IMO, it's pretty obvious that Germany had no right to take these lands in Namibia,
Had the Herero and Nama the right to take this land when others had lived there before they came into this area of the world?
This really doesn't matter. Germans invaded this land.
What was totally normal during this time time of history. Germans did not do so a very long time of history. We were not enthusiats of the idea "colonies" as were nerly all other Europeans. The problem started indeed with the destruction of the Holy empire of German (=United) Nation by the French mass-murderer Napoleon Bonaparte. He forced us to give him soldiers to fight against Russai for example - so also this problem started with this damned mass-murderer.
In the fight against Napoleon Bonaparte an international war with mass-murderers all over the European world had started in Germany. In the end all this international super-idiots took care that the Prussians - an army which owned a land - had overtaken Germany. You don't think this is important? Wrong: It is - otherwise you are not able to understand how its was possible that had happened this side-effect tragedy in Namibia.
Since this damned war an unholy kind of alliance between the Prussians (this are the people which the world calls normally "Germans") and the Brits had dominated the German history. The Prussians had conquered one by next German country and had called them - don't be astonished "Colony of Prussia". They had thrown out Austria from the not any longer existing German Bund (=Union) and in a last step they had forced the king of Bavaria to become a traitor of his own people and to sell his country to the Prussians - because he did not like to go in war with the mighty Prussian army which dominated now everthying in whole Germany.
The king of the Prussians became now the emperor over Germany in Versailles - in the tradition of the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Germany degraded itselve to a military dictatorship with a Prussain army which had suffered the so called "Kadavergehorsam" - what means the soldiers of the Prussian army (and every German had to be there for some time) were trained with very modern methods to lose everything what was an own personality and to become nothing else than an executive organ without any own opinion about anything - not even about the own death.
And exactly this was the resason why the stupid orders of the criminal Brit William II and his general staff were such a catastophe. This man had been without any scruple and had been one of the worst criminals - not far from the criminal energy of the monster - ah sorry: "king" - of Belgium, whose deeds you can see in the Kongo.
So I hope you understand now better the time of history and the situation within Germany in which this had happened. When I was a little child I still grew up in a world where everyone had hated the Prussians more than any other enemy of Germany which ever had existed, although they had been Germans on their own and we had a lot of enemies because of world war 2. Slowly we moved this hate on Prussians in a more humorful way to see all this problems of history, because no one is just simple able to live in hate without to lose the own soul.
Now to Namibia and the crimes there in very short words. It started with an attack of the Herero and Nama against the German seddlers there. I do not discuss about sense and nonsense of colonies now. It was clear that the seddlers had to be protected from this violent attaccs. So the Herero and Nama knew an reaction will come. But why did they think this reaction would had been more soft? I guess they had this delusion because they knew that we Germans normally react calm. What they totally underestimated was it that the Germans in this time of histoey fulfilled every order they got. It was for all Germans - also later under Hitler - always clear that not this one who executes an order is guilty - in a similar way how a sword is not able to be guilty, because it is used for murder. Fighting Germans don't think and don't discuss. They like to solve a problem forever. In this time of history it was not wrong what they did. Discussions about "What is a genocide" will start decades later after Hitler.
Nevertheless they made crimes which had been also crimes in this time of history. One crime had it been to take away the German citizenship from the Herero and Nama. Traditionally the German citizenship is able to be given - but not able to be taken. You will think this is unimportant - but it is not. In case the Herero and Nama had stayed to be citizens of Germany then this had not justified a military action - it had to be an action of policemen in this case. An the other crime - if it had happened what I do not really know in the moment - was to fight against women and children. It looks like they did so, if I'm right. If so then the word "genocide" is justified. Even in the middle ages when we had hard fights agains heathens from the East of Europe our knights had the duty to adopt children of the enemies. Unfortunatelly it makes not any sense to be angry any longer on the Prussians, because the Prussians not exist any longer. This most mighty German tribe is dead.
"Who takes the sword dies by the sword" is a famous word of the bible in such contextes. The Herero and Nama still exist. But the price was high for them.
They murdered two tribes. That was wrong.
Sure. But what had you done? The same, isn't it? Who has a lot of power in the hands easily is able to make something wrong.
There is really nothing more to say about that.
Aha. That's by the way a typical Prussian expression.
and that committing genocide on tribes there was a crime.
I'm not very satisfied with the expression "genocide" in this context, because genocide is an expression from the year 1948 which had in the origin exclusivelly only to do with the so called Holocaust (=Endlösung), who had been from a German point of view only outside of Germany a genocide. Inside of Germany this genocide had been a fratricide.
"Genocide" is a word that describes the attempt to not just mass murder people, but the intent to annihilate an entire people. That is what happened. Nobody in the world cares what you feel about this word.
For the Brit William II this people were perhaps only an possibility to show to his grandma Queen Victoria that he is a strong man and ruler. Who knows?
IMO, it's an act of patriotism
Patrio what? Germans are not patriots. We think normally idiots govern our country. This has to do with Hitler.
I'm a German, and I'm a patriot.
Don't be ridiculous. The only patriots in Germany are the Bavarians. All other "patriots" are pseudo Nazis.
Go figure. Don't tell me what I am supposed to feel towards my country.
You call your Germany every second day a "shit country", isn't it? And after a while you think - "life in other countries is also not better."
to admit misdeeds in our history.
We are the only people on the whole planet, who are doing so.
There are never entire peoples who do this or that. There are different views on patriotism and nationalism within any people.
Sophisticated bullshit. We are fanatics in context "truth" - not only in case of our enemeis - also in case of our friends and also in case of us own. If we are not able to be so then we get depressions. Better to be an asshole than to be depressive, isn't it, "Adrenalinbolzen"?
Some people seem to believe you either have to love your country and whitewash its history, or you have to hate it and wallow in guilt ...
?
? Do you have reading problems?
I say both approaches are silly.
?
?
You can love your country,
Germany? Why shouId I? Germans murdered a big part of my German family.
Who said you should?
For starters, Germany is among the top 15 countries in the world on most rankings, when it comes to quality of life,
And? Helps this the frogs which our mayor had "murdered" about five years ago, because he is an idiot who knows only somehting about business but not about life?
public health, freedom of speech,
A strange thing that I have not the feeling my right of free speech is realized in Germany.
democratic standards, equality of wealth
Equality of what? ... In Germany? ... Are you sure you live on planet Earth?
and so on ...
... to make it short, life is pretty good in Germany, compared to most other countries on this planet.
And what do you know now about the life in Namibia? Nearly nothing - isn't it? I heard it is not bad there.
as much as you take responsibility for the bad sides,
Which bad sides?
For example, admitting that colonialism was not a good thing,
It was what it was. William II made for example Ireland free and Hitler made India free. Does this mean William II and Hitler were nice men?
and, of course, everything that happened between 1933 and 1945 in this country is not exactly a good example,
?
including the Holocaust on 6 million Jews and starting a world war that resulted in the death of ca. 40 million people.
Stalin and Hitler started world war 2 together in the secret part of the Ribbentrop-Molotow-Pact where they both together decided to eliminate Poland again.
especially when you're not personally responsible.
?
I was born long after German colonialism and Nazi rule, so I can't say I'm personally responsible for any of these crimes. Got it?
So why do you pay money for the crimes of the Prussian emperor Wiliam II and the commander Lothar von Trotha and his army of 15,000 men?
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