Drechsler, Horst: Südwestafrika unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft. Der Kampf der Herero und Nama gegen den deutschen Imperialismus (1884–1915), Berlin 1966
Horst Drechsler (8.01.1927 – 20.06.2004) was an internationally recognised German historian. In the German Democratic Republic (GDR), he was regarded as one of the leading experts on German colonial history.
Drechsler completed his habilitation, i.e. his professorship, with this thesis. It was published 18 years after the United Nations Genocide Convention. With this work, he was the first historian to put forward the thesis that the actions of the Germans in the colony of German South West Africa against OvaHerero and Nama in 1904 – 1907 amounted to genocide.
On the initiative of the United Nations, his work was translated into English, Spanish, French and Russian in the 1980s.
Published as the first of two volumes:
Südwestafrika unter deutscher Kolonialherrschaft.
Volume 1: Der Kampf der Herero und Nama gegen den deutschen Imperialismus (1884–1915). Habilitation thesis, Berlin 1966
(2nd revised edition 1984)
Translations:
• English – “Let us die fighting”. The struggle of the Herero and Nama against German imperialism (1884–1915), Zed Press, London 1980 []
• Spanish – Africa del Sudoeste bajo la dominación colonial alemana. La lucha de los Hereros y los Namas contra el imperialismo alemán (1884–1915), Berlin 1985
• French – Le sud-ouest africain sous la domination coloniale allemande. La lutte des Hereros et des Namas contre l’impérialisme allemand (1884–1915), Berlin 1986
• Russian – Jugo-zapadnaja Afrika pod germanskim kolonial’nym gospodstvom (1884–1915), Moskau 1987
Volume 2: Die großen Land- und Minengesellschaften (1885–1914), Stuttgart 1996
Source:
- Article “Horst Drechsler” on Wikipedia (only available in German; checked in January 2024)