Spatial and Temporal Limitations of “Berlin’s Africa”: Between the Decline of a Spatial Format and the Dissolution of a Spatial Order (B02)

• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2016 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 266371360

Based on the history of “Berlin’s Africa”, the project traces the formation, development, and decline of a globally effective colonial spatial order. The term refers to the Berlin Conference of 1884/85, where a free trade area was agreed and the making of a colonial spatial order was triggered. We reconstructed how “Berlin’s Africa” was translocally and interimperially negotiated over decades. The project focuses on the limitations of “Berlin’s Africa”, which became increasingly visible from the 1910s onwards. As a theorizing contribution, the project deals with the dissolution of a spatial order and the loss of efficacy of a spatial format.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1199: Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition
• Applicant Institution: Universität Leipzig
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Dmitri van den Bersselaar; Professor Dr. Adam Jones, until 12/2019