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Namibia Genocide Debate in the Bundestag: What Does Germany Owe?

As OvaHerero and Nama representatives watched, the Bundestag debated Germany's responsibility for the genocide in Namibia. The AfD called it a “cult of guilt”; the CDU rejected reparations.

Namibia Genocide Debate in the Bundestag: What Does Germany Owe?
Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On Wednesday, the Bundestag debated two opposition motions – one tabled by Die Linke, the other by the Greens – on Germany’s historical responsibility for the genocide of the OvaHerero and Nama peoples in what is now Namibia, often described as the first genocide of the 20th century.