We had a Dora in Southwest - Film and talk about the women's colonial school in Rendsburg with Joana Schröder

Film and discussion about the women's colonial school in Rendsburg with Joana Schröder

Friday, April 26
Admission: 19.00 Film starts: 19.30
Free admission

Capitol Cinema
Mühlstraße 16
37213 Witzenhausen

Wir hatten eine Dora in Südwest
This documentary takes up an aspect of German colonial history and its consequences that has received little attention to date, but is highly interesting. In 1907, the 'Deutschkoloniale Frauenbund' (German Colonial Women's Association) was founded with the help of which, among other things, the "supply" of German brides to the Schutztruppen and settlers was to be promoted in order to counteract the supposedly threatening "caffification of the men in German Southwest and German East Africa".
Even after 1918, when Germany no longer had any colonies, the Frauenbund was still placing young women willing to emigrate to Windhoek, Swakopmund or Tanga as "bearers of German breeding and customs".
The film compiles historical archive material, contemporary photos, songs, quotes from plays or colonial novels and contrasts this collage-like overview with the current statements of some women who went to Namibia with the Frauenbund in the 1930s or 1940s and who still live there today. The film is therefore not only of historical interest, but also addresses the political attitudes and behavior of Namibians of German descent towards the blacks in Namibia, which has now become independent from South Africa. (ezef Filmverleih)

Joana Schröder
The director of the Heiligenhafen Local History Museum talks about her experiences as curator of the exhibition "From Rendsburg into the wide world. The Colonial Women's School" (July 9 to October 8, 2023) at the Museum Rendsburg.
The discussion will explore the question of how the exhibition was conceived and what reactions there were to the exhibition? What approaches can be taken to enable a broad audience to engage with historically complex topics, such as the role of colonial schools in German colonialism?
The women's colonial school in Rendsburg is historically closely linked to the German Colonial School (DKS) in Witzenhausen, but has developed independently. Many similarities and differences can be identified between the two institutions, thus providing a clearer picture of the colonial and colonial-revanchist movement in Germany.