From 1884-1918, the German Empire had ‘protectorates’ and colonies in Africa, the Pacific Ocean and China. German colonial rule extended to the following areas:
Togo: 1884-1914; today: Togo, parts of Ghana
Cameroon: 1884-1916; today: Cameroon, parts of Nigeria
German-Southwest Africa: 1884-1915; today: Namibia
German-East Africa: 1885-1918; today: Tanzania, Ruanda, Burundi, parts of Mozambique
German New Guinea: 1885-1914 with
- Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land; today: part of Papua-New Guinea
- Marshall Islands; today: Republic of the Marshall Islands
- Nauru; today: Nauru
- Northern Mariana Islands; today: Unincorporated territory of the United States
- Palau Islands; today: Palau Islands
- Carolines; today: part of the federated states of Micronesia
Samoa: 1900-1914; today: Independent State of Samoa
Kiaochow/Tsingtau: 1898-1914; today: part of the People’s Republic of China
A brief outline of the history of German colonial rule is presented on the following websites (in German only):
The links below will take you directly to inventory and indexing information on relevant Federal Archive holdings relating to the individual colonies (list will be extended). The files of some holdings (in particular Bestand R 1001 Reichskolonialamt) are also available as digital copies. Digitisation measures are ongoing.