Abstract

In interwar Germany, the recovery of the colonial possessions lost under the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 remained an important political objective for colonial revisionists. Heinrich Schnee, the last governor of German East Africa, emerged as one of the movement's leading figures. This article examines the range of activities through which Schnee sought to restore Germany's standing as a colonial power and secure the return of its former overseas territories. Its scholarly contribution lies in considering Schnee's role across both the Weimar and Nazi periods, a subject that has received limited attention in Russian historiography. During the 1920s, Schnee developed and vigorously promoted the claim that Germany must combat the so-called "colonial lie" — accusations of incompetence and brutality in German colonial rule that, in his view, had been used by the victorious powers to justify depriving Germany of its overseas possessions. He pursued this campaign through a wide range of channels, including political journalism and books published in several foreign languages, speeches in the Reichstag, leadership of influential colonial organizations such as the German Colonial Society, and the cultivation of ties with prominent political figures, among them Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann. The findings suggest that Schnee's extensive public and organizational activities helped keep the colonial question on the political agenda of the Weimar Republic. His rhetoric also contributed, to some extent, to undermining the legitimacy of the democratic order and to the broader radicalization of public opinion. After the Nazi seizure of power, however, his political influence declined sharply. Despite joining the NSDAP and openly demonstrating his loyalty to the new regime, Schnee found himself increasingly sidelined. The Nazi leadership shifted its foreign-policy priorities toward the acquisition of Lebensraum in Eastern Europe, while control over the colonial movement passed increasingly into the hands of party organizations. Schnee's career thus reflects the broader evolution of German colonial revisionism in the interwar period. Having contributed to the delegitimization of Weimar democracy, the movement was ultimately pushed to the margins under the Third Reich, as its aims increasingly diverged from the regime's wider geopolitical priorities.