In its August 2025 response to the Green Party’s inquiry, the German government emphasises its willingness to confront Germany’s colonial history and its consequences.
This is entirely in line with the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and the SPD, which refers to „intensifying the process of coming to terms with the past“, returning human remains and cultural assets, and creating a „dignified place of remembrance“.
The response contains detailed information on a variety of (commendable) individual measures, but does not offer a comprehensive action plan that would do justice to the significance of German colonialism.
This weakness applies both to the recognition of the extremely violent history and to the enormous challenges in the upcoming negotiations with former African colonies (especially Tanzania and Cameroon), where state restitution committees have begun their work.
It is particularly striking that the German government completely ignores the former German colonial territories in China and the Pacific in its response.
It remains to be seen whether and how such declarations of intent at the beginning of the legislative period will actually be implemented in the coming years.
With its (unsurprising) formal legal rejection of reparations, the Federal government is following the line of its predecessors.
However, the narrow focus on financial payments fails to recognise that reparations are understood in a much more nuanced way in the former colonial territories.
The response also makes it clear that the institutional structures and funding instruments (known as restitution governance) at the federal level inherited from the former government have major shortcomings.
[ This Blog appears also in German ]
