Epilogue
This chapter considers the decade-long, rather tempestuous relationship between Colonial Germans, the colonial lobbies, and the Nazi Party (NSDAP), and takes a brief glimpse into German engagement with the postcolonial world in the late twentieth century. Although there was a significant amount of mutual flirtation between the Nazi regime and some opportunistic Colonial Germans who continued the pursuit of colonial restitution by any means, there were a fair number of Colonial Germans who did not find the Nazi Party appealing. Ultimately, all Colonial Germans and their ambitions would be disappointed as their organizations were absorbed by Nazi centralization schemes. The colonial legacy was appropriated to serve the Nazi state’s specific propaganda needs, often contradicting German colonialists’ aims. On January 13, 1943, late in the Battle of Stalingrad, Hitler and Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels ordered the cessation of all colonial and colonialist activities in Germany. Even this, however, was not the end of Germany’s colonial legacy, as Colonial Germans continued to adapt and insert themselves into new careers and international debates well into the second half of the twentieth century.