125 Jahre Berliner Afrika-Konferenz Demonstration 15.11.09

125 years ago, in the winter of 1884/85, the Chancellor of the German Reich, Otto von Bismarck, invited representatives of the then-world powers to the Berlin Conference. In the name of progress and humanity, and against the background of European racist ideology, the representatives of twelve European states, the Ottoman Empire, and the USA, convened to decide on the further colonial partitioning and exploitation of the African continent. In the Imperial Chancellor's palace, the vast "Congo Basin" was assigned to the Belgian King Leopold II. His brutal regime claimed the lives of more than ten million people. In addition, the Berlin Conference marked Germany's accession into the circle of imperial powers. In the following thirty years, Germanywas able to establish hegemony over the areasnowadays known as Namibia, Togo, Cameroon, Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda. The colonial rule was characterized by exploitation of resources, corporal punishment, kidnappings, forced labour, torture, rape, concentration camps, and genocide. At least 400,000 Africans lost their lives during the brutal suppression of resistance movements alone.