Germany is often commended as the world leader in remembrance. The “German model” has gained international recognition as an exemplary path toward historical accountability for the crimes of the Nazi Holocaust. And yet, a country that has done much reckoning with one traumatic period in its past has largely failed in confronting another painful history — the legacy of German colonialism. Various attempts at addressing this historical blind spot, whether by victims’ advocates, citizen initiatives, or parliamentary groups, have long been met with empty promises, silence, or outright rejection.

With the recent wave of protests for racial justice in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, it has again become clear how deeply rooted current forms of racism are, following from a long history of racialized violence. And Germany is far from innocent in this regard. The flawed negotiations over reparations for the country’s colonial crimes show how the failure to remedy past harms continues to incur pain and trauma in the present.