Germany’s coalition agreement not implemented
In his response to a parliamentary inquiry from the Greens in the Bundestag in early June 2026, Minister of State for Culture Wolfram Weimer outlined the current status of efforts regarding Germany’s colonial history. Just over a year after the Federal Government took office, the results are meagre. One thing is clear: the promise made in the Black-Red coalition agreement – “We will intensify the process of coming to terms with colonialism” – is not being fulfilled. No significant progress has been made; many questions remain unanswered. Nevertheless, the document provides some interesting details.
Repatriation of ancestral remains
Since 1991, 628 ancestral remains have been repatriated from Germany or handed over to descendants or communities of origin. The largest number of these are from New Zealand (264). Only two countries from the group of former German colonies are listed: Namibia (82) and Tanzania (16).
Together, this group of countries thus accounts for only 15 per cent of all German repatriations. This finding stands in stark contrast to a recently published study by the ‘Contact Point for Cultural Property and Human Remains from Colonial Contexts’. The survey concludes that there are approximately 17,000 human remains from colonial contexts from all regions of the world in German museums and collections. Around 46 per cent of these cannot be geographically attributed.
Special case Tanzania
The situation is particularly complicated in the case of Tanzania. To date, only two sets of remains have actually been repatriated, both of which are associated with Chief Mkwawa: a skull from Bremen in 1954 and a tooth in 2014, handed over by the descendants of a German colonial officer. The remaining 14 mentioned in the government’s response relate to cases where, on the one hand, Charité Berlin transferred ownership to descendants in January 2025, and on the other hand, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation did so in February 2026. The physical repatriation has not yet been carried out due to the lack of permission from the Tanzanian government.
Progress for Cameroon?
Until recently, the government in Cameroon, too, had blocked any repatriation of human remains and cultural belongings. The ‘first wave’ of restitution of cultural heritage, agreed for September 2025, had to be suspended because the Cameroonian side failed to provide the list of requested ‘objects’. However, there are now signs of a shift in Cameroon’s position. In April 2026, Culture Minister Bidoung Mkpatt contacted Baden-Württemberg’s Minister for Science, Petra Olschowski, and announced a visit by the state restitution committee to Freiburg. This concerns the repatriation of the remains of ancestors of the Maka community, which are held in the university’s anatomical collection there. According to reports, the handover could now take place on site in mid-July 2026.
It remains unclear why the Cameroonian government is only allowing for the Maka remains, ignoring the numerous restitution requests from other communities. One example is the stolen mother goddess Ngonnso of the Nso people, the return of which the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation had already decided upon in June 2022.
According to a report by the Cameroonian portal Culturebene, the country’s Minister of Culture has announced the drafting of a „framework document“. The guidelines are intended to serve as a legal and diplomatic model for all other communities in Cameroon wishing to claim their heritage or ancestors still held abroad.
Cultural belongings
The list of culturally appropriated artefacts is even shorter than that of ancestral remains. With regard to the former German colonies, three countries are identified: Namibia (including the Bible and whip of Hendrik Witbooi, 23 cultural belongings from the holdings of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), Nigeria (transfer of ownership of over 850 Benin bronzes) and Samoa (boat stem).
The German Government’s list thus confirms the figures provided by the German Colonial Restitution Monitor, according to which only a negligible number of cultural objects acquired during the colonial era have been returned to date. However, the Monitor also includes cases where the relevant German authorities have made a binding restitution decision, but the physical return has not yet taken place.
Contrary to earlier statements by Weimer, the response makes it clear that “cultural and collection items from colonial contexts” are not the subject of the proposed German restitution law.
The government’s document states that in 2026, 600,000 euros will be available in the Weimer budget for “significant restitution processes at the intergovernmental level”. Exactly what the money is to be used for and what funding is planned for the coming years remains unclear. It seems likely that this primarily concerns the Benin Bronzes, the transfer of ownership of which to Nigeria took place some time ago.
Provenance research
An important tool for coming to terms with Germany’s colonial history is provenance research into the holdings of cultural institutions. The main funding body for this is the German Lost Art Foundation, which has approved a total of around 2.8 million euros for twelve research projects on cultural and collection holdings from colonial contexts in the year 2025. As the Federal Government did not wish to commit to a specific funding level for future support measures in its response, there is a risk that the current level of funding may be jeopardised in the face of growing budgetary constraints.
However, the response is unequivocal regarding the „Franco-German Fund for Provenance Research on Cultural Assets from Sub-Saharan Africa“, established in 2024. This will not be continued from 2027 onwards.
“Dignified memorial site”
The response remains vague regarding the “dignified memorial site” on colonialism included in the Black-Red coalition agreement. It is to be established at a location of historical significance in terms of colonial history. Other decisive factors for the selection are said to include meaningful integration into the existing museum landscape and a vibrant local civil society. So far, no information is available regarding the announced dialogues with German and international representatives from civil society or academia. Concrete results of the selection process for the memorial site are to be presented in autumn as part of Weimer’s colonial history concept.
Awet Tesfaiesus, cultural policy spokesperson for the Greens in the Bundestag, points out in the Berlin-based Tagesspiegel that the Federal Government’s draft budget for 2027 serves as a barometer for the seriousness of the measures announced by Weimer. The cabinet is expected to approve this in July 2026, thus ahead of the presentation of the new remembrance concept planned for autumn 2026. However, during the deliberations on the 2027 budget, the Bundestag is free to allocate funding for the memorial site.
Memorial sites in former colonies
The response provides specific figures for support of colonial memorial sites in former German colonies, so far exclusively in Namibia. The restoration of the Old Fort in Windhoek will be funded with a total of 210,000 euros in 2025 and 2026. The structural preservation of the Herero and Nama mass graves in Swakopmund will be supported with around 40,000 euros over the same period. The document makes no mention of the Federal Foreign Office’s planned involvement in the creation of a memorial site in Burundi through the renovation of a former colonial building in Gitega.
Expert network
In October 2025, the Federal Government, the Länder and local authority associations adopted an important agreement for colonial contexts (“Joint Guidelines”). The “Coordination Council for the Return of Cultural Property and Human Remains”, acting as the central point of contact at government level, was established at the end of March 2026. Its secretariat is provided by the Federal Foreign Office; the chair is Minister of State Serap Güler.
The interdisciplinary and international network of experts planned in parallel is still pending. A concept for this is to be presented in early 2027.
A meagre record
The government’s response offers little hope of imminent progress in coming to terms with German colonialism. On the contrary, there is reason to fear that commitment to this cause will be further eroded. In the current critical phase, it is crucial that German society and the former German colonies demand a reversal of the negative trend. The state restitution committees in Cameroon, Tanzania and Togo could also use diplomatic channels to advocate for greater efforts on the German side.