In winter 1884/85, Otto von Bismarck invited 14 representatives from the world’s ruling powers to Berlin to decide how to divide up the African continent. The “Congo Conference”, as it was called, marked the start of German colonialism.

Kidnapping and plundering of resources, forced labour and genocide marked the following German thirty-year rule in the regions of modern-day Namibia, Togo, Cameroon, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda. The borders that were randomly drawn-up at the Congo Conference still exist today and have continually led to political conflict: present-day racist modes of thinking and societal structures are still based on colonial images and hierarchies.

Black Bismarck, a production by andcompany&Co. which will be shown at the Hebbel am Ufer in 2013, reviews 129 years of German post-, anti- and neo-colonialism, revealing Berlin to be a ‘colonial city’.

First research results will be presented on the 3 October 2012 in the collective’s production BLACK BISMARCK previsited, a lecture concert on and about this date, which has been eventful over the years in more than one way. Not only is it the anniversary of German Reunification, but also the date in 1942 when the army testing facility in Peenemünde successfully launched the first V2 rocket into space; and on 3 October 1904, Hendrik Witbooi, Captain of the Nama and former German ally, declared war on the German Empire, marking the beginning of the Nama War (the so-called “Hottentot Uprising”) in German south-west Africa.