The 'Black Shame' campaign used stereotypical images of 'racially primitive' , sexually depraved black colonial soldiers threatening 'white women' in 1920s Germany to manufacture widespread concern and generate panic about the presence of tens of thousands of occupying French troops from colonial Africa on German soil. The campaign, which originated with the German government, quickly developed a momentum of its own and became an international phenomenon, spanning the political divide and incorporating figures from the Left and Right, trades unionists, Christian groups, women s organisations and key public figures including Edmund D. Morel and Bertrand Russell. It had followers throughout Europe, the US and Australia and was promoted through the modern media. The author here explores the ways in which the racial, sexual, class and national stereotypes that fuelled the campaign interrelated and reinforced one another, creating 'interlinked discriminations'.
See for example I. Blom, K. Hagemann and C. Hall (eds), Gendered Nations: nationalisms and gender order in the long nineteenth century (Oxford, New York, Berg Publishers Ltd, 2000); J. Daniels, White Lies: race, class, gender and sexuality in white supremacist discourse (London, New York, Routledge, 1997); A. L. Ferber, White Man Falling: race, gender and white supremacy (Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1998); S. L. Gilman, Difference and Pathology: stereotypes of sexuality, race and madness (New York, Cornell University Press, 1985); S. L. Gilman, ‘Black Sexuality and Modern Consciousness , R. Grimm and J. Hermand (eds.), Blacks and German Culture: essays (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1986), pp. 35-54; S. L. Gilman, ‘Black bodies, white bodies: towards an iconography of female sexuality in late nineteenth-century art, medicine and literature , J. Donald and A. Rattansi,‘Race , Culture and Difference (London, Sage, 1992), pp. 171-97; S. Hall,‘Rassismus als ideologischer Diskurs , N. Räthzel (ed.), Theorien über Rassismus (Hamburg, Argument Verlag, 2000), pp. 7-16; W. D. Hund, ‘Rassismus im Kontext. Geschlecht, Klasse, Nation, Kultur und Rasse , S. Meinl and I. Wojak (eds), Grenzenlose Vorurteile. Antisemitismus, Nationalismus und ethnische Konflikte in verschiedenen Kulturen. Jahrbuch 2002 zur Geschichte und Wirkung des Holocaust (Frankfurt am Main, New York, Campus, 2002), pp. 17-40; W. D. Hund, Rassismus. Die soziale Konstruktion natürlicher Ungleichheit (Münster, Westfälisches Dampfboot, 2006); W. D. Hund, Negative Vergesellschaftung. Dimensionen der Rassismusanalyse (Bielefeld, Transcript, 2007); T. Mayer (ed.), Gender Ironies of Nationalism: sexing the nation (London, New York, Routledge, 1999); A. Meulenbelt, Scheidelinien. Über Sexismus, Rassismus und Klassismus (Reinbek, Rowohlt, 1988); N. Zack (ed.), Race/Sex: their sameness, difference, and interplay (London, Routledge, 1997).
2.
Most scholars working in this field, and who have provided an analysis of two or more categories, agree that these categories of social inclusion and exclusion cannot be adequately examined in isolation from one another and must be studied in combination. A more detailed discussion of this debate can be found in I. Wigger, Die‘Schwarze Schmach am Rhein Rassistische Diskriminierung zwischen Geschlecht, Klasse, Nation und Rasse (The‘Black Shame on the Rhine: racist discrimination between gender, class, nation and race) (Münster, Westfälisches Dampfboot, 2007), pp. 28-30. Some studies combine two categories in their analysis (for example, U. Planert (ed.), Nation, Politik und Geschlecht: Frauenbewegung und Nationalismus in der Moderne (Frankfurt am Main, New York, Campus, 2000); C. J. Christie, Race and Nation: a reader (London, New York, I.B.Tauris, 1998); N. Yuval-Davis, Gender and Nation (London, Sage, 1997)). Other researchers investigate connections between three or more categories, like race, class and gender (see for example M. Andersen and P. Hill, Race, Class and Gender: an anthology (Belmont, Wadsworth, 1992); F. Anthias, ‘Parameter kollektiver Identität: Ethnizität, Nationalismus und Rassismus , Institut für Migrations- und Rassismusforschung (ed.), Rassismus und Migration in Europa. Beiträge des Kongresses ‘Migration und Rassismus in Europa . Hamburg, 26. bis 30. September 1990 (Hamburg, Argument Verlag, 1992), pp. 88-103; E. Boris (ed.), Complicating Categories: gender, class, race and ethnicity (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999); V. Dhruvarajan and J. Vickers, Gender, Race, and Nation: a global perspective (Downsview, Ontario, University of Toronto Press, 2002)).
3.
This article is based on my recently-published German-language book: I. Wigger, op. cit. This analysis used historical data from over twenty German and British archives.
4.
All German citations were translated by the author.
5.
P. Nilsson, ‘The coloured Watch on the Rhine , Göteborg Dagblad (No. 281, 3.12.1921) (translation of newspaper article). Source: Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes (Archive of the German Foreign Office, Bonn). File: R74421.
6.
See I. Wigger, op. cit., chapter 3.3, 3.4.
7.
Prominent figures supporting the German protests included the German social democrat president Friedrich Ebert, Prince Max von Baden and Professor Lujo Brentano.
8.
In German these organisations were called Deutscher Notbund gegen die Schwarze Schmach and Hamburger Landesverband zur Bekämpfung der Schwarzen Schmach.
9.
This statement was made during the presidential campaign in Connecticut, cited in C. Koller, "Von Wilden aller Rassen niedergemetzelt". Die Diskussion um die Verwendung von Kolonialtruppen in Europa zwischen Rassismus, Kolonial- und Militärpolitik 1914-1930 (Stuttgart, Steiner, 2001), p. 297.
10.
See for example British Parliament, Parliamentary Question Wedgewood. 16.4.1920. Source: Public Record Office (PRO), file FO371/3784; Parliamentary Question Kenworthy. 15.4.1920. Source: PRO, FO371/3784; Parliamentary Question Aubrey. 17.3.1923. Source: PRO, FO371/8720.
11.
E. D. Morel, The Horror on the Rhine, London 1920. The pamphlet reached eight editions, was translated into different languages and sold around 10,000 copies in less than one month.
12.
E.D. Morel, ‘The Employment of Black Troops in Europe , The Nation, (Vol. 26, 27.3.1920) , p. 893.
13.
For a more detailed discussion, see I. Wigger, "Against the laws of civilisation": race, gender, and nation in the international racist campaign against the "Black Shame" , Berkeley Journal of Sociology (46, 2002), pp. 113-31 and C. Koller, op. cit; for the protests in Britain see also R. C. Reinders, ‘Racialism on the left: E. D. Morel and the "Black Horror on the Rhine" , International Review of Social History (13, 1, 1968), pp. 1-28, and C. Koller, op. cit.
14.
Bertrand Russell commented in Foreign Affairs A Journal of International Understanding (March 1924) on a newly published book The Treachery of France by C.J.C. Street. He argued that the author had ably demonstrated that these ‘coloured troops showed bad moral conduct and were guilty of ‘unnatural crimes, encouraged by those in authority.
15.
See for example C. Koller 2001, op. cit.; S. Maß,‘Das Trauma des weißen Mannes. Afrikanische Kolonialsoldaten in propagandistischen Texten, 1914-1923 , L‘Homme. Zeitschrift für Feministische Geschichtswissenschaft (12.1.2001), pp. 11-33; T. Campt, ‘Afro-German : The convergence of race, sexuality and gender in the formation of a German ethnic identity, 1919-1960 (Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, 1996); G. Lebzelter, ‘Die "Schwarze Schmach": vorurteile propaganda - mythos , Geschichte und Gesellschaft (11, 1985), pp. 27-58; A. Melzer, ‘Spectacles and sexualities: the ‘Mise-en Scène of the ‘Tirailleur Sénégalais on the Western Front, 1914-1920 , B. Melman (ed.), Borderlines: genders and identities in war and peace, 1870-1930 (London, New York, Routledge, 1998), pp. 213-44.
16.
Focusing mainly on the political and propaganda dimensions of the ‘Black Shame protests, earlier articles referred to them as a mainly instrumental post-War political propaganda campaign (see K. L. Nelson, "Black Horror on the Rhine": race as a factor in post-World War I diplomacy , Journal of Modern History (42, 1970), pp. 606-27; R. C. Reinders, op. cit.; S. Marks, ‘Black watch on the Rhine: a study in propaganda, prejudice and prurience , European Studies Review (13, 1983), pp. 297-334; G. Gräber and M. Spindler, Die Revolverrepublik am Rhein. Die Pfalz und ihre Seperatisten, Vol. 1 (Landau, Pfälzische V.-A, 1992)).
17.
For an in-depth discussion of such violent male sexual fantasies, see K. Theweleit, Männerphantasien I. und II. Unveränderte Taschenbuchausgabe, erweitert durch ein Nachwort (Frankfurt am Main, Basel, Piper, 2000).
18.
See F. El-Tayeb, Schwarze Deutsche. Der Diskurs um ‘Rasse und nationale Identität 1890-1933 (Frankfurt am Main, New York, Campus, 2001); N. Lösch, Rasse als Konstrukt: Leben und Werk Eugen Fischers, (Frankfurt am Main, Peter Lang, 1997).
19.
A brochure written in English discusses the‘Black Deeds by Black Slavedrivers , B. Stehle, The Shame of France (Magdeburg, 1924). And a German newspaper article from 1923 refers to the Germans in the occupied zone as‘slaves and depicts the German labourer as‘more unfree than ever before . J. A. Schmitt (Pseudonym: Volker), ‘Rheinische Runenblätter , Magdeburgische Zeitung (17.2.1923). Stadtarchiv Mainz, Nachlaß Schreiber, Box 35-69, No. 66.
20.
For a comprehensive discussion of the importance of‘class in the campaign, see I. Wigger, Die ‘Schwarze Schmach am Rhein , op. cit., chapter 3.4.
21.
Joanna de Groot discussed the historical development of this gender stereotype in the nineteenth century. See J. De Groot, "Sex and race": the construction of language and image in the nineteenth century , Catherine Hall (ed.), Cultures of Empire: colonizers in Britain and the Empire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - a reader (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2000), pp. 37-60.
22.
I. Wigger, Die ‘Schwarze Schmach am Rhein , op. cit., p. 198.
23.
I. Wigger, Die ‘Schwarze Schmach am Rhein , op. cit., pp. 128, 199.
24.
I. Wigger, Die ‘Schwarze Schmach am Rhein , op. cit., p. 128.
25.
I. Wigger, Die ‘Schwarze Schmach am Rhein , op. cit., chapter 3.12. Based on original archival material: Newspaper article, unknown author, ‘Würdelose Frauen , Völkinger Nachrichten (14.6.1920). Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes, file R122421; Hans Alexander, Die schwarze Pest in Deutschland! Protest gegen die Sittlichkeitsverbrechen der schwarzen Franzosen (Leipzig 1921), p. 29; Clara Schapiro, ‘Franzosen am Rhein: Die Auswirkungen der fremden Besatzung auf Wirtschaftsleben und Moral der Bevölkerung , Bericht der früheren Polizeiassistentin der Stadt Mainz, S. 61. Stadtarchiv Mainz, Nachlaß Schreiber, Box 108-110, No 110.
26.
Reiner Pommerin has published the first German study on this subject. See R. Pommerin, Sterilisierung der Rheinlandbastarde: das Schicksal einer farbigen deutschen Minderheit (Düsseldorf, Droste Verlag, 1979).
