An editing project: Learning grounds of genocide. Lothar von Trotha's diaries from German East Africa (1894/97) and China (1900/01).

• Applicant: Dr. Andreas Eckl
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 449370248

The aim of this project is to provide a critical edition of Lothar von Trotha’s hitherto unknown diaries from his assignments, first, as commander of the “Kaiserliche Schutztruppe für Deutsch-Ostafrika” and deputy governor of German East Africa from 1894 to 1897, and secondly, as commander of the “1. Ostasiatische Infanteriebrigade” during the so-called Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900 and 1901. These diaries, comprising some 3,200 written pages, were kept, together with photographic material, in the von Trotha family archive where the applicants discovered them while exploring Lothar von Trotha’s estate (s. EC 410/6-1). The extensive handwritten and photographic documents constitute sources of extraordinary relevance for the historiography of German colonial expansion as a whole, as these personal records provide an unprecedented reflection of the experiences of a top functionary and present vividly the violence of German colonial expansion, which ultimately gave rise to the first genocide of the 20th century in German South-West Africa in 1904.This edition project seeks to provide the scientific community and a wider audience with unique source material, which promises to further significantly our knowledge of German colonialism in various respects: firstly, in terms of the historiography of “German East Africa” as well as the Boxer Rebellion which, conceptualized as "learning grounds of genocide”, can shed new light on the unleashing of extreme violence in German South-West Africa, and secondly, regarding German colonial history as a whole. Lothar von Trotha's career represented an "imperial biography" (David Lambert) par excellence, linking heterogeneous territories within Imperial Germany and overseas, thus rendering the German (colonial) Empire tangible as a coherent whole. Furthermore, these sources are of considerable political and juridical relevance. During his missions, Lothar von Trotha collected hundreds of artifacts, animals and plants, which he documented in his diaries. Entire collections of such material are still to be found in German museums, waiting to be returned to their respective countries of origin. Von Trotha’s estate thus constitutes a unique and indispensable source for determining their provenance and can help pave the way for their restitution

• DFG Programme: Research Grants