‘Measures of Men’ sheds light on German colonial crimes
Almost 120 years ago, the Herero people rose up against German colonial rule in German southwest Africa, what is now called Namibia.
The German military commander, General Lothar von Trotha, ruthlessly suppressed the uprising and issued a notorious “extermination order”, which led to what has gone down in history books as the “first genocide of the 20th century”.
With “Der vermessene Mensch” (Measurements of Men), the German director Lars Kraume directed the first German feature film to deal with the subject.
In the film, a fictional young German ethnologist embarks on a research trip to the German colony of southwest Africa and begins collecting human skulls for his racial research. In the process, he witnesses the genocide committed by the “Deutsche Schutztruppe”, as the military formation that maintained the German Empire was called, against the Ovaherero and Nama tribes between 1904 and 1908. But in addition to witnessing the crimes, the ethnologist is transformed every time more on a perpetrator.
Film shows the ‘moral decay’ of a young scientist
The story is about the “moral decay” of its main character, Kraume told DW. As a German director, he felt it would not be right to tell the story from Ovaherero and Nama’s perspective. But some critics disagree about the angle with which Kraume approached the film.
The first scene of the film makes you shudder. Berlin scientists are measuring the skulls of German and African skeletons in a classroom at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin, now Humboldt University. A pseudoscientific and evolutionary racial theory is taught, based on the premise that the skull of a “Berlin worker” is larger than that of an African “Bushman”. These comparisons serve to prove that Germans are supposedly “smarter” than Africans – a theory that prevailed during the colonial era and long after as well.
Kraume manages to capture the zeitgeist of the time through these obscure investigations.
Ambitious ethnology doctoral student Alexander Hoffmann – played by Leonard Scheicher – refutes this theory of superiority, developing his own “racial theory”. He gives a lecture on the fact that all humans are descended from one and the same “race”, namely Homo Sapiens. He proves his thesis with the knowledge he gained from talking and researching Herero woman Kezia Kambazembi, played by Namibian actress Girley Charlene Jazama.
Hoffman learns of her at the Berlin Völkerschau, an ethnic show also known as the “human zoo”, where she is forced to serve as an exhibit for paying visitors. She serves as his subject of scientific research, and the young researcher initially seems like someone who will fight established racial theory.
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Germans Stole Skulls of Murdered Herero and Nama
“For this provocative thesis, he doesn’t get the professorship he wants at Friedrich Wilhelm University,” explains director Lars Kraume. “Then, years later, when the Herero revolt broke out in German southwest Africa, he was given a second chance.”
As part of an ethnological expedition, he travels through the German colony accompanied by the Imperial Army, collecting artifacts and skulls from those killed in the conflict for the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. He then evolves into an antihero as the plot progresses.
“The film shows the moral degeneration of this young ethnologist”, elaborates Kraume. “He’s really only driven by his own success. That’s his real motive and in the process he becomes part of this destructive machine of the colonialists in Africa.” With tomb looting and artifact thefts, “he crosses borders and conforms to the imperial system. Meanwhile, he continues in search of the Herero woman, Kezia, who so fascinated him in Berlin, and finds her even at the climax of the plot. “
Modern slavery still exists, says Kraume
Although his film sheds light on a dark piece of Germany’s colonial past, it is still very relevant today, says the director.
After all, there are still “scientists and technicians from large German industrial corporations in Africa who explore and convince themselves that they are bringing work to the country. In reality, however, they are simply practicing a form of modern day slavery,” Kraume said. “The self-legitimization of this amoral scientist is something we see all the time today. That’s why I chose this character. It just wasn’t meant to be a white savior figure. He’s a destroyer.”
The real story is behind the movie
Alexander Hoffmann’s story is fiction, but the events he observes in the film are based on historical facts.
In the film, the protagonist repeatedly comes into contact with real locations from history, including the imperial ethnic show of 1896, Lothar von Trotha’s extermination order, the expulsion of the Ovaherero in the desert, a concentration camp on Shark Island, and collaborating missionaries. with the Germans. .
“The great stages of this odyssey are based on fact. And to get to these places that are attested and researched, of course I needed a biography that was fictional. You don’t find a biography that traces that path exactly. That’s why Hoffmann is a fictional character. He is, so to speak, an observer of these real events,” explains Kraume.
The desecration of tombs and the theft of artifacts in the name of science were also common at the time, says Kraume, referring, for example, to the then assistant director of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, Felix von Luschan, who “was a great collector of skulls and had a private skull collection of over 10,000 pieces”, many of which are still in the possession of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation today.
Some critics criticized Kraume, saying he should have told the film from multiple perspectives and also included Ovaherero and Nama’s opinions. In their view, the film comes across as a post-colonial reassessment that only takes up the German view of history, they argue.
But Kraume defends himself against this argument by replying that he wanted to prevent cultural appropriation of the theme. He worked closely with Namibian authorities and artists on the shoot, he says.
One costume designer was Herero, as was the actress for the main character Kezia (who is actually only seen at the beginning and end of the film). But he didn’t want to presume to tell a heroic story of a Herero leader. As a result, however, the suffering of the Herero in the film takes a back seat and they become mere backdrops to the plot in a white perpetrator story.
‘The public must be made aware of terrible crimes’
Lars Kraume, however, wants his film to come to terms with Germany’s colonial past. “The public needs to be aware that we were once this great colonial power and we also committed terrible crimes”, says the director, who has already dealt with other controversial themes in German history in films such as “The State against Fritz Bauer” (2015). and “The Silent Classroom” (2018).
Denial of these crimes must stop, says Kraume. The reparation agreement with Namibia must finally be reached; human remains, thousands of which are still in museums, must be returned; and the debate over looted art must continue, he adds.
He also shows his film in German schools. “School-age kids are incredibly open and talk about everything. Honestly, they’re my favorite audience,” says Kraume. “I also have teenage children. Of course, I don’t want them to travel to Africa to see the elephants, as many people do, not knowing what our real connection is with countries like Namibia.”
“Der vermessene Mensch” is showing in cinemas in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
This article was originally written in German and adapted by John Silk.
Source: DW
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