Was there a plan to take back Germany's former colonies if they had won the war?

by [deleted]

Would Germany have taken back Kenya, Namibia, and others?

LBo87

I presume you mean if in WWII National Socialist Germany planned to take back the former Imperial German colonies lost after WWI. (Minor nitpick: Kenya was never a German colony, it was British, you probably confused it with Tanzania to the south, which is the present-day name of Deutsch-Ostafrika.)

If so: Nominally yes, practically no. Restoring the former colonial empire was a stated goal of most German right-wing/nationalist groups after WWI (and this was not even limited to them) as the colonial legacy was heavily associated with former glory and being a first-rate world power. However, the concept of Lebensraum in Eastern Europe, i.e. the idea of expanding the territory of Germany proper to the east was beginning to supplant the idea of overseas expansion in the minds of right-wing thinkers. The National Socialists drew upon many of the theories and concepts of their forerunners in the Völkische movement and generally from the German right. If I remember correctly, their government did adopt the nominal goal of taking back the colonies eventually after victory, but it had no utmost priority. With Allied dominance of the seas Germany lacked the capabilities to do so anyway. To the National Socialists, ensuring German dominance over Europe was seen as much more important, and to arrive at an agreement with Britain, of which Hitler himself thought highly of.