A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...

etween Germany and Africa. The fact that colonial administrators were instructed by
the K-A to acquire cultural artifacts for Germany because many Germans thought African
cultures would wither and die in the face of the European onslaught underscores the
exploitative character of the acquisition of a colonial cultural episteme by Germans. 109
The final manifestation of the cultural dimension of German expansion, and more
specifically, the evolution of knowledge about the colonies, is the creation of organized
space in Africa. From the early days of the Berlin West Africa Conference of 1884-1885,
where the delegates divided up a continent before a five meter tall map, cartography was
vital to the construction of territory in the colonies. The administration of the colonies
necessitated a clear conception of territory and spheres of occupation. Similarly, colonial
business and commercial transport routes such as roads and railways depended upon
cartographic knowledge. Cartography also assisted the expansion of control when
German survey expeditions led to German claims over territory and claims resulted in
assimilation into German territory. 110 A poignant example of the German attitude toward
territory is an early map of Southwest Africa with the stamp of Lüderitz’s company
impressed upon Agra Pequeña Bay. 111 Here in the shape of the watermarked “F.A.E.
Lüderitz, Bremen” was an excellent representation of the coercive power of German
expansion, and the imposition of European colonial space identified by Thomas and
Henri Lefebvre. 112 Cartography was also closely tied to propaganda, for organizations
like the DKG and Geographisches Institut published maps of Germany’s colonies for
popular consumption in hopes of stirring public awareness and support.
The cartographic power exercised by Germany illustrates deterritorialization and
reterritorialization in several ways. The cartographic deterritorializations of the
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