Rethinking colonial history: Augsburg commemoration is changing!

Rethinking colonial history: Augsburg commemoration is changing!

A lot is happening in Augsburg when it comes to coming to terms with its own colonial past. On June 21, 2025, as part of the peace festival to mark the 375th anniversary, a day of action was held with the aim of critically examining Augsburg's colonial history. The collaboration between the Solidarity World workshop and the University of Augsburg aims to question the previous narrative, which is often characterized by trivialization and glorification.

A prime example of this is the Welsertafel on Annastrasse, which celebrates Bartholomäus Welser as a pioneer of German colonial ventures, without mentioning the drastic consequences of his ventures, such as violence and enslavement. This one-sided view is now supplemented by a second panel that is intended to make the dark sides of this story visible. The day of action, entitled “From El Dorado to Augsburg: Making colonial history visible!”, included a colonial city tour, a lecture performance with Magda Agudelo and Adelheid Schulz as well as the unveiling of the new Welsertafel, which is closely linked to the changing view of the colonial past as the city increasingly takes postcolonial perspectives into account.

Santa Maria 2.0 and the critical perspective

An interesting part of this debate is the Santa Maria 2.0 project, a replica of a caravel originally created in 1992 to celebrate Columbus' 500th anniversary. While this caravel has sailed through Augsburg's pedestrian zone in recent years and promoted fair trade and solidarity, it also received headwinds from the town hall. This shows how sensitive the topic of colonial history still is, especially during an exhibition about the Fuggers and Welsers, when critical texts about the fate of the indigenous peoples were not allowed to be exhibited.

However, with the day of action and the new plaque, it is clear that change is underway. The examination of the dependencies and interactions between European colonialism and the indigenous peoples plays a central role here. Events like the workshop “Warao: the process of colonization” by Alejandro Ceballos invite you to think about global connections between the environment, capitalism and colonialism. The aim is to address the challenges of a Eurocentric perspective and to focus on the loss of the way of life of indigenous peoples such as the Warao in the Orinoco River Delta. Discussions about alternative forms of knowledge and the need to take emancipatory practices seriously are also part of this educational approach, as can be found on the Postcolonial Peace City website.

Development cooperation and European responsibility

The confrontation with colonial structures does not end with the formal end of the colonial period, as an online seminar on development cooperation showed. Here the participants examined the question of the extent to which these practices still maintain the effects of colonial thought patterns today. The event stimulated a critical discussion about options for action in today's development cooperation by illuminating the deep entanglement of individual ways of life with larger historical and social structures and presenting alternative perspectives.

In summary, Augsburg is well on its way to confronting its colonial past. It is important to continue to engage in this dialogue and learn together - ultimately, we all benefit from an honest and complex examination of our history.