There are books that have an effect. There are books that have long lasting effects. And there is the novel “Morenga” by Uwe Timm. It was published in 1978, on the other hand, Germany has only now been able to bring itself to a declaration on the colonial crimes in what was once South West Africa. Above all, this required pressure from today’s Namibia – but perhaps also the existence of this book in the back of the mind of the German public. The author thinks it is at least very possible that his work may have contributed to this. In any case, “something has now reached the goal with the official recognition that genocide was committed against the Hereros in what was then South West Africa,” he says on a very hot June afternoon in Munich. “But there are now over a hundred years – and 43 since the book was published.”