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To untrained eyes, they are indecipherable. Now, artificial intelligence can help researchers."/><meta data-rh="true" name="robots" content="max-snippet:-1, max-video-preview:-1, max-image-preview:large"/><meta data-rh="true" property="og:site_name" content="dw.com"/><meta data-rh="true" property="og:title" content="AI meets colonialism: Germany develops new research tool – DW – 08/12/2024"/><meta data-rh="true" property="og:url" content="https://www.dw.com/en/ai-meets-colonialism-germany-develops-new-research-tool-to-address-history/a-69888530"/><meta data-rh="true" property="og:description" content="Germany's Federal Archives own an important collection of documents from the colonial era. To untrained eyes, they are indecipherable. 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id="dw_w_article_premium" class="gpt-slot"></div></div><div class="c8dev6m container-fluid"><div id="main-content" class="s4wvt8f"></div><section class="row"><div class="detail-zone col"><article class="sk6xmai"><div class="content-area sa7l9jt s9mg977"><header class="sgeegmk"><div data-tracking-name="content-detail-kicker" class="kicker s1wafcin s1tby7rj icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><span><a href="/en/culture/s-1441" tabindex="0" class="l1amv4u6 btl76l3 e1eo633p wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">Culture</a></span><span><a href="/en/germany/s-1432" tabindex="0" class="l1amv4u6 btl76l3 e1eo633p wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">Germany</a></span></div><h1 class="saqvxdf hr9hvkd hb7nbxk seipclg b1ho1h07">AI meets colonialism: Germany develops new research tool</h1><div class="author-details s9wq4ao"><span><a href="/en/elizabeth-grenier/person-35889143" class="author su3s3ra author-link l1amv4u6 btl76l3 e1eo633p wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">Elizabeth Grenier</a></span></div><span class="time-area s1i8qhb9 icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><span class="publication icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><time aria-hidden="true">08/12/2024</time><span class="sr-only s28j2rd">August 12, 2024</span></span></span><p class="teaser-text s1811lbz t1qen3t4 m1km9ap7 wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">Germany's Federal Archives own an important collection of documents from the colonial era. To untrained eyes, they are indecipherable. 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srcset="https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_800.webp 50w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_801.webp 129w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_802.webp 352w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_803.webp 575w" media="(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 575px)" height="100" width="100"/><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_600.webp 78w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_601.webp 201w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_602.webp 379w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_603.webp 545w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_604.webp 767w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_605.webp 1199w" media="(min-width: 576px) and (max-width: 991px)" height="56.25" width="100"/><source type="image/webp" srcset="https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_1000.webp 80w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_1001.webp 576w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_1002.webp 768w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_1003.webp 992w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_1004.webp 1200w" media="(min-width: 992px) " height="43.75" width="100"/><source type="image/jpeg" srcset="https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_800.jpg 50w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_801.jpg 129w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_802.jpg 352w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_803.jpg 575w" media="(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 575px)" height="100" width="100"/><source type="image/jpeg" srcset="https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_600.jpg 78w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_601.jpg 201w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_602.jpg 379w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_603.jpg 545w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_604.jpg 767w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_605.jpg 1199w" media="(min-width: 576px) and (max-width: 991px)" height="56.25" width="100"/><source type="image/jpeg" srcset="https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_1000.jpg 80w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_1001.jpg 576w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_1002.jpg 768w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_1003.jpg 992w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_1004.jpg 1200w" media="(min-width: 992px) " height="43.75" width="100"/><img fetchpriority="high" src srcset="https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_600.jpg 78w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_601.jpg 201w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_602.jpg 379w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_603.jpg 545w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_604.jpg 767w, https://static.dw.com/image/69897722_605.jpg 1199w" width="100" height="56.25" title="A old postcard showing people posing next to a railway, around the photo is a handwritten note in Kurrent." alt="A old postcard showing people posing next to a railway, around the photo is a handwritten note in Kurrent."/></picture><figcaption class="c1oedowi t1b9cajp r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">A postcard from Cameroon, which was an African colony of the German Empire in the region of today's Cameroon<small class="copyright c19ed66t ihwmx5 iz19q57 icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">Image: akg-images/picture alliance</small></figcaption></figure><span></span><div class="a1amioo0 cl16rh cl16rh rdrhdio hh5424a advertisement"><span class="label-top icns9en ixvat6c bmcvy6l wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">Advertisement</span><div id="dw_m_article_top" class="gpt-slot"></div><div id="dw_t_article_top" class="gpt-slot"></div><div id="dw_d_article_top" class="gpt-slot"></div></div><div class="cc0m0op s1ebneao rich-text t1it8i9i r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><p>Anyone aiming to do serious research into Germany's pre-WWII archives needs a particular skill: They should be able to read forms of handwriting that have since completely disappeared from everyday use in the German language.</p> <p>There is Kurrent, a form of cursive writing that developed in the late medieval era, as well as different variant forms, most notably the short-lived Sütterlin. This cursive script was developed in 1911 and taught in German schools from 1915 to 1941, until it was banned by the Nazis. Afterwards, schoolchildren rather learned a handwriting similar to present-day English cursive.</p> <p>Even though German speakers who grew up with Sütterlin continued to use it well into the post-war period, most Germans cannot read the letters written by their grandparents.</p> <p>But now, an AI program can do just that.</p> <p>A new tool has been developed by the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) to help decode the different types of writing that can be found in documents from the <a class="internal-link" href="/en/german-colonialism/t-67289655">colonial era</a>.</p><figure class="placeholder-image master_landscape big"><img data-format="MASTER_LANDSCAPE" data-id="69897792" data-url="https://static.dw.com/image/69897792_${formatId}.jpg" data-aspect-ratio="16/9" alt="A postcard showing a black-and-white photo of traditional African huts, covered with a handwritten note in Kurrent." style="padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; max-height: 0;"><figcaption class="img-caption">It would be difficult for most Germans to decode the Kurrent handwriting on this postcard from 1903<small class="copyright">Image: akg-images/picture alliance</small></figcaption></figure> <h2>Important collection that must still be worked through</h2> <p>Documents from this era in particular were interesting for such a project, since the German Federal Archives own a collection of around 10,000 files from the Reich Colonial Office, which was the central authority for the German Empire's colonial policy.</p><span data-slot-id="Article_InContent-1" class="rich-text-ad"></span> <p>They "were selected because a major part of them were handwritten," the archives' press spokesperson, Elmar Kramer, told DW. This collection was also selected for the pilot program because the files from the Reich Colonial Office have already been fully digitized and are no longer subject to any user restrictions, explains project manager Inger Banse.</p> <p>But most importantly, as she points out, "coming to terms with the colonial era is a <a class="internal-link" href="/en/how-seriously-is-germany-taking-its-colonial-history/a-57340809">focus</a> of our entire society, and we can make a good contribution to this with this collection."</p> <p>"For too long, the crimes of the German colonial era have been a blind spot in our culture of remembrance," said German Commissioner for Culture and Media, Claudia Roth, welcoming the Federal Archives' project of using specially developed AI technology "to help strengthen knowledge about this dark chapter of German history. In doing so, it is making an important contribution to coming to terms with the past."</p><figure class="placeholder-image master_landscape big"><img data-format="MASTER_LANDSCAPE" data-id="68237601" data-url="https://static.dw.com/image/68237601_${formatId}.jpg" data-aspect-ratio="16/9" alt="A black-and-white photo showing Africans digging for white colonialists." style="padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; max-height: 0;"><figcaption class="img-caption">The local population being forced to work for colonialists in German East Africa (present-day Burundi, Rwanda and mainland Tanzania)<small class="copyright">Image: akg-images/picture alliance </small></figcaption></figure> <h2>First genocide of the 20th century</h2> <p>Colonization by the German Empire began at the end of the 19th century and focused mainly on taking possession of territories and establishing colonies in Africa, the South Seas and China.</p> <p>Germany's colonial empire only lasted 30 years — from 1884 until the end of the First World War — but shortly after it was established, it became the third-largest colonial empire after the United Kingdom and France. And its colonial rule was particularly brutal.</p> <p>Documented in the <a rel="noopener nofollow" target="_blank" class="external-link" href="https://www.bundesarchiv.de/DE/Content/Publikationen/Im-Fokus/im-fokus_kolonialismus.pdf?__blob=publicationFile" title="External link — Federal Archives' collection">Federal Archives' collection<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 20 20"><path d="M11.5 3.5 11.5 4.233C14.342 4.233 15.167 4.245 15.167 4.258L8.984 10.467 10.033 11.516C14.826 6.725 16.228 5.333 16.242 5.333L16.267 9 17.733 9 17.733 2.767 11.5 2.767 11.5 3.5M2.267 11 2.267 17.233 16.733 17.233 16.733 12 15.267 12 15.25 15.75 9.5 15.75 3.75 15.75 3.75 6.25 9.5 6.233 9.5 4.767 2.267 4.767 2.267 11 " /></svg></a>are dark chapters that include the Sokehs rebellion from 1910/1911 that started on Sokehs Island off the main island of Pohnpei in the Eastern Caroline Islands, presently the Federated States of Micronesia. As a consequence, the German colonial rulers applied a scorched-earth policy to hunt down the rebels and had the tribe deported from their own island in the South Seas.</p> <p>Another prominent case of colonial injustice is how King <a class="internal-link" href="/en/rudolf-douala-manga-bell-cameroons-king-who-stood-up-against-german-oppression/a-56976134">Rudolf Douala Manga Bell</a> and Adolf Ngoso Din were executed in 1914 for peacefully campaigning against the German colonial administration's measures to remove and relocate the Douala people from their homes in the littoral and southwest region of Cameroon.</p> <p>Most infamously, it was responsible for the Herero and Nama genocide, known as the first genocide of the 20th century. It took place from 1904 to 1908, after the Herero and the Nama people rebelled against their German colonial rulers. </p> <p>It was only in 2021 that Germany <a class="internal-link" href="/en/germany-officially-recognizes-colonial-era-namibia-genocide/a-57671070">officially acknowledged committing genocide</a> during its colonial occupation of present-day Namibia.</p><figure class="placeholder-image master_portrait big"><img data-format="MASTER_PORTRAIT" data-id="68238061" data-url="https://static.dw.com/image/68238061_${formatId}.jpg" data-aspect-ratio="3/4" alt="Ancient illustration from Germany's colonial era: Men in uniform putting skulls in a box." style="padding-bottom: 133.33%; height: 0; max-height: 0;"><figcaption class="img-caption">This image shows the skulls of the Hereros being packed and sent to the Pathological Institute in Berlin<small class="copyright">Image: akg-images/picture alliance </small></figcaption></figure> <h2>Early adopters of AI</h2> <p>That same year, the Federal Archives started developing an AI tool to make their colonial-era records more accessible. That was before the so-called new AI era began, when ChatGPT and other large language models were publicly released, turning artificial intelligence into an omnipresent topic of discussion.</p> <p>"We find it important to always be part of the latest developments," explains Elmar Kramer, about the Federal Archives' pioneering role in the domain. "That's why AI has been a topic of interest for us for a few years already. In this case, we can say that we are now bringing together one of our oldest holdings and one of the newest technologies, if you will: AI meets colonialism."</p> <p>One needs to keep in mind that the AI not only needs to be able to decode Sütterlin, but also sometimes "quite sloppy, scribbled writing," points out Kramer. And beyond "the different handwriting in general, we also have printed and typewritten material. There is a lot of crossing out, but there are also very clean pages," adds Inger Banse, which is why they separated the documents in three different categories, according to the complexity of the material on the page.</p> <figure class="placeholder-image master_landscape big"><img data-format="MASTER_LANDSCAPE" data-id="69889682" data-url="https://static.dw.com/image/69889682_${formatId}.jpg" data-aspect-ratio="16/9" alt="Screenshot of a computer program showing on the right hand a handwritten document and the transcription on the other side." style="padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; max-height: 0;"><figcaption class="img-caption">An example of a document written in Sütterlin and transcribed by the AI tool developed by the Federal Archives<small class="copyright">Image: BArch/R 1001/5573/Image165/Bundesarchiv</small></figcaption></figure><p>"We looked at how the model behaves in these different categories," explains Banse. They trained the model by manually checking and improving, line by line, the AI's transcription results of about 170 pages of varied material. </p> <p>Banse says that they have now reached a point where the AI model provides an acceptable rate of accuracy in its transcriptions of even the most complex material.</p> <p>Achieving perfection in the transcriptions would have required a disproportional time investment, says Banse, quoting the Pareto principle according to which the hardest 20% of the optimization process requires 80% of the efforts. "So at some point, we had to draw the line," she explains. Instead, they rather developed a more lenient search engine that allows a broader range of results to be obtained. </p> <p>And now that the Federal Archives' AI model has been trained to decode Kurrent, it opens a whole field of possibilities for other German-language archives. At the moment, however, it is still a pilot project specifically designed for this collection. It can be consulted on site, in the archives' research hall in Berlin-Lichterfelde, and it will soon be made available online.</p> <p><em>Edited by: Brenda Haas</em></p> <div data-vendor-cmp-id="c44391" data-lang-code="en" data-id="65658236" class="embed dw-widget"></div> </div><footer class="s1jc41xr"><div class="s69pihz row"><div class="col col-12 col-xl-6 one-author author su8j2ma"><a href="/en/elizabeth-grenier/person-35889143" title="Elizabeth Grenier" tabindex="-1" class="author-image s1qbhnaq b1ho1h07"><figure style="--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-xs:1;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-sm:1;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-md:1;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-lg:1;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-xl:1;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-wide_xl:1;" class="srnoiv7 s1a75hd4 lazy-load-container"><img src aria-hidden="true" alt="Portrait of a young woman with red hair and glasses" class="lq-img"/><img src alt="Portrait of a young woman with red hair and glasses" title="Portrait 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href="/en/the-20th-centurys-first-genocide-in-namibia/video-68455778" title="The 20th century's first genocide in Namibia " tabindex="-1" class="teaser-image b1ho1h07"><figure style="--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-xs:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-sm:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-md:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-lg:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-xl:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-wide_xl:1.7777777777777777;" class="external-image skn0ibm"><img src alt="external"/></figure></a><div class="teaser-data-xs-sm"><h3 aria-hidden="false" class="title-xs-sm sf4wccd title"><a href="/en/the-20th-centurys-first-genocide-in-namibia/video-68455778" tabindex="0" aria-label="Video — The 20th century's first genocide in Namibia " class="lap31d1 l1amv4u6 btl76l3 e1eo633p wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 20 20" class="msqjlax snsfknj"><g fill-rule="evenodd"><path d="M14.114 7.599H13.5l.002 4.706h.601l4.582 3.25-.005-11.11zM11.084 4.444l-9.007.002-1.336.797.002 9.514 1.334.793 9.007.006 1.509-.799-.004-9.516z"></path></g></svg>The 20th century's first genocide in Namibia </a></h3></div></div><div class="teaser-data-wrap col-12"><div class="teaser-data"><h3 aria-hidden="false" class="title-above-md sf4wccd title"><a href="/en/the-20th-centurys-first-genocide-in-namibia/video-68455778" tabindex="0" aria-label="Video — The 20th century's first genocide in Namibia " class="lap31d1 l1amv4u6 btl76l3 e1eo633p wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 20 20" class="msqjlax snsfknj"><g fill-rule="evenodd"><path d="M14.114 7.599H13.5l.002 4.706h.601l4.582 3.25-.005-11.11zM11.084 4.444l-9.007.002-1.336.797.002 9.514 1.334.793 9.007.006 1.509-.799-.004-9.516z"></path></g></svg>The 20th century's first genocide in Namibia </a></h3><div class="d-none d-md-block s6kxfng teaser-description t1it8i9i r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><a href="/en/the-20th-centurys-first-genocide-in-namibia/video-68455778" tabindex="-1" class="l1j5qt2f b1ho1h07">The German Schutztruppe in colonial South West Africa went from fighting OvaHerero and Nama warriors to causing the 20th century’s first genocide. </a></div></div><div class="s16l2fqg teaser-footer-wrapper s1teu0c4"><span class="kicker icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">History</span><span class="date-time icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><time aria-hidden="true">03/14/2024</time><span class="sr-only s28j2rd">March 14, 2024</span></span><span class="icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">01:34 min</span></div></div></div></div><div class="teaser-wrap col-12 col-md-6 col-lg-4"><div class="row s1b19e59 teaser"><div class="teaser-image-wrap col-12"><a href="/en/rudolf-douala-manga-bell-cameroons-king-who-stood-up-against-german-oppression/video-57386461" title="Rudolf Douala Manga Bell: Cameroon's king who stood up against German oppression" tabindex="-1" class="teaser-image b1ho1h07"><figure style="--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-xs:1;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-sm:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-md:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-lg:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-xl:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-wide_xl:1.7777777777777777;" class="srnoiv7 s1a75hd4 lazy-load-container"><img src aria-hidden="true" alt="Zeichnung African-Roots-Beitrag" class="lq-img"/><img src alt="Zeichnung African-Roots-Beitrag" title="Zeichnung African-Roots-Beitrag" class="hq-img"/></figure></a><div class="teaser-data-xs-sm"><h3 aria-hidden="false" class="title-xs-sm sf4wccd title"><a href="/en/rudolf-douala-manga-bell-cameroons-king-who-stood-up-against-german-oppression/video-57386461" tabindex="0" aria-label="Video — Rudolf Douala Manga Bell: Cameroon's king who stood up against German oppression" class="lap31d1 l1amv4u6 btl76l3 e1eo633p wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 20 20" class="msqjlax snsfknj"><g fill-rule="evenodd"><path d="M14.114 7.599H13.5l.002 4.706h.601l4.582 3.25-.005-11.11zM11.084 4.444l-9.007.002-1.336.797.002 9.514 1.334.793 9.007.006 1.509-.799-.004-9.516z"></path></g></svg>Rudolf Douala Manga Bell: Cameroon's king who stood up against German oppression</a></h3></div></div><div class="teaser-data-wrap col-12"><div class="teaser-data"><h3 aria-hidden="false" class="title-above-md sf4wccd title"><a href="/en/rudolf-douala-manga-bell-cameroons-king-who-stood-up-against-german-oppression/video-57386461" tabindex="0" aria-label="Video — Rudolf Douala Manga Bell: Cameroon's king who stood up against German oppression" class="lap31d1 l1amv4u6 btl76l3 e1eo633p wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 20 20" class="msqjlax snsfknj"><g fill-rule="evenodd"><path d="M14.114 7.599H13.5l.002 4.706h.601l4.582 3.25-.005-11.11zM11.084 4.444l-9.007.002-1.336.797.002 9.514 1.334.793 9.007.006 1.509-.799-.004-9.516z"></path></g></svg>Rudolf Douala Manga Bell: Cameroon's king who stood up against German oppression</a></h3><div class="d-none d-md-block s6kxfng teaser-description t1it8i9i r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><a href="/en/rudolf-douala-manga-bell-cameroons-king-who-stood-up-against-german-oppression/video-57386461" tabindex="-1" class="l1j5qt2f b1ho1h07">Born a prince and educated in Germany, King Rudolf Douala Manga Bell was passionate about German culture. When German colonists shortchanged his people, he protested. In the end, German colonial rulers hung him for his act of resistance.</a></div></div><div class="s16l2fqg teaser-footer-wrapper s1teu0c4"><span class="kicker icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">History</span><span class="date-time icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><time aria-hidden="true">05/08/2021</time><span class="sr-only s28j2rd">May 8, 2021</span></span><span class="icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">02:35 min</span></div></div></div></div><div class="teaser-wrap col-12 col-md-6 col-lg-4"><div class="row s1b19e59 teaser"><div class="teaser-image-wrap col-12"><a href="/en/exporting-colonialism-the-woermann-company/video-67771805" title="Exporting colonialism: The Woermann Company" tabindex="-1" class="teaser-image b1ho1h07"><figure style="--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-xs:1;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-sm:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-md:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-lg:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-xl:1.7777777777777777;--responsive-picture-aspect-ratio-wide_xl:1.7777777777777777;" class="external-image skn0ibm"><img src alt="external"/></figure></a><div class="teaser-data-xs-sm"><h3 aria-hidden="false" class="title-xs-sm sf4wccd title"><a href="/en/exporting-colonialism-the-woermann-company/video-67771805" tabindex="0" aria-label="Video — Exporting colonialism: The Woermann Company" class="lap31d1 l1amv4u6 btl76l3 e1eo633p wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 20 20" class="msqjlax snsfknj"><g fill-rule="evenodd"><path d="M14.114 7.599H13.5l.002 4.706h.601l4.582 3.25-.005-11.11zM11.084 4.444l-9.007.002-1.336.797.002 9.514 1.334.793 9.007.006 1.509-.799-.004-9.516z"></path></g></svg>Exporting colonialism: The Woermann Company</a></h3></div></div><div class="teaser-data-wrap col-12"><div class="teaser-data"><h3 aria-hidden="false" class="title-above-md sf4wccd title"><a href="/en/exporting-colonialism-the-woermann-company/video-67771805" tabindex="0" aria-label="Video — Exporting colonialism: The Woermann Company" class="lap31d1 l1amv4u6 btl76l3 e1eo633p wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 20 20" class="msqjlax snsfknj"><g fill-rule="evenodd"><path d="M14.114 7.599H13.5l.002 4.706h.601l4.582 3.25-.005-11.11zM11.084 4.444l-9.007.002-1.336.797.002 9.514 1.334.793 9.007.006 1.509-.799-.004-9.516z"></path></g></svg>Exporting colonialism: The Woermann Company</a></h3><div class="d-none d-md-block s6kxfng teaser-description t1it8i9i r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><a href="/en/exporting-colonialism-the-woermann-company/video-67771805" tabindex="-1" class="l1j5qt2f b1ho1h07">Adolph Woermann's company went from being a shipping firm to an unofficial instrument of German colonization. We explore how a Hamburg merchant grew rich in West Africa and transported the troops that subjugated the OvaHerero and Nama people in Namibia. </a></div></div><div class="s16l2fqg teaser-footer-wrapper s1teu0c4"><span class="kicker icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">History</span><span class="date-time icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07"><time aria-hidden="true">02/06/2024</time><span class="sr-only s28j2rd">February 6, 2024</span></span><span class="icns9en t14k9lqz r1wgtjne wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">01:26 min</span></div></div></div></div></div><div class="sp605kw center"><div role="button" tabindex="0" data-tracking-name="show-more" class="toggle-more-button s1va3u11 s1y9040i m7i2pic e3w9kkf b19vsmfu sx4rgdt ih9bob8 seipclg wgx1hx2 b1ho1h07">Show more stories<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" viewBox="0 0 25 25" class="more-icon sm4r907 down s4hgb6m"><path d="m22.5 8.75-10 7.5-10-7.5" stroke="#002D5A" stroke-width="1.875" 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Now, artificial intelligence can help researchers.","priority":"HIGH","contentDate":"2024-08-12T07:59:25.438Z","localizedContentDateSr":"August 12, 2024","localizedFirstPublicationDate":"08/12/2024","localizedFirstPublicationDateSr":"August 12, 2024","contentDateMode":"LAST_PUBLICATION_DATE","personAssociations":[{"targetId":35889143,"__typename":"ContentAssociation"}],"legacyAuthor":"","thematicFocusCategory":{"name":"Culture","correspondingContent":{"namedUrl":"/en/culture/s-1441","__typename":"Navigation"},"__typename":"Category"},"firstRegionArray":[{"alignedName":"Germany","correspondingContent":{"namedUrl":"/en/germany/s-1432","__typename":"Navigation"},"__typename":"GeographicRegion"}],"kicker":"","isOpinion":false,"firstPersonArray":[{"personType":"AUTHOR","namedUrl":"/en/elizabeth-grenier/person-35889143","fullName":"Elizabeth Grenier","autoDelivery":1,"mainContentImageLink":{"targetId":42724399,"additionalInformation":"Portrait of a young woman with red hair and glasses","target":{"id":42724399,"staticUrl":"https://static.dw.com/image/42724399_${formatId}.jpg","__typename":"Image"},"__typename":"ContentLink"},"__typename":"Person"}],"genre":"NONE","opinionSeries":[],"text":"\u003cp>Anyone aiming to do serious research into Germany's pre-WWII archives needs a particular skill: They should be able to read forms of handwriting that have since completely disappeared from everyday use in the German language.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>There is Kurrent, a form of cursive writing that developed in the late medieval era, as well as different variant forms, most notably the short-lived Sütterlin. This cursive script was developed in 1911 and taught in German schools from 1915 to 1941, until it was banned by the Nazis. Afterwards, schoolchildren rather learned a handwriting similar to present-day English cursive.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>Even though German speakers who grew up with Sütterlin continued to use it well into the post-war period, most Germans cannot read the letters written by their grandparents.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>But now, an AI program can do just that.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>A new tool has been developed by the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) to help decode the different types of writing that can be found in documents from the \u003ca class=\"internal-link\" href=\"/en/german-colonialism/t-67289655\">colonial era\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003cfigure class=\"placeholder-image master_landscape big\">\u003cimg data-format=\"MASTER_LANDSCAPE\" data-id=\"69897792\" data-url=\"https://static.dw.com/image/69897792_${formatId}.jpg\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16/9\" alt=\"A postcard showing a black-and-white photo of traditional African huts, covered with a handwritten note in Kurrent.\" style=\"padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; max-height: 0;\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"img-caption\">It would be difficult for most Germans to decode the Kurrent handwriting on this postcard from 1903\u003csmall class=\"copyright\">Image: akg-images/picture alliance\u003c/small>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\u003ch2>Important collection that must still be worked through\u003c/h2>\n\n\u003cp>Documents from this era in particular were interesting for such a project, since the German Federal Archives own a collection of around 10,000 files from the Reich Colonial Office, which was the central authority for the German Empire's colonial policy.\u003c/p>\u003cspan data-slot-id=\"Article_InContent-1\" class=\"rich-text-ad\">\u003c/span>\n\n\u003cp>They \"were selected because a major part of them were handwritten,\" the archives' press spokesperson, Elmar Kramer, told DW. This collection was also selected for the pilot program because the files from the Reich Colonial Office have already been fully digitized and are no longer subject to any user restrictions, explains project manager Inger Banse.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>But most importantly, as she points out, \"coming to terms with the colonial era is a \u003ca class=\"internal-link\" href=\"/en/how-seriously-is-germany-taking-its-colonial-history/a-57340809\">focus\u003c/a> of our entire society, and we can make a good contribution to this with this collection.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>\"For too long, the crimes of the German colonial era have been a blind spot in our culture of remembrance,\" said German Commissioner for Culture and Media, Claudia Roth, welcoming the Federal Archives' project of using specially developed AI technology \"to help strengthen knowledge about this dark chapter of German history. In doing so, it is making an important contribution to coming to terms with the past.\"\u003c/p>\u003cfigure class=\"placeholder-image master_landscape big\">\u003cimg data-format=\"MASTER_LANDSCAPE\" data-id=\"68237601\" data-url=\"https://static.dw.com/image/68237601_${formatId}.jpg\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16/9\" alt=\"A black-and-white photo showing Africans digging for white colonialists.\" style=\"padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; max-height: 0;\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"img-caption\">The local population being forced to work for colonialists in German East Africa (present-day Burundi, Rwanda and mainland Tanzania)\u003csmall class=\"copyright\">Image: akg-images/picture alliance \u003c/small>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\u003ch2>First genocide of the 20th century\u003c/h2>\n\n\u003cp>Colonization by the German Empire began at the end of the 19th century and focused mainly on taking possession of territories and establishing colonies in Africa, the South Seas and China.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>Germany's colonial empire only lasted 30 years — from 1884 until the end of the First World War — but shortly after it was established, it became the third-largest colonial empire after the United Kingdom and France. And its colonial rule was particularly brutal.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>Documented in the \u003ca rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"external-link\" href=\"https://www.bundesarchiv.de/DE/Content/Publikationen/Im-Fokus/im-fokus_kolonialismus.pdf?__blob=publicationFile\" title=\"External link — Federal Archives' collection\">Federal Archives' collection\u003csvg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" viewBox=\"0 0 20 20\">\u003cpath d=\"M11.5 3.5 11.5 4.233C14.342 4.233 15.167 4.245 15.167 4.258L8.984 10.467 10.033 11.516C14.826 6.725 16.228 5.333 16.242 5.333L16.267 9 17.733 9 17.733 2.767 11.5 2.767 11.5 3.5M2.267 11 2.267 17.233 16.733 17.233 16.733 12 15.267 12 15.25 15.75 9.5 15.75 3.75 15.75 3.75 6.25 9.5 6.233 9.5 4.767 2.267 4.767 2.267 11 \" />\u003c/svg>\u003c/a>are dark chapters that include the Sokehs rebellion from 1910/1911 that started on Sokehs Island off the main island of Pohnpei in the Eastern Caroline Islands, presently the Federated States of Micronesia. As a consequence, the German colonial rulers applied a scorched-earth policy to hunt down the rebels and had the tribe deported from their own island in the South Seas.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>Another prominent case of colonial injustice is how King \u003ca class=\"internal-link\" href=\"/en/rudolf-douala-manga-bell-cameroons-king-who-stood-up-against-german-oppression/a-56976134\">Rudolf Douala Manga Bell\u003c/a> and Adolf Ngoso Din were executed in 1914 for peacefully campaigning against the German colonial administration's measures to remove and relocate the Douala people from their homes in the littoral and southwest region of Cameroon.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>Most infamously, it was responsible for the Herero and Nama genocide, known as the first genocide of the 20th century. It took place from 1904 to 1908, after the Herero and the Nama people rebelled against their German colonial rulers. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>It was only in 2021 that Germany \u003ca class=\"internal-link\" href=\"/en/germany-officially-recognizes-colonial-era-namibia-genocide/a-57671070\">officially acknowledged committing genocide\u003c/a> during its colonial occupation of present-day Namibia.\u003c/p>\u003cfigure class=\"placeholder-image master_portrait big\">\u003cimg data-format=\"MASTER_PORTRAIT\" data-id=\"68238061\" data-url=\"https://static.dw.com/image/68238061_${formatId}.jpg\" data-aspect-ratio=\"3/4\" alt=\"Ancient illustration from Germany's colonial era: Men in uniform putting skulls in a box.\" style=\"padding-bottom: 133.33%; height: 0; max-height: 0;\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"img-caption\">This image shows the skulls of the Hereros being packed and sent to the Pathological Institute in Berlin\u003csmall class=\"copyright\">Image: akg-images/picture alliance \u003c/small>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\u003ch2>Early adopters of AI\u003c/h2>\n\n\u003cp>That same year, the Federal Archives started developing an AI tool to make their colonial-era records more accessible. That was before the so-called new AI era began, when ChatGPT and other large language models were publicly released, turning artificial intelligence into an omnipresent topic of discussion.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>\"We find it important to always be part of the latest developments,\" explains Elmar Kramer, about the Federal Archives' pioneering role in the domain. \"That's why AI has been a topic of interest for us for a few years already. In this case, we can say that we are now bringing together one of our oldest holdings and one of the newest technologies, if you will: AI meets colonialism.\"\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>One needs to keep in mind that the AI not only needs to be able to decode Sütterlin, but also sometimes \"quite sloppy, scribbled writing,\" points out Kramer. And beyond \"the different handwriting in general, we also have printed and typewritten material. There is a lot of crossing out, but there are also very clean pages,\" adds Inger Banse, which is why they separated the documents in three different categories, according to the complexity of the material on the page.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"placeholder-image master_landscape big\">\u003cimg data-format=\"MASTER_LANDSCAPE\" data-id=\"69889682\" data-url=\"https://static.dw.com/image/69889682_${formatId}.jpg\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16/9\" alt=\"Screenshot of a computer program showing on the right hand a handwritten document and the transcription on the other side.\" style=\"padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; max-height: 0;\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"img-caption\">An example of a document written in Sütterlin and transcribed by the AI tool developed by the Federal Archives\u003csmall class=\"copyright\">Image: BArch/R 1001/5573/Image165/Bundesarchiv\u003c/small>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\u003cp>\"We looked at how the model behaves in these different categories,\" explains Banse. They trained the model by manually checking and improving, line by line, the AI's transcription results of about 170 pages of varied material. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>Banse says that they have now reached a point where the AI model provides an acceptable rate of accuracy in its transcriptions of even the most complex material.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>Achieving perfection in the transcriptions would have required a disproportional time investment, says Banse, quoting the Pareto principle according to which the hardest 20% of the optimization process requires 80% of the efforts. \"So at some point, we had to draw the line,\" she explains. Instead, they rather developed a more lenient search engine that allows a broader range of results to be obtained. \u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>And now that the Federal Archives' AI model has been trained to decode Kurrent, it opens a whole field of possibilities for other German-language archives. At the moment, however, it is still a pilot project specifically designed for this collection. It can be consulted on site, in the archives' research hall in Berlin-Lichterfelde, and it will soon be made available online.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Edited by: Brenda Haas\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cdiv data-vendor-cmp-id=\"c44391\" data-lang-code=\"en\" data-id=\"65658236\" class=\"embed dw-widget\">\u003c/div>\n","contentLinks":[{"targetId":69897722,"isInText":false,"__typename":"ContentLink","targetType":"IMAGE","name":"","description":"A postcard from Cameroon, which was an African colony of the German Empire in the region of today's Cameroon","target":{"id":69897722,"__typename":"Image","name":"Kamerun Bau der Kleinbahn Victoria-Ekona | Fotopostkarte 1903","firstPersonArray":[],"opinionSeries":[],"contentDate":"2024-08-09T09:04:52.836Z","localizedContentDate":"09.08.2024","localizedContentDateSr":"9. 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