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Triggerwarning: Humiliation of people, human zoos, racist violence

The cruel chapter of human zoos in Dortmund. Germany and its colonial propaganda have a long history.

In the 19th century, there was a great demand for knowledge about the world, which gave the disciplines of geography and anthropology a high status in European research (1). Colonial interests became central to international relations as imperialist powers divided the African continent among themselves (2). To justify the colonial projects, the ideology was spread that the so-called „uncivilised“ in the colonies had to be civilised. With the help of the illustrated press, literature and social meeting places, this propaganda of research, politics, military and religion was further advanced (3). Fairs and colonial weeks were organised in series, where people abducted from the colonies were exhibited and dehumanised (4). A central actor in this human trafficking was Carl Hagenbeck, after whom Hamburg Zoo is still named today. The racist and colonial logic normalised the violence that served to dehumanise and control the colonised populations (5). It gave 19th century white Europeans a sense of superiority and, moreover, a saviour status within a „civilising“ mission. The result was a Europe that maintained human zoos in many cities. Between 1870 and 1940, fairs, folk festivals, zoos, vaudeville shows and circuses exhibited Black people, Indigenous people and people of colour. During the exhibitions they had to live in mud huts in low temperatures. Some people were sold for scientific purposes and tortured to death by so-called doctors (6). Often people were kept in cages so that they could be seen by visitors. In Germany, until 1940, 300 colonised people were exhibited at so-called „anthropological“ and zoological fairs, the Völkerschauen, and up to 100 people were held captive at the same time. Millions of visitors came to Europe and North America to see them for entertainment. (7).

Historians confirm that Carl Hagenbeck was one of the initiators of the ethnological shows. In 1876 he sent his assistants to East Asia and the Sudan. They were to catch animals and kidnap people belonging to the Nubian group in order to exhibit them in Germany. The concept of the exhibition was adopted for shows in Paris and London after a show in Berlin. One of the most famous exhibitions was the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889, which was visited by up to 28 million people. About 400 colonised people were exhibited there as an attraction for visitors. There was another World’s Fair in Paris in 1900, as well as in Marseille in 1906 and 1922. The people were shown naked or semi-naked in cages. During the 6-month run of the fair in 1900, there were 34 million spectators* (8). In Germany, „the world’s great folk show“ was held in 1928. This was followed in 1931 by the famous „Ethnic Show of the South Seas“ (9). Hagenbeck’s racist exhibitions saw humans as „savages in their natural state“ and, according to historians, inspired the human zoo exhibitions at the Jardin d’acclimatation in Paris by Albert Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire. Saint-Hilaire organised two ethnological exhibitions in 1877 that presented the public with Inuit from Greenland and Nubians from southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Here the number of spectators and the profit were doubled compared to Hagenbeck’s exhibition (10).

The Fredenbaumpark borders on the Dortmund-Ems Canal and has diverse vegetation. Around 1880, the park was a city forest in Westerholz. The transformation from city forest to park took place at the end of the 19th century and was completed by 1906 according to the plans of the director of Berlin Zoo, Hermann Geitner. From 1888-1890, a 2,200 square metre hall was built to house, among other things, the ethnological shows (11). Several sources state that the park was the venue for a birthday celebration of Kaiser Wilhelm II. In 1881, a horse-drawn tramway connection was developed, the route of which is still used by the U41 today. In Fredenbaumpark, Carl Hagenbeck exhibited African people, including children, within his racist and zoological enterprise. The Hagenbeck companies still exist today and maintain a large number of zoos in Germany. Their colonial history is seldom spoken about, rather it is subject to collective amnesia. On the website of Hagenbeck Zoos there is no self-criticism whatsoever with regard to the colonial past. Instead of using terms like „racist fantasies“ or „exotic fetishism“, the colonial exhibitions are described as a welcome opportunity to familiarise white Europeans with so-called other cultures. Euphemistic terms like „fascination with foreign countries“ and „indigenous guests“ are used. But these so-called guests have not come to this place voluntarily, but through violence. There is no sign of apologies or regret on the website, no proposal to compensate the victims (12).

Nevertheless, this story raises the question of how to compensate the victims of colonisation. What about the people who died in the human zoos of Europe? People were abducted and dehumanised; all for racist entertainment and research. How is the number of deaths in Europe documented? And how can they be properly paid tribute to? Would it be enough to erect monuments? To teach German colonial history in more detail in schools? In any case, a lot of work needs to be done in this direction. There are many ways in which Germany could face up to its own colonial history. One would be to include Black and African people in the discourses on colonial past and reparations.

The history of the Fredenbaumpark offers an opportunity to explore North Rhine-Westphalia’s colonial past. Detlev Brum also researched the colonial traces in Dortmund and the surrounding area and published the results on the website dortmundpostkolonial.de. According to him, the city of Dortmund was neither a colonial city, like Hamburg or Berlin, nor does colonialism play any role at all in the historical narrative about the city. Nevertheless, he reports that he has found a multitude of traces that prove the penetration of colonial structures into the city’s society. In his presentation, the researcher has focused on the economic and historical aspects. He criticises that these parts are largely ignored (13). 

The Fredenbaumpark with its large adventure playground, in which a tepee stands, is an example of this. At 35m high and 25m wide, the so-called tepee is said to be the largest in the world and is supposed to provide a playground for children to get in touch with nature (14). By buying the so-called „Big Tipi“ from the Expo 2000 in Hanover, the city of Dortmund wanted to confirm that it makes no critical reference to its own colonial history.  For from 13 to 16 May 1891, the first „Buffallo Bill’s Wild West Show“ was staged in the Lunapark, as the Fredenbaumpark was called at the time. A show in which armed white cowboys chased so-called „wild“ Native Americans and their cops. This was attended by 5,000 spectators (15). 

In recent years there have also been comebacks of racist exhibitions. In April 1994 – 82 years after the „Congo N-word Village“ – the „Bamboula Village“ was opened in a zoo near the French city of Nantes. On Tuesday 19 January 2022, a television documentary on France 2 told the cruel story of an artist from the Ivory Coast who was brought to France for the Bamboula Village. The „Bamboula Village“, with a series of shops and restaurants, was developed by Dany Laurent. The name is inspired by a biscuit brand based in the same village that advertises with anti-black racist cartoons. Dany Laurent decided, just like Carl Hagenbeck, to recreate a village with real people – this time from the Ivory Coast. Dancers and artists worked there for 6 months. The documentary revealed that all participants experienced different kinds of abuse and exploitation (17).

In 2005, an exhibition called „African Village“ was opened in the Augsburg Zoo, which was meant to represent the exoticising fantasy of an African village. It was open for a full five days before it was closed again on 12 June 2005 due to anti-racist protests. Although the exhibition was denounced in articles in newspapers such as Spiegel and taz, no political reaction followed from the government. Nevertheless, no political reaction followed from the government (18).

A gathering of African and Afro-diasporic associations, including ISD (Initiative of Black People in Germany) and ADEFRA – Black Women in Germany, wrote a protest letter to criticise this cruel form of entertainment (19). Looking at all this, it is very difficult to believe that Europe is interested in reparations for colonial damage and violence. The question is rather why direct reparations, such as those demanded by Herero and Nama, are still outstanding (20). 

What reparations does Germany plan to pay for colonisation in general and specifically, for example, for the genocide against the Herero and Nama? Why did the government refuse to establish a special commission to scientifically deal with the colonial and genocidal past in Namibia? Why are the steps of the Belgian Parliament not being imitated? The Belgian Parliament established a special commission on Belgium’s colonial past in Congo, Rwanda and Burundi in July 2020. A report by Ruprecht Polenz (CDU), who has been the special commissioner for dealing with Germany’s colonial history in Namibia since 2015, has still not been considered by the new 2021 government. 

The Congo-N-Word Village was built by Carl Hagenbeck for the opening of the Lunapark and opened in 1912. The Lunapark was one of the largest amusement parks in Germany and played an important role for the citizens of Dortmund. The name of the exhibition, Congo-N-Word-Village, could be a reference to the violent riots known as the „Congo atrocities“. But it is also possible that it refers to the colony of „German Congo“ in what is now North Cameroon. Nevertheless, the majority of the people were from the German colony of Togo and not from the Congo (21). 

According to the sources found in our research, Nayo C. Bruce was born on 3 March 1859 near Lake Togo, the son of Amuzu Djaglidjagli Bruce. This Togolese anti-colonialist was sent to Germany in 1896 to present his complaints to the Emperor about the injustices faced by his Togolese compatriots. His complaint to the Emperor was unsuccessful and he was never allowed to return to Togo.

The author Rea Brändle collected information about Nayo Bruce from Aného, Togo.  Bruce travelled with his four wives and a group of exhibitors. 13 children were born on this journey. This journey lasted more than 20 years and ended with the death of Nayo Bruce on 3 March 1919 in the Caucasus. Some of the children were left with the group of showmen. Others were adopted by wealthy European people or taken to Christian homes in Germany or Russia (22). One of Nayo Bruce’s children was born at the time of the Congo N-word village exhibition. On 20 April 1912 at Münsterstraße 272a in Dortmund, little Cäcilia Bruce was born.

What happened to her? Did she go back to Togo or did she spend her life in Germany? According to the documents of the residents‘ registration office in Dortmund, she was the first black African person to be born in Dortmund (23). The fate of Cäcilia Bruce reminds us that the lives of Black women in Germany and Europe are marginalised ones, stories that are hardly documented. The story of Fredenbaumpark is a symbol of colonial violence in Europe. A violence that also took place in European cities on a daily basis and continues to this day. The Fredenbaumpark shows only a small part of this history.  However, nothing in the park reminds us of the cruel deeds that took place there. Today it is a place of recreation whose past remains invisible.