HAMBURG. The Hamburg Senate has announced that it will establish a “Decolonization Coordination Office”. The institution aims to convey knowledge about colonialism and “its consequences for society as a whole” in order to “move closer to a free, open and fair society without discrimination and racism.” says a Senate statement.
Plans include the following: the creation of new memorial sites, Rename street and addressing the topic of “dealing with discrimination and racism” in schools, universities and kindergartens. The Senate emphasized that the “revision of the content of early childhood education from childcare to universities, as well as the education plans for Hamburg schools” was part of this plan.
Crimes originating from Hamburg and Germany
The existing research center “Hamburg’s Postcolonial Heritage”, which has been located at the University of Hamburg since 2015, will continue to exist. There is “a clear commitment” to “embedding postcolonial research in the Faculty of Humanities,” said Senator for Culture Carsten Brosda (SPD).
The causes of global cases of slavery, expulsions, wars and genocides can be found in “colonial trade and the economic and power relations” that “have shaped the world for centuries,” Brosda said. The ‘specificity of the Shoah’ should not ‘cloud the view’ that there are also other crimes ’caused by Hamburg and Germany’ that ‘also require the current behavior of our times’. (lb)