Memorial plaque for Africa Conference stolen in Berlin
By Joachim Zeller
Since 2005, a memorial commemorating the Africa Conference of 1884/85 had stood on Wilhelmstraße in Berlin. At the beginning of January this year (2026), the steel memorial disappeared without a trace. The Afrika-Forum e.V. association, which donated the memorial, filed a criminal complaint against persons unknown for theft and damage to property. It is unclear what the perpetrators‘ motives were. Were metal thieves at work?
Political motives?
Political motives are more likely. No dismantling was ordered by the Berlin-Mitte District Office, Road Construction Department. It also remains unclear whether there is a connection with the termination of the business premises that previously housed the employees of the ‘Dekoloniale’ project. They are located directly behind the former location of the monument. The rooms on the ground floor are still empty. The green strip on which the memorial stood and the property belong to a private owner.
New installation planned
The Afrika-Forum e.V. association is now trying to clarify the whereabouts of the memorial stele. The memorial is to be re-erected as soon as possible in order to close the „painful gap in the public memory“ of the city, as Victor Dzidzonou from the association’s board stated in a press release. The memorial plaque was a place of education and encounter for school classes, students and international delegations. Every year, the „Memorial March in Remembrance of the African/Black Victims of Slavery, the Slave Trade, Colonialism and Racist Violence“,
organised by diasporic groups, started here.
Memorial to the Africa Conference
The memorial commemorates one of the central events in European colonial history, the infamous Congo Conference, which took place from November 1884 to February 1885. It was hosted by Imperial Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who invited representatives of the European colonial powers, the USA and the Ottoman Empire to the imperial capital Berlin.
The ostensible purpose was the colonial „development“ of Central Africa. For this reason, the diplomatic meeting was initially known as the Congo or West Africa Conference, but today the name Africa Conference has become established. This is because it concerned almost the entire 30 million square kilometre continent, on which the colonial powers staked their power and economic interests.
The memorial stele was erected at Wilhelmstraße 92, on the site of the former Reich Chancellor’s Palace, where the conference participants held their first meeting. The remaining meetings of the conference were held in the Rotes Rathaus (Red Town Hall).
Resistance to European rule
The contractual agreement on the mutual recognition of colonial possessions, known as effective occupation, marked the start of the „scramble for Africa“. The myth that colonial borders were drawn in Berlin is outdated. The final act did not specify any geographical details of the division. In this sense, the Berlin Africa Conference was merely one stage in the process of dividing Africa, which was already in progress.
It is also wrong to imagine that predatory colonial powers were confronted with a passive Africa. On the contrary, in the years following the Berlin Conference, the people of Africa used military resistance, diplomatic triangulation, adaptation and cooperation to counter the growing influence of the Europeans.
Today, Africans regard the Berlin Conference as a symbol of colonial rule and the exploitation of their continent.
Memorial stele to the Africa Conference of 1884/85, Berlin, Wilhelmstraße 92 (photo: Joachim Zeller)
Victor Dzidzonou, Chairman of the Africa Forum e.V., at the memorial stele of the 1884/85 Africa Conference, Berlin, Wilhelmstraße 92 (Photo: Joachim Zeller)
