel, “a so? also lieber tot als kein Misrachi? Nun, Mbwapwa, merk Dir das Wort vun dem daitschen Dichter, wo er singt: Quäle nie ein Tier zum Spass; Denn manchmal beisst ein solches Aas.” Er hat den Kopf stolz geworfen nach hinten und die rechte Hand gelegt ­zwischen die beiden obersten Knöpfe vun sein Gehrock und hat sich entfernt. Mir aber is rumgegangen im Kopf die story vun dem Dachshund, es hat mir geschienen, dass Chaskel kenn sein right, und ich habe erzählt die Sache den Präsidenten. Die haben gebracht den Fall vor den hohen Rat, wo man sah ein die Gefahr und hat beschlossen zu machen Harakiri mit alle Dachshunde in Uganda. Und am 20. Tage des Monats Elul hat man getötet alle Dachshunde und ihre Leichname geworfen in den Victoria Nyanza. Jetzt kein Mensch kann sagen, dass die Misrachim sind intolerant, sondern man wird einsehen, dass wir kommen entgegen even zu unseren Feinden aso weit, wie da is die Möglichkeit. Ich breite aus, Mr. Schlemiel, über Ihnen meine Hände und segne Sie als Ihr getreuer Mbwapwa Jumbo, Häuptling a. D. von Uganda. [VIII.] Die nach Ostafrika entsandte Expedition ist von dem Stamme Wanandi angegriffen worden. Lieber Mr. Schlemiel!

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Wenn Sie erhalten den letter, dann is inzwischen In Europa gelandet die expedition, Was is shortly gekommen zu uns nach Uganda, Um zu sehn, ob es is für die Juden a Land da.

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Mister Gibbons hat sehr zufrieden gewesen, Wie es steht in alle papers zu lesen, Und er hat gesehn, daß das Land is fein, Daß die Neger darin gar prächtig gedeihn, Und daß es von Milch und Honig fließt, Sogleich wie man dies auf den Boden gießt. Aber leider er hat ein Unglück erfahren Durch den Ueberfall der Wanandischaren; Der Wanandi is uncivilised und schmutzig Und wild wie a Bär und er weiß nicht, was tut sich. Es is zwar beileibe kein Antisemit, Aber Chaskel der Schreiber teilte ihm mit, Daß die Juden Europas jetzt danach streben, Kulturell in Uganda sich auszuleben. Der Wanandi is dumm und hat keinen Chain Und glaubte den Juden gefällig zu sein Und wollte den Forschern Gelegenheit geben, Sobald wie nur möglich hier auszuleben. Das is der authentische Tatbestand, Dieses machen Sie unseren Freunden bekannt

und seien Sie gegrüßt von Ihrem Mbwapwa Jumbo, Häuptling a. D. von Uganda.

[IX.] Brief aus Texas. (Von unserem Spezial-Korrespondenten.) Lieber Mister Schlemiel! HOW DO YOU DO? – Weil ich hatte erfahren, dass Sie sind längst eingegangen, ich hörte auf zu schreiben Ihnen LETTERS FROM Uganda; denn “Briefe, die ihn nicht erreichten,” haben bereits unmodern geworden, ebenso wie Uganda selbst. 5 Sondern man spricht jetzt nur von Texas, wohin man will machen eine jüdische IMMIGRATION, und die Partei der Texasisten. Wahrhaftig, trotz dem Aequator das jüdische Volk hat noch nicht geworden warm in EAST AFRICA, und schon wieder es soll verlassen seinen Sitz und ziehen in die Ferne. Mich überraschte Chaskel der Schreiber mit der Nachricht, als ich sass mit ihm am Viktoria-Nyanza zu fischen 10 ein paar Karpfen für Purim. Ich nämlich hatte bekommen einen schrecklichen Zorn, weil an meinem Angel nur Frösche und Krebse ­anbissen, lauter treifene

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Fische, und ich fangte an zu fluchen[,] wegen mein Mischief. “Sei still, Jumbo,” sagte Chaskel, “vielleicht gibt Gott, dass du wirst haben mehr Glück am Colorado oder am Strand von Galveston[.]” Ich frag’ was is das? Und Chaskel erzählt zu mir, dass die Juden sollen wandern nach Texas, weil MISTER Zangwill in London ­ eschliessen? hat beschlossen das. “Was beschlossen?” schrei’ ich, “wer hat zu b Ist denn das jüdische Volk ein Wandervolk? Ich bleibe hier in Uganda und trete wieder raus aus der jüdischen Rasse.” Da Chaskel wurde etwas sentimentalisch und nahm meine Hand, sagend: “Jumbo, Du redest wie ein kleiner BOY. Was hast Du von Austreten aus der jüdischen Rasse? Bist Du etwa der Sohn von einem Reformrabbiner? Oder willst Du werden medizinischer ­Professor? Oder hast Du einen Nachkommen, was soll studieren als stellvertretender Kolonialdirektor? – Also was redest Du für dumme Sachen? – Ich rate Dir, tritt nicht aus; denn dieser Austritt stinkt manchmal mehr als ein Abtritt, – sondern bleib in der Rasse und nähre Dich redlich, wie das Sprichwort sagen könnte. Und wenn Dein Volk sich begibt auf die Wanderschaft, so wander mit und gedenk an das Wort des deutschen Komponisten, wo er singt: Ueberall bin ich zu Hause, Ueberall bin ich bekannt, Macht das Glück im Norden Pause, Nu, dann ist eben der Süden mein Vaterland.” Ich hab zugehört ruhig und dann gesagt ALL RIGHT und mich begeben auf den Heimweg mit Chaskel dem Schreiber, ohne zu sprechen ein Wort. Kaum ich hatte betreten meine Wohnung, kam ein Bote von der Präsidentschaft mit dem Befehl, dass ich in der Begleitung von Chaskel soll fahren als Kundschafter [8/9] nach Texas. INDEED, wir machten die lange Reise und sind angekommen glücklich, wie Sie können sehen aus dem Posstempel [sic] von diesem LETTER. Nach dem Beispiel der biblischen Kundschafter wir hatten mitgenommen eine lange Hopfenstange, um aufzuladen die dicken Trauben als Zeichen von der Fruchtbarkeit des Landes. WELL, als wir landeten im Hafen von Galveston, wir wurden empfangen von Buffalo Bill und dem Indianerhäuptling Unkas, dem Sohn von Chingagoch. Ich war erstaunt über diese Empfängnis und fragte, wo is Mister Zangwill? Worauf mir Buffalo Bill erwiderte: “Er ist zu Schiff nach New York.” Mr. Schiff nämlich soll spenden das Geld für unsere Unterhaltung in Texas. – Die Gegend is sehr schön[.] Vom Hafen man hat eine weite Aussicht auf den Golf von Mexiko, und wenn man blickt nach Süden, so sieht man – wenigstens auf der Landkarte – die Halbinsel Yukatan. Chaskel hatte inzwischen Hunger, und so verabschiedete sich Buffalo Bill; Unkas aber nahm uns beide in sein Haus, und wie wir gingen durch die Strassen, links ich, in der Mitte der weisse Chaskel und rechts der rote Indianer, wir haben ausgesehen wie eine deutsche Flagge. Unkas hat einen Palast aus Lehm und Stroh und ein Weib Watawah, das uns

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begrüsste mit Freundlichkeit. Wir assen und tranken nicht schlecht, dann hat Chaskel gesagt zu mir: “Jumbo, nimm die Stange und such allein die Weintrauben, ich tu’ nicht mehr ausziehen von hier.” WELL, ich bin weggegangen und habe Chaskeln nicht gesehen einige Tage. Endlich, ich treffe ihn auf der Strasse mit zerrissenem Rock, ohne Hut und mit rotgeschwollenen Backen. “Halloh,” ich schreie, “Chaskel, was ist the Matter? Sind Deine Backen so dick vom vielen Essen?” – “Oi,” sagt er, “wär’ ich lieber bei der Stange geblieben! Der Teufel soll holen die Indianer! Ich gehe wieder nach Uganda, in mein freies Land. Bei uns und in ganz Afrika, wie Dir kann bestätigen die deutsche Kolonialverwaltung, heisst das Sprichwort: Willste mein Kusinchen sein? Sonst schlag’ ich dir den Schädel ein. Hier ist alles Punkt verkehrt. Und ein TERRITORY, wo man kommt einem nicht entgegen mit Liebe, sondern im Gegenteil, das hab’ ich nicht nötig.” Ich tat nicht widersprechen; denn ich war froh zu fahren nach Hause und sagte: “Bravo, Chaskel, nehmen wir den nächsten Dampfer.” – “Und was tut sich mit die Trauben?” fragt er. “Aus Trauben,” ich musste ihm geben zur Antwort, “macht man hier Rosinen, und diese hat augenblicklich Mr. Zangwill im Kopf.” So wir werden abreisen morgen, und was soll geschehen wegen der Immigration nach Texas, das weiss kein Mensch auf der Erde. Also bleiben Sie gesund bis nächsten Purim, und in diesem Sinne segnet Sie YOURS VERY FAITHFULLY Mbwapwa Jumbo, Häuptling a. D. von Uganda.

Appendix II Max Jungmann: Letters from New-Newland (translated into English and annotated) Letters from New-Newland. (From our Special Correspondent.) I. Dear Mister Schlemiel! When my compatriots heard that there is going to be made an immigration of Jews in Uganda, all the niggers went to stand at the banks of the Victoria-Nyanza,a and full of pain they cried their tears into the lake. Only I fully kept my nerve. 5 “Why do you wail?” I asked. “The jewish nation will be friendly to you; because it has been lynched in Europe like the poor nigger in America. A shared fate brings people close to one another, and they will look upon you as on brothers.”b Then the niggers took some grass from the beach and wiped their eyes, and one proposed three Cheers on the Jews, and the echo from the mountains cried more than 10 a hundred times hurrah. Well, after a short while arrived the first caravan all made up of Mizrachi.c One can immediately see they are good people who are sincere. And pious they are, oh, even more pious than the Puritans, and they only need to raise a hue and cry for the heavens to open up with a big hole and they can speak directly 15 to the Lord. It is said that each Mizrachi is a saint and so God-fearfuld that the Angel Michael and the Angel Gabriel are Social Democrats by comparison. – But there was with the company a man, the Doctor Christian Schmul from Germany, a celebrated Reform rabbi.e On the whole sea voyage he hid in a cabin on the

a Also Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa, bordering on Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya. b See Exodus 22:20. c The Mizrachi, an acronym for Merkaz Ruchani, i.e. “religious center,” was a religious Zionist organization founded in Vilna in 1902. d In the German original, the invented word “gottesfürchterlich” is derived from “Gottesfurcht,” meaning the fear of God; but “fürchterlich” translates as “dreadful, terrible, awful,” see OED, s.v. “fearful.” Mbwapwa’s choice of words may moreover be meant to connote the Hebrew haredi (i.e. God-fearer), a term applied to ultraorthodox Jews. e The Jewish reform movement developed in Germany since the beginning of the nineteenth century. Among its objectives was synagogal modernization, e.g. the introduction of prayers and sermons in the language of the land, organ music, and the abolition of head coverings (first in https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-010

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ship and crept out only when the caravan left the steamer and traveled into the country. And so he would not be recognized but would be taken for a Mizrachi he dissimulated and always did – as they say – a knaitshf with his finger when he spoke. So the Mizrachi believed that he too was an orthodox [Jew]. And at the foot of Mount Kenyag they called a halt, where all the niggers had congregated in their festive clothes, there the Doctor climbed onto a rostrum and gave a sermon, so as to convert the people to the jewish religion. He talked very nicely about the Jewish mission which in the short period of 2000 years has achieved so much. While 400 years ago Jews were still slaughtered almost every day, now it is done only every four weeks. This one should thank the Jewish Mission for, what has moralized and enlightened the peoples. My compatriots have become very enthusiastic about this thing and converted to the Jewish creed, and they promised no longer to eat pork and human meat, but only lokshen kugel and goose liver and cholent.h This would have been a great success for the Doctor, that he should have been content. But then he demanded that every week a holiday should be celebrated on the Sunday.i “Why Sunday?” the Mizrachi asked. “Monday, then, for all I care,” said the Doctor. “Why Monday?” the Mizrachi cried. “Tuesday, then,” the Doctor replied again. And so on till Friday. Now there was a big hubbub and the orthodox shouted: “Shabbes, shabbes!”j And they beat the air with their fists and raved and raged, so much that the racket made you quite deaf. So as to have some more quiet, the Doctor rolled his eyes as if in holy devotion, and he did this so smartly as if he had practised it for many years already. Indeed, it went rather quiet, and Hamburg in 1817). In subsequent years, rabbis such as Aaron Chorin, Abraham Geiger, Samuel Holdheim, and Leopold Löw began to emphasize the concept of the progression of Judaism and to advance the notion of a liberal Judaism which incorporated these innovations. The Jewish community founded by Holdheim and Löw in Berlin in 1845 further distinguished itself from other liberal communities with the introduction of Sunday services, the almost complete elimination of Hebrew from the liturgy, and the rejection of Jewish folk traditions. The continuous engagement with antisemitism led to the obliteration in prayers of such passages which articulated the hope of a return to Palestine and consequently also to the rejection of Zionism. The decidedly assimilatory stance of the reform community was fiercely contested by both orthodox and Zionist groups. f A characteristic hand movement of orthodox Jews linked to the Yiddish verb knejtschen, “bend, crumple, fold” (see German “knautschen”). “Sich knejtschen” (to knaitsh oneself) is therefore sometimes used in the sense of demonstrating exaggerated piety. g Mount Kenya; an extinct volcano in present-day Kenya, the second highest mountain in Africa (5194m). h Traditional eastern European Jewish food: Lokshen are a kind of noodles and cholent is a stew eaten on the sabbath. i See note I.e. j Yiddish, shabbat.

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Mister Christian Schmul spoke to the people: “Brethren, pray, do not be fanatic! Do you believe that the dear Lord cares which day of the week we celebrate? Why do you want to hang on to Saturday so stubbornly? This is a day which was indeed dedicated by our brethren in the faith of yore to the Lord; but consider that we 45 are modern human beings upon whom it is incumbent to fulfill certain cultural obligations. How will we be able to do this if we remain attached to tradition even in regard to mere trifles? Is intolerant orthodoxy really once again to rule in our new state?” And then the orthodox Mizrachi shouted: “Down with him! – Africa for 50 the blacks! Africa for the blacks!” And they seized the Doctor by his beard and dragged him to the Victoria-Nyanza and threw him into the lake. There he should have floated because of his fat, but he still went under because in his chest he carried a heart of stone. Now he is dead, and no one laments him. Nor do I; as you can see in the photo I enclose, I have myself become a member of the orthodox 55 Mizrachi-society. One of them already made a joke and said that I represent a chimney sweep among the Negroes. Be blessed by your antipode Mbwapwa Jumbo Chief (retd) of Uganda 

II. Dear Mister Schlemiel! In the first letter I wrote to you about the drownation of the Reform rabbi Dr. Christian Schmul. After this business was concluded, it has been begun with the colonization of the land and everybody showed much zeal for the endeavor. 5 The farmers sowed the corn and tended their cattle, five thousand lyrical poets were sitting day and night and wrote poëms, trade and commerce have blossomed, and because there has been too much money in Uganda, some citizens thought that a Hebrew ethymological Encyclopedia of all the languages on earth and the moon should be published.a Chaskel the Scribe says this is an important 10 thing for the Koltorje.b So our government has experienced much joy. For we have

a Toward the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century various encyclopaedic projects in Hebrew had been proposed. Only four entries of Ozar ha-Yahadut, originally suggested by Ahad Ha’am, were published in Warsaw in 1906; more successful was Ozar Yisrael, published in New York by Judah David Eisenstein from 1906–13; see Encyclopedia Judaica (1971), VI, 730–5, s.v. “Encyclopedias.” b A note in the original text adds: “Our revered correspondent obviously means: Culture [Unser verehrter Korrespondent meint offenbar: Kultur].”

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a theocratic regime, which I think is very beautiful and commendable. At the top are two rabbonim,c Reb Shmaje Beinbrecher from Vilnad and Reb Avrohom Korfanty from Mainz.e – But, as the German poet says: It has been so nice, yet it was not meant to be.f Yes, sadly, difficult times befell our fatherland. Like thus: When the Reformers in Europe heard from the violent death of their friend Dr. Schmul, they held a public meeting and decided to revenge themselves. They each tied a sabre around their belly and a gun to their back and sailed to East Africa in a boat, which was loaned to them by the antisemitic rowing club of N. Israel Ltd. in Berlin.g The journey took them very long and finally they stepped on the shore where they united themselves with the tribe of the Maasai,h what are all wild niggers and live from mutually killing themselves, and they conspired together to fight against the people of Uganda. It was written a declaration of war and a reformed man presented it to our two rulers. “What?” they replied. “War? – We’ll not do no war, we have other things to do. Efsheri another time, but not this year.” The ambassador did say all right and went away. What can he do? When he returned to the camp and brought the message, of course everything was very constipated. The Entente powersj did sit down in a circle and held council, how best to irritate the enemy. So one hit upon the idea to kidnap the wives of the rabbonim, because then perhaps the ire of the Mizrachi will be so awful to demand satisfaction. Right, two strong Maasai

c Pl. of rabbi. d Capital of Lithuania and a center of Judaism, where the Mizrachi was founded in 1902. e German city on the Rhine in which Jews settled since the tenth century; a reform community was established in 1853. f Parody of Joseph Viktor von Scheffel’s poem “It is Poorly Arranged in Life” (“Das ist im Leben häßlich eingerichtet”) from The Trumpeter of Säkkingen (Der Trompeter von Säkkingen, 1853). Its refrain says: “God be with you! It would have been too beautiful, / God be with you, it was not meant to be! [Behüet’ dich Gott! es wär’ zu schön gewesen, / Behüet’ dich Gott, es hat nicht sollen sein!]” g The company of Nathan Israel was one of the (smaller) Jewish-owned department store chains in Berlin. h East African nomadic people, considered a formidable enemy of the European colonial powers for its military prowess. In winter 1903, roughly coinciding with this issue of Schlemiel, the Africa explorer Carl Georg Schillings referred in a lecture in Berlin to a forthcoming study that suggested an ethnic link between the Jews and the Maasai and that eventually appeared in the following year, see Moritz Merker, Die Masai: Ethnographische Monographie eines ostafrikani­ schen Semitenvolkes (Berlin: Reimer, 1904); see also in more detail Chapter 1. i Yiddish, “probably, perhaps.” j Allusion to the so-called entente cordiale, a series of agreements of April 1904 between Great Britain and France.

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men were chosen to carry out the Rape of the Rabbine Women.k And they really went to Uganda and tied up the women and dragged them away. And no pleas did help. The one did cry: Avrohom, Avrohom! and the other: Shmaje! Shmaje! But the rabbonim did pull their hair and said: “What can we weak men do against such gaslonim!”l…. However, one day went past, two days, a week and another week, and nothing stirred. The Reformers did get sick and tired and exclaimed: “Dear Lord, what gentlemen are these! They don’t seem to care at all. Then it is no use that we feed their women any longer.” And so the ladies were let go again, that they ran in a great hurry and without breath arrived in their houses. Seeing them, the rulers put on very furious faces and said: “Our patience is at an end. What do these Apikorsimm think? War will be waged – and at once.” Of course, weapons there were none in Uganda, and no powder. So they commandeered two fire engines and marched against the border. Reb Avrohom Korfanty and Reb Shmaje Beinbrecher took the point and they were followed by the Mizrachi with their engines, and on both sides were we niggers, what made music and performed war dances. When the enemies saw us advancing they got a mighty fright and cried: “Maasai to the front!” Quickly did they assume fighting positions and already the Reform marshal commanded: Open fire! Then cries Reb Avrohom: Open water! And always the water all at once doused the fire, so that it could not do any harm. So they fought stubbornly till evening and there was no river of blood but a lot of water. On both sides they were very tired and so you will understand that a sincere jubilation ensued among us when from the enemy camp came an envoy and offered peace. Naturally, we were eager and we all reconciled and shook hands. Then a wonderful peace celebration was held and a lot of spiritual stuff was imbibed, wine and schnapps – splendid. But the Maasai did see our intoxication and therefore went into our stables and rustled all our cattle and trampled the fields. The next morning as we woke up and noticed the war losses, nu, you can imagine. – We were all gripped by a profound sorrow and we wept bitterly; for no one knew what else to do. Finally, everyone calmed down and started to confer how to get the country back on its legs again. One made this proposal, another that proposal, but we always only shook our heads. At last Chaskel the Scribe says: “Gentlemen, what is this you say? Consider that a people first of all

k Allusion to the legendary Rape of the Sabine Women. l Yiddish, “robber, murderer.” m Heretics who reject rabbinical teachings.

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is in need of education, art, and science; for a country needs two things, freedom and bread; and an old adage says: Education sets free and art pursues bread.n More I do not need to say a word. I therefore propose to establish a University for Scholarshipo and an Academy for Art on the summit of [Mount] Kenya.”p With 70 this speech he convinced everyone and ever since funds have been raised for the academic institutions. There have already accrued several thousand pounds; but of this Chaskel spent one half on agitation trips and the second half on information leaflets. The third half, he said, is to remain an iron reserve. Greetings from your good friend Mbwapwa Jumbo 75 Chief (retd) of Uganda n “Bildung macht frei” was the motto of Joseph Meyer, the founder of the Konversations-Lexikon (begun in 1839), which he prefixed as epigraph to his series of cheap editions of the classics. In Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s tragedy Emilia Galotti (1772) occurs the proverb “Die Kunst geht nach Brot” after the Latin artes mendicant. o The German “Wissenschaft” embraces all academic disciplines, not only the sciences, for which reason I substitute it in my translation with the similarly inclusive “scholarship.” p The foundation of Hebrew University in Jerusalem (established in 1925) had been proposed by Hermann Schapira already at the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897; the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design was established by Boris Schatz in Jerusalem in 1906.

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Dearest Mister Schlemiel! Meanwhile I spend my time learning the German loshen.a Chaskel the Scribe is my rebbeb and says that he wants to get me so far as to speak in the pure dialect of Vilna, and I should give up the Anglicisms. Uganda, thank God, is, as the “Vorwärts”c writes, once again Mausche d up, plenty of people come in from all over the world and bring in manpower and prosperity. Houses are being built and streets paved with tarmacadam, so smooth that even Reb Shmaje Beinbrecher can dance on it with the R ­ ebbetzine a a Yiddish, “tongue, language.” b Yiddish, “teacher.” c The Vorwärts. Berliner Volksblatt (founded in 1891) was the central organ of the Social Democratic Party in Germany. However, the reference is more likely to the Yiddish Forverts (founded in New York in 1897), which was close to the socialist Bund, or to the Zionist paper Kadimah (i.e. forward); see W. Schabotinsky (i.e. Vladimir Jabotinsky) on “Kadimah” in Die Welt 7.32 (August 7, 1903): 1–2. d Derived from the name Moses, “Mausche” occurs as collective noun for Jews; here, it means as much as “the Jews fare well.” e Yiddish, the rabbi’s wife.

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cake-walk.f Last month Parliament has been established, where I am a member of the Conservative Party. President of the Reichstagg is a certain Lord Rothschild, a very refined man.h He has opened the session with giving thanks to the Honorable colleagues and said that he wants to live according to the traditions of his illustrious kin; for he is a member of a family, he says, what has achieved immeasurable things for Jewry – or could have done.i Then he pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and read out a memorandum from Mister Johann Kremenezkyj from Vienna. Said Johann exhorts the High Edifice to remember Palestine and the Jewish National Fund.k “Give, brethren,” he writes, “and the right hand should not know what the left gives.” For one has to be prepared, he writes, to purchase land in the old homeland, and if he isn’t sent any money he will remain a Johann Lackland.l (Mirth.) The Conservative yes-men had rachmonesm and decided to show themselves clement, and Chaskel the Scribe has raised a hue and cry: “Aha! In Vienna they once again blow strongly into the Golden Horn.”n Then someone from the Reform Party gave a speech, that it was not possible to occupy oneself with politics because it spoils the character and his party knows from before how easily that can happen. In addition he gives the advice that everyone should sweep up in front of his own High Porteo and that the request of Mister Kremenationalfund should be carried out literally in that one

f A dance originating in African American traditions, and related to ragtime and jazz, which became popular in Europe around 1900; see also Chapter 5. g Name of the parliament of the German Empire, here applied as generic term but ­simultaneously suggesting close parallels between both institutions. h The reference is possibly to the British Jewish philanthropist Leopold Rothschild (1845–1917) who was chairman of the Jewish Emigration Society. i Theodor Herzl had unsuccessfully sought the financial support of Baron Edmond de Rothschild for his project of a Jewish state in Palestine. j Johann Kremenezky (1850–1934), the first Director of the Jewish National Fund. k The Jewish National Fund (Hebrew, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael) was founded in 1901 with the purpose of purchasing and developing land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. l Allusion to John Lackland, King of England from 1199–1216, during whose reign nearly all English possessions on the continent were lost to France. m Hebrew and Yiddish, “pity, compassion.” n The primary inlet of the Bosporus in Turkey is known as the Golden Horn. The allusion is to Zionist negotiations with Abdul Hamid II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, about Jewish settlement in Palestine. o Another allusion to the Ottoman Empire whose government was referred to as the High Porte or Sublime Porte. In the original German the pun is on an idiom which says that everyone should sweep in front of their own door, roughly equivalent to ‘putting one’s own house in order first.’

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hand should takeshp not know what the other gives. He therefore petitions to 30 reject the memorandum.” After these words the petition fell under the table of the House.q The President suggested a vote of thanks for the honorable speaker and declares that it wasn’t possible to give any money to the National Fund anyway because a bond had to be granted to the Romanian government.r Now I ran up 35 to the rostrum myself and asked: “Are you being Jews? Such hard Jews should live in Africa? Truly, we niggers have blushed all red seeing this hard-bodiedness (Chaskel: hard-heartedness!) and will give from our own volition for the sacred purpose. We savages are the better humans yet.”s The President replied to this that it is not possible; for the Party of Intellec40 tuals also wants to make use of the national finances. For it has proposed the following petition: “The government is requested to create a Fund for the Elevation of Megalomania among Jewish Writers and Artists.” In order to give an explanatory statement, the Honorable Member Rosen has the big word: “Gentlemen! Regrettably, there are still among Jewish writers and artists some who 45 do not believe that Judaism exists for their sake. There are artists who think that they are inspired by the Jewish spirit, while in reality it is of course they who created the Jewish spirit and the Jewish character in the first place. And just as there are still here and there some artists who are modestly reticent rather than show off everywhere, there are still some poets who do not quote themselves at 50 every opportunity. These philistines, gentlemen, we want to educate. For truly! An artist is more worth than all Jewry; when this has long since decayed, his work will still be advertised…..” Closing the letter, the speaker blew his nose in order to continue. I, however, remain Yours very affectionate 55 Mbwapwa Jumbo Chief (retd) of Uganda

p Probably derived from Yiddish take, “really, truly.” q Another German idiom which means ‘to go by the board.’ r From 1900–06 about 70,000 impoverished Jews from Romania emigrated to the USA via Hamburg. In 1902, the US administration advised the European states of the breach of the Treaty of Berlin (1878) by the Romanian government which had made national independence contingent on Jewish emancipation in the country. s See the conclusion to Johann Gottfried Seume’s ballad “Der Wilde” (1793), discussed above in Chapter 3.

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Dearest Mister Schlemiel! Oy! – I wept day and night and spilled so many tears that I almost wrote a letter to Chajim Jossel that he should lend me his handkerchief.a I will tell you the reason for the cause of my sadness: One fine morning I was sitting in my room with Chaskel the Scribe and was learning words ending on “heit, keit and ung,” when in comes a flunkey from the Presidentship, bows down to the floor and says: Good morning, your Excellency. What do you mean, Excellency? I ask. Then he announces that I should immediately report to the Presidents, for I had been designated ambassador to Russia. My black face turned as white as chalk with terror so that Chaskel took my hands and asked: “Mister Jumbo, you are suddenly turning so white – are you an assimilationist?” But I fell on his long neck and lamented and cried: “How should I leave my beloved homeland? How should I go to a people of gaslonim, where I will be murdered once it is noticed that I am a Jew!”b Chaskel drew himself upright, serious and full of dignity, and like a prophet he said: “Truly, the word of the German composer has come upon you, where he sings: ‘It is a proviso from the Lord that one has to depart from what one loves most.’c Console yourself, Excellency, and follow the call of the fatherland!” – “Never mind,” I replied, “I will speak to the Presidents.” I waved with my hand, the flunkey went ahead and I brought up the rear. In the palace both rulers received me and the Cabinet Secretary read out the Letter of Accreditation, where it says that my Excellency is the representative of the Republic of Uganda at the Russian abattoir.d President Beinbrecher then explained to me my duties, that I should protect the members of our tribe in Russia against the official murderers and robbers. I should muster all my influence with the unnatural Little Father Tsare and whatever happens, in any case I was to pour pure schnapps for the

a Schlemiel includes a column called “Shaken from Chayim Yossel’s Hankie [Aus dem S ­ chnupftuch des Chajim Jossel geschüttelt].” b The reference is to a new wave of pogroms in Russia since 1903, see also Chapter 2. c Parody of Ernst von Feuchtersleben’s poem “Farewell – God’s Wisdom and Parting” (“Auf Wiedersehn – Gottes Rat und Scheiden,” 1825), set to music by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: “It is resolved in God’s wisdom / That from what most dearly one loves / One must part, yes, part [Es ist bestimmt in Gottes Rat, / Daß man vom Liebsten, was man hat, / Muß scheiden, ja scheiden.” d The German original has “Schlachthof” which means slaughterhouse or abattoir, but the second part of the compound, “Hof,” also connotes Court. e The endearing diminutive is applied here in emulation of its frequent Russian usage to the German “Rabenvater,” a term used to denote an uncaring, unnatural father. The reference is to Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia from 1894–1917.

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Russians.f After he concluded his speech, I thanked him for the high honor and remarked that I could not go to Petersburg because no foreign Jews were allowed in. “Then you will take baptism,” cried Reb Avrohom Korfanty. I was beside myself. “Who? I?” I ask. “You say this, you, who are from the sacred community of Mainz?” And Reb Avrohom says: “Excellency, that’s reasons of state.” To this I objected that I have never seen a Christian, that I do not know how much one of them needs to believe, and that I now have such strong roots in Judaism that the baptismal font is an impossibility for me. But the Presidents reassured me and said I should first go to Berlin to make some preparatory exercises in the Jewish Reform community there; then I should soon be ripe for baptism and the soap powder whaleg would deliver the coup de grâce to me. O Lord! O Lord! My mind deserted me and I did not find another word in response. Only one more time I tried to avert the calamity and spoke: “How should I go to the Tsar? I am of a slow tongueh and I don’t have any French or Russian.” – “Very well, Excellency,” said Reb Shmaje Beinbrecher, “then Chaskel the Scribe, well versed in languages, shall accompany you as Military Attaché.” Both Presidents shook my right hand and dismissed me very gracefully. I at once ran to my teacher and friend and took the terrible tidings to him. Chaskel’s eyes became damp and he looked to the floor and whispered: “Mister Jumbo, I am sentimental.” Then he took his guitar and we went, silent, without speaking a word, toward the west, far – – – far – – At the banks of the Victoria Nyanza we sat and wept.i I sang the song: “Must I then, must I then leave the shtetl,”j and Chaskel accompanied me on the guitar – until evening. The air was cool and silent, and high up in a tree we heard the trill of the nightingale. Greetings with lifeblood, tears, and gall from your Mbwapwa Jumbo Chief (retd) of Uganda

f This is a corruption of the German idiom “jemandem reinen Wein einschenken,” i.e. ‘to come clean with somebody.’ g Hortaxin produced a brand of cleaning agents called Walfisch or Walfisch Blitzblank; see also Chapter 2. h See Exodus 4:10. i See Psalm 137:1. j Parody of the Swabian folk song: “Muß i denn, muß i denn zum Städtele hinaus [Must I then, must I then leave the little town],” which associates Yiddish shtetl.

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V. My good Mr. Schlemiel! I am a very happy man, that I don’t need to go to Russia as an ambassador. For because of the war have been severed my diplomatic relations with the Tsar and we therefore observe strict neutrality in favor of Japan, like our super-ordinated 5 English government.a I therefore remain in Uganda and the sigh which I exhaled in the letter from the month of February has transformed itself into ecstasy. Chaskel the Scribe has also found his cheerful spirits again for not having to accompany me to the savage country, although – as he says – you never know what it may have been good for; for the German poet already sings so beautifully: Whom the Lord wants properly to favor, 10 Him, he lets roam all across the world.b Though here there is a young man called Leiser Simpelovich Chamerowski,c formerly a student in Berlin, who thinks it is not worth to travel the world because wherever one goes there are stupid people galore. The most 15 stupid he found among the Zionists in Germany. They travel around, he says, to give speeches to the people, they write papers and books and poems and talk of Palestine and colonization, yet none of them know anything about Vegetablism.d In case you also do not know what this means, I can report that he has a The reference is to the Russo-Japanese War from February 1904 to September 1905, which had been triggered by tensions between both countries about Manchuria and Korea. b Parody of Joseph von Eichendorff’s poem “The Happy Wanderer” (“Der frohe Wandersmann,” c. 1821–23): “To whom God will grant a favor / He’ll send him into the wide world [Wem Gott will rechte Gunst erweisen, / Den schickt er in die weite Welt]”; the poem, included also in Eichendorff’s Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing (Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts, 1826), was set to music by Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich. c Possibly a reference to Gustav Landauer (1870–1919), theorist of anarchy and connected with Martin Buber and, indirectly, with Ida Hofmann-Oedenkoven, who promoted life reform ideals, including vegetablism. d Vegetablism is extolled in Ida Hofmann-Oedenkoven’s Vegetabilismus! Vegetarismus! (Ascona: Selbstverlag, 1905) as: “the redeeming word of the present [das erlösende Wort der Gegenwart],” p. 7, which facilitates progression toward Vegetarianism, defined by the author as “vigorous, happy well-being [kräftiges, fröhliches Wohlleben],” p. 6. The pamphlet is in effect the manifesto of the utopian community Monte Verità, founded by Hofmann-Oedenkoven and her partner Henri Oedenkoven in Ascona in 1900. The writer Hermann Hesse, who stayed at Monte Verità for some time in 1907, fictionalized his experiences in “Dr. Knölge’s End” (“Doktor ­Knölges Ende,” 1910): “There were vegetarians, vegans, vegetablists, raw fooders, fruit fooders, and mixed fooders […] whose efforts were a kind of vegetarian Zionism [Da gab es Vegetarier, Vegetarianer, Vegetabilisten, Rohkostler, Frugivoren und Gemischtkostler (…), deren Bestrebungen eine Art von vegetarischem Zionismus waren].” Mbwapwa’s subsequent explanation of the concept of vegetablism is a satirical inversion.

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invented the word and he means it to signify the Science of the Feeding of Livestock. How can anyone, he asks, be interested in agriculture and colonization if they are no Vegetablists? – I could not understand why the German Jews are so backwards in their education. Then he explained to me that regrettably they are mostly educated for a practical vocation and moreover do not have the time to immerse themselves in philosophical extremities. Two things are to blame for this: First the vocation and second that they are educated rather than educating themselves. Here in our new homeland, he says, this has to change and for this reason he came to Uganda in order to establish a University for Autodidacticism. At this University the students are expected to educate themselves in every science, but in such a way that no one is permitted to engage with any subject for more than a fortnight. After a semester the examination will be conducted by means of a social-­psychological-philosophical dissertation about the ignorance of other people. Leiser is, as you can see, a man with thoughts and for this reason we have elected him onto the synagogal commission for dancing. For the dance service is the latest rage in Uganda and came into being through the fairness of the Reform Party, what I have to concede, even though I do not support them. It has been said that the Jews have always shown consideration for the customs of their fatherland. Like they worshipped their God in Europe by means of the organ,e so they have to worship Him here by means of dancing after the manner of the Negroes, because the blacks otherwise could easily become antisemites. The orthodox of course were opposed because none of them have had any dancing lessons yetf and thus a great culture warg ensued until the commission was elected. This wrote to some Berlin rabbis for their expert opinion

e One of the most controversal synagogal reforms of the nineteenth century was the introduction of the organ, which occurred in Germany for the first time in Seesen in 1810. Triggered by an assessment by the Berlin Rabbinate, at the beginning of 1904 the use of the organ in synagogues was once again hotly debated; see also note I.e and Chapter 5. f In Hasidism, dance and music are considered a therapeutic form of worship. The Hasidic movement within orthodox Judaism originated in eastern Europe in the eighteenth century and seeks to promote a mystic spirituality. For the significance of dance in Judaism, see also Chapter 5. g Mbwapwa’s choice of word suggests a parallel within the Jewish context to efforts of the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck after the foundation of the German Empire to effect the separation of state and church and in particular to challenge the influence of the Catholic Church, which were referred to as Kulturkampf (“culture struggle”); see also Chapter 4.

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so that it can be hoped with certainty that it won’t be long until there will be dancing in the synagogue. For now I remain 45 Your loyal friend Mbwapwa Jumbo Chief (retd) of Uganda VI. Dear Mister Schlemiel! Our future fell into the watera and for this reason we will soon be left high and dry. A mischief, or as they say in German: A malheurb has come upon Ugandac and the Jews begin to be discontent with their situation. The economic situation   5 is good, but the geographical location of the country is not to their liking. To my shame I have to admit that Chaskel the Scribe is most to blame for the confusion, and he has become a strong agitator. He runs from one person to the next and from the next to the first, crying: “In Romania, Russia, and Galicia we were suffering; but,” he cries: “there, at least we lived among civilized peoples, we 10 lived among people with feeling. Yet here they are as savage as the wolves. And then,” he exclaims, “when we wanted to go on an excursion before, we went to Germany, where we were received with love and where we were given policemen as an escort so that no harm would befall us. Yet here, what neighbors do we have? Maasai and Hererod and Bondelzwart,e black robbers and bandits, God 15 should have mercy.” And that’s the way he speaks. My heart shrivels in my body, and I called to him: “What do we care about our neighbors?” Then he turns around and says: “Mister Jumbo, there is the word from a German poet, where he sings:

a The idiomatic German phrase for failure interrogates at the same time the Kaiser’s notorious claim in support of his marine armament plans that Germany’s imperial future was on the water; see also Chapter 1. b The ‘German’ word, meaning misfortune, is in fact of French origin; Mbwapwa implicitly emphasizes the hybrid character of the language. c Mbwapwa’s phrase recalls the attempt of the Director of the Colonial Office, Oskar Wilhelm Stübel (1900–05), to compare the Herero uprising to a natural disaster, see the introduction. d A Bantu people settling in northern present-day Namibia, the former German protectorate South-West Africa (from 1884–1915/18). In 1897 and in 1904 the Herero rebelled against the German colonial power and by 1907 were almost annihilated. e A Nama people in southern present-day Namibia; in 1903 the Bondelzwart rebelled against the German colonial power prior to the Herero uprising.

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It cannot live in peace the very best, If his neighbors will not let him rest.”f His supporters clapped for minutes on end, never-ending, always resurging applause with waving of kerchiefs, and the speaker was congratulated.g What can I write to you, good Mr. Schlemiel? Chaskel pushed through the foundation of a Zionist organization and they are hard at work to move the Jews to Palestine. Of course the more refined patrons keep apart from this new idea. The rich people say it is a utopia that they should have any interest in the fortunes and the honor of Jewry. And the Presidents of our state are opposed because it is not certain that they will occupy the same position also in Palestine; Lord Rothschild too, the President of Parliament, will have nothing to do with it because he suffers from the gout and is glad to be sitting in the country and not to sail once more across the seas. The only anti-Zionists from internal conviction are the Reform rabbis; because they are waiting with determination for the Messiah with an ass.h A sign that the time won’t be long now they see in the continuously increasing number of asses among the Jews. The Zionists are as yet small in number and there are estimated to be ten members. Chaskel the Scribe is the Supreme Leader; the student Simpelovich Chamerowski is Head of the Department for Vegetablism; Chaskel’s son Pinchas, the cyclist, is Head of the Department for the Elevation of Tourism in Palestine; the lyrical poet Jankew L. Bierkäse is Head for Poetry and Prose; the Honorable Member and artist Rosen is Head for Art which Pursues Bread; the athlete Chajim Brummer is Head of the Department Protest and Ultimatum. – The organization has commenced its activities straight away and is organizing a rowing party with ladies on the Victoria Nyanza. Dr. Bodenheimeri in Cologne has agreed to give the ceremonial address, but he forgot to appear. Now you will understand what is the mood of Your friend Mbwapwa Jumbo Chief (retd) of Uganda f Parody of two lines from Friedrich Schiller’s play Wilhelm Tell (1804), see ll. 2682–3: “Es kann der Frömmste nicht im Frieden bleiben, / Wenn es dem bösen Nachbar nicht gefällt.” g This passage satirizes the tone of the minutes of the Zionist Congresses, see also Sammy Gronemann’s “Stenographisches Protokoll des VII. Zionisten-Kongresses,” Schlemiel 2.4 (1904): 32–3 and Chapter 1. h The reference is to Jesus who entered Jerusalem on the back of an ass, see Matthew 21:6, the suggestion being that the reform rabbis have effectively converted to Christianity and are waiting for the Second Coming. i Max Isidor Bodenheimer (1865–1940), lawyer, friend of Theodor Herzl, and influential Zionist; first president of the Zionist Federation of Germany (Zionistische Vereinigung für Deutschland; from 1894–1910).

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Dear Mister Schlemiel! For a very long time I was angry with you because you refused to pay the honorarium for my letters. Despite my reminders you always declared you would not pay, and as a gentleman you really were true to your word and did not pay so that I must say: Mister Schlemiel is a gentleman, an honorable man from head to corns. To remain in business with such a man of his word is a joy for me and so I decided to write to you again. Do you remember the student from Berlin, Leiser Simpelovich Chamerowski? He has become a laughing stock for the children of Uganda. Because, in order to prove his idealism and his superior talent, he had the idea to wear his hair à la Gorky.a But misfortune played a prank on him, that his hair fell out. He rubbed and greased – nothing helped. His head became more and more bald, like a mountain that is deforested and now, regrettably, it looks like a scratched billiard ball. Leiser took the matter very much to mind and has become – as they say in German – meshugge.b He runs around and cries: My head is the Lebanon, give me back my cedars!c And the children follow him and mock him. Our frummers think that this is a punishment from God because he is an opponent of the orthodox Zionist party Mizrachi. We Mizrachim have luckily gained the upper hand in Uganda and are agitating strongly for piety. Albeit our President Shmaje Beinbrecher has raised his warning voice and has said that agitation is very dangerous for orthodoxy; because for more than a hundred years everyone will want to have a piece of the Leviathand and for so many frummers the fish will be too small. Lehmanne from Mainz also sent a protest note, because he is a man who has the monopoly on true faith and he wants to drag the Mizrachim before the Court of Arbitration in The Haguef because of unfair competition. But we will not be prevented from using our power for as long as the Reform Party will not interfere; for this is currently mightily preoccupied with collections of money for

a The Russian writer Maxim Gorky (1868–1936) wore his thick hair brushed back like a helmet, Gustav Landauer sported a similar style. The association with vegetablism suggests moreover unrestrained and unkempt growth of hair and beard. b Yiddish, “mad, rabid.” c See Zechariah 11:1–3. d For the biblical monster, see, e.g., Job 3:8; Psalm 74:14, and Isaiah 27:1. e It is unclear who is referenced here; Rabbi Marcus (Meir) Lehmann, founding editor of the weekly Der Israelit, which was the most influential organ of orthodox Judaism in Germany, had died already in 1890. f The Permanent Court of Arbitration was established following the First Hague Conference of 1899.

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the erection of a Protestant church in Ovikokorero.g How beneficial we work you can see from the tram affair.h Chaskel the Scribe suggested to build an electric tramway. We were flabbergasted. Good Mister Schlemiel, have you ever heard that a Rabbi Rainesi or Dr. Nobelj in Leipzig built a tramway? A laughter arose as if someone had proposed that no kreplachk should be consumed at Purim.l This might even be imagined, it is after all a matter of piety. But what has a tram to do with religion? After long speeches and applause the petition was of course voted down and rejected. Chaskel became like a savage and gave a hue and cry: “You Mizrachim are Zionism’s misfortune.”m He then came to my house where I explained to him that without a religious program the Zionist Party is like a dachshund without training. Chaskel made the objection that a dachshund is by nature not made for training and that he too will not be trained. “Well,” I replied, “we will find a way of training him and if we torment him to death.” “Aha,” said Chaskel, “is it so? So, rather dead than no Mizrachi? Well, Mbwapwa, remember the word of the German poet, where he sings: Tormenting any creature for fun is never right; For sometimes such carrion will bite.”n He threw his head proudly backwards and, inserting his right hand between the two upper buttons of his frock coat, he departed.o But the story of the dachshund kept revolving in my head and it seemed to me that Chaskel may have been right and I told the Presidents everything. They took the matter to the High Council where the danger was recognized and it was decided to make Harakiri with all the dachshunds in Uganda. And on the 20th of the month Elulp all ­dachshunds g Also Owikokorero; an important waterhole in eastern Hereroland in German South-West ­Africa where in March 1904 a contingent of the Schutztruppe suffered heavy losses. h Possibly an allusion to the Uganda Railway, built from 1896–1901 in British East Africa to connect the sea port Mombasa with Lake Victoria in the interior. i Yitzchak Yaacov Reines (or Raines; 1839–1915), orthodox rabbi, since 1885 holding the rabbinate in Lida (Lithuania) and founder of the Mizrachi in Vilna in 1902. j Nehemiah Anton Nobel (1871–1922), orthodox rabbi and member of the Mizrachi, serving in the rabbinate of Leipzig from 1901–06. k From Yiddish krepel; small dumplings filled with meat or mashed potatoes. l A Jewish holiday that commemorates deliverance of the Jewish people from the genocidal plans of Haman in the ancient Persian Empire. m An allusion to Heinrich von Treitschke’s infamous claim of 1879: “The Jews are our misfortune [Die Juden sind unser Unglück]!” n Parody of a German proverb: “Never torment an animal for fun, / It feels the pain like you’d have done [Quäle nie ein Tier zum Scherz, / Denn es fühlt wie du den Schmerz].” o An allusion to the well-known pose of Napoleon Bonaparte. p The last month of the Jewish civil year, usually in August/September, and leading up to the new year celebrations on Rosh Hashanah on the first and second day of the following month, Tishrei.

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50 were killed in Uganda and their corpses thrown into the Victoria Nyanza. Now no

one can say that the Mizrachim are intolerant, but it will be recognized that we accommodate even our enemies as far as is possible. I spread my hands above you, Mr. Schlemiel, and bless you as your faithful Mbwapwa Jumbo 55 Chief (retd) of Uganda VIII. The expeditiona sent to East Africa has been attacked by the Wanandib tribe. Dear Mr. Schlemiel!

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By the time you will receive this letter, The expedition will have arrived in Europe, What shortly came to visit us in Uganda, To see if there was any land there for the Jews. Mister Gibbons was very satisfied, As you can read in all the papers, And he saw that the land is fine, That in it the Negroes thrive splendidly, And that it flows with milk and honeyc As soon as both are spilled onto the floor. But unfortunately he had some misfortune Because of the attack of the Wanandi hordes;

a The Zionist Organization commissioned an expedition (December 1904 to April 1905) to ascertain the suitability of the East African territory offered by the British government for Jewish settlement. It consisted of the experienced British Africa explorer Major A. St. Hill Gibbons, the Swiss scholar and explorer Alfred Kaiser, and the Russian-born Jewish engineer Nahum Wilbusch. The official report was published in 1905 as Report on the Work of the Commission Sent Out by the Zionist Organization to Examine the Territory Offered by His Majesty’s Government for the Purposes of a Jewish Settlement in British East Africa (London: Wertheimer, Lea and Co., 1905); see also Chapter 2. b Also Nandi; a nilotic people in present-day Kenya, settling to the north-east of Lake Victoria and culturally influenced by the Maasai. In March 1905, several papers reported an attack of the warlike tribe on the Zionist expedition; see also Chapters 2 and 3. c See, e.g., Exodus 3:7–9 et passim.

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The Wanandi is uncivilized and dirty And fierce as a bear and he knows not what is done. He certainly is no antisemite, But Chaskel the Scribe informed him That Europe’s Jews now seek To aspire culturally in Uganda. The Wanandi is stupid and has no chaind And thought to oblige the Jews And wanted to give the explorers a chance To expire as soon as possible here. This is the authentic state of affairs, Tell this to our friends

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and greetings from your Mbwapwa Jumbo, Chief (retd) of Uganda

d From Yiddish chen, also chei, chein, “grace, gracefulness.”

IX. Letter from Texas. (From our Special Correspondent.) Dear Mister Schlemiel! HOW DO YOU DO? – Because I heard that you have long since been defuncta I stopped to write LETTERS FROM Uganda to you; for “Letters that didn’t reach him”b have gone out of fashion, as has Uganda too. Instead everyone now speaks  5 of Texas where a Jewish IMMIGRATION is meant to be under way,c and the Party of the Texasists. Truly, in spite of the equator the Jewish people didn’t warm to EAST AFRICA and once again it is supposed to leave its domicile and to wander

a Schlemiel appeared from November 1903 to March 1906 on the first of the month: Its final issue was published on February 28, 1907. Further issues were announced to appear annually at Purim, but it was not before 1919 that another shortlived effort was made to resuscitate the magazine which once again failed in 1920; a final unsuccessful attempt to revive the venture was made in 1924. b A column in Schlemiel: “Briefe, die ihn nicht erreichten.” c The Galveston Plan of the Jewish Territorial Organization (ITO) envisaged the settlement of Jews in Texas. Between 1907–14 immigration was facilitated for about 10,000 Jews.

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far afield. Chaskel the Scribe surprised me with the news when I was sitting with him at the banks of the Victoria-Nyanza to fish some carps for Purim. For I had become horribly angry because only frogs and crabs bit on my rod, all of them treifd fishes, and I began to curse because of my mischief. “Be quiet, Jumbo,” said Chaskel, “perhaps God grants that you will have more luck at the Colorado or at the beach of Galveston.” I ask, what is this? And Chaskel tells me that the Jews are supposed to wander to Texas, because MISTER Zangwille in London so decreed. “What decreed?” I cry, “who has to decree? I will stay here in Uganda and will quit the Jewish race.” Then Chaskel became a little sentimental and took my hand, saying: “Jumbo, you talk like a little BOY. What good is it to you to quit the Jewish race? Are you the son of a Reform rabbi? Or do you want to become a medical professor? Or do you have a descendant what should study as Deputy Director of the Colonial Office?f – Well, why talk such drivel? – I advise you, do not quit; for this quitting sometimes stinks more than a shitting, – but dwell in the race and you shall be fed, as the proverb might say.g And when your people leaves to wander, so wander along and remember the word of the German composer, where he sings: Everywhere I am at home, Everywhere I am known, If my luck takes a break in the North, Well, then the South will be my fatherland.”h I listened quietly and then said ALL RIGHT and went home with Chaskel the Scribe without saying a word. I had scarcely entered my dwelling when a messenger arrived from the Presidentship with the command that I should sail to Texas with Chaskel as a spy. INDEED, we went on the long journey and arrived felicitously as you can see from the postmark of this LETTER. Following the

d Yiddish treife; food which is prohibited by Jewish religious law (antonym of kosher). e Israel Zangwill (1864–1926); well-known British Jewish writer and founder, in 1905, of the ITO. f An allusion to Bernhard Dernburg (1865–1937), Director of the Imperial Colonial Office from 1906–07 and Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs from 1907–10, whose father Friedrich had converted to Christianity. g Parody of the German proverb “Bleibe im Land und nähre dich redlich,” based on Psalm 37:3: “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” h Parody of Friedrich Hückstädt’s cosmopolitan poem “Ubi bene, ibi patria” (1806): “Überall bin ich zuhause, überall bin ich bekannt, / Macht das Glück im Norden Pause, ist der Süd mein Vaterland,” set to music by Franz Otto. i See Deuteronomy 1:24–5.

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example of the biblical spies we took a long hop pole along in order to bear the cluster of thick grapes as a sign whether the land be fat or lean.i WELL, when we ­disembarked at the port of Galvestonj we were received by Buffalo Billk and the Indian chief Uncas,l the son of Chingagoch.m I was surprised by this conception and asked where is Mister Zangwill? To which Buffalo Bill replied: “He went to see Schiff in New York.”n For Mr. Schiff is supposed to donate money for our entertainment in Texas. – The area is very beautiful. From the port there is a good view of the Gulf of Mexico and when you turn south you see – at least on the map – the Yucatan peninsula.o Chaskel in the meantime had developed an appetite and so Buffalo Bill said goodbye; yet Uncas took us to his house and we walked the streets; I on the left, the white Chaskel in the middle, and on the right the red Indian; we looked like a German flag.p Uncas had a palace from straw and mud and a wife Watawahq what welcomed us with kindness. We ate and drank rather well, then Chaskel said to me: “Jumbo, take the pole and go search for the grapes on your own, I will not move from here.” WELL, I went and didn’t see Chaskel for some days. Finally, I meet him in the street with a torn coat, without hat, and with red-swollen cheeks. “Hello,” I shout, “Chaskel, what is the matter? Are your cheeks swollen so much from all the food?” – “Oy,” he says, “would that I had stayed with the pole! The devil should take the Indians! I will go back to Uganda,

j City on the Gulf of Mexico (Texas); founded in 1836, Jewish immigration since 1840. k The reference is to the American scout and hunter Colonel William F. Cody (1847–1917), known as Buffalo Bill, who became famous for his traveling Wild West shows which toured E ­ urope ­several times, visiting Germany in 1890–91 and in 1906; see also Chapter 5. l A character in James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans (1826), the second volume in his so-called Leatherstocking tales. m Chingachgook; a character in James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Pioneers (1823), the first volume in the Leatherstocking tales. n The reference is to Jacob Henry Schiff (1847–1920), a German-born Jewish banker, businessman, and philanthropist who became very influential in New York. Schiff was active in the establishment and development of the Jewish Theological Seminary and of Hebrew Union College and was one of the founders of the American Jewish Committee. In the original German, the pun is based on Schiff’s name which translates as ship: “zu Schiff” means ‘going by boat’ as well as ‘going to see Schiff.’ o Peninsula in northern Central America, between the Gulf of Campeche and the Caribbean. p The black, white, and red flag of the North German Confederation (founded in 1866) was designed by Otto von Bismarck and was adopted as the German national flag after the foundation of the Empire in 1871. q A character in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Deerslayer (1841), the prequel of the Leatherstocking tales.

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to my free country. With us and in all of Africa, as the German colonial administration can confirm, the proverb is: Do you want to be my little cousin? 55 Or I’ll bash your head in, you’ll see.r Here, everything is topsy-turvy. And a TERRITORY where one is not met with love but with the opposite I do not need.” I did not object; for I was glad to be sailing home and said: “Bravo, Chaskel, let’s take the next steamer.” – “And 60 what’s with the grapes?” he asks. “From grapes,” I had to answer him, “they make raisins here and that’s what’s currently in Mr. Zangwill’s head.”s So we will depart tomorrow and what is going to happen about the immigration to Texas no one in the whole wide world knows. So, be well till next Purim, and to this end be blessed by 65

YOURS VERY FAITHFULLY, Mbwapwa Jumbo, Chief (retd) of Uganda

r Parody of a phrase coined by the German Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow in December 1903 in a debate in the Reichstag: “Und willst du nicht mein Bruder sein, / so schlag ich dir den Schädel ein!” See Chapters 4 and 5. s The German idiom “Rosinen im Kopf haben” means ‘to have big ideas.’

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Index A

A. M. – works – “On Dernburg’s Return from Africa” (orig. “Zu Dernburgs Rückkehr aus Afrika“) 86n137 Abayudaya 45n25 Abdul Hamid II (Sultan of the Ottoman Empire) 115–117, 404nn Abraham (biblical) 136 Abuse 199, 279, 326, 361 – sexual 270 – violent 229 Abyssinia (Ethiopia) 42 Acclimatization theory (Virchow) 290, 310 Achad-Haam (i.e. Asher Ginsberg) 43, 54n58. See also Ahad Ha’am Achensee (Austria) 296 Administration, colonial – German 27, 32, 63, 77, 122, 175, 178, 212, 216, 222, 255n35, 258, 276, 284, 320, 418 Advertisement(s) 8, 9, 29, 123–124, 154, 252, 288, 315 – Hortaxin 123, 150, 407ng – New Departure rear break hubs 251–252 – Pears’ Soap 123, 145, 150, 159, 160, 286 Aesthetics 37, 111 Africa 7n22, 15, 16, 18–19, 20–21, 27–28, 32, 35, 36, 45, 51–53, 57–58, 65, 66n93, 73, 92, 95–97, 100, 102, 127, 128, 129–130, 133–144, 146, 149, 164, 167, 171, 173, 180, 194n89, 195, 201, 209, 210, 214, 218, 221, 226–227, 229, 231, 232, 244, 258, 261, 264, 266, 270–271, 272, 276, 285, 286, 289n51, 307, 316, 319, 320, 322, 338, 379, 395, 398n1, 399ng, 400, 401, 405, 414, 418. See also Continent, Dark – East 3, 4, 17, 28, 39, 42, 46n26, 70n102, 92, 104, 130, 134–142, 172, 227, 286, 291, 395, 401, 414, 414na, 415 – British (see British East Africa) – German (see German East Africa) – North 201 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110586039-012

– Scramble for 28, 175 – South-West – German (see German South-West Africa) “African Distichs.” See Bierbaum, Otto Julius Africans 39, 70, 77, 78, 89, 94, 105, 150n98, 158–159, 162, 179n24, 213n154, 219, 245, 278–280, 294, 316, 324n1, 348, 362, 376 – and apes 363, 378n48 – black 4, 35, 36, 37, 50, 52, 69, 73, 81, 122, 150, 159–160, 165, 170, 172, 174, 216, 217, 281–287, 292, 294, 295, 300, 326, 363, 371 – from Cameroon 76, 78 – exhibited – at Colonial Exhibition (1896) 69, 73 – in Germany 19, 280 – imaginary of 73 – indigenous 32, 186 – Jewish 21, 36, 50, 89, 106, 135, 138, 216, 238, 294, 295, 375, 378 – East 143 – and Jews 4, 70, 162, 165, 170, 188, 216, 220, 294 – native 6, 57, 158, 211 – perception of 5, 52 – primitive 378 – representations of 20 – savage 73, 209 – from South-West Africa 76, 90 – warriors 92 Agency 53, 124–126, 151, 302, 309, 360, 371–372, 380 – communicative 317 – human 59, 279 – redemptive 242 Agriculture 15, 183, 267, 409 – tropical 10, 138 Ahad Ha’am (i.e. Asher Ginsberg) 53–55, 58, 110, 142, 400na. See also Achad-Haam – works – “Altneuland” (review) 53–55, 58, 110, 142 – Ozar ha-Yahadut 400na Aimard, Gustave 313

446 

 Index

Akwa (King of Cameroon; music hall character) 37, 150, 277, 287–288, 292–294 Akwa (African people) 279 Akwa, Dika (King of the Duala) 102, 277, 281 Akwa, Mpundo 37, 78, 102, 277–280, 283, 286–287, 292, 348 – works – Sun of Cameroon, The (orig. Elolombé ya Kamerun) 279 Alcohol 229, 341 – consumption by natives 64, 77, 228 – trade with 66 Ålesund (Norway) 231, 232n21 Aliens Act (Britain, 1905) 131 Allahabad (India) 30 Allenby, Edmund (General) 118n246 Allgemeine Zeitung des Judentums (Leipzig/ Berlin) 95n164, 217, 220 Alliance Israélite Universelle 25 Allosemitism 331 Alterity 361, 364. See also Otherness – agony of 361 – Jewish 311 “Altneuland.” See Ahad Ha’am Altneuland (Berlin) 27, 124–126, 137 Altneuland. See Herzl, Theodor; Old-New Land Altona 278 Ambiguity 17, 45, 83, 106, 172, 294, 306n114, 339, 366 – racial 161 America 29, 33, 39, 56, 58, 129, 163, 164, 190, 293, 296, 300–301, 303, 312, 313, 316, 321, 338, 378, 398, 417no – antebellum 297n85 – North 315, 320 – United States of 318 American Civil War (1861–1865) 290n61 American Colonization Society 51 American Jewish Committee (New York) 417nn American West 275, 313, 317, 319. See also West, Wild American(s) 22, 293, 296, 301, 315, 318 – black 20 – native 282, 314, 315–316, 318–322 – negroes 56

And on Earth Peace!. See May, Karl Andersen, Hans Christian 368 – works – “Emperor’s New Clothes, The” 368 Andrae, Walter 258 Anglicanism 140 Anglicisms 27, 70–71, 294, 387, 403 “Anglicization.” See Zangwill, Israel Anglo-Ashantee War, Third (1873–1874)  102 Anglo-Boer War, Second (1899–1902) 57, 133, 139, 140, 167, 249 Anglo-Zulu War (1879) 33 Angola 200n108 Anonymous – “Blessings of Colonial Policy, The” (orig. “Segen der Kolonialpolitik, Der”) 253–254 – “Compatriot, The” (orig. “Landsmann, Der”) 73n110 – “Evolution of the Umbrella, The” 101, 103–104 – “Friends of the Herero, The” (orig. “Freunde der Herero, Die”) 234, 237–238 – “Gallery of Illustrious Contemporaries” (orig. “Galerie berühmter Zeitgenossen”) 163 – “Gallery of Illustrious Jews” (orig. “Galerie berühmter Juden”) 163–164 – “New Congo Anthem, The” (orig. “Neue Kongohymne, Die”) 232–233 – “New Transports to South-West Africa, The” (orig. “Neuen Transporte nach Südwestafrika, Die”) 253 – “Parliamentary Report” (orig. ­“Parlamentsbericht”) 36, 173, 215–216, 221–224, 225, 258 – “Tarnished Honor of the German Arms, The” (orig. “Verletzte deutsche Waffenehre, Die”) 177n12 – “War Canoe of the Duala in Cameroon” (orig. “Kriegskanu der Dualla in Kamerun”) 103 – “Wars of Liberation” (orig. “Freiheitskriege”) 239–240, 241 Anthem 232–233

Index 

– national – Belgian 233n24 (see also “Brabançonne, La”) – British 233n24 (see also “God Save the Queen”) – German imperial 232–233 (see also “Hail to Thee in Victor’s Crown”) Anthropology 74, 78, 90 – cognitive 14 – physical 74, 78, 90, 352 Anticlericalism 226, 255, 257, 266 Anticolonialism 6, 36, 183, 211, 215, 223, 238, 276, 279, 319 Anticulturalism 47, 257 – of clerics 256 – of the Mizrachi 47 – of natives 256 Antimodernism 47 Antiquity 83, 349 Antiracism 276, 287 Anti-Semite and Jew. See Sartre, Jean-Paul Antisemite(s) 5n18, 16, 58, 132, 172, 178, 186, 215–216, 217, 220, 223, 310, 345, 346, 379 Antisemitism XIV, 5, 10, 16–17, 25, 56, 58, 99, 105, 109, 121, 132, 142, 145, 146, 151–152, 154–155, 158, 164, 166, 172, 215, 217, 220–221, 223, 224, 233n26, 238, 253, 259, 263–264, 286, 303, 310–311, 324, 327–329, 331, 334, 340, 344, 346, 351, 380, 382, 285, 391, 395, 399ne, 401, 409, 415 – African American 56 – British 167 – and civilization 17, 57–58, 99, 172, 219, 311 – German 132, 142, 164, 168, 175, 311, 380, 382 – political 175 – Russian 16 – in South Africa 57 Anxiety 21, 98, 116, 139, 159, 306, 308, 309, 322 – castration 106, 335–336, 368–369 – ethical 178 – of miscegenation 267 – political 176, 178 – racial 208, 214

 447

– of sexual violation 180 Apes 166, 363, 371–375. See also Monkey(s) – association with blacks 363 – association with Jews 166, 363, 373–375 Apparatus – photographic 78, 120 – stereoscopic 59 Arab(s) – Palestinian 40, 108n208 Arabian peninsula 93 Arabic (language) 108, 117, 202n112, 203 Ardistan and Djinnistan. See May, Karl Arenberg, Prosper von 235–237, 270 – appellate court martial of 236 – brutality of 235 – court martial of 235–236 Arendt, Hannah 9, 269 Arendt, Otto 182, 268 Argentina 168 Arminius Monument (Detmold) 249 Army – Bavarian 219 – French 154n120 – German 219, 235 – Roman 362 Art academy 16, 96, 403 Aryans XIV, 57–58, 336, 351 Ascona 408nd Ashantee (African kingdom) 102, 175 Ashkenazim 140n67. See also Jew(s), eastern European Ashur 258 Asia 53, 98n174, 141, 338 Asiatism 54 Assimilation 39, 107, 321, 352, 363, 372–375 – forced 316 – Jewish 16, 39, 40, 45–47, 93, 122, 161, 166, 215, 222–224, 240n51, 258, 259, 298–299, 304, 309, 310–311, 323, 343–344, 352, 364, 371, 375, 399ne, 406 Assyrian 258–259, 265 – beard 117, 149, 168, 259 – costume 258–259 Asylum – for the persecuted Jewish masses 43, 96

448 

 Index

Atrocities 28, 151n103, 175n7, 178–181, 184, 194n87, 197, 207, 217, 228, 232, 234, 235–236, 256, 272, 322, 379 Attraction – exotic 19 – sensual 19 – sexual 91, 272 Attributes 35, 64, 67–68, 83–84, 88, 100, 159, 164, 240, 242, 248, 249, 250, 338 Auerbach, Elias 259 August (Ewané) 75, 81, 114, 158, 300 Australasia 129 Australia 10, 42 Austria 113n228 Authenticity 19, 62, 89, 107, 153, 203 Authorization of the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Living, The. See Binding, Karl; Hoche, Alfred Auto-da-Fé. See Canetti, Elias Autonomy – black 307 – iconographic 88 – national 240

B

Babylon 258 Babylonians 259 Backwardness – Catholic 310 – colonial 101 – in fashion 106n201 – social 106n201 – uncivilized 108n212 Baden, Friedrich von (Grand Duke) 115 Baedeker, Karl – works – Palestine and Syria (orig. Palästina und Syrien) 22, 23 Bagamoyo (German East Africa/ Tanzania) 104 Bali (Cameroon) 77 Balkan Wars (1912–1913) 208 Ballad(s) – “Lenore” (see Bürger, Gottfried August) – “Savage, The” (see Seume, Johann Gottfried) Ballet – Sardanapal (see Delitzsch, Friedrich)

Balzac, Honoré de – works – Contes drolâtiques 330 Bananas 85–86 Bananas from Cameroon. See Schkopp, Eberhard von “Bankruptcy Clearance Sale.” See Thiele, Arthur Bantu (African people) 410nd Baptism 46, 122, 374, 407 Barbarian(s) 17, 28, 98, 188, 191, 308, 315 Barbarism 36, 44, 54, 98–99, 172–173, 175, 181, 189 – Asiatic 98 Basel (Switzerland) 1, 3, 44, 96, 163–164, 403np Basel Program (Zionist Organization) 10 Bastards (African people) 212n153, 213n154 Basutoland (British crown colony) 175n7 Baudissin, Wolf von (Count). See also Freiherr von Schlicht – works – First-Class Men (orig. Erstklassige Menschen) 234–235, 237, 268 Bazaar 146, 148n92, 148n95 Bebel, August 31n121, 32n123, 178, 181–182, 184, 185–189, 191, 193, 199, 217, 230, 233, 234–235, 237, 239–240, 252, 265, 268 Bechuanaland (British protectorate) 89n144, 200n108, 202. See also Botswana Bell, Bismarck 78–9, 81, 82, 90, 114, 118, 158, 300, 317n152. See Figure 8a, b, Figure 9 Bell, Brisso (King of the Duala) 282n25. See Figure 6 Bell, Manga (King of the Duala) 281–282 Bell, Ndumbe Lobé (King of the Duala) 67, 282. See Figure 4 Bender, Henry 150n101, 277, 292 Berlin 1, 16, 37, 50, 69, 73, 86n137, 95n164, 122, 150, 177, 211, 226, 244, 245, 258, 276–277, 281, 287, 288n47, 289n50, 291–292, 309, 311, 316, 385, 389, 390, 391, 393, 399ne, 401, 401ng, 401nh, 407, 408, 409, 409ne, 412. See also Brandenburg Gate; Ethnological

Index 

Museum; Exhibition, Colonial; Metropol-Theater; Royal Opera; Royal Prussian Mint; Technical University; Treaty, of Berlin; Treptow – Treaty of (1878) 405nr Berlin antisemitism dispute (1879–1880) 117n242, 152 Berlin Missionary Society 210 Berlin Rabbinate 311, 409ne Berlin, Irving 293n72 Berseba (German South-West Africa/ Namibia) 213 Bethanien (German South-West Africa/ Namibia) 213 Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts (Jerusalem) 16, 96, 403np Bhabha, Homi K. 351, 372, 283 Bias – anticolonial 36 – antisemitic 324, 340 – cultural 74 – Eurocentric 53 – ideological 134 – satiric 172 – Zionist 373 Bible 22–23, 232, 254 Bierbaum, Otto Julius 229, 232, 266, 267, 329–331, 346, 347 – works – “African Distichs” (orig. “Afrikanische Distichen”) 229–230, 232, 266, 267, 329 – “Oskar Panizza” 329–331 Bilse, Fritz Oswald 234–235. See also Kyrburg, Fritz von der – works – Little Garrison, A (orig. Aus einer kleinen Garnison) 234–235 Binaries 121 – of civilized and savage 191 – of cultured and barbarian 191 – of primitivism and barbarism 181 Binding, Karl 207n126 – works – Authorization of the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Living, The (orig. Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten

 449

Lebens, Die) 207n126. See also Hoche, Alfred Birnbaum, Menachem 380 Bismarck, Otto von (German Chancellor) 78, 309, 409ng, 417np Bismarck Archipelago (German colony) 28n107, 255 Black Skin, White Masks. See Fanon, Frantz Black Zionism 51 Blackface 37, 60–61, 274, 275, 292–299, 301–304, 324, 378. See also Stage, practice, of blackface – actor(s) 324, 367 – in America 293 – discursive 294 – in Germany 293 – literary 302 – as marker of whiteness 293 – minstrel acts 296n85 – minstrelsy 295, 297, 307 – performances 20, 299 – performer(s) 294, 296, 302 – virtual 303 Blackness 4–5, 16, 35, 36, 38, 42, 70–71, 120, 123, 129, 143, 166, 171, 256–257, 274, 275, 286, 298, 308, 324, 354, 356, 358–359, 375–378 – biological 285 – constructions of 9, 63 – discursive 285–286 – double 45, 257, 375 – epidermal 16, 122 – impact on society of imperial Germany 37 – Jewish – orthodox 5, 16, 35, 44, 143, 286, 375 – representations of 37, 248 Blacks 5, 45–46, 52–53, 55, 56, 58, 60, 105, 109, 128, 142–144, 151, 163, 185, 209–210, 228, 229, 256, 274, 281n20, 283, 285–286, 307, 310, 319, 324n1, 356, 382, 400, 409 – African 77 – American 56–57 – association – with apes 363

450 

 Index

Blacks (continued) – with Jews 15, 17, 39, 50, 56, 99, 144, 166, 173, 223, 285, 297 – discursive 286 – and Jews 55, 58, 126, 142, 382 Blasphemy 37, 302, 332, 339 Blood and soil doctrine 327 Blood libel 327 Blue Book – British 177n16 (see also Report on the Natives of South-West Africa) – Zionist 133 (see also Report on the Work of the Commission Sent Out by the Zionist Organization) Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich – works – On the Natural Variety of Mankind (orig. De generis humani varietate native) 300n93 Blyden, Wilmot 50–51, 53 – works – Jewish Question, The 51 Bodenheimer, Max 113n229, 114–115, 159, 168, 392, 411, 411ni, Figure 14 Body 368–369 – athletic 126 – black 123, 129, 143, 158, 160 – Jewish 93, 126, 154–155, 327, 343, 351 – alien in German society 117 – deformed 155n125 – degenerate 45 – as diseased 94 – as inferior 93–94 – negro 353 – white 123–124, 126, 160 Boers 142, 167 Bondelzwart (African people) 27–28, 63, 98, 99, 129, 217, 220, 392, 410, 410ne Book, People of the 347. See also Jew(s) Bosporus (Turkey) 116, 404nn Botocudos (Latin American people) 336, 338 Botswana 200n108. See also Bechuanaland Boundaries, racial 303, 307, 359 Bourgeoisie 277, 337 – German 332 – conservative 314

– liberal 239, 289n50 Boxer Rebellion (1900) 255 “Brabançonne, La” (Belgian national anthem) 233n24 Brandenburg Gate (Berlin) 86n137 Brandy – German trade in 66, 216, 228 – plague 66, 228 Brazil 168 Britain 29, 32, 101, 132, 135, 140, 175, 176n12, 192, 208, 401nj Britannia (personification) 249 – attributes of 249 – shield of 249 British East Africa 3, 129n24, 130, 134, 142, 413nh, 414na Brod, Max 373, 375, 378n44 Brotherhood – of blacks and Jews 15, 52 – human 49, 244 Brünnhilde (Wagner) 248, 248n66 Brutality 172, 177, 193, 235, 253, 254, 269, 274, 331, 358n111 Brutalization 237, 268–269 Buber, Martin 365, 408ne Buffalo Bill 17, 312, 313, 315, 317, 319, 321, 396, 417, 417nk. See also Cody, William F. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West 312–313, 315, 317, 321. See also Shows, Wild West Buganda (African kingdom) 45n25, 46n26 Bülow, Bernhard von (German Chancellor) 175n5, 177n12, 177n15, 183, 194, 195n91, 215, 222, 229, 230–231, 244–245, 267, 276, 320, 418nr Bülow, Frieda von 19 Bureau of Indian Affairs (United States of America) 316, 321 Bürger, Gottfried August 339–340, 343–345 – works – “Lenore” 339–340, 343–345 Burlesques 67, 330 – Tyrolean 296n85 Busch, Wilhelm 69, 70n101, 155–156, 160, 161 – works

Index 

– Fips the Monkey (orig. Fipps der Affe) 69, 70n101, 144 – Plish and Plum (orig. Plisch und Plum) 155 (see also Figure 19) Bust – plaster, of Wilhelm II 158–159, 160 – portrait 89, 245, 248–250, 272 Byron, George Gordon 349

C

C. Woermann (trading company) 65–67. See also Woermann, Adolph Caesar, Gaius Julius 348–350 Café Spitz (Basel) 1 Caftan 50, 69, 126, 257, 374, 375 Cake Walk, The. See Trevelyan, Arthur Cakewalk 16, 20, 37, 256, 275, 304, 305, 306, 307–309, 324n1, 387, 404 – craze 37, 306n114, 308–309 Cameroon (German protectorate) 28n107, 32n122, 37, 67, 75–79, 82, 91, 102, 103, 122, 150, 209, 224, 277–280, 281, 282 Campaign medals – British 249–250 (see also Indian Mutiny, Medal; Queen’s South Africa Medal) – German 245, 248, 250, 251, 272, Figure 27a, b (see also South-West African Campaign Medal) – Herero War (cartoon) 244–245, 250, 251, 276, Figure 26. See Jüttner, Franz Albert Campaigns of the German Troops in South-West Africa, The. See General Staff, German Canaan 261, 275 Canadian 181, 189, 206. See also Huron Canetti, Elias 344 – works – Auto-da-Fé (orig. Blendung, Die) 344 Cannibalism 236, 360, 384, 399 Cape baboon 86n137 Cape Colony 139, 212n153, 213. See also South Africa Cape Town 324n1 Capitalism 97, 98, 199, 230, 252–254 Capitalist(s) 138, 140, 193, 253 – Jewish 106, 139–140, 167

 451

Caricature(s) 67, 69, 70n101, 74, 79, 141, 157–158, 163, 166, 168, 170, 232, 238, 264, 272, 295 – antisemitic 263–264, 328 Cartoon(s) 21, 26, 46, 61, 64, 66n90, 67, 68, 73n110, 77, 79, 86n137, 100, 102, 118n245, 122, 124, 126, 128n21, 146–147, 149, 151, 152, 159–162, 164–165, 166, 168–170, 227–234, 237–246, 250–274, 275, 281n20, 282, 295, 297, 299, 301, 307, 308, 312, 334, 371, 374, 380 – antisemitic 126n14, 152, 331, 334 – individual works – “Cake Walk, The” (see Guillaume, Albert) – “Happy Negroes, The” (see Widhopff, David Ossipovich) – from Kladderadatsch – “A-hoping and A-waiting” (see Stutz, Ludwig) – “Budget for Cameroon, The” (see Stutz, Ludwig) – “Colonial Scorpion, The” (see Krüger, Arthur) – “Colonial Sphinx, The” (see Krüger, Arthur) – “Fata Morgana in South-West Africa” (see Stutz, Ludwig) – “Friends of the Herero, The” (see Anonymous) – “New Congo Anthem, The” (see Anonymous) – from Punch – “Cook’s Crusader” (see Sambourne, Edward Linley) – “Dearly Bought” (see Swain, Joseph) – racialized 152 – satirical 153, 177n12, 251 – from Schlemiel – “Chayim Yossel Goes to a Spa” (see Rosintal, Josef) – “Election Bait” (see Joel, E. E.) – “Freely adapted from Lilien” (see Rosintal, Josef) – “Gallery of Illustrious Jews” (see Anonymous) – “Matchiche” (see Rosintal, Josef) – “Mr. Zangwill in America” (see Rosintal, Josef) – “Our Future Lies upon the Water” (see F. W.)

452 

 Index

Cartoon(s) (continued) – “Why Zionism’s Progress is so Slow” (see Rosintal, Josef) – from Simplicissimus – “African Peril, The” (see Heine, Thomas Theodor) – “Aristocracy from Cameroon” (see Graef, Richard) – “Carnival 1908” (see Heine, Thomas Theodor) – “Colonial Haunting” (see Paul, Bruno) – “Colonial Powers” (see Heine, Thomas Theodor) – “Contre-Tour” (see Gulbransson, Olaf) – “Dernburg’s Bliss” (see Gulbransson, Olaf) – “Dernburg’s Farewell” (see Heine, Thomas Theodor) – “Force of Habit, The” (see Reznicek, Ferdinand von) – “From a Colonial Report” (see Engl, Joseph Benedikt) – “From our Colonies” (see LehmannSchramm, Willy) – “Gallery of Illustrious Contemporaries” (see Anonymous) – “Herero before the Battle, The” (see Thöny, Eduard) – “His Highness” (see Thöny, Eduard) – “New Moses, The” (see Gulbransson, Olaf) – “Modern Apostles” (see Schulz, Wilhelm) – “New Regiment, The” (see Gulbransson, Olaf) – “Origins of the Colonies, The” (see Paul, Bruno) – “Palestine” (see Heine, Thomas Theodor) – “Peters Trial, The” (see Gulbransson, Olaf) – “Return from South-West Africa” (see Thöny, Eduard) – from Stürmer, Der – “Curse in the Blood, The” (see Fips) – “Legion of Shame” (see Fips) – from Wahre Jakob, Der – “After the ‘Victory’” (see Jentzsch, Hans Gabriel) – “Blessings of Colonial Policy, The” (see Anonymous)

– “Dark Side, The” (see Jentzsch, Hans Gabriel) – “From the Bismarck Archipelago” (see Grieß, Rudolf) – “New Transports to South-West Africa, The” (see Anonymous) – “No Quarter will be Given” (see Erk, Emil) – “Parenting at the Kilimanjaro” (see Koch, Georg) – “Yield of our Colonies, The” (see Jentzsch, Hans Gabriel) Castration 165, 178, 369 – anxiety 106, 335–336, 368–369 Catholic Church, Roman 140, 310, 409ng Catholicism, Roman 140, 222, 310 Catlin, George 315 Caucasian(s) 291 Cawnpore (i.e. Kanpur; India) 30 Censorship, German 229, 239, 302 Center, metropolitan 157, 180, 310, 359 Center Party (Zentrum) 33, 217 “Chayim Yossel Goes to a Spa.” See Rosintal, Josef Chamberlain, Joseph (British Colonial Secretary) 3, 55n61, 132n36 Character, national – German 204 Charkov Conference (1903) 111 Cheyennes (native American people) 360 Chief(s), native 65, 78, 83, 103, 159–160, 314, 325–326, 351, 360–362. See Akwa, Dika; Bell, Bismarck; Bell, Brisso; Bell, Manga; Bell, Ndumbé Lobé; Kakungulu, Semei; Maharero, Friedrich; Maharero, Samuel; Rocky Bear; Sitting Bull; Witbooi, Hendrik Children of the Ghetto (Zangwill) 132 Chorea maior 341. See also Huntington’s Disease Chorea minor 340n53, 341. See also Sydenham’s chorea Choreomania 340. See also Dancing mania Chorin, Aaron (Rabbi) 399ne Chosen People, The 21, 132. See also Jew(s) Chosenness 261

Index 

Christian Social Party (Christlich-Soziale Partei) 152, 175, 233n26. See also Christian Social Workers’ Party Christian Social Workers’ Party (ChristlichSoziale Arbeiterpartei ) 152n107. See also Christian Social Party Christianity 45, 219–220, 411nh, 416nf – and colonialism 188, 202n112 Chromatic scale (von Luschan) 73 Church, Ethiopian 46, 212. See also Ethiopianism; Movement(s), Ehtiopian – movement 46 Church of the Redeemer (Jerusalem) 26 Circumcision 106, 129n22, 155, 165, 343, 351, 369 Civilization 36, 38, 52, 57–58, 73, 76, 78, 83, 98n174, 105, 107–108, 111, 117, 121, 123, 141, 145, 146–149, 152, 160, 173, 176, 181, 187–189, 191, 193, 204–206, 208, 210, 222n187, 228, 252, 254, 256, 261, 268, 300, 306, 308, 315, 348, 361 – accessories of 105, 126, 129, 159, 299, 355 – and antisemitism 57, 99, 219, 311 – European 65, 181, 192, 282 – false 66 – icons of 149, 159 – modern 117, 205–206 – progress of 146–147, 176, 315 – veneer of 108, 120 – western 54, 57, 101 Classes – barriers between 306–307 Classicism 296, 301 “Classicism and the Invasion of the Variété.” See Panizza, Oskar Clergy – Catholic 23, 254, 257, 266 – Protestant 254, 257 Cody, William F. (Colonel) 312, 317, 417nk. See also Buffalo Bill Coetzee, J. M. 373n31 – works – Elizabeth Costello 373n31 – Lives of Animals, The 373n31 Coffee Calcallee (King of Ashantee) 102 Collaboration 221, 279 Collaborators’ group

 453

– African Christians as 211 – Jews as 139 Collar, stiff 73n110, 75, 79, 111, 158, 296 Collectors’ album 59 Cologne 411 Cologne Gazette (Cologne) 177n12 Colonial Office (Germany) 10, 31, 175, 177, 185, 215, 257–258, 279, 410ne, 416, 416nf. See also Foreign Office, Colonial Division Colonial Secretary – British 3, 131, 132n36 – German 86n137, 163, 258–259, 264 Colonialism 17, 52, 60, 69, 97, 99–100, 101, 175, 185, 202n112, 222–223, 225, 227, 229, 279, 320 – British 192, 290n61 – and Christianity 223 – European 7 – German 7, 8n26, 10–11, 14, 28–29, 69, 72, 171, 221, 222–223, 229, 232 – Jewish 28, 221 – paternalistic 141 – and Zionism 225 Colonies 130, 208n128, 222n187, 228, 229, 239, 267 – British 130, 283 – French 267 – German 28–29, 31n120, 32, 35, 72, 86n137, 97, 174–175, 177n12, 180, 180n30, 182, 198n103, 216, 222, 224, 227, 230, 232, 237, 240, 252, 254–256, 258, 261, 263–264, 268–269, 276, 283, 289n52, 291, 319, 379, 380 – loss of 180, 380 – Jewish 118n247 – Templar 24 – women in the 198n103 Colonization 21, 124, 133, 137, 171, 173, 185, 199, 264, 275, 287, 303, 360, 380, 409 – German – of Palestine 24 – internal 106, 106n203, 170, 223, 307, 363 – Jewish 11n39 – of Africa 3, 15, 39, 40, 131, 135, 138, 142, 171, 172n1

454 

 Index

Colonization (continued) – of New-Newland 15, 21, 39, 171, 400 – of Old-New Land 40–41 – of Palestine 10, 24, 27, 41, 134, 141, 221, 227, 285, 408 – of Texas 275, 320, 375 – suitability for 4, 17, 129–130, 133, 136, 138, 414na – white – of Africa 52, 129 – Zionist 4, 99, 227 Colonized 5, 35, 38, 71, 105, 121, 373 – subject 70, 126 Colonizer 5, 15, 21, 38, 39, 69, 70–71, 77, 81–82, 88, 98–99, 103, 105, 108, 120, 121, 124, 126, 127, 129, 138, 173, 175n7, 181–182, 185, 197, 199, 204, 221, 223, 228, 232, 236–237, 244, 250, 269, 275, 282, 290–291, 310, 314, 380, 373 Color 42, 97, 115, 150, 193, 242, 256, 266, 269, 285–286, 289n57, 294, 301, 358, 361, 376 – boundary 121 – code(s) 294 – coding 59 – divide 121, 367 – line 305 – oscillations 97, 120, 121, 377, 382 – play 5, 276, 292, 294, 303 – shift 151n103 – skin 42, 70, 73, 106, 121–123, 150, 160, 164, 189, 292, 303, 318, 324n2, 354, 356–357, 381–382 – transgressions 294–295 Coming, Second (of Christ) 24, 411nh Commedia dell’arte 116 Commission, Zionist 17, 133–134, 136, 414na. See also Expedition, Zionist Commodification 151 – of the other 147 Commodities 147, 149, 224 Commonwealth, Jewish 15, 41, 47–49, 109, 148, 286, 312 Community – African American 56, 210 – Ethiopian 210 – German Jewish

– liberal 399ne – reform 16, 122, 309, 399ne, 401ne, 407 – Jewish 47, 118n247, 244, 264, 407 – utopian 408nd Compatriots, black 73, 274 Complicity – of the Churches in atrocities perpetrated in German South-West Africa 254, 256 – Jewish, in German colonial enterprise 221, 223 Conflict – colonial 11, 17, 28, 34, 35, 36, 64, 73, 98, 100, 120, 130, 170, 171, 173, 175, 175n7, 180, 185, 191, 193, 195–196, 199, 206–207, 223, 225–228, 238–239, 241, 248, 250–252, 258, 285, 315, 316 – genocidal 251 – racial 195, 280 Congo (Belgian colony) 232, 233n24, 233n25 Congo Free State 232 Congress of the Rough Riders of the World (Buffalo Bill’s Wild West) 313 Conrad, Joseph 18, 20, 270 – works – Heart of Darkness 18, 21, 233n24, 270 Constantinople (Ottoman Empire/ Turkey) 104, 115, 118n247 Construction(s) 6, 15, 30, 203, 327, 328n11 – of blackness 9, 63, 257 – of blacks 105, 193 – discursive 286 – of empire 6 – of Germania 250 – of Germanness 352 – of Jewishness 6, 9, 35, 68, 71, 93, 95, 166, 344 – of masculinity – German 249 – of Mbwapwa Jumbo 6, 17, 37, 59–60, 266, 280, 294 – narrative 195, 200 – of nation 6 – of the other 170, 180 – black 127 – English 281 – Jewish 127 – of Palestine 24

Index 

– of race 6 – of racial difference 275 – of the self 170, 180 – of the Sepoy Rebellion 30, 31 Contact, cultural 77, 122, 179, 354 Contes drolâtiques. See Balzac, Honoré de Contestation – space of 35 – between black and white 307 Context 11–13, 15, 29, 36, 38, 61, 62, 87–88, 147, 153, 164, 173, 180, 190, 198n102, 203, 225, 240, 244 – African 164, 315 – American 58, 293 – African 55 – antiracist 276 – British 31, 132 – colonial 6, 81, 101, 151, 217, 260, 267, 270, 306 – cultural 38 – of exhibiting otherness 313 – French 306n114 – German 8, 61, 106n201, 108, 208, 268 – historical 105, 170 – imperial 11, 38 – of the Herero War 240, 244 – internal difference 71 – Jewish 42, 61, 173, 309, 409ng – narratological 31 – of racial conflict 280 – production 153 – racialized 248 – reception 153 – religious 46 – Samoan 290 – scientific 19, 59, 62 – of the South-West African campaign 248 – of the Uganda proposal 129 Continent – black 209 – Dark XIV, 18–20, 22, 58, 113n228, 129–130, 140, 146, 322 (see also Africa) – exploration of 19, 22, 113n228 – mythification of 19 Contributions to the Ethnography of the German Protectorates. See Luschan, Felix von Conventions

 455

– of anthropometric photography 74 – ethnographic 62, 71, 89 – iconographic 61, 71 – of portraying negro potentates 62 – of the representation of Jews 71 – of travel writing 135 – of viewing (see also Habits, viewing; Modes of seeing) Conversion – to Christianity 215, 223–224, 228 – to Judaism 4, 20, 42, 45n25, 105, 267, 285, 366 Cook, Thomas 22, 23 Cooper mania 314 Cooper, James Fenimore 17, 312–315, 417nl, 417nm, 417nq – works – Deerslayer, The 314, 417nq – Last of the Mohicans, The 252n75, 315, 417nl – Leatherstocking Tales, The 17, 312, 314, 417nl, 417nm, 417nq – Pioneers, The 417nm Correctness, political XIV, 329 Cosmopolitanism 166, 416nh Costume 295–296. See also Dress, European – Assyrian 258 – ethnic 81, 87 – Jewish 70 – native 265 – non-ethnic 81 – traditional 64, 67 – tribal 62 – Tyrolean 296–298 Counter-discourse, anticolonial 227 Counter-world 60, 86 Creativity 55, 109, 187, 352 Crepuscular Pieces. See Panizza, Oskar Crisis 30, 32, 195, 222 Crown, African 65, 67, 100, 282. See also Top hat Cry from the East, The. See Renner, Gustav Culpability 236, 359 – capitalist 254 – ecclesiastic 256–257

456 

 Index

Culture 15, 31, 44, 54, 56, 59, 96, 108, 121, 126, 129, 172, 174–175, 181, 187, 189–193, 205–206, 208, 282, 305, 316, 321, 345, 377 – Christian 176 – conceit 158 – deformed by 190, 193, 206 – enmity toward 44–45, 256–257 – European 53–54, 146–147, 181, 189, 191, 209, 282 – German 8, 9, 11, 29, 73n110, 151, 159, 173, 182, 198, 302 – gourmet 149 – inferior 55, 126, 140, 196 – majority 45, 173, 309, 310 – mass 293 – metropolitan 147 – modern 44, 152, 205, 348 – popular 9, 11n39, 159, 293, 305, 308 – sub- 307 – western 54, 282 – white 315 Culture struggle 310, 409ng. See also Culture war; Kulturkampf Culture war 309–310, 409. See also Culture struggle; Kulturkampf Czernowitz 71n104 Czernowitz Conference (1908) 71n104

D

Dachshunds 17, 47, 304, 394, 413 Dahomey (African kingdom) 175 Damascus (Ottoman Empire/Syria) 117 Dance 16, 228, 269, 287, 297–298, 304–306, 308, 309, 315, 336, 339–341, 404nf, 409nf. See also Cakewalk; Danse macabre; Ghost Dance; Schuhplattler; St. Vitus Dance – African 309 – conventional 305 – fever 305, 308 – mania 16 – popular 16, 305 – primitive 319 – ritual 304–305, 319 – service 16, 309, 409 – war 256–257, 402

– worship 304n104, 309–311 Dancing mania 340–341. See also Choreomania Danse macabre 299, 340, 345, 380 Darwinism – social 186, 196, 203–204, 207n126, 350 David (biblical) 120, 305 Dead Sea 362 Debit and Credit. See Freytag, Gustav Decadence 300 Deception(s) 103, 362, 372. See also Self-deception Deed, redemptive 125 Deerslayer, The. See Cooper, James Fenimore Defamation 234, 235, 270, 334 Defilement, racial 334, 369 Deformation 145, 190, 192, 206, 346, 352 – Jewish 132, 155n125, 164 Deformity 350 Degeneration 36, 94, 145, 180, 192, 194n87, 205 – behavioral 77 – of class 123 – discourse on 205 – Jewish 21, 36, 45, 71, 92–93, 95, 126n14, 132, 145 – of the Land of Israel 21 – moral 77 – of natives 77, 141, 281 – racial – theory of 207n126 Dehumanization 69, 70, 99, 117, 360, 361 – of Jews 157, 335, 345, 347, 351 – of the native(s) 36, 173, 185, 197, 271 – of negroes 56, 355 De-Jewification 223 Delegation to Jerusalem, Zionist (1898) 26, 113, 118n247, 119–120 Deleuze, Gilles 14 Delitzsch, Friedrich 258n96 – works – Sardanapal 258 Demarcation – between Jews and blacks 4, 58, 142, 298 – between the races 284, 286 Democratization 104 Demonization 173, 216 Demoralization – of the Nama 217

Index 

Department store(s) 147–148, 401ng. See also Israel, Nathan; Warenhaus Depersonalization 81, 197 Deracialization 142 Dernburg, Bernhard (German Colonial Director) 10, 86n137, 163, 215–216, 221–224, 258–261, 263–267, 416nf – de-Jewification of 223 – Jewishness of 222–224, 258–259, 261, 263–264 – as “New Moses” 223, 260–261; Dernburg, Friedrich 416nf Desire, colonial 135, 179–180, 225, 232, 237, 268, 270, 272, 290 Desperation – act of 185 – struggle of 185 Detachment 89, 306, 325, 350, 360 Determination, racial 334 Deutschtum 182, 198. See also Germanness “Devil in the Oberammergau Passion Play, The.” See Panizza, Oskar Devil Laughs about It!, The. See Freund, Julius; Hollaender, Victor Diamond trade 139 Diamonds – discovery of, in German South-West Africa 262–265 Diaspora – African 307 – Jewish 25, 95 Dichotomy – of savage and civilized 19 – of us/them 156 Difference 350, 352, 364, 368–369 – biological 300n94, 348 – in civilization 208 – cultural 102, 181, 318 – epidermal 122, 357 – ethnic 37, 38, 295, 303, 312, 317n152, 323 – exhibition of 37, 326, 371 – exotic 367 – iconography of 9, 35, 59, 64, 83 – Jewish 142, 259, 264 – internal 6, 54, 71, 163–164, 257, 295 – mental 366 – political 222

 457

– racial 6, 32, 37, 57, 60, 93, 95, 126, 142, 145, 211, 274, 275, 281, 283, 292, 295–296, 318, 324, 326, 352, 355–356 – religious 222 – social 222 Disabilities – Jewish 219 Disarmament – of the Herero 149 – of the Nama 63, 149 Disciplining 38, 78, 81, 145, 303, 311, 323, 324, 359, 372 Discourse(s) XIV, 33–34, 36, 62, 99, 161, 165, 174, 261, 304, 316, 375 – antisemitic 55, 132, 146, 263, 286, 334 – on assimilation 374 – on blacks 5 – colonial 4–5, 8, 31, 34, 53, 56, 62, 86, 174, 180, 187, 227, 261, 275, 289n52, 290–291, 294, 309, 375 – on color 294 – convergence of – with antisemitic 132 – with colonial 4, 275 – with racist 4, 143 – counter- 227 – critical 6 – culture-critical 248 – on degeneration 205 – on ethnic difference 312 – ethnographic 153 – on evolution 373 – on the Herero War 34, 233 – on identity 364 – imperial 8, 111 – medical 342, 365 – on the natives 242 – parliamentary 36, 99, 173, 276, 379 – political 31, 171–172, 276, 379 – popular 71 – public 5, 7, 17, 27, 31–32, 98–99, 152, 171–172, 178–179, 221, 227, 275, 279, 379 – on race 32, 56, 142, 294 – war 245 – racialized 363 – racist 4, 52, 56, 111, 143, 290, 301, 373

458 

 Index

Discourse(s) (continued) – salvific 300 – scientific 24, 61, 74, 347, 365 – on the Sepoy Rebellion 30 – uber- 375 – on the Uganda proposal 34 – Zionist 1–2, 4, 6, 11, 25, 34–35, 42, 45n24, 71, 132, 142, 143, 164, 259, 275, 277, 285, 294, 373, 374 Discrimination 20, 286 – against Jews 218 Disorder(s) 147, 152, 205, 207, 236, 340 Dis-order, colonial 147 Disorientation, racial 61 “Disposal of Africa, The.” See Johnston, Sir Henry Hamilton Dissociation 118, 138, 197, 200–201, 203, 252 Diversity 108, 308, 347 – Jewish – internal 1, 15, 170 “Do you want to be my little cousin?” See Freund, Julius; Hollaender, Victor Doggerel 17, 135–136, 155, 172–173, 245, 289n50 Domestication 70, 266, 358 – of natives 72–73, 85–86 “Dr. Knölge’s End.” See Hesse, Hermann Drag, colonial 5, 38 Dragon slayer 332, 344 Drawing(s) 46, 50, 59, 62, 63, 64, 122, 124, 126n14, 145, 146, 149, 151, 153, 155, 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 228, 240, 242, 244, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 259, 260, 263, 266, 271, 296, 299, 351 Dresden 331 Dress, European 62, 68, 76, 81, 83, 108, 281n20, 282n25. See also Costume Duala (African people) 37, 76–79, 88, 90, 91, 102, 103, 277, 279, 281

E

East End (London) 132 Edeka (Purchasing Cooperative of Colonial Goods Retailers in the Hallesches Tor District of Berlin) 147n90 Educability – of natives 73, 90, 184, 316

Education 15, 42, 96, 109, 186, 211, 278, 403, 409 – colonial 73, 109, 150, 184, 210, 229, 233 Effeminization 165 Eichendorff, Joseph von – works – “Happy Wanderer, The” (orig. “Frohe Wandersmann, Der”) 403nb – Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing (orig. Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts) 408nb Eichmann Trial (1961) 269 Einem genannt von Rothmaler, Karl von (German Secretary of War) 235 Eisenstein, Judah David 400na – works – Ozar Yisrael 400na El Arish (Sinai) 10 “Election Bait.” See Joel, E. E. Election campaign – German (1907) 217, 221–222, 224, 289n52 “Election Song.” See Oi. Elections – German general (1907) 32, 217, 257, 266 Elective Affinities. See Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von Elger, August 255 Elks (performers) 305n107 Elizabeth Costello. See Coetzee, J. M. Emancipation – African 308 – Jewish 219, 233n26, 405nr Emasculation 68, 165, 205, 336, 343 Emigration 29, 48, 182, 405nr Emilia Galotti. See Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim Emin Pasha 19. See also Schnitzer, Eduard Empathy 5, 70, 145, 162, 188, 240, 242, 357, 359, 382 “Emperor’s New Clothes, The.” See Andersen, Hans Christian Empire 6, 221 – British 30, 33, 141, 192, 283 – French 141, 239 – German 10, 28, 36, 72, 141, 173, 177, 204, 214, 222, 232, 247, 271, 310, 319, 379, 404ng, 409ng, 417np – Hottentot 214

Index 

– Ottoman 108, 116, 404nn, 404no – Persian 215, 413nl Emplotment (White) 14 Empowerment 372 – black 302 – of the colonizer 121 – Jewish 121 Encounter – colonial 107, 143, 175, 179, 181, 195, 225, 237, 268–269, 275 – interracial 159, 161, 274, 289 Engineering – eugenic 350 – racial 291 – social 110 Engl, Joseph Benedikt 256 – works – “From a Colonial Report” (orig. “Aus einem Kolonialbericht”) 256–257 England 7n22, 131, 141, 164, 284, 293n72, 301, 404nl English (language) XIII, XIV, 133, 155n125, 253, 294, 296, 317, 326, 355 Enlightenment 181, 190, 287 Entente cordiale 401nj Entente powers 32n122, 209, 385, 401 Enterprise – colonial 95, 193, 224, 227, 232, 262, 265, 267, 271, 272, 306 – British 282, 284 – German 10, 11, 14, 27–28, 72, 170, 182–183, 193, 221, 227, 230 – imperial 30n44 – Zionist 6 Entertainment, popular 8, 9, 20, 37, 38, 60, 150n100, 274, 293–294, 305, 363 Entitlement 78, 105, 117–119, 121, 161, 176 – colonial 36 – Jewish 36, 121 – German 204 – Jewish 53, 110 Entrepreneur 253 Epidermalization of inferiority (Fanon) 126, 145, 151, 356 Epilepsy 305 Equality 71n104, 119, 220, 284, 286, 291, 296, 306, 318

 459

Equatoria (Ottoman Empire) 19 Eretz Israel 21, 25n93, 136, 164. See also Israel, Land of Erk, Emil 255–256 – works – “No Quarter will be Given” (orig. “Pardon wird nicht gegeben”) 255–256 Erzberger, Matthias 217, 220 Essence 78, 95, 327, 343, 362 Essentialism 39 Establishment – German 236 – cultural 302 – military 233, 236 – political 233 – Jewish 25 Ethics 21, 347 Ethiopianism 210, 307. See also Church, Ethiopian; Movement(s), Ethiopian Ethnicity – indelible 344 Ethnography 9, 74 Ethnological Museum (Berlin) 73 Eugenics 291, 345–346, 350n87 Europe 4, 16, 39, 53, 57–58, 98n174, 104, 113, 129–130, 154n121, 167, 172, 178n19, 189, 214, 249n66, 256, 284, 292, 305, 308, 310, 312–313, 314n136, 317–318, 321, 398, 401, 404nf, 409, 414, 417nk – eastern 4n11, 10, 16, 131, 409nf – western 10 “Europe in Africa.” See Rosenberger, Erwin European(s) 105, 117, 131, 142, 160, 175, 179, 189, 191, 196, 208n128, 209, 214, 270, 282, 284–286, 356–357 – Jewish 113, 117, 120 Euthanasia 207n126 Event, discursive 29, 33 Eventfulness (Schmid) 30–31, 195 Evil – banality of (Arendt) 269, 271 “Evolution of the Umbrella, The.” See Anonymous Ewers, Hanns Heinz 351n88 Exegesis 23, 264

460 

 Index

Exhibition(s) 59, 72, 86, 153, 313n129, 378. See also Shows, ethnographic – Colonial (Berlin, 1896) 32, 69, 72–82, 89–91, 114, 183, 196, 282, 316 – of natives 8, 19 – photographic, of the other 60 Exhibits – human, at Colonial Exhibition (Berlin, 1896) 69, 72–82, 88–91, 150n98, 282 Exile 40, 71, 89n144, 106, 132, 328n11, 364 Exotic 8 Exoticization – of Henrik Witbooi 85–86 Expansionism – German colonialist 320 Expedition, Zionist 4, 17, 133–135, 138–139, 142, 171, 173, 394, 414, 414na, 414nb. See also Commission, Zionist Experience – colonial – British 33 – German 7–8, 14, 21 – Jewish 363 Exploitation 140, 184, 228, 232–233, 252 – commercial 66n90 – economic 199, 206, 228 – of protectorates 73 – sexual 224 Exposition Universelle (Paris, 1889) 61, 305n107 Extermination order (von Trotha) 194, 358n111

F

F. W. 46 – works – “Our Future Lies upon the Water” (orig. “Unsere Zukunft liegt auf dem Wasser”) 100 Fabricius, Ernst (Professor) 289n52 “Factory of Humans, The.” See Panizza, Oskar Falkenhorst, Carl (born Stanislaus von Jezewski) 19 Fanon, Frantz 120, 126–128, 132, 292, 326, 356 – works – Black Skin, White Masks (orig. Peau noire, masques blancs) 126–127 Fantasia 37n136 Fantasies

– childhood 376 – colonial 28n108, 179–180, 268 – male 248 – mutilation 180 – orientalist 258 – power 160 “Farewell – God’s Wisdom and Parting.” See Feuchtersleben, Ernst von; Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Felix Fascination 91, 113n228, 161, 353, 356 – sexual 284 Fashion accessories 111, 149, 159, 297 – modern 101 Feet, flat 45, 342, 346, 349 – Jewish 45n21, 93, 297, 342 Femininity 248 Feuchtersleben, Ernst von 406ne – works – “Farewell – God’s Wisdom and Parting” (orig. “Auf Wiedersehn – Gottes Rat und Scheiden”) 406ne (see also Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Felix) Fez 107–108, 116, 158–159, 168 Fiction – adventure 19, 200, 313 Fips 334. See also Philipp Rupprecht – works – “Curse in the Blood, The” (orig. “Fluch im Blut, Der”) 334 – “Legion of Shame” (orig. “Legion der Schande”) 334 “Fips the Monkey.” See Gulbransson, Olaf; Thoma, Ludwig Fips the Monkey. See Busch, Wilhelm First-Class Men. See Baudissin, Wolf von Flag(s) – British union 249 – German imperial 84, 253n77, 271–272, 320, 338, 396, 417, 417np – North German Confederation 417np – red 242, 244 Flavius Josephus 362 Foetor judaicus 327 Folies Bergère (Paris) 292 Forbach (Lorraine) 235 Foreign Office, Colonial Division (Germany) 216, 222n188. See also Colonial Office

Index 

Foundation myth – of imperial Germany 204 Fragmentation 354 France 33, 154n120, 175, 208, 247, 401nj, 404nl Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) 154n120, 204, 239 Frankenstein 345, 352–353, 362 Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus. See Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Frankenstein’s monster 352–353 Frankfurter Zeitung (Frankfurt am Main) 292n67 Frederick the Great (King of Prussia) 224n192, 349 Frederiks, Cornelius (Kaptein of the Nama) 239 Frederiks, Paul (Kaptein of the Nama) 213 Free Conservative Party (Freikonservative Partei) 182 Freedom 96, 185–186, 240, 318, 344, 367, 371–373, 403 – of expression 244 – human 345 – impossibility of 371–372 – national 100 – political 187 Free-minded Union (Freisinnige Vereinigung) 183, 223 Freiburg (im Breisgau) 289n52 Freiherr von Schlicht 234. See also Baudissin, Wolf von Frère Liévin 23 – works – Guide to the Holy Places and Historical Sites in the Holy Land (orig. Guideindicateur des sanctuaires et lieux historiques de la Terre-Sainte) 23 Freud, Sigmund 297, 334–335, 343, 350 – works – “‘Uncanny,’ The” (orig. “Unheimliche, Das”) 334, 335–336 Freund, Julius 150, 150n100, 278, 288, 290 – works – Devil Laughs about It!, The (orig. Teufel lacht dazu!, Der) 150, 276 – “Do you want to be my little cousin?” (orig. “Willst du mein Cousinchen sein?”) 276–277, 288

 461

– Phantastical-Satyrical Review (orig. Phantastisch-satyrische Revue) 150 Freytag, Gustav 340 – works – Debit and Credit (orig. Soll und Haben) 340 Friedlaender, Salomo 324. See also Mynona Frontier 98, 315 Furrer, Konrad 22–23 – works – Rambles through Palestine (orig. Wanderungen durch Palästina) 23

G

Galicia (Austro-Hungarian Empire) 17, 58, 98, 375, 410 Galveston, TX 312, 320, 396, 416–417, 417nj Galveston Plan 127, 164, 168, 221, 415nc Gartenlaube, Die (Leipzig) 67, 103 Garvey, Marcus 51 Gaze 62, 73, 160, 200, 357, 359 – colonial 81, 282 – subject 39 – of the native 81 – of the reader 3, 145, 351, 354 – of the subaltern 372 – voyeuristic 203 Geiger, Abraham (Rabbi) 399ne Gender 156n128, 270, 343 – relations, interracial 180 General Missionary Conference of South Africa 210 General Staff, German 195, 203, 205–207, 217–220 – works – Campaigns of the German Troops in South-West Africa, The (orig. Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen in Südwestafrika, Die) 195–206, 214, 217–220 Genocide 9, 32, 32n128, 194, 315, 360–362, 371, 372 German (language) 53, 71, 107, 355 German East Africa 19, 27–28, 32n122, 93, 100, 216, 224, 285 – colonial war in 28, 100, 285

462 

 Index

German East Africa Company 19 German Emin Pasha Expedition, The. See Peters, Carl German People’s Party (Deutsche Volkspartei) 183 German Social Party (Deutschsoziale Partei) 5n18, 178 German South-West Africa 5, 27, 32n122, 62–63, 64, 66, 83–87, 88, 90, 97, 100, 129, 130, 139, 141, 174–177, 180–183, 191, 193, 202n112, 204, 206–208, 210, 211, 217, 224, 226–227, 230, 231, 235–236, 237, 239, 241, 244–246, 248, 249, 253, 254, 255, 256, 262, 264, 285, 358, 379, 410nd, 413ng – colonial war in 5, 62, 90, 97, 191, 202n112, 204, 208, 253 – demographics of 249n68 – discovery of diamonds in 262–265 Germania (personification) 230, 245–251, 271–272. See also Figure 27a, Figure 28, Figure 32 – attributes of 250, 272 – iconography of 248 Germania (territory) – Roman conquest of 188 Germanness 196–198, 203, 249, 272, 314, 332. See also Deutschtum Germany and its Colonies. See Meinecke, Gustav Hermann Germany 6, 8, 19, 25, 27–29, 31–34, 36, 44, 45, 62, 66–67, 72, 78, 84, 98, 99, 107, 117, 120, 123, 132, 139, 141, 142, 147, 148n94, 151, 153, 164–168, 170, 173–175, 177–178, 180, 182, 188, 191, 194, 199, 204, 213, 214, 220, 226, 229, 233, 236, 241, 242, 246, 248, 250, 254, 256–257, 261, 267–274, 276–280, 281n20, 282, 284, 287, 289, 291, 293, 299n90, 302, 309–314, 317, 319, 320, 322, 328, 331–332, 379, 398, 398ne, 403nc, 408, 409ne, 410, 410na, 411ni, 412ne, 417nk – imperial 4n14, 5, 5n18, 8, 11, 36, 37, 38, 60, 63, 99, 147n91, 170, 173, 225, 227, 270, 289n52, 310, 348, 358 (see also Kaiserreich)

– Wilhelmine 226 Gesellschaft, Die (Munich) 322, 345 Ghetto(s) 143, 166, 374 Ghost Dance 319–320 Giampietro, Josef 150n101 Gibbons, Major A. St. Hill 133–136, 395, 414, 414na Gibeon (German South-West Africa/ Namibia) 213n154 – Fort 86 Gloves 104, 112–113, 115–117, 149 – white 110–113, 115, 117, 119–120, 161, 377 “God Save the Queen” (British national anthem) 233n24 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von 336 – works – Elective Affinities (orig. Wahlverwandschaften, Die) 336 Golden Horn (Turkey) 404, 404nn Goliath, Johann Christian (Kaptein of the Nama) 213 Goods, colonial 8, 146, 147n90, 147n91, 224, 264 Gorky, Maxim 412, 412na Graef, Richard 281n20 – works – “Aristocracy from Cameroon” (orig. “Aristokratie aus Kamerun”) 281n20 Grand Island (Niagara River) 10 Graphic, The (London) 307 Green Pug, The. See Heine, Thomas Theodor Greenberg, Leopold 135, 138 Grieß, Rudolf 255 – works – “From the Bismarck Archipelago” (orig. “Vom Bismarck-Archipel”) 255 Griqualand East (British colony) 175n7 Grodeck, Rabbi of 375–377 Gronemann, Sammy 1, 110, 112, 295n79, 377 Groß Nabas (German South-West Africa) – Battle of (1905) 89n144 Grotesque(s) – genre 37, 301, 302, 306, 307 – literary XIII, 38, 299, 303, 323, 324, 330, 332–335, 355, 362, 363, 365, 369–371 Gruber, Martin 270 Guattari, Félix 14

Index 

Guide to the Holy Places and Historical Sites in the Holy Land. See Frère Liévin Guillaume, Albert 307 – works – “Cake Walk, The” 307 (see also Trevelyan, Arthur) Guilt 256, 353 Gulbransson, Ellen 248n66 Gulbransson, Hans Kaspar 66n90 Gulbransson, Olaf 70n101, 128n21, 257–261, 264–266, 270–272, 275 – works – “Contre-Tour” 264–265, Figure 31 – “Dernburg’s Bliss” (orig. “Dernburgs Glück”) 258–259, 265 – “Fips the Monkey” (orig. “Fipps, der Affe”) 70n101 (see also Thoma, Ludwig) – “New Moses, The” (orig. “Neue Moses, Der”) 259–261, Figure 29 – “New Regiment, The” (orig. “Neue Herrschaft, Die”) 257–258 – “Peters Trial, The” (orig. “Prozeß Peters, Der”) 128n21, 270–272, Figure 32 Gulf of Mexico 417, 417nj

H

“H. R. H. Prince” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa. See Liersemann, Heinrich Ha’Shilo’ah (Warsaw) 55n61 Haase, Paul 350–351 Habits, viewing 59–60, 119, 300. See also Conventions, of viewing; Modes of seeing Haensell, Wilhelm 290 Hagenbeck 373. See also Zoological gardens Haggard, Rider 135 Hague Conference, First (1899) 412nf “Hail to Thee in Victor’s Crown” 232–233. See Anonymous; Anthem, German imperial Hamburg 78, 226n2, 267n121, 277, 399ne, 405nr Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine. See Murray, John Hannington, James (Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa) 46n26 “Happy Wanderer, The.” See Eichendorff, Joseph von

 463

Harper’s Weekly (New York) 112n224 Harte, Bret 313 Hasidism 304n104, 305, 409nf Haskel, Leo 277n6 Hawaii 289 Hawker, Jewish 148–149, 151, 159, 161 HD 340–341. See also Huntington’s Disease Heart of Darkness. See Conrad, Joseph Hebrew (language) 55n61, 71, 340, 398nd, 399ne, 400, 400na – characters 140, 143 Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati) 417nn Hebrew University (Jerusalem) 16, 96, 403np Hebrews – ancient 93 – biblical 94 Heine, Heinrich 25 – Torah as “portative fatherland” 25 Heine, Thomas Theodor 26, 31n120, 66n90, 228–229, 232, 240, 242, 262, 265–267, 310n126, 380 – works – “African Peril, The” (orig. “Afrikanische Gefahr, Die”) 242–244, Figure 25 – “At the Green Table” (orig. “Am grünen Tisch”) 31n120 – “Carnival 1908” (orig. “Karneval 1908”) 262–264, Figure 30a, b – “Colonial Powers” (orig. “Kolonialmächte”) 228–229, 232, 267  – “Dernburg’s Farewell” (orig. “Dernburgs Abschied”) 265–266 – Green Pug, The (orig. Grüne Mops, Der) 266–267, 310n126 – “How the Negroes in our Colonies Imagine the Devil” (orig. “Wie die Neger in unsern Kolonien sich den Teufel vorstellen”) 240–241, 242, Figure 24 – “Most Elevated, The” (orig. “Höchstgestellte, Der”) 66n90 – “New Punishment, A” (orig. “Neue Strafe, Eine”) 66n90 – “Palestine” (orig. “Palästina”) 26 – Re-Awakening of Liberalism, The (orig. Wieder-Erwachen des Liberalismus, Das) 266–267 Hellwege, Rudolf 19, 105

464 

 Index

Helmet, winged 248–249, 332 Herder, Johann Gottfried 191–193, 240 – works – Letters for the Advancement of Humanity (orig. Briefe zu Beförderung der Humanität) 191–192, 240 – Negro Idylls (orig. Neger-Idyllen) 192–193 Herdtle, Richard 254n81 – works – “In the Sign of the Meat Shortage” (orig. “Im Zeichen der Fleischnot”) 254n81 Herero War (1904–1907) 5n18, 8, 28, 29, 31–34, 36, 63, 66, 105, 139, 149, 193–195, 202, 204, 206, 212, 226, 227, 235–236, 238, 240, 244, 248, 252, 255–256, 267, 271, 276, 322, 377 – as a discursive event 29, 33 – mediation of 29, 33, 34, 174, 195, 203 – parliamentary debate on 33, 98, 175, 185, 190, 240–241 – as a race war 194–195, 199, 214, 245, 251 Hereroland 413ng Heritage – Assyrian 259 – cultural 83 – Jewish 182, 223 – assimilated 93, 222, 240n51, 258 – oriental 259 – racial 94 – semitic 94 Heroism 88, 218, 250–251 Herzl, Theodor XIII, 1–4, 7n22, 25–26, 35, 37n136, 40–41, 47, 51–58, 70, 97, 98, 99n174, 107–110, 111, 113–119, 124, 129, 131, 133, 137, 139, 142, 147–149, 159, 162–163, 166, 168, 170, 171, 225, 244, 259, 301, 303, 377, 404ni, 411ni, Figure 14 – beard of 117, 149, 168, 259 – diaries of 3n10, 113n228, 115, 152 – gloves of 115, 117, 377 – works – Jewish State, The (orig. Judenstaat, Der) 7n22, 25, 97, 98 – Old-New Land (orig. Altneuland) XIII, 3, 26, 35, 37n136, 40–41, 47, 51–55, 99n174, 107–108, 110, 113, 116, 124, 137, 147, 301, 303

Hesse, Hermann – works – “Dr. Knölge’s End” (orig. “Doktor Knölges Ende”) 408nd Hierarchy 103 – cultural 158 – natural 181 – racial 55, 57–58 High Porte (Ottoman Empire) 404, 404no Histories, entangled 11 Historiography 13, 31 History 13, 57, 88, 95, 123, 310, 340n51 – of the Abayudaya 45n25 – of the British Empire 30 – colonial 13 – British 29 – German 32, 206, 229 – German 175n5 – imperial 309 – of Israel 23 – legal 287 – military 195 – of persecution 39 – philosophy of 191 – of Uganda 18 Hittites – and Jews 94, 259 Hobson, J. A. 140 Hoche, Alfred 206–208 – works – Authorization of the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Living, The (orig. Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens, Die) 207n126 (see also Binding, Karl) – War and Psyche (orig. Krieg und Seelenleben) 206–208 Hoffmann, E. T. A. 335 – works – “Sandman, The” (orig. “Sandmann, Der”) 335 Hofmann-Oedenkoven, Ida 408nc, 408nd Holdheim, Samuel (Rabbi) 399ne Hollaender, Victor 150, 150n100, 276, 293n72 – works – Devil Laughs about It!, The (orig. Teufel lacht dazu!, Der) 150, 276, 287n46, 292

Index 

– “Do you want to be my little cousin?” (orig. “Willst du mein Cousinchen sein?”) 276–277, 288 – Phantastical-Satyrical Review (orig. Phantastisch-satyrische Revue) 150 Holocaust 9. See also Shoah Holy Land 22–24, 26, 118n247, 137. See also Palestine Holzapfel, Ludwig 213, 213n156 Homeland, Jewish 4, 18, 96, 132, 404 Honor 177–178, 248, 251, 287, 348, 411 – military 87, 214, 258 Honors, military 281, 281n20 Horace 43 – works – Satires 43 Horn, Siegfried 331–332, 338, 344 – works – illustrations to Song of Levi, The 331, 338, 344, Figure 34, Figure 35 (see also Schwechten, Eduard) – Political Illustrated Broadsheets (orig. Politische Bilderbogen) 331 Hortaxin 123, 407ng – advertisement for soap products 123 Hosenneger  XIV, 69, 75–78, 81–82, 89, 91, 104, 106, 109, 111, 114, 158, 282, 295. See also Hosennigger Hosennigger  XIV, 75–76, 78–79, 91. See also Hosenneger Hottentot War (1904–1907) 28, 73, 204. See also Hottentottenkrieg; Nama War Hottentots 28, 194, 211, 213–214. See also Nama Hottentottenkrieg 28, 29. See also Hottentot War; Nama War Hovevei Zion 25, 26n97 Hückstädt, Friedrich – works – “Ubi bene, ibi patria” 416nh Hue 119, 296, 354, 356 – epidermal 36, 50, 70, 97, 105, 107, 121, 123, 126, 145, 150, 304, 309, 354, 375–376 (see also Color, skin) Humanitarianism 52, 57, 322 Humanity 39, 49, 52, 69, 109, 145, 160, 182, 184, 186, 190–191, 197, 244, 272, 278,

 465

321, 338, 345, 347–348, 361, 364, 367, 370, 377 Humor 20, 61, 146, 153–154, 156, 157, 219, 251, 297, 299, 329–331, 347 – Jewish 1 Hun Speech (Wilhelm II) 255 Huntington’s Disease 340. See also HD Huron (native American) 190. See also Canadian Hybrid 35, 59, 71, 166 – cultural 35, 59, 162 – racial 35, 59, 123, 165 Hybridity 179, 290, 365 – racial 179, 290 Hybridization 39, 71, 290–291 – racial 94, 209, 267 Hyena 271, 357–358 Hygiene 149 – racial 207n126, 289 Hysteria 341

I

Iconography 59, 62, 64, 83–84, 88–89, 248–249, 263 – of difference 9, 35, 59 – of ethnographic photographs 61–62, 89 – ruler 62, 83 Identification(s) 35, 60, 149, 154, 157–158, 164 – blackface as an act of 295 – of blacks with animals 160, 172, 358 – of clergymen with savages 256 – figures – Mbwapwa 6, 70, 105, 138, 171, 257, 295, 382 – Reschid Bey 107 – Jewish, with Germanness 203 – of Jewishness with blackness 4, 164, 170, 173, 188, 216, 238 – of the Jews and Hebrews with the Maasai 36, 94 – of the Mizrachim with Mbwapwa 5, 6, 20 – with the other 69, 162, 307, 380 – black 36, 37 Identity, identities 6, 78, 145, 325–326, 343, 364 – black 293 – cultural 108

466 

 Index

Identity, identities (continued) – German – national 204 – group 112 – hybrid 71 – Jewish 303, 310 – formation of 171 – national 71 – loss of 309 – markers of 129 – national 149, 294 – native 310 – performative negotiation of 312 – racial 120 – religious 108 – tribal 20 Ideology 70n101 – antisemitic 93 – colonial 32 Idiom 107, 140, 404no – of the colonizer 99, 108 – symbolic 103 Idioms, Yiddish 294 Ill-health, sexual 161 Illness 364 – mental 206–207, 208n128 Imagery 15, 155n125, 264, 325 – animal 335 Imagination 145, 258, 324, 341, 352, 369, 371–372, 379, 380 – British 30 – burlesque 330 – German 91, 322 – colonial 8 – metropolitan 86 – places of the 19, 27 – popular 191, 314 – romantic 72 – satirical 250 – visual 59 Imitation 53, 160–162, 301, 305, 307, 374 – talent of the negro for 301 Immigration – Jewish – in Africa 52 – in Britain 131, 132 – in New-Newland 70, 309, 383, 398

– in Old-New Land 41n3 – in South Africa 140n67 – in Texas 168, 395, 397, 415, 415nc, 417nj, 418 Imperative 351 – economic 148 – ethical 274 – moral 47, 49 – social Darwinist 204 Imperial War Museum, London 117 Imperialism 171, 202n112 – cultural 40 – European 7 – German 7, 276 – social 29 Imperialist(s), European 47 Imprisonment. See also Incarceration – of Mpundo Akwa 279, 280 – of Prosper von Arenberg 236 – of Rotpeter (“Metamorphosis”) 365 Impulse 118, 135, 145, 151 – assimilatory 309 – colonial 10 – critical 153, 305, 360 – ludic 325 – regenerative 291 – romantic 117, 200 – satirical 173 – segregationist 154–155 In the Desert. See May, Karl In-betweenness 121, 143 Incarceration. See also Imprisonment – of Hans Kaspar Gulbransson 66n90 – of Oskar Panizza 37, 302, 332 Indeterminacy – principle of 12 – racial 95, 120 India 31, 33, 42, 103 Indian Mutiny (1857–1858) 29, 30n114, 31. See also Sepoy Rebellion – Medal 239 “Indian Toast.” See Rocky Bear Indian Wars (1622–1924) 313 Indian(s), (American) XIV, 128, 312–323, 359, 360–362, 364, 371–372, 396–397, 417 – American 320, 322

Index 

– Show 275, 313–314, 317–318, 321, 323, 363 – vanishing 315–316, 320, 322 “Indian’s Thoughts, An.” See Panizza, Oskar Individuality 82, 89, 123, 214, 350 Inferiority 52, 93, 176, 282 – complex 126, 326 – cultural 55, 140 – epidermalization of 126, 145, 151, 356 – moral 74 Infrastructure 16, 24 Inhumanity 190, 232, 270 Injustice 139, 278, 318, 328 – colonial 244 – social 244, 319 Innocence 190, 272, 302, 369, 376–377 – cultural 205 Insecurity 88 – racial 60, 121, 293 Insurgents – African 28, 36, 238, 240 – Herero 178, 184–185, 187, 189 – Sepoy 30 Insurrection 237 – colonial 176, 216 – of the Herero 193–195, 239 – of the Sepoy 30n114 International Socialist Congress, Seventh (1907) 222n187 Internationale, The 244 Intertext(s) 35, 40, 47, 61, 156, 340 Intertextuality 155, 374 Intolerance 17, 47–49 Isaak, Samuel (Onderkaptein of the Witbooi) 217, 219–220 Isles, British 101 Isolation 40, 364, 370 – cultural 28 Israel, Land of 21, 25, 98, 132. See also Eretz Israel Israel, Nathan (department store chain, Berlin) 385, 401, 401ng Israelit, Der (Mainz) 412ne “It is Poorly Arranged in Life.” See Scheffel, Joseph Viktor von ITO 4, 4n11, 10, 17, 96, 127, 133, 163, 164, 166, 168, 275, 312, 415nc, 416ne. See also Jewish Territorial Organization

J

 467

Jaffa Gate (Jerusalem) 118 Jagodja 270–271 Jahresrevue (Metropol-Theater) 291–292 – for 1906 37, 150, 276, 287n46, 288, 291 (see also Devil Laughs about It!, The) – for 1907 224–225 (see also You’ve Got to See This!) Jampoller, Adolf 42 – works – “Zionists’ Latin” (orig. “Zionistenlatein”) 42 Japan 390, 408 Jargon (i.e. Yiddish) 71, 155 Jazz 404nf Jazz Singer, The (Crosland) 293 Jehova 342 Jentsch, Ernst 334–335, 339 – works – “On the Psychology of the Uncanny” (orig. “Zur Psychologie des Unheimlichen”) 334–335 Jentzsch, Hans Gabriel 230, 250–251, 268–269, 380 – works – “After the ‘Victory’” (orig. “Nach dem ‘Siege’”) 250–251 – “Dark Side, The” (orig. “Schattenseite, Die”) 268 – “Yield of our Colonies, The” (orig. “Ertrag unserer Kolonien, Der”) 230 Jerusalem 26, 40, 96, 113, 115, 118–119, 403np, 411nh. See also Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts; Church of the Redeemer; Hebrew University; Jaffa Gate; Mount Scopus; Tomb of David Jesus Christ 263, 411nh Jew(s) 1, 3, 4n13, 5–6, 10–11, 16–18, 20, 24–25, 35–36, 38, 39, 40, 45n21, 46–47, 49–50, 50–56, 58, 70–71, 92–98, 101, 105–107, 109, 113n228, 114, 117–120, 121–122, 125–127, 131–132, 135, 137–140, 142–152, 154–158, 160–163, 166–168, 172–173, 218–220, 222–224, 259, 261, 263–265, 267, 275, 294, 29–9,

468 

 Index

Jew(s) (continued) 302–303, 310–312, 320, 326–327, 328n10, 331–332, 336–338, 340, 343–347, 349–352, 361–362, 364, 366, 370–371, 373–375, 377, 382, 383, 398–399, 401ne, 401nh, 403nd, 405, 405nr, 406, 407, 409, 410, 411, 413nm, 414, 415, 415nc, 416. See also Book, People of the; Chosen People, The – of Abyssinia 42 – African 35, 38, 50, 62, 70, 89, 97, 101 – Arab 6n20 – assimilability of 109 – assimilated 93, 161, 166, 223, 298–299, 375 – of Australia 42 – ‘black’ 5–6, 15, 35, 37, 42–43, 46, 50, 62, 96, 100, 105–106, 127, 135, 143, 161, 171, 210, 220–221, 285–286, 304 – and blacks 4n14, 15, 17, 39, 50, 55–56, 58, 99, 121, 126, 142, 161–162, 165–166, 173, 188, 216, 223, 297, 363, 377, 382 – British 167 – as collaborators’ group 139 – colonizing 5, 39, 52, 95, 162, 312 – degenerate 21, 95, 126n14 – diaspora 95 – discrimination against 218 – dispersal of 24 – eastern European 106, 140n67, 146, 375 (see also Ashkenazim) – feminization of 341 – German 139, 139n67, 140n67, 220, 224, 409 – and Hittites 94 – identification with animals 157, 335–336, 363–364, 368 – of India 42 – as insider-outsider group 5, 11 – of Lithuania 140n67 – male, and hysteria 341 – Mizrachi 45–46, 70, 100, 143–144, 171, 210, 285–286, 294 – New 95, 107, 146, 164 – oriental 6n20 – orthodox 5–6, 15, 26n96, 42, 44, 171, 305, 308, 399, 399nf

– reform 15, 20, 95n166, 171, 310 – restoration to Palestine 24, 40, 52 – Russian 134, 135, 374 – of South Africa 57–58, 139–140, 143 – ultraorthodox 398nd – Wandering 106 – western 106, 373 – and whiteness 54, 57, 121, 138, 142, 166, 297 – of Yemen 42 Jewification 45, 302, 121, 144, 151–152. See also Verjudung Jewish Chronicle, The (London) 135–136, 140 “Jewish Fright.” See Spanier, Meier Jewish Names, The. See Zunz, Leopold Jewish National Fund 16, 96, 404, 404nj, 404nk. See also JNF Jewish Question, The. See Blyden, Wilmot Jewish State, The. See Herzl, Theodor Jewish Territorial Organization 4, 415nc. See also ITO Jewish Theological Seminary (New York) 417nn Jewishness 4, 38, 42, 71, 126, 129, 170, 171, 220–221, 223, 238, 259, 263–264, 285–286, 298, 332, 343, 345, 368 – constructions of 6, 9, 35, 68, 71, 95, 166 – essential 166, 309, 364 – markers of 100, 126, 253, 275, 326, 342, 375 – negotiations of 36, 42, 120, 173 – protean 92, 121, 264 – representations of 35 Jewry 44, 71, 96n167, 100, 125, 152, 238, 374, 404, 405, 411 “Jewry of Muscle.” See Nordau, Max; “Muscular Judaism” JNF 16, 96–97. See also Jewish National Fund Joel, E. E. 381 – works – “Election Bait” (orig. “WahlfischKöder”) 381, Figure 36 John Lackland (King of England) 97, 404, 404nl John, Toby (Yangaman/Nkonga ma ngaba lobé) 77–78, 81

Index 

Johnston, Sir Henry Hamilton 15, 18, 129–132, 138–142, 146, 148, 167 – works – “Disposal of Africa, The” 139–141, 167 – Uganda Protectorate, The 18 – “White Man’s Place in Africa, The” 129–131 Jolson, Al 293, 293n72. See also Yoelson, Asa Journal(s) 1–3, 27, 43, 97, 124–125, 126, 126n14, 137, 266, 279, 303, 306, 322, 345, 365, 374 – satirical 36 (see also Magazine(s), satirical) – Zionist 1, 97, 365, 374 Journey through Palestine. See Rückert, Karl Theodor Journey to Uganda, The. See Wilbusch, Nahum Joyful Wisdom, The. See Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm Judaism 4, 15, 20, 39, 45, 222, 238, 263, 304–305, 366, 378, 399ne, 401nd, 405, 407, 409nf. See also Hasidism – liberal 399ne – muscular 125 (see also Nordau, Max) – New Reform 304 – orthodox 42, 303, 409nf, 412ne – Rabbinic 11, 264 – reform 16, 309 Jude, Der (Berlin) 365, 373 Judensau 263 Judgement – moralistic 94 – punitive – on the Herero 196, 200, 203 Jüdische Rundschau (Berlin) 112, 171 Jungle(s) 58, 86, 147, 232, 255 Jungmann, Max XIII, 1, 2n5, 3n10, 4–6, 11, 13, 17, 20, 27–28, 33–34, 38, 42, 45, 46n26, 47, 50, 58, 62, 64, 69, 88, 92, 94–95, 99–100, 106, 121, 129, 134–136, 143, 162, 170, 172, 174, 188, 210, 216, 227, 244, 252n75, 256–257, 266, 267, 275, 277, 285, 291–295, 303, 308–309, 311, 314, 319, 324, 338, 363, 372, 375, 378, 379

 469

– works – “Letter from Texas” (orig. “Brief aus Texas”) XIII, 3n8, 12, 36, 71n103, 415–418 – “Letter of the Ape Jim to the Ur-Teuton Wittekind Walhallerich” (orig. “Brief des Affen Jim an den Urgermanen Wittekind Walhallerich”) 379, 380 – “Letters from New-Newland” (orig. “Briefe aus Neu-Neuland”) XIII, 3, 6, 12, 16–18, 31, 34–38, 45, 47, 59, 92, 110–111, 129, 134–135, 162, 170, 171, 174, 216, 223, 225, 227, 244, 256, 257, 267, 276–277, 285, 293–295, 303, 309, 311, 319, 363, 372, 375, 377, 398–418 Junker, Prussian 253 Justice 256 – divine 203 – eternal 202 Jüttner, Franz Albert 244 – works – “Contribution to the Shortly to be Published ‘Almanac of Decorations’” (orig. “Beitrag zum demnächst erscheinenden ‘OrdensAlmanach” 244–245, Figure 26 (see also Campaign medals, Herero War)

K

Kadimah (Vienna) 403nc Kaffirs 58, 336, 338 – Transvaal 58, 172 Kafka, Franz 361, 363–379, 380 – allegorical readings of 364, 373–375 – de-allegorized readings of 373 – diaries of 376, 377–378 – works – Man Who Disappeared, The (orig. Verschollene, Der) 378 – “Metamorphosis” (orig. “Verwandlung, Die”) 363–367 – “Report to an Academy, A” (orig. “Bericht an eine Akademie, Ein”) 363, 365–375, 377–378, 379, 380 Kaiser Wilhelm II 26, 46, 99, 113, 115, 117–119, 149, 158, 168, 231, 236, 240, 245–246, 255, 258–259, 267, 410na. See also Wilhelm II

470 

 Index

Kaiser, Alfred (Professor) 133, 136, 414na Kaiserreich 10, 11, 36, 225, 226, 230, 239, 259, 274. See also Germany, imperial – culture of 9 Kakungulu, Semei (Buganda) 45n25 Karlsbad (Karlovy Vary) 154–156, 158 Kassiúi 91. See Figure 13a, b Kayser, Paul (German Colonial Director) 10 Kenya 70n102, 398na, 399ng, 414nb Kikeriki (Vienna) 126n14 Kilimanjaro (German East Africa/ Tanzania) 270–271 King of Schnorrers, The (Zangwill) 132 Kipling, Rudyard 236 – works – “White Man’s Burden, The” 236 Kippah 3, 101. See also Skullcap Kishinev (Russia) – pogrom (1903) 122 Kiss of the Sphinx, The. See Stuck, Franz von Kitto, John 104 Kladderadatsch (Berlin) XIII, 36, 122, 226, 231–233, 237–239, 254, 272 Koch, Georg 241n53 – works – “Parenting at the Kilimanjaro” (orig. “Kindererziehung am Kiliman­ dscharo”) 241n53 Köhler, Wolfgang 373n31 – works – Mentality of Apes, The (orig. Intelligenzprüfungen an Anthropoiden) 373n31 Korea 408na Körner, Theodor 44 – works – “Lützow’s Wild Hunt” (orig. “Lützows wilde Jagd”) 44 Kräuter, Ernst 289n52 Kremenezky, Johann 96–97, 387, 404, 404nj Kreplach 215–216, 222–223, 238, 413, 413nk Krüger, Arthur 238, 272 – works – “Colonial Scorpion, The” (orig. “Kolonialskorpion, Der”) 238–239 – “Colonial Sphinx, The” (orig. “Colonialsphinx, Die”) 272, 274

Kuhlmann, [?] (geographer) 24 Kullrich, Franz (photographer) Figure 9, Figure 12 Kulturkampf 56, 266, 310, 409ng. See also Culture struggle; Culture war Kulturvolk 159, 186–187, 240, 391. See also People(s), civilized Kyrburg, Fritz von der 235n30. See also Bilse, Fritz Oswald

L

Labor 138, 152, 181, 186–187 Laborers 142 Lakota (native American people) 317–319, 322, 325. See also Sioux Landauer, Gustav 408nc, 412na Langer, Georg 375 Language(s) 53, 54, 70, 71, 93, 107, 186, 200, 354, 398ne, 400, 407, 410nb – Arabic 108 – German 53, 71, 107, 355 – native 70 – Turkish 108 – Yiddish 71, 140n67 – national 71n104 Last of the Mohicans, The. See Cooper, James Fenimore Latin America 168 Laundry blue 150 Law(s) 49, 108, 201, 204, 287, 348 – civil 184 – criminal 353 – German – imperial 348 – of the jungle 201–202, 203 – metropolitan 287 – moral 353 – of nations 209 – Nuremberg (1935) 334 – public 4 – religious 14, 416nd – rule of 45n22, 287 – sumptuary 102 Lawrence of Arabia (i.e. T. E. Lawrence)  117 Leatherstocking tales. See Cooper, James Fenimore

Index 

Lectures 59, 92, 95n164, 208, 222, 299n90, 401nh Lehmann, Marcus (Rabbi) 393, 412, 412ne Lehmann-Schramm, Willy 252–253, 254n81 – works – “From our Colonies” (orig. “Aus unseren Kolonien”) 252–253, 254n81 Leipzig 393, 413, 413nj Leipziger Volkszeitung (Leipzig) 236 “Lenore.” See Bürger, Gottfried August Leopard 97, 358 Leopold II (King of Belgium) 232–233 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim 403nn – works – Emilia Galotti 403nn “Letter from Texas.” See Jungmann, Max “Letter of the Ape Jim to the Ur-Teuton Wittekind Walhallerich.” See Jungmann, Max Letters for the Advancement of Humanity. See Herder, Johann Gottfried “Letters from New-Newland.” See Jungmann, Max Leutwein, Theodor (Colonel; Colonial Governor of German South-West Africa and Commander of the Schutztruppe) 177n12, 193 Levensohn, Lotta XIII, 40, 48n36, 52n52, 107–108, 148n92, 148n95 Levi, Moses 278, 286–288 Leviathan 342–343, 393, 412, 412nd Liberalism 223, 253n77, 266 Liberia 51 Libido – of black Africans 128, 292, 356 Lida (Lithuania) 413ni Liersemann trial 280, 286 Liersemann, Heinrich 102–103, 280, 282, 285–287, 292n67, 308, 329n13 – works – “H. R. H. Prince” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa (orig. “S. K. H. Prinz” Ludwig Paul Heinrich M’pundo Njasam Akwa) 280, 285–286 Lilien, E. M. 124–126, 261, 272 – works – “Old-Newland. Title page of the Journal for the Exploration of Palestine”

 471

(orig. “Altneuland. Titelblatt für die Zeitschrift zur Erforschung Palästinas”) 124–126, Figure 16 Liminality 59 Linguistics, cognitive 14 Lithograph 111, 125 Lithuania 140n67, 293, 401nd, 413ni Little Garrison, A. See Bilse, Fritz Oswald Liverpool 281, 357 Lives of Animals, The. See Coetzee, J. M. Livingstone, David 19 Loewe, Heinrich 112, 120 London 117, 132, 162, 290n61, 292, 307, 356, 396, 416. See also East End; Imperial War Museum; South Kensington Museum London, M. W. 136–137 Lorraine 235 Love Council, The. See Panizza, Oskar Löw, Leopold (Rabbi) 399ne Loyalty 84, 139, 214 – Jewish – dual 25 Lucknow (India) 30 Luschan, Felix von 73–79, 81–82, 88–91, 93n152, 94, 114, 150n98, 158, 186n59, 196, 282–284 – works – Contributions to the Ethnography of the German Protectorates (orig. Beiträge zur Ethnographie der deutschen Schutzgebiete) 74–79, 81, 90–92 Lustige Blätter (Berlin) 244, 250–251, 276 Luther, Martin 263–264 – works – Of the Unknowable Name and the Generations of Christ (orig. Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi) 263–264 Lützow Free Corps 44 “Lützow’s Wild Hunt.” See Körner, Theodor; Weber, Carl Maria von

M

Maasai (also Massai) 15, 28, 36, 76, 90–95, 98–99, 171, 173, 291, 401, 401nh, 402, 410, 414nb

472 

 Index

Maasai, The. See Merker, Moritz Madras Fusiliers, British 30 Magazine(s) 1n1, 34, 59, 67, 92, 103, 137n57, 215, 313, 328, 379, 415na – anticlerical 226, 255, 257, 266 – illustrated 59 – satirical XIII, 36, 38, 64, 66n90, 122, 225, 226–227, 232, 233, 235, 239, 240, 251–252, 268, 380 (see also Punch) – German 10, 227, 238 (see also Wahre Jakob, Der; Kikeriki; Kladderadatsch; Lustige Blätter; Schlemiel; Simplicissimus) – Zionist 1 (see also Schlemiel) Maharero, Friedrich 35, 62, 69, 89, 238. See Figure 12 Maharero, Samuel (Paramount Chief of the Herero) 35, 69, 84n136, 179 Mahdist War (1881–1889) 19 Mainz 385, 389, 393, 401, 401ne, 407, 412 Maji Maji Rebellion (1905–1907) 28, 28n107, 29 Majority culture 310, 316 – European 309 – German 45, 173 Malaria 51–52 Man Who Disappeared, The. See Kafka, Franz Manchuria 408na Mandelstamm, Max 166, 168, 374–375 – works – “Voice from the Ghetto on Zionism, A” (orig.“Ghettostimme über den Zionismus, Eine”) 166, 374–375 Manifest Destiny 315–316, 319 Mannes, Wilhelm 261 Marginality 119–120, 359 Marginalization 316, 364 Margins 118–119, 360 – of society 359, 364 Margraviate 229 Marienbad (Mariánské Lázně) 154n122, 156 Marker(s) 8, 113, 164, 285, 366 – of civilization 108 – of the colonial subject 106 – of degeneracy 93 – of difference 122 – of identity 129

– of Jewishness 100, 253, 275, 326, 342, 375 – physical 344 – racial 69–70, 164, 342 – social 105n201 – of whiteness 293 Marr, Wilhelm 151–152 – works – Victory of Judaism over Germandom, The (orig. Sieg des Judenthums über das Germanenthum, Der) 151 Marriage(s) – interracial 180 – mixed 180, 290, 291n62 – debate (Germany) 180 Martin (Kuané a Dibobé) 74–75. See Figure 7a, b März (Munich) 266 Masculinity 128–129 – German 248–249 – Jewish 53n54 Mashonaland (British protectorate) 175n7 Mask(s) 116, 336 – black 126, 143, 293, 324 – white 120, 326 Massada 362 Massary, Fritzi 276, 277n4, 277n6, 287–288 Master narrative 30 – Zionist 14, 132 Master race 57, 142 Matabeleland (British protectorate) 175n7 May, Karl 19, 200–201, 202n112, 203, 313–314, 320–322 – works – And on Earth Peace! (orig. Und Friede auf Erden!) 202n112 – Ardistan and Djinnistan (orig. Ardistan und Dschinnistan) 202n112 – In the Desert (orig. Durch die Wüste) 201, 203 – Winnetou 320–321 Mbwapwa Jumbo 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 11n39, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43n15, 44, 45, 45n25, 46, 47, 49, 50, 52, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 68, 69, 70, 71, 71n103, 72, 87, 88, 89, 92, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108,

Index 

110, 111, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 126, 127, 128, 129, 134, 135, 136, 138, 144, 150, 162, 166, 170, 171, 172, 173, 181, 182, 188, 210, 215, 216, 217, 220, 221, 223, 225, 227, 238, 244, 252n75, 256, 257, 261, 266, 267, 274, 275, 276, 277, 279, 280, 285, 286, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 303, 304, 307, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 319, 320, 232, 324, 338, 366, 373, 375, 376, 377, 378, 379, 380, 382, 384, 387, 388, 390, 391, 392, 394, 395, 397, 398nd, 400, 403, 405, 407, 408nd, 409ng, 410, 410nb, 410nc, 411, 413, 414, 415, 418, see Figure 1, Figure 2. See also Mbwapwa rhizome – and assimilation 122, 310 – and ‘black’ Jews 42 – color oscillations 5, 36, 120, 121–124, 127, 144, 377, 382 – conversion to orthodox Judaism 4, 15, 39, 42, 45, 105, 127, 267, 366 – as fanatic enemy of the German Empire 216 – as focalizer 6, 40, 99 – as identification figure 6, 70, 105, 138, 171, 257, 295, 382 – as Jewish internal other 5, 35, 42, 71 – and language 16, 27, 70–71, 107, 108, 294 – models for 35, 62–64, 68–70, 72, 87, 89, 238 – as multiple signifier 12, 13 – and performativity 38, 294–295, 303 – physical appearance 35, 100–101, 257, 375 – portrait of 50, 59–64, 68–70, 71, 72, 89, 100–101, 105, 257, Figure 1, Figure 2 – and skin color 16, 59, 70, 106, 129, 304, 309, 375 – and his umbrella 101, 104–106, 111, 126 Mbwapwa rhizome 14, 34–38, 226n1, 234, 245, 266, 274, 275, 277, 279, 295, 303, 308, 311–312, 319, 323, 363, 375, 378, 379. See also Rhizome Meat shortage, German 254 Medal(s) 73n110, 78–79, 81, 265, 281n20. See also Campaign medals Media event

 473

– Herero War as 29, 33 – Sepoy Rebellion as 30 Mediation 30n114, 33 – of contemporary German colonial experience 21 – of the Herero War 29, 33–34, 174, 195, 203 – of the Sepoy Rebellion 33, 195, 197 Meier, Moses (Onderkaptein of the Witbooi) 220 Meinecke, Gustav Hermann 74, 89 – works – Germany and its Colonies (orig. Deutschland und seine Kolonien) 73–74, 89 Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing. See Eichendorff, Joseph von Memory 187, 202, 239, 250 – collective 30 Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Felix – works – “Farewell – God’s Wisdom and Parting” (orig. “Auf Wiedersehn – Gottes Rat und Scheiden”) 406nc. See also Feuchtersleben, Ernst von Mentality of Apes, The. See Köhler, Wolfgang Merensky, Alexander 210–211 Merkaz Ruchani 5, 398nc. See also Mizrachi, Mizrachim Merker, Moritz 92–95, 95, 164, 259, 401nh – works – Maasai, The (orig. Die Massai) 92–94 Mesopotamia 11n39 Messiah 119n247, 411 Metamorphosis 5, 38, 58, 70, 105, 122–123, 145, 247, 269–270, 293, 333–334, 363–366, 373, 375, 380 “Metamorphosis.” See Kafka, Franz Metanarrative, imperial 101, 105 Metropole 102, 153, 307 – colonial 9, 229, 242, 253, 256, 265, 267, 268 – imperial 163, 306 Metropol-Theater (Berlin) 37, 150, 224, 276, 277n6, 287–288, 291, 292, 293 Meyer, Joseph 403nn Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon  86n138, 186, 189, 358, 403nn

474 

 Index

Michaelis, Carl Eduard 289–290 Middle Ages 304n104, 341 Middle East 24, 117 Midrash 11–13, 14 Mikveh Israel (Palestine/Israel) 25–26, 118 Milk and honey 136–137, 275, 414 Mimic(s) 364, 375 Mimicking 47, 305 Mimicry 39, 46–47, 109, 116, 120, 161, 166, 283, 298, 367, 372, 374 – colonial 149, 372 – imperfect 161, 282, 355 – Jewish 46–47, 120, 298 – mental 326 Mink, Louis O. 13 Minstrelization 306, 307n120, 308 Minstrels, Tyrolean 296n84 Minstrelsy – blackface 293, 295, 297, 307, 293, 295, 297 Miriam (biblical) 305 Mirror stage (Lacan) 356 Mirror(s) 81, 123, 145, 159–161, 351–352 – cracked 160 Miscegenation 145, 179–180, 267–268, 289, 290n61, 291, 334, 336–337, 369 Mismanagement, colonial 287, 289n52 Mission civilisatrice 65, 113, 122, 146, 174–175, 198, 236, 254. See also Mission, civilizing Mission 53n54, 129, 299 – Christian 176 – civilizing 29, 70n101, 72, 101, 176, 182 (see also Mission civilisatrice) – ecclesiastic 255 – Jewish – among the nations 25, 48, 383, 399 Missionary, missionaries 46, 76, 86n127, 89, 179, 194, 210–213, 216, 228, 242, 255–257 – bigotry of 254 – Catholic 254 – Protestant 254 Mizrachi, Mizrachim 5–6, 15, 17, 35, 42–48, 50, 70, 100, 143, 144, 171, 210, 256, 257, 266, 285–286, 294, 295, 303, 308–311, 319, 375–376, 398, 398nc, 399, 400, 401, 401nd, 402, 412, 413,

413ni, 413nj, 414. See also Merkaz Ruchani Modernity 46, 108, 293, 294 Modernization 108 – synagogal 398ne Modes of seeing. See also Conventions, of viewing; Habits, viewing – conventional 62 Mombasa (Kenya) 413nh Monet, Claude 105 – works – Woman with a Parasol 105 Monkey(s) 69–70, 86, 147, 158–161. See also Apes Monster 145, 160, 186, 190, 236, 269, 271, 324, 332, 333, 339, 350–353, 356, 361, 362, 363–365, 412nd Monstrosity 295, 338, 351–352, 362, 365 Monte Veritá (Ascona) 408nd Montefiore, Sir Francis 111–112, 120 Montefiore, Sir Moses 111–112, 118n247 Moral, Christian 256 Morality 91, 186, 228–229 Morenga, Jakob (Military leader of the Herero and Nama) 214, 239 Morris, Abraham (Kaptein of the Bondelzwart) 217, 220 Moses (biblical) 136, 261, 275 Moses, Julius 1 Motif(s) – of the biblical spies 260, 262, 264 – colonial – in postcards 153–154 – of the danse macabre 340 – of the eastern European Jewish peddler in postcards 154 – of the Judensau 263 – of portrait photography 82–83 – of ripped out eyes 335 Mount Kenya (Kenya) 20, 45, 96, 399, 399ng, 402 Mount Scopus (Jerusalem) 96 Movement(s) – Ethiopian 46, 209–212, 242, 285, 307, 319 (see also Church, Ethiopian; Ethiopianism) – messianic 24 – Jewish

Index 

– reform 45–46, 122, 398ne – Sabbatean 24n91 – Zionist 2, 3n10, 6, 11, 16, 96, 98, 121, 125, 143 Mpundo Akwa trial 102, 285n40, 286 Mpwapwa, Mpapua (German East Africa/ Tanzania) 27 Münchener Beobachter (Munich) 328 Münchener Post (Munich) 270 Munich 226, 271, 281n20, 317, 319, 322, 345 Munich Anthropological Society 317 Munich avantgarde 345 Murder 47, 171, 186, 250, 255 – ritual 327 – sex 270 Murray, John 22 – works – Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine 22 “Muscular Judaism.” See Nordau, Max Music-hall(s) 37, 150, 276, 296, 305 Muslim(s) 41, 108 Mwanga II (King of Buganda) 46n26 My Life. See Seume, Johann Gottfried Mynona 324–325. See also Friedlaender, Salomo – works – “Operated Goy, The” (orig. “Operierte Goj, Der”) 325, 352 Myth 87, 379 – of the German soul 327 – Greek 274 – imperial 29, 204 – Nordic 344

N

Nama (African people) 5, 28–29, 35, 62–63, 64, 82–84, 87–88, 129, 141, 172, 176, 194, 196, 210, 212–214, 216–217, 238–239, 279, 286, 317, 358. See also Hottentots Namaland 213 Nama War (1904–1907) 5, 28–29, 62–63, 87–88, 141, 180, 196, 207n126, 208, 210, 213, 279, 358, 410ne. See also Hottentot War; Hottentottenkrieg Namibia 5, 86n137, 89n144, 410nd, 410ne

 475

– banknotes 68n95 – independence of 68n95 Nandi (African people) 134n47, 136, 414nb. See also Wanandi Napoleon Bonaparte 349, 413no Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) 44, 239 Narrative, national 113n228 Natal (British colony) 139 Nation(s) 6, 25, 29, 48, 49, 66, 163, 173, 191, 205, 218, 222, 246, 249–250, 254, 318, 347 – civilized XIV, 17, 57, 74, 99, 107, 121, 147, 172–173, 176, 204, 206, 326, 347 – culturally superior 172 – European 230 – German 205–206, 219 – Germanic 326 – (American) Indian 315, 320–321 – Jewish 39, 113–114, 163, 383, 398 – law of 209 – subjugated 102 National Liberal Party (Nationalliberale Partei) 176 National Socialism 72, 328. See also Nazis – euthanasia program 207n126 Nationalism, German 44 National-Zeitung (Berlin) 235 Nation-building 154 Nationhood 6, 56 Native(s) XIV, 16, 29, 33, 35, 40–41, 63–67, 72–73, 76–79, 81–82, 84, 86–91, 98, 100, 103–104, 109, 120, 121–123, 128, 130, 134, 138, 140–141, 147, 149, 150–151, 158–162, 172–173, 175, 177n12, 179, 181–184, 196–197, 199, 205, 208, 210, 216, 218, 222n187, 228–229, 232–233, 236, 238, 241n53, 242, 248, 250–252, 254–257, 263, 265, 270–272, 275, 276, 282, 285, 294, 296, 299, 303, 316–317, 338, 375, 379 – African 6, 17, 20, 33, 57, 99, 158, 211, 243, 271 – American 282, 313–316, 318–319, 321, 322 – as bloodthirsty beasts (in human shape) 5, 90, 184–185, 186, 322, 379 – as children 160, 174

476 

 Index

Native(s) (continued) – Christian 211 – dehumanization of 36, 173, 185, 197, 271 – demonization of 173 – domestication of 72, 85 – educability of 72–73, 90, 181, 233, 316 – exhibition of 8, 19, 72 – perception of 74, 99 – treatment of 77, 181–182, 243, 270 – women 198n102, 234–235, 237, 241n53, 268, 270–271 Nature 187, 190, 196–197, 358 – of African natives 33, 77, 140, 205, 219 – animal and human 371 – force of 31 – German 205 – soul 326 – inhospitable 26 – Jewish 129, 264, 347 – narrative 13 – primitive 56, 183 – satirical 35, 135 Naturvolk 159, 186–187, 240, 252. See also People(s), primitive Nazis 328. See also National Socialism Negrification 121 Negro, negroes 3, 5, 28, 33, 37, 52–56, 62, 67, 70n101, 76, 94, 121, 127, 130, 136, 138, 140–143, 145, 151, 159, 166, 174, 185, 192, 216, 228, 240, 241n53, 281n20, 284, 286, 296–297, 300–303, 307, 310, 326, 351–362, 364, 366–368, 371, 373, 375, 377–378, 400, 409, 414. See also Africans; Natives Negro Idylls. See Herder, Johann Gottfried “Negro’s Tale, A.” See Panizza, Oskar Negrophilia 306n114 Neptune – trident of 249 Network theory, narrative 11, 14 Neurasthenia 205–207 – debate 204–205 – tropical 207, 208n128, 236 (see also Tropenkoller) New British Islanders 77 New Departure rear break hubs 251

– advertisements for 251–252 New Palestine (British East Africa) 134 New Society (Old-New Land) 40–41, 47, 49, 52, 107, 109 New World 17, 190–191, 292–293, 312 New York 290n61, 396, 400na, 403nc, 417, 417nn New-Newland (“Letters from New-Newland”) 12, 16, 17, 19, 20–21, 31, 35, 36, 37, 40, 45, 47, 49, 50, 58–59, 95–96, 110–111, 129, 134–135, 140n67, 162, 171–172, 216, 223, 225, 244, 256–257, 267, 285, 293, 305, 309–311, 319, 363, 372, 375, 377, 380 Newport, RI 56 Niagara River 10 Nibelungenlied 344 Nicholas II (Tsar of Russia) 406ne Niederwald Monument (Rüdesheim am Rhein) 247–249, 272. See also Figure 28 Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm 43, 197, 350 – works – Joyful Wisdom, The (orig. Fröhliche Wissenschaft, Die) 43 Nigeria 138 Nigger(s) XIV, 3n9, 39, 95, 97, 281, 284, 300–301, 308, 383, 385, 386, 388, 398, 399, 401, 402, 405 Nike (Goddess of Victory) 248 Nink, Fritz (photographer) Figure 3 Nobel, Nehemiah Anton (Rabbi) 393, 413, 413nj Nobel Prize – in Physiology and Medicine 238 Nobility 78, 277, 322 – German 281n20 – high 234 Nordau, Max 53–54, 110, 111, 125, 168 – works – “Jewry of Muscle” (also “Muscular Judaism”; orig. “Muskeljudentum”) 125 North German Confederation 417np North German Regatta Association 267n121 Nossig, Alfred 15, 27, 111, 137, 141–144, 148, 291

Index 

Nostalgia 99, 322 Nouveau Cirque (Paris) 305n107, 307

O

Oberländer, Adolf 289n51 Occident 53, 57, 147 Occupation – French, of Germany 214 Oedenkoven, Henri 408nd Of the Unknowable Name and the Generations of Christ. See Luther, Martin Officer(s) 87, 93, 102, 177n12, 193, 194n88, 195, 200, 204, 207n126, 219, 229, 245, 250–251, 255, 268–269, 280, 283, 285, 308 – German – caste 234, 268 – corps 219 – scandalous conduct of 235 Oi. – works – “Election Song” (orig. “Wahllied”) 224 Okahandja (German South-West Africa/ Namibia) 89n144 Old-New Land. See Herzl, Theodor – and Old-New Land 3, 40, 47–49, 52–53, 70, 95, 107–109, 147, 166, 301, 304 “Old-Newland. Title page of the Journal for the Exploration of Palestine.” See Lilien, E. M. Omaheke desert (German South-West Africa/ Namibia) 193, 196–197, 202, 232, 250 On the Natural Variety of Mankind. See Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich “On the Psychology of the Uncanny.” See Jentsch, Ernst Opera 110, 258, 344, 348–349 – glasses 81 – hat 115 (see also Top hat) “Operated Goy, The.” See Mynona “Operated Jew, The.” See Panizza, Oskar Opinion, public 29, 60, 130, 141, 176n12, 277, 381–382 Oppenheimer, Franz 96n167 Oppression – of the German proletariat 242 Orange Free State 139

 477

Order 198–199, 228–230, 232, 300 – colonial 151, 213, 243 – cultural 147 – extermination (von Trotha) 194 – of gender, symbolic 337 – narrative 13 – political 18 – Prussian 232 – segregationist 154 – social 47, 105, 147 Organ – in Jewish synagogues 16, 309–311, 398ne, 409, 409ne Orient 108, 159, 201 Oriental(s) 116, 147 Orientalism 24, 41, 116–117, 159, 258, 321n167 Orientalization 272 – of Wilhelm II 117 – of Hendrik Witbooi 85–86 Orthodoxy, Jewish 47, 400, 412 Oscillation – between black and white 36, 38, 97, 120, 121, 162, 324, 377, 382 Ost und West (Berlin) 53, 55n61, 138, 166, 374 Otavi (German South-West Africa/ Namibia) 230 Other 19, 38, 59, 69, 73, 79, 81, 99, 108, 138, 147, 160–162, 168, 170, 180, 190, 200, 216, 240, 250, 272, 275, 282–283, 297–298, 306–307, 322, 326, 351, 353, 359, 362, 372, 380 – African 284, 348 – black 36, 127, 145, 161, 174, 218, 293, 324, 358 – Boers as 167 – colonial 240 – demonization of 173 – desired 326, 351, 352, 369 – English 281 – ethnic 19, 35, 74, 322 – European 160 – exhibition of 60, 72 – exotic 35, 61, 72 – human 366–367 – Jewish 6, 127, 168, 263 – internal 5, 35, 163 – native 72, 74, 162, 173, 315

478 

 Index

Other (continued) – oriental 116 – primitive 59 – racial 249, 337 – representation – photographic 72 – savage 59, 248 – white 160–161 Othering 140, 162, 355 – strategies of 36 Otherness 9, 91–92, 145, 150, 160, 219, 353–355, 360, 372. See also Alterity – colonial 70n101 – ethnic 72 – exhibition of 72–73, 91–92, 313n129 – exotic 35 – Jewish 167, 297 – racial 72, 274, 321, 380 Other-world 72, 86, 151, 202n112, 236 – of Africa 58 – colonial 21, 270 Otto, Franz 416nh Ottoman Empire 24, 108, 116, 108n212, 404nk, 404nn, 404no Ovikokorero (Owikokorero; German South-West Africa/Namibia) 218, 393, 413, 413ng Ozar ha-Yahadut. See Ahad Ha’am Ozar Yisrael. See Eisenstein, Judah David

P

Pacific Ocean 28, 255 Paderborn 278 Paiute (native American people) 319 Palaestina (Vienna) 26, 137, 261, 272 Palestine and Syria. See Baedeker, Karl Palestine 3, 4n11, 10, 16, 18, 21–27, 45n24, 96, 98, 108, 113, 118, 124, 128, 132n39, 133, 137, 141, 164, 168, 221, 227, 275, 285, 286, 379–380, 399ne, 404, 404ni, 404nk, 408, 411 – as the land of the bible 23, 24 – Arab riots in 379n50 – German colonization of 24 – Jewish – colonization of 24, 27, 141, 221, 285 – restoration to 24, 96

– return to 3, 24–25, 124, 399ne – settlement in 10, 25, 113, 164, 404nn – settlement of 21n68, 98 – in Old-New Land 40 – tourism 22 Palm tree(s) 85, 228–229, 263 – date 86n137 – plantations 86n137 Pan-Africanism 57 Panizza, Oskar XIII, 37–38, 145, 150, 155n125, 159, 160, 296–303, 305, 306, 321–323, 124–136, 338–362, 363–367, 369–371, 380 – works – “Classicism and the Invasion of the Variété, The” (orig. “Klassizismus und das Eindringen des Variété, Der”) 296–303 – Crepuscular Pieces (orig. Dämmerungsstücke) 330, 335, 350 – “Devil in the Oberammergau Passion Play, The” (orig. “Teufel im Oberammergauer Passionsspiele, Der”) 322 – “Factory of Humans, The” (orig. “Menschenfabrik, Die”) 350 – “Indian’s Thoughts, An” (orig. “Indianergedanken”) 38, 321–323, 325–326, 351, 359–362 – Love Council, The (orig. Liebeskonzil, Das) 37, 332 – “Negro’s Tale, A” (orig. “Negergeschichte, Eine”) 38, 144–145, 150, 160, 303, 323, 324, 325, 351, 352, 353–359, 362, 366, 367 – “Operated Jew, The” (orig. “Operierte Jud’, Der”) 38, 155n125, 299, 303, 323, 324, 325, 326–329, 330, 331, 332, 338–345, 346, 350–354, 355, 362, 363, 364, 367, 368, 369, 370, 380 – “Prolegomena to the Essay Competition: Improvement of our Race” (orig. “Prolegomena zum Preisausschreiben: Verbesserung unserer Rasse”) 345–350 – Twilight Visions (orig. Visionen der Dämmerung) 350 – Visions (orig. Visionen) 38, 321, 324, 330, 355

Index 

Panther 358–359 Pantomime 258 – Sardanapal 258 Paradigm 105 – antisemitic 168 – colonial 4, 97 – cultural 203 – Jewish 264 – scientific 94 – shift 375 – social Darwinist 203 Parasol 104–105, 159. See also umbrella Paris 37n136, 61, 115, 148n92, 292, 305, 307 Paris qui chante (Paris) 306, 308 “Parliamentary Report.” See Anonymous Parody 40, 70n101, 124, 126n14, 135, 173, 215 Parties, political. See Center Party; Christian Social Party; Christian Social Workers’ Party; Free Conservative Party; German People’s Party; German Social Party; National Liberal Party; Social Democratic Party – in New-Newland – Conservative 387, 404 – Reform 387, 391, 393, 404, 409, 412 Pascal, Blaise 349 Passions – of natives 185–186 Paternalism 41, 74, 108, 141, 184 Patriotism – of Jews – British 167 – German 218 Patzig, Albrecht 33, 176–178, 186–187 Paul, Bruno 177n12, 227–228 – works – “Colonial Haunting” (orig. “Kolonialspuk”) 177n12 – “Origins of the Colonies, The” (orig. “Entstehung der Kolonien, Die”) 227–228, 229 Pavlov, Ivan 238 Pears’ Soap – advertisements 123, 145, 150, 159–160, 286 Peddlers 131, 139, 147

 479

– Jewish 15, 132, 142, 149 – eastern European 105, 154 People(s) – American 56, 318, 319, 322 – civilized 49, 53–54, 98–99, 159, 186–187, 206, 410 (see also Kulturvolk) – European 175 – German 182, 205–206, 208, 220, 261, 268 – indigenous 27, 32, 33, 46n26, 69, 129, 139–141, 176, 183–184, 186, 191, 315, 320 – Jewish 10, 18, 53–54, 96, 131–133, 140, 142, 148, 215, 379, 413nl, 415 – negroid 94 – primitive 57, 60, 159, 175–176, 179, 183, 185–187, 198n101, 205 (see also Naturvolk) – semitic 93, 171 – white 130 Performativity 38, 72, 111, 161, 294–295, 297, 300, 304n102, 312, 367, 378 Performer(s) 291, 303, 371–372 – American 301 – black 37, 145, 160, 297n86, 298, 300n94, 323, 324, 352, 354–355, 358–359, 363, 367, 380 – blackface 293–294, 296, 302 – (American) Indian 275, 313, 326, 359, 363 – Lakota 317 – native 316–318, 322 – negro 159, 296, 300, 302 – Rotpeter (“Metamorphosis”) as 372 – white 293, 296, 302 Peril, black 209 Periphery, colonial 9, 180, 223, 229, 242, 256, 265, 267, 268 Permanent Court of Arbitration (The Hague) 412nf Persecution 96, 109, 363–364 – of blacks 15, 51 – Jewish 15, 51, 96, 109, 132, 215, 347 – in eastern Europe 4n11 – shared experience of, by blacks and Jews 15, 39, 50, 52, 56, 99, 121, 162, 223, 282 Persiflage 261, 272, 303, 307 Personification(s) 37, 301

480 

 Index

Personification(s) (continued) – of Britannia 249 – of the German protectorates and colonies 224 – of Germania 246, 248, 250, 272 (see also Figure 27a, Figure 28, Figure 32) Perspective, metropolitan 242, 372 Petah Tikva 26n96 Peters, Carl 19, 104, 114, 241n53, 270–272 – as Gibbet Peters 270 – trial 128n21, 241n53, 270–272 – works – German Emin Pasha Expedition, The (orig. Deutsche Emin-Pascha-Expedition, Die) 19, 104 Phantastical-Satyrical Review. See Freund, Julius; Hollaender, Victor Phenotype(s) 60 – human 59 – native 89 Philanthropism 25, 133 Philanthropist(s) 404nh, 417nn Philistine(s), philistinism 111, 299, 302, 348, 405 Philosemite(s) 331 Photograph(s) 29, 31, 61–62, 74–75, 79, 81–83, 103, 113–114, 118–120, 153, 163–164, 315, 317 – anthropometric 59, 60, 74, 82, 89, 158 – ethnographic 59–61, 79, 82, 89 – of negro potentates 62 – portrait(s) – of August 75 – of Bismarck Bell 79, 81–82, 90, 114, Figure 8a, b, Figure 9 – of Brisso Bell 282n25, Figure 6 – of Ndumbé Lobé Bell 282, Figure 4 – of the “Cousinchen” (Fritzi Massary) and King Akwa (Henry Bender) 288 – of Ellen Gulbransson 248n66 – of Theodor Herzl 118–119, 163, Figure 14 – of Toby John 77–78 – of Kissiúi 91, Figure 13a, b – of Friedrich Maharero 89, Figure 12 – of Martin 75, Figure 7a, b, of Mbwapwa Jumbo (Jungmann) 35, 50, 59–61, Figure 1, of Rudolf 76

– of Sitting Bull 317 – of Rosa Sucher 248n66 – of Lucie Weidt 248n66 – of Hendrik Witbooi 62, 64, 68, 82–88, Figure 3, Figure 10, Figure 11 – of the Zionist delegation to Jerusalem (1898) 113–114, 119–120, Figure 14 – of Israel Zangwill 163–164, Figure 22 Photography 59 – anthropometric 59, 74 – ethnographic 59 Phrenology 348 Physiognomy 348 – black 145, 160, 324, 354–355 – Jewish 93, 161 – racialized 161 Pickelhaube 117, 149, 228, 240, 258 Pietsch, Ludwig 288, 289n50 Pioneers, The. See Cooper, James Fenimore Place in the sun (von Bülow/Wilhelm II) 143, 229–230, 267 Plateau(s) 14, 35 Plish and Plum. See Busch, Wilhelm Poe, Edgar Allan 342 Poet’s Life, A. See Tieck, Ludwig Pogrom(s) 16, 99, 122 – Russia – second wave 122, 406nb (see also Kishinev) Policy – German – colonial 31, 86n137, 175, 183, 185, 206, 226, 254, 267, 275 – of civil law 184 – conciliatory 193 – of criminal law 184 – the-end-justifies-the-means 130 – genocidal 194–195 – imperial 27 – racial 280 – of tolerance 41 Political Illustrated Broadsheets. See Horn, Siegfried Politics 222, 404 – bio- 367 – colonial 221

Index 

– party 193 Polynesian(s) 291, 348 – women 290 Popularization – of the official narrative of the Herero War 195 – of scientific research 59, 74 Portrait(s). See also Bust; Photograph(s), portraits – of Emin Pasha 19 – equestrian 83 – of Germania 248–249, 272, Figure 27a – of Hendrik Witbooi (see also Witbooi, Hendrik) – on Namibian banknotes 68n95 – of Henry Morton Stanley 19 – of a Herero (see Thöny, Eduard) – of human exhibits 74, 78, 81 – of Israel Zangwill 163–164, Figure 22 – literary 329 – of Lothar von Trotha 250 – on medals 248–249, 272, Figure 27a – of Sir Moses Montefiore 112 Postcard(s) 8, 29, 59, 61–62, 82–88, 105n200, 148, 152–158, 164–166, 168, 170, 225, 228–229, 291, 297–298, 308, 316 – antisemitic 105, 132, 154–155, 158 – cartoon 164 – colonial motifs in 153–154 – craze 153 – humoristic 146, 153–154, 156, 297 – individual works – “Bankruptcy Clearance Sale” (see Thiele, Arthur) – “Captain Hendrik Witboi/Fort Gibeon and South Side of the Market Square” (orig. “Kapitän Hendrik Witboi/ Feste Gibeon und Südfront des Marktplatzes”) 85–87, Figure 11 – “Greetings from Karlsbad” (orig. “Gruss aus Karlsbad”) 154–158, Figure 20 – “G. S. W. Africa. Chieftains” (orig. “D. S. W. Afrika. Grossleute”) 83 – “G. S. W. Africa. Hendrik Wittboi with his son Isaak and Secretary of War” (orig. “D. S. W. Afrika. Hendrik Wittboi

 481

mit seinem Sohn Isaak u. Kriegsminister”) 83–84, Figure 10 – “Hendrik Witbooi” 62, 64, 68, 72, 87–88, Figure 3 – “Made in Germany” 164–166, Figure 21 – “The bold Hottentot chief Hendrick Wittboi/ German-South-West-Africa” (orig. “Der verwegene Hottentottenhäuptling Hendrick Wittboi/Deutsch-Süd-WestAfrika”) 84, 87 – “The real genuine Schuhplattler” (orig. “Die wirklich echten Schuhplattler”) 297–299, Figure 33 – photographic 82 – picture 152–154, 156, 158, 288 – racist 158 – satirical 105, 152, 161 Potential – allegorical 368 – ambivalent 35, 95, 98, 101, 308 – burlesque 67 – comic 252, 331 – conflictual 285 – connotative 275 – critical 244 – cultural 321 – destructive 299, 305, 361 – economic 86n137 – emotive 325 – exoticizing 86 – formative 73 – identificatory 107 – ironic 58 – Jewish – national 166 – mental 349 – polysemic 13, 221 – regenerative 126 – renovative 306 – romantic 134 – satirical 62, 164 – semantic XIII, 40, 61–62, 98, 101, 103, 248 – of images 35 – sensational 185 – of signification 158, 308 – subversive 39, 61, 121, 153, 275, 306

482 

 Index

Potential (continued) – symbolic 105 – transformational 300 Power relation(s) 81, 209, 306 – asymmetrical 268 Power(s) – colonial 8, 63, 84, 87, 103, 140–141, 153, 175, 189, 195, 212, 214, 215, 228, 230, 232, 256, 267, 279, 316, 319, 401nh, 410nd, 410ne Practice(s) – colonial 15, 34, 67, 128, 137, 174, 226–267, 232, 271, 287 – Belgian 232–233 – British 232, 282 – cultural – writing as 82 – French 232 – German 34, 128, 150–151, 177n16, 181, 221, 230, 232–233, 275, 278–280, 289n52 – Hasidic 375 – Jewish – religious 310 – Muslim 108 – savage 46n26 – social 42, 324n1 – stage – blackface 37, 60–61, 275, 292–296, 301, 303, 378 – whiteface 324n1 Prague 373, 375 Prejudice, racial 301, 315 Premediation 30 Press 135, 291, 317, 368 – boulevard 292 – British 176 – German 28–29, 72, 174, 178, 182, 185, 194, 235, 277, 290, 314, 317, 321 – Jewish 71, 95n164 – satirical 223, 227, 230, 257, 258, 274 – Social Democratic 235, 358n111 – Zionist 42, 71, 138 Pride, racial 161, 163 Primitivism 181, 304, 306n114, 308–309, 311 Production, cultural 9, 205, 300, 303, 306

Progress 41, 123, 137, 143, 145, 186–187, 244, 290, 304, 310, 321, 347, 350, 371 – assimilatory 310 – of civilization 146–147, 176, 304, 315 – cultural 147, 348 – medical 130 – social 50, 107 – technical 107, 130, 361 – western 103, 105 Project, Zionist 11n39, 47, 119, 170 “Prolegomena to the Essay Competition: Improvement of our Race” (see Oskar Panizza) Proletariat – German 242–244 – white 52–53 Promised Land 24–25, 48, 95, 113, 126, 134, 136–137, 144, 146, 164, 379 Propaganda – colonial 72, 291 – defamatory 334 Proselytizing 210, 216, 223, 228 Protectorate(s) – British 18, 70n102, 120, 129n24, 130, 140, 142 (see also Bechuanaland; British East Africa) – German 28, 32n122, 35, 65–68, 72–73, 86, 88, 98–100, 103, 149–150, 171, 176, 179, 184, 193–195, 197–199, 206, 209, 212, 216, 221–224, 227, 230–231, 236, 249n68, 252, 253, 255n89, 256, 261, 315, 316, 319, 410nd (see also Cameroon; German East Africa; German South-West Africa; Togoland) Protestantism 26, 140 Prowess – martial 249 – military – of the Herero 196 – of the Maasai 401nh – of Hendrik Witbooi 84 Pulcinella 116 Punch (London) 26, 102, 118n245 Punishment – corporal 150, 184 – divine 24, 202n112

Index 

Purim 1, 168–169, 215, 393, 395, 397, 413, 415na, 416, 418 Puritans 383, 398 Purity 307, 376 – of race 56, 161 Puttkamer, Jesko von (Colonial Governor of Cameroon) 209, 277–280, 285, 287 – “Cousinchen” affair 277, 287 – works – “War and the Race Question, The” (orig. “Krieg und die Rassenfrage, Der”) 209

Q

Queen’s South Africa Medal 249 Question – Arab 380 – cultural 99n174 – Jewish 56, 96–97, 180n30, 380 – native 181 – Negro 51, 54, 56 – race 209, 280, 285 – social 53, 97

R

Rabbi(s) 16, 47–48, 217, 264, 304–305, 308, 342, 391, 393, 409, 413 – of Grodeck 375–377 – orthodox 412ne, 413ni, 413nj – protest 47 – reform 15, 45–46, 383, 384, 392, 396, 398, 399ng, 400, 411, 411nh, 416 Race(s) – African 51 – barriers between 306 – black 53, 196, 210, 285, 306 – colored 130 – demarcation between 284 – European 290 – human 60, 334 – hybrid between 59 – indigenous 130 – inferior 58, 338, 346, 349 – interaction between 180, 209 – Jewish 128, 143, 347, 416 – master 57, 142 – negroid 130 – red 321

 483

– sexual relations between 289 – subordinate 182 – Teutonic 347, 349 – white 129, 283, 285, 306–307 Race XIV, 6, 32, 42, 49, 56, 163, 211, 307, 313, 321, 325, 338, 345, 349, 367 – discourse 32, 142, 294 – question 209, 280, 285 – struggle 195, 214, 306 – theory 367 – war 5, 37, 102, 173, 194–195, 199, 208, 214, 245, 251, 286, 308, 315–316, 379 Racialization 152, 161, 166, 168, 180, 248, 363, 379 Racism 154, 158, 162, 170, 174, 185, 215, 280, 287, 293, 300, 307, 317, 328n10, 344, 373, 375. See also Discourse, racial Rafaels, Leo (i.e. Leon Kellner) 55–58, 142 Ragtime 404nf Railway – from Swakopmund to Otavi (German South-West Africa/Namibia) 230 – Uganda 413nh Rambles through Palestine. See Furrer, Konrad Re-Awakening of Liberalism, The. See Heine, Thomas Theodor Rebellion(s) 216 – Boxer 255 – of the Herero 185, 358 – of the Maji Maji 28, 29 – of the Nama 213–214, 358 – Sepoy 29–31, 33, 195, 197 Recognition effect 170, 242, 272 Reconfiguration 43 – contextual 61–62, 70n101, 83–85, 87–88, 154, 158, 288–289, 317 – of meaning 88 – of reality 301 – satirical 62 Redemption 24, 125, 132, 141, 142, 146, 168, 213, 242, 274, 300 References, intertextual 155–156, 374. See also Intertext; Intertextuality Reform – administrative 32, 223 – Jewish

484 

 Index

Reform (continued) – communities 16, 122, 309, 311n127, 399ne, 401ne – community in Berlin 189, 407 – movement 45, 46, 122, 398ne – Jews 15, 20, 92, 95n266, 171, 310 – Judaism 16, 309 – life 289, 408nc – political 226, 287 – synagogues 309, 311 – synagogal 310–311, 398ne, 409ne – rabbi(s) 15, 45, 46, 383, 384, 392, 396, 398, 399ng, 400, 411, 411nh, 416 Reformation Day 26 Régime, ancien 239 Regression 305, 311 – into barbarism 189 – into primitivism 304 – into savagery 304 Rehobot (German South-West Africa/ Namibia) 213n154 Reich, Third 331 Reichstag 5, 18, 29, 31–33, 66, 174–175, 178, 180, 215, 217, 221–222, 230, 234–235, 257, 265, 387, 404, 404ng, 418nr – dissolution (1906) 217 – elections (1907) 32, 217, 257, 266 Reid, Mayne 313 Reinecke, Franz 290 Reines (Raines), Yitzchak Yaakov (Rabbi) 393, 413, 413ni Relations, interracial – sexual 289n52, 161, 180, 289 Relativism 239 – cultural 172, 188, 191–192, 240 – historical 187 Religion 93, 108 – Jewish 128, 383, 394, 399, 413 Remediation 30–31, 33 Renaissance 83 – Jewish 55, 126, 132 – national 10 Renner, Gustav 328n11 – works – Cry from the East, The (orig. Schrei aus dem Osten, Der) 328n11 Reparations

– to German victims of Herero War 227, 230–231 Repetition compulsion 336 Report on the Natives of South-West Africa  177n16. See also Blue Book, British Report on the Work of the Commission Sent Out by the Zionist Organization 4n12, 134–135, 414na. See also Blue Book, Zionist “Report to an Academy, A.” See Kafka, Franz Reports of the Rhenish Missionary Society (orig. Berichte der Rheinischen Missions-Gesellschaft; Barmen) 212 Representation 15, 29, 35, 60, 62, 81, 124, 134, 145, 151, 153, 159, 169, 174, 226n1, 246, 248–249, 252, 258, 265, 266, 272, 289, 291, 338 – of America 312 – anticlerical 266 – antisemitic 351 – artistic 153 – of blackness 37, 248 – of clerics 257, 266 – of colonial conflict 241 – conventions of 61, 153 – of ethnic difference 312 – ethnographic 82 – of German colonial rule 232 – of Jewishness 35–36 – of Jews 71, 105n200, 106n201, 155, 161, 164, 303, 340 – mis- 103, 136, 167, 221, 328 – narrative 134 – of natives – African 6, 19–20, 36, 216, 228, 232, 315 – Palestinian 40 – orientalised 272 – performative 297, 300 – photographic 59–61, 82–83, 288 – pictorial 69, 259 – satirical – in imperial Germany 36, 61, 216 – scientific 74 – self- 83, 88 – sites of 315 – visual 36, 282, 288, 308 Repression 335, 336

Index 

Resistance 17, 25, 30, 75, 81–82, 130, 174, 185, 188, 197, 199, 243, 275, 279, 318, 320, 359–362 – anticolonial 35, 81n123, 87, 99–100, 172, 223, 240, 286, 312 – anti-imperial 100 – narrative of 243 Resources – human 140 – material 140 Reuters 171 Revelation 12, 24, 351, 369 Reventlow, Ludwig zu (Count) 5n18, 178–180, 184–185, 379 Revolt 28n107 – of the Bondelzwart 27, 63 – of the Herero 31, 185 – of the Nama 62, 85, 210, 211, 213–214 – of the Sepoy 32 Revolution 211, 215, 244 – German (1848–49) 246, 253n77 Reznicek, Ferdinand von 268–270 – works – “Force of Habit, The” (orig.“Macht der Gewohnheit, Die”) 268–270 Rhenish Missionary Society 212n152 Rhine 401ne Rhineland 214 Rhizome (Deleuze and Guattari) 14, 35. See also Mbwapwa rhizome Richmond, George 112 – works – “Sir Moses Montefiore, the Old Man Beneficent” 112n224 Rights – animal 347 – human 178, 347–348 Ring of the Nibelung, The. See Wagner, Richard Riots, Arab – in Palestine 379n50 Rishon LeZion (Palestine/Israel) 26 Risorgimento 10 Rivalry, colonial 140, 215 Rocky Bear (Chief of the Lakota) 317–319, 322 – works – “Indian Toast” (orig. “IndianerTrinkspruch”) 318–319, 322

 485

Roman(s) 43, 188, 348, 362 – rule 240 Romania 17, 98, 405, 405nr, 410 Rosenberger, Erwin 57–58, 172, 219 – works – “Europe in Africa” (orig. “Europa in Afrika”) 57–58, 172, 219 Rosh Hashanah 413np Rosintal, Josef 50, 59, 62–64, 87, 89, 126n14, 143, 145, 160, 163, 168, 257, 260, 272, 312, 374 – works – “Chayim Yossel Goes to a Spa” (orig. “Chajim Jossel auf der Badereise”) Figure 2 – “Freely adapted from Lilien” (orig. “Frei nach Lilien”) 126n14, 260, 272, Figure 15 – “Matchiche” 168–170, 374, Figure 23 – Mbwapwa Jumbo 50, 59, 62–64, 87, 89, 257, Figure 1 – “Mr. Zangwill in America” 163–164, 169 – “Why Zionism’s Progress is so Slow” (orig. “Wieso der Zionismus so langsam vorwärts kommt”) 143–145, 160, 312, Figure 17 Rothschild, Edmond James de 25, 26n96, 118n247, 404ni Rothschild, Leopold 387, 392, 404, 404nh, 411 Rothschild, Lionel Walter 168 Royal Meissen porcelain 350 Royal Opera (Berlin) 258 Royal Prussian Mint (Berlin) 245 Ruch, Hannes 351n88 Rückert, Karl Theodor 23–24 – works – Journey through Palestine (orig. Reise durch Palästina) 23–24 Rudolf (Masako) 76 Rule, colonial – German 27–28, 87, 128, 232, 236, 252, 279, 280 – abolition of 286 – resistance to 35, 149, 211, 286 Rumpelstiltskin 327 Rupprecht, Philipp 334. See also Fips

486 

 Index

Ruse, racial 6, 60–61, 293–294, 298, 351, 362, 370 Russia 16, 17, 33, 98, 122, 124, 217, 309, 406, 406nb, 406ne, 408, 410 Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) 16, 124, 208, 227, 408na

S

Sadism, sexual 269, 271 Saladin (Sultan of Egypt and Syria) 117, 118n245 Saladin’s tomb (Damascus) 117 Sambourne, Edward Linley 26 – works – “Cook’s Crusader” 26, 118n245 Samoa (German colony) 224, 289–291 Samoanische Zeitung (Apia) 289 “Sandman, The.” See Hoffmann, E. T. A. Sandveld 196, 200, 202, 232, 250–253. See also Omaheke desert Sandz (Galicia) 58 São Paolo (Brazil) 168 Sardanapal. See Delitzsch, Friedrich Sartre, Jean-Paul 126, 132 – works – Anti-Semite and Jew (orig. Réflexions sur la question juive) 132 Satire 6, 10, 27, 38, 43, 100, 221, 226n1, 229, 234, 238, 243, 277, 294, 302–303, 311, 330, 332, 346, 348, 373 – political 215n162 Satires. See Horace Savage(s) 6, 19, 46, 57–58, 59–60, 73, 97, 98, 105, 144–145, 172, 181, 183, 185–187, 191, 206, 209, 218, 228–229, 248, 256–257, 280, 284, 315–316, 322, 326, 375-7, 405, 410, 413 – domesticated 73 – European turned 270 – noble 91, 97, 181, 190, 205, 315–316, 322 “Savage, The.” See Seume, Johann Gottfried Savagery 6, 20, 38, 57, 206, 209, 221, 256–257, 304, 308, 311, 376 – of Africans 20, 73, 174n24 – of ‘black’ Jews 6, 46, 47, 144, 221, 311 Scandal 37, 234, 258

– colonial 277, 289, 291 Schapira, Hermann 96, 403np Schatz, Boris 96, 403np Scheffel, Joseph Viktor von 401nf – works – “It is Poorly Arranged in Life” (orig. “Das ist im Leben häßlich eingerichtet”) 401nf – Trumpeter of Säkkingen, The (Trompeter von Säkkingen, Der) 401nf Schettler, Gustava 237 Schettler, Paul 237–238 – works – “Women in Poetry” (orig. “Frauen in der Dichtung”) 237 Schiff, Jacob Henry 396, 417, 417nn Schiller, Friedrich 100, 299n90, 331, 337, 411nf – works – “Song of the Bell, The” (orig. “Lied von der Glocke, Das”) 331, 337–338 – “Theatre Considered as a Moral Institution, The” (orig. “Schaubühne als eine moralische Anstalt betrachtet, Die”) 299n90 – Wilhelm Tell 100, 411nf Schillings, Carl Georg 92, 95n164, 401nh Schkopp, Eberhard von 280–285, 286 – works – Bananas from Cameroon (orig. Kameruner Bananen) 280–285 Schlemiel (Berlin) XIII, 1–3, 4, 10, 17, 18, 20–21, 27, 28, 34, 36–37, 38, 39, 42–43, 46, 50, 59, 63, 64, 92, 95, 97, 99, 100, 105, 110–111, 113, 120, 124, 132n36, 134, 143, 163, 168, 170, 173, 210, 215–216, 221, 223–225, 226n1, 227, 238, 257, 259–260, 266, 274, 275, 280, 291, 295, 304, 307, 309, 311–312, 379–380, 401nh, 406na, 415na, 415nb Schlieffen, Alfred von (General; Chief of the German General Staff) 195 Schnirer, Moses 113n229, Figure 14 Schnitzer, Eduard 19. See also Emin Pasha Schrader, Karl 183 Schuhplattler (dance) 297

Index 

Schultz, Otto 245, 250. See also South-West African Campaign Medal, see also Figure 27a, b Schulz, Wilhelm 66n90, 254, 255 – works – “Modern Apostles” (orig. “Moderne Apostel”) 254–255 – “Ship Owner, The” (orig. “Reeder, Der”) 66n90 Schutzgebiet(e) 74, 215–216, 244, 289. See also Protectorate(s), German Schutztruppe 28, 32n122, 62, 88, 89n144, 93, 194n88, 195–197, 207, 211–212, 214, 232, 234, 236, 238, 245, 249, 250, 253, 254, 255, 269n125, 272, 358n111, 413ng Schwechten, Eduard 155n125, 331–332, 334, 336–338 – works – Song of Levi, The (orig. Lied vom Levi, Das) 155n125, 331–332, 334, 336–338 (see also Figure 34, Figure 35; Horn, Siegfried) Science(s) 14, 60, 96, 125, 272, 348, 403, 403no, 409 Scripture 12–13, 22 Seesen (Germany) 409ne Segregation 154–156, 307 Seidener, Joseph 113n229, Figure 14 Selbstwehr (Prague) 373 Self-deception 372. See also Deception Self-reflection, critical 173 Semite(s) 57, 93–94 Sepoy Rebellion (1857–1858) 29–31, 33, 195, 197. See also Indian Mutiny Sermon on the Mount 45, 263 Settlement – Jewish 225 – in Africa 3–4, 18, 21, 36, 38, 42, 70n102, 134, 141–142, 414na – alternative territories for 4n11, 17, 133n40, 160, 168, 221, 275 – in Palestine 10, 21n68, 25, 37n136, 118, 132n39, 164, 404nk, 404nn – in Texas 127, 415nc – of Uganda 15, 17, 43, 120

 487

– of Templar colonies 24, 26n97 – white 129, 130, 136, 139–140 Settler colony 198 Settlers – British 131, 141–142 – European 131, 179 – German 29, 182, 230–231, 249 – Jewish 136, 143 – in “Letters from New-Newland” 15, 39, 42, 45, 171, 304 – white 138, 190, 269 Seume, Johann Gottfried 97, 181–182, 189–191, 206, 280, 282, 284, 377, 405ns – works – My Life (orig. Mein Leben) 190 – “Savage, The” (orig. “Wilde, Der”) 97, 181–182, 189–191, 206, 280, 282, 284, 377, 405ns Sex – drive – abnormally strong 340 – interracial 179–180 Sexuality 343 Shabbatai Tzvi 24 Sharona (Templar colony) 26 Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft 353 – works – Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus 353 Shem ha-Mephorash 264 Shoah 361. See also Holocaust Sholem Aleichem (i.e. Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich) 105n200 Shott el Jerid (North Africa) 201 Shows – ethnographic 19, 20, 37, 69, 72–73, 91, 312, 378 – minstrel 20, 377–378 – Wild West 37, 275, 312–319, 322, 326, 417nk (see also Buffalo Bill’s Wild West) Shtetl 293, 407, 407nj Side-locks 3, 42, 50, 69, 161, 374–375 Sierra Leone 138 Signifier – Mbwapwa as multiple 12

488 

 Index

Signifier (continued) – of natives’ desire for otherness 150 – of power 159 – racial 275 – social 107 – of successful assimilation 344 – of urban sophistication 106n201 Sikander Bagh (Lucknow) 30 Simhat Torah 304–305 Simplicissimus (Munich) XIII, 26, 36, 64, 66, 163, 226–228, 235, 238, 239, 241–242, 251, 254, 256–257, 259, 262, 264, 265, 266, 269, 270, 272, 310n126, 371, 380 Simulacrum 147 Sinai 10 Singer, Paul 222, 233–234, 237–238 Sioux (native American tribe) 325–326, 360. See also Lakota “Sir Moses Montefiore, the Old Man Beneficent.” See Richmond, George Sitting Bull (Chief of the Lakota) 317 Skullcap 50. See also Kippah Skin color. See Color, skin; Hue, epidermal Slavery 51, 52, 56, 188, 242–243 Sleeping sickness 143 Soap 123–124. See also Hortaxin; Pears’ Soap – advertisements 123 – powder 16, 122–123, 144, 381, 407 Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei) 233, 403nc Social Democrat(s) 45, 97, 178, 183, 187, 191, 193, 222, 234–235, 237–238, 252, 289n52, 398 Socialism 97, 233n26 Society 104, 157, 303, 307, 353, 359, 364 – American 293, 317n152 – British 168 – Christian 263 – European 147 – German – bourgeois 337 – colonial 72, 86n137 – human 353, 367 – intolerant 352 – Jewish 55

– margins of 359, 372 – model 40, 47, 53 – modern 113, 151 – polite 110 – South African 143 – theocratic 309 – Victorian 105n201 – white 126, 145, 305, 319 Soldiers – European 196 – German 29, 178, 179n24, 198, 202, 206–208, 237, 253, 254, 255, 256, 268 – virtues of 197, 204 Song of Levi, The (orig. Lied vom Levi, Das). See Horn, Siegfried; Schwechten, Eduard “Song of the Bell, The.” See Schiller, Friedrich Songs, Tyrolean 296n35 Sonnenberg, Max Liebermann von 186–187, 215, 221, 240 Soul, Germanic 326–327 Sousa, John Philip 305n107 South Africa (British colony) 33, 57, 58, 139, 140, 143, 200n108, 210, 249. See also Cape Colony South Kensington Museum (London; since 1899 Victoria and Albert Museum) 102 South-West African Campaign Medal (German) 245–249, 251, 272. See also Figure 27a, b Spahn, Peter 33 Spanier, Meier 217–220 – works – “Jewish Fright” (orig. “Judenangst”) 217–220 Speculator(s) – Jewish 15, 142 – in South Africa 139 Spellmeyer, Christian 212n152, 213n154 Sphinx 272, 274 Spies, biblical 17, 125, 128, 261–264, 275, 312, 417 Spring Awakening. See Wedekind, Frank St. Otilia (Odile) 336 St. Petersburg 122, 389, 407 St. Vitus Dance 340–341, 342–344, 352, 362. See also Veitstanz

Index 

Stage 202–203, 224, 288, 297n86, 324, 359, 367, 371 – German 294 – imperial 324 – Metropol (Berlin) 293 – metropolitan 294, 367 – music hall 37 – practice – of blackface 37, 60–61, 275, 292–293 (see also Blackface) – variety 367, 372 – vaudeville 301, 373 Stanley, Henry Morton 19, 113n228, 134n47 State, authoritarian 229, 239, 242 Stereotypes 6, 19, 74–75, 86n137, 109, 126, 132, 139, 140, 216, 224, 281, 348 – of Africans 6, 82, 106, 158–160, 165, 292, 378 – antisemitic 142, 164, 224, 253, 328n11, 344, 346 – auto- 95 – of blackface 297 – of blacks 69, 127, 128, 163, 165, 248, 263, 292, 308 – cycle of 20 – ethnic 317, 378 – hetero- 95, 364 – of the Hosenneger 75, 82, 106, 109 – of (American) Indians 325 – Jewish 106, 116, 131, 132, 139, 155n125, 158, 161, 233, 264–265, 297–298, 327, 336, 340, 349–350, 378 – national 378 – of natives 20, 158 – of negroes 5, 53, 75, 140, 301, 353, 355 – orientalist 41, 117 – racial 53, 233 – of savages 19, 91, 218 Stereotyping 82, 86, 106, 331 – photographic 82 – racial 128, 292, 295, 325 Stettin (Szczecin) 46 Stöcker, Adolf 66, 77, 152, 175–176, 179–181, 183–184, 228, 233n26, 235–238, 267, 268

 489

Store(s), colonial goods and grocery 146 Storz, Christian 183 Stranger 49, 54, 190 Stübel, Oskar Wilhelm (German Colonial Director) 31, 175, 177–178, 185–187, 240, 410nc Stuck, Franz von 272, 274 – works – Kiss of the Sphinx, The (orig. Kuss der Sphinx, Der) 272, 274 Studies, postcolonial 7, 30n114 Stürmer, Der (Nuremberg) 328, 334 Stuttgart 226n2 Stutz, Ludwig 122, 231 – works – “A-hoping and A-waiting” (orig. “Hoffen und Harren”) 231 – “Budget for Cameroon, The” (orig. “Etat von Kamerun, Der”) 122–123 – “Fata Morgana in South-West Africa” (orig. “Fata Morgana in Südwestafrika”) 231–232 Stuurman, Shepherd 211, 212–213, 215, 220, 242–243, 308 Subaltern 39, 67, 103, 162, 244, 309, 310, 372 – black 244 – colonial 242 – internal 242 – white 244 Subculture(s) 307 Subject, colonial 38, 39, 88, 106, 287 Subjection 84 – colonial 86 – racial 153 Subversion 81, 149, 209, 279, 285, 309 – anticolonial 70n101, 215 Subversiveness 34 Sucher, Rosa 248n66 Sulski, W. 136 Sun of Cameroon, The. See Akwa, Mpundo Superiority 145, 173, 192, 285, 345 – biological 60 – cultural 173 – German 73n110, 189, 378 – German 207 – racial 32, 57, 60, 283

490 

 Index

Superiority (continued) – English 283 – white 286 Superstition 375–376 Supremacy – cultural 173, 188 – racial 283 – of western civilization 101 – white 141, 209, 292 Swain, Joseph – works – “Dearly Bought” 102 Swakopmund (German South-West Africa/ Namibia) 230 Swamp 258 – colonial 289–290 Swartfontein (German South-West Africa/ Namibia) 217 Switzerland 37, 332 Sydenham’s chorea 340n53, 341. See also Chorea minor Symbiosis, German-Jewish 25 Szwed, John F. 306, 307n120, 308

T

Talmud 264 Tanzania 27, 398na Technical University (Berlin) 50 Templar colonies 24, 26. See also Sharona Territorialism, Jewish 168. See also ITO Territorium nullius 69 Territory 3–4, 6, 10, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 38, 39, 84, 86, 128, 129–130, 131, 133–136, 138–139, 140, 142–145, 146, 164, 168, 171, 172n1, 199, 200n108, 212, 225, 272, 286, 397, 414na, 418 Texas XIII, 12, 17, 21, 36, 39, 71n103, 127–128, 133, 144, 168, 215, 221, 223, 260, 275, 276, 312, 320, 395, 396, 397, 415, 415nc, 416, 417, 417nj, 418 The Hague (Netherlands) 412 “Theatre Considered as a Moral Institution, The.” See Schiller, Friedrich Theorists, postcolonial 5, 126, 237 Thiele, Arthur 146, 148–149, 151–153, 158–160, 162, 225, 295–297, 299–301

– works – “Bankruptcy Clearance Sale” (orig. “Konkurs-Ausverkauf”) 146–153, 158–162, 225, 295–297, 299–301, Figure 18 Thoma, Ludwig 70n101 – works – “Fips the Monkey” (orig. “Fipps, der Affe”) (see also Gulbransson, Olaf) 70n101 Thomas Cook’s Eastern Tours 22 Thöny, Eduard 64, 66n90, 67, 69, 77, 79, 100, 111, 238, 256, 259, 281n20, 282, 371 – works – “African Veteran’s Widow, The” (orig. “Witwe des Afrikakämpfers, Die”) 66n90 – “Consequences of the Simplicissimus Trial, The” (orig. “Folgen des Simplicissimus-Prozesses”) 66n90 – “Herero before the Battle, The” (orig. “Herero vor der Schlacht, Der”) 64–65, 66, 67, 69, 77, 79, 100, 111, 238, 259, 282, 371, Figure 5 – “His Highness” (orig. “Seine Hoheit”) 281n30 – “Return from South-West Africa” (orig. “Rückkehr aus Südwestafrika”) 256 Tibet 177n12 Tieck, Ludwig 328n11 – works – Poet’s Life, A (orig. Dichterleben) 328n11 Togoland (German protectorate) 32n122 Tolerance 41, 44, 47, 49, 55, 224n192, 244 Tomb of David (Jerusalem) 120 Top hat 65, 67, 73n110, 111, 114–115, 161, 282. See also Crown, African Torah 304. See also Simhat Torah – as “portative fatherland” (Heine) 25 Trade – alcohol 66 – brandy 66, 216, 228 – diamond 139 – gold 139 – petty 148–149 – protection of 28 – retail 148

Index 

– West Africa 66 Traders – in Africa 290 – European 65 – German – slave 19 – white 228 Tradesmen – Jewish – petty 131–132, 139, 142, 148 Tradition(s) 5, 11, 59, 64, 67, 97, 108, 116, 158, 175n5, 211, 215, 257, 259, 304n104, 315, 316, 335, 352, 364, 400, 404, 404nf – iconographic 35, 59, 105n200, 317 – Jewish 310, 375, 387, 399ne, 399nh – native 103 – religious 93 Transformation(s) 29, 40, 42, 47, 50, 52, 70–71, 95, 126, 127, 142, 144–145, 146, 151, 190, 269, 271, 272, 282, 293, 294, 300, 307, 324n2, 326–327, 336, 339, 343–345, 353, 354, 357, 362, 364–367, 375 Transgression 24, 145, 178, 179, 181, 196, 236, 249, 250, 293–295, 300n94, 303, 324, 344, 352, 353, 359–360, 362, 363, 366, 369, 372 – sexual 128, 180 Transvaal 58, 172 – kaffirs 58, 336, 338 Travel writing 18 – conventions of 135 Treaty – of Berlin (1878) 405nr – of Versailles (1919) 32n122 Treitschke, Heinrich von 117n242, 413nm Treptow (Berlin) 69, 73, 76, 81, 88, 90, 91, 150n98 Trevelyan, Arthur 307 – works – Cake Walk, The 307 (see also Guillaume, Albert) Trials. See Liersemann trial; Mpundo Akwa trial; Peters, Carl, trial Tribes, Teutonic 240

 491

Trietsch, Davis 27, 111, 137 Tristan and Isolde. See Wagner, Richard Trope(s) 14, 53, 123, 137, 151, 185, 190, 220 – antisemitic 151 – colonial 160 – of the Hosenneger 75 – of vanishing (American) Indians 320 Tropenkoller 208n128, 236. See also Neurasthenia, tropical Trotha, Lothar von (Lieutenant-General; Commander of the Schutztruppe in German South-West Africa) 177n12, 193–195, 210, 214, 232, 245, 250–251, 358n111 Trousers 155, 368, 371 – Bavarian 158, 296 – European 104 – Tyrolean 296 Trumpeter of Säkkingen, The. See Scheffel, Joseph Viktor von Turban 108n212, 159, 297 Turkey 321n167, 404nn Turkish (language) 107–108 Turning point 196 – in colonial history – British 30 – German 32, 206 Twilight Visions. See Panizza, Oskar Two Opposing Forces at Work on the Jew, The. See Zangwill, Israel Tyroler Sänger-Gesellschaft Rainer 296 Tzitzit 126

U

“Ubi bene, ibi patria.” See Hückstädt, Friedrich Uganda 3, 16, 17, 18, 39, 42, 45, 47, 50n45, 62, 70n102, 98, 100, 105, 110, 128–131, 133, 172–173, 216, 221, 276, 291, 311, 380, 383–398, 398na, 400–418 – Jewish settlement of 15, 43 – offer 55 – project 221 – Railway 413nh – scheme 111

492 

 Index

Uganda Plan 3, 6, 10, 34, 42, 95, 131, 133, 139, 143–144, 159, 166, 227. See also Uganda proposal Uganda proposal 3, 34, 111, 129, 132, 133, 135, 138, 141, 164, 291. See also Uganda Plan Uganda Protectorate, British 18, 120, 130, 140 Uganda Protectorate, The. See Johnston, Sir Henry Hamilton Ultima Thule 163 Umbrella 50, 69, 101–107, 111, 126, 159, 163–164, 251, 280, 297. See also parasol Uncanny 119, 132, 176, 242, 297, 304, 334–336, 339, 340, 343, 350, 354, 358, 360, 364 “‘Uncanny,’ The.” See Freud, Sigmund Unease 218, 293, 325 Unisensicality 365 University 16, 96, 403, 403np, 409 – Hebrew (Jerusalem) 16, 96 Uprising 185, 229 – anticolonial 108 – in Basutoland (1888) 175n7 – Bondelzwart (1903) 28 – colonial 33 – in Griqualand East (1888) 175n7 – Herero (1904) 29, 31, 129, 174, 177, 183, 185, 188–189, 226, 230, 231, 239, 410nc, 410ne – Maji Maji (1907) 28n107 – in Mashonaland (1896) 175n7 – in Matabeleland (1896) 175n7 – Nama (1904) 28n107, 63, 129, 213n156 – native 222 – in West Java (1868) 175n7 US Cavalry, Seventh 319 Ussishkin, Menahem 111 Utopia 21, 307, 411

V

Values 108, 147, 204, 250, 264, 272 – Christian 202n112, 314 – civilizatory 110 – civilized 108

– cultural 98, 151 – pragmatic 103 Variété 296, 299–307, 323, 330. See also Variety – genre 37, 297–303 – theater 37 Variété, Das (Berlin) 306 Variety. See also Variété – stage 367, 372 – theater(s) 19, 37, 371 Vaudeville 293, 296, 301, 305, 373 Vegetablism 16, 408, 408nc, 408nd, 411, 412na Vegetarianism 408nd Veitstanz 340. See also St. Vitus Dance Venture(s) – capitalist 199 – colonial 192, 225, 283, 320 – Congolese 233 – European 228 – German 10, 11, 34, 106, 199, 216, 221, 230, 257, 379 – Zionist 38, 106 – Zionist 51, 53n54, 100 Verjudung 151. See also Jewification Versailles 32n122, 380. See also Treaty, of Versailles Vicars, Protestant 257. See also Clergy, Protestant Victimization – of blacks 50, 166 – of the Herero 79 – of Jews 50, 166 Victoria (Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)  249 Victoria-Nyanza (Lake) 15, 16, 20, 46, 383, 398, 400, 416 Victory of Judaism over Germandom, The. See Marr, Wilhelm Vierteljahreshefte für Truppenführung und Heereskunde (Berlin) 195 Vilna (Lithuania) 6, 16–17, 71, 398nc, 401, 403, 413ni Violations 65, 327 – sexual 179–180, 248

Index 

Virchow, Rudolf 290, 310. See also Acclimatization theory Virility – of African men 179n24 Virtues – German 203–204 – male 203 – martial 205 – military 204 – of soldiers 203–204 Visions. See Panizza, Oskar Visiting card(s) 77–78, 81, 283 “Voice from the Ghetto on Zionism, A.” See Mandelstamm, Max) Völkischer Beobachter (Munich) 328 Voltaire (i.e. François-Marie Arouet) 349 Vorwärts (Berlin) 234–235, 387, 403, 403nc Vossische Zeitung (Berlin) 288, 289n50 Voyeurism 180, 203, 271

W

Wagner, Richard 248n66, 344, 348–350 – works – Ring of the Nibelung, The (orig. Ring des Nibelungen, Der) 248n66, 344 – Tristan and Isolde 348 Wahre Jakob, Der (Hamburg/Stuttgart) XIII, 36, 73n110, 86n137, 177n12, 226, 230, 238, 239, 241n53, 242, 251, 252–254, 255, 268, 272, 380 Wakamba-Negro-Warrior-Caravan from the East Coast of Africa (orig. WakambaNeger-Krieger-Karawane von der Ostküste Afrikas) 19 Wanandi (African people) 17, 134, 171–173, 394, 395, 414, 415. See also Nandi Wandering Jew 106 War and Psyche. See Hoche, Alfred “War and the Race Question, The.” See Puttkamer, Jesko von “War Canoe of the Duala in Cameroon.” See Anonymous War 20, 171, 173, 175, 202, 206, 208. See also Anglo-Ashantee War, Third; Anglo-Boer War, Second; Anglo-Zulu War; Balkan Wars; World War, First;

 493

Franco-Prussian War; Herero War; Mahdist War; Nama War; Napoleonic Wars; Russo-Japanese War; Wars of Liberation – colonial 5, 8–9, 29, 33, 36, 62–63, 88, 90, 97, 99, 167, 170, 171, 173, 175, 183, 191, 193n86, 202n112, 204, 208, 235, 239, 253–254, 270, 274, 276, 278, 319 – dance 256–257, 402 – of destruction 358 – of independence – American 190 – of peoples 209 – psychoses 206–208 – race 5, 37, 102, 173, 194–195, 199, 208, 214, 245, 251, 286, 308, 315–316, 379 – Secretary of 83–84, 235 Warburg, Otto 10, 11n39, 21, 26, 96n167, 138, 172n1 Warenhaus 148, 225. See also Department store(s) Warfare 95, 175, 176 – civilized 209 – colonial 27, 134, 171, 173 – European 189 – German 193 – guerilla 87, 212, 239 – native 189 – Zionist 134, 171 Wars of Liberation (1813–15) 239–240, 246 “Wars of Liberation.” See Anonymous Waterberg (German South-West Africa/ Namibia) – Battle of 193, 250 Weber, Carl Maria von 44 – works – “Lützow’s Wild Hunt” (orig. “Lützows wilde Jagd”) 44 Wedekind, Frank 302 – works – Spring Awakening (orig. Frühlingserwachen) 302 Weidt, Lucie 248n66 Weimar Republic 9 Weininger, Otto 365n5

494 

 Index

West, Wild 295, 312–17, 319, 321–3222, 326. See also American West West Java (Dutch colony) 175n7 Westernization 75, 116 White, Hayden 13–14 “White Man’s Burden, The.” See Kipling, Rudyard White man’s country 18, 36, 120, 130, 135, 138, 144 “White Man’s Place in Africa, The.” See Johnston, Sir Henry Hamilton Whiteface 324n1, 324n2 – imaginary 298 Whiteness 121, 123, 150, 151n103, 161, 166, 293, 296, 326, 359, 376–377 – Jewish 36, 38, 53, 120, 121, 138, 142, 144, 166, 297 Whitening 121, 124, 127, 144, 359, 361 – imaginary 326, 359 Widhopff, David Ossipovich 307 – works – “Happy Negroes, The” (orig. “Nègres Joyeux, Les”) 307 Wiest, [?] (medical assistant) 271 Wilbusch, Nahum 21n68, 134–135, 136, 414na – works – Journey to Uganda, The 21n68 Wilhelm II (Emperor of Germany) 46, 194, 231, 240, 245, 258, 267n121. See also Kaiser Wilhelm II – Hun Speech of 255 – journey to Palestine (1898) 113, 118n247 – moustaches of 158, 240 – plaster busts of 159 – and Theodor Herzl 26, 113, 115, 117, 118n247 Wilhelm Tell. See Schiller, Friedrich Wilhelmine – Germany 226 – period 344 Will to power (Nietzsche) 197 Windhoek (Windhuk; German South-West Africa/Namibia) 88 Winnetou. See May, Karl Winz, Leo 1n1

Witbooi (African people) 62, 86–87, 210, 217, 220. See also Nama Witbooi, Hendrik (Kaptein of the Nama) 35, 62–64, 68, 72, 82–88, 89n144, 100, 210–214, 238, 286, 317. See also Figure 3, Figure 10, Figure 11 – diary of 82n130 – portraits of 35, 62, 64, 68, 72, 83–88, 89, 100 Witbooi, Isaak 83, 212 Witbooi, Kido 86 Witmer, Lightner 373n31 Wittenberg 263–264 Witwatersrand (South Africa) 140 Woermann, Adolph 65–66, 228. See also C. Woermann Wolfe, Lucien 4n11 Wolff, Philipp 24 Wolffsohn, David 113n229, 118n247, 119, 168, Figure 14 Wolseley, Sir Garnet 102 Woman with a Parasol. See Monet, Claude “Women in Poetry.” See Schettler, Paul Women 39, 157, 158, 171, 178, 189, 194, 196, 224, 305, 319, 327, 342, 356, 360, 402, 203nk – African 179n24, 233–234 – black 268 – English 30 – German 334 – in the colonies 178–179, 197–199, 248 – native 198n102, 234, 268 – Samoan 291n62 – white 179 World Documentary Heritage 82n130 World peace 202n112 World War, First (1914–18) 32n122, 140n67, 148n94, 180, 208, 214, 226n2, 250, 262, 313, 375, 379, 382 Wounded Knee – Massacre (1890)  319–320, 322 Wreath – bronze 117 – laurel 249 – oak 248, 272 Writing

Index 

– as cultural practice 82 Wûte (Cameroon) 77

X

Xenophobia 49

Y

Yankees 296–299, 303, 304 Yemen 42 Yiddish (language) XIII, 16, 27, 71, 100, 140n67, 155, 294, 297 Yoelson, Asa 293. See also Jolson, Al You’ve Got to See This! (Metropol-Theater; orig. Das muß man seh’n!) 224 Yucatan peninsula 417, 417no

Z

Zangwill, Israel 4n11, 127, 132, 133, 162–164, 166–170, 312, 396, 397, 416, 416ne, 417, 418. See also Figure 21 Figure 22 – works – “Anglicization” 167–168 – Children of the Ghetto 132 – King of Schnorrers, The 132 – Two Opposing Forces at Work on the Jew, The 164 Zangwill, Louis 163 Zeitgeist 204, 313 Zeitung für Südwestafrika 181 Zion 117, 143, 312 – African 37, 135, 312 Zionism 3, 6, 10–11, 24, 25n93, 27, 38, 54, 95–97, 113, 132, 143, 166, 168, 171, 173, 311, 373, 374, 379, 394, 399ne, 408nd, 413 – Black 51 – cultural 53, 71, 96

 495

– internal divisions of 17, 37, 100, 112n227 – orthodox 6, 42, 44 – political 3, 10, 21, 96, 113n228, 132, 374n37 – practical 27 – proto- 25 – religious 42, 45, 398nc Zionist Commission for the Exploration of Palestine 21, 26, 124 Zionist Congress 16, 411ng – First (1897) 3, 44, 96, 163, 403np – Sixth (1903) 1, 133, 133n41 – Seventh (1905) 4, 96, 110, 377 – Eighth (1907) 27 Zionist Executive 4 Zionist Federation of Germany 411ni Zionist Organization 1, 3–4, 10, 11n39, 21, 95–96, 110, 131, 133, 135, 138, 168, 411, 414na Zionists 42, 100, 136–137, 168, 380, 408, 411 – anti- 411 – cultural 53, 71 – European – central 99 – western 99 – non-religious 17 – political 96 – religious 42, 45 “Zionists’ Latin.” See Jampoller, Adolf Zoological gardens 19, 69, 371, 378. See also Hagenbeck Zulu (African people) 33 Zululand (African kingdom) 175 Zunz, Leopold 340n51, 343 – works – Jewish Names, The (orig. Jüdischen Namen, Die) 343