The first African to study at a European university was Anton Wilhelm Amo. He was brought to Germany from Ghana in the early 1700s where he gained a doctorate in philosophy.

During the ‘Scramble for Africa’ in the 19th century, Germany colonised several African countries, including modern-day Namibia, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Togo, and Cameroon.

Pioneered by the German merchant Carl Hagenbeck, Germany hosted several ‘human zoos’, where families from Africa and Asia were put on display for European customers.

Following the First World War, African soldiers fighting for the French temporarily occupied the Rhineland. Several had biracial children with German women. Under the Nazis’ racial purity laws, many Afro-Germans were sterilized or sent to concentration camps. 

Activists such as May Ayim and organisations such as the Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland have done much to advocate for the needs of the Afro-German community. Black History Month was established in Germany in 1990.