Paper short abstract:

In a cartography of the affective and emotional dynamics and genealogy of the Humboldt Forum debate in Germany, this paper unravels some of the strings in a complex web that connects people, objects, atmospheres and sentiments around the Humboldt Forum.

Paper long abstract:

Alexithymia refers to the inability to make sense of one's own emotions and the emotions of others. In reference to Ann Stoler's notion of "colonial aphasia" by which she refers to the inability to speak about colonialism in France, we mobilize colonial alexithymia to investigate the workings of the German debate on the Humboldt Forum, the prestigious cultural center focusing mainly on non-European arts and cultures which is about to be completed in central Berlin. Constructed at the place of the dismantled Palace of the Republic, a central symbolic building for the former German Democratic Republic, the Humboldt Forum's outside will resemble the Prussian royal palace that had been destroyed in the Second World War - a symbolism that was criticized by many as revisionist history, denying the heritage of Nazi rule and its aftermath. In the resulting debate, cosmopolitan and more nativist nationalisms compete with each other over the "right" kind of German national identity. All the while (activits) actors in Germany and the former colonies, mainly in Africa, contest the use of "their" objects (obtained under the conditions of colonialism, some as war booty in colonial military interventions) as tools for German identity politics. Strong affective dissonances between national and (anti-)colonial sentiments emerge as different emotional repertoires about colonialism clash. In a cartography of the affective and emotional dynamics and genealogy of the Humboldt Forum debate, this paper unravels some of the strings in a complex web that connects people, objects, atmospheres and sentiments around the Humboldt Forum.