The history of black people in Germany goes back much further than most people think: One of the first African known to have lived in Germany was Anton Wilhelm Amo ( 1703 - 1739) Born in what is today Ghana, Amo came under the protection of the Duke (Herzog) of Wolfenbutfel and grew up in the Dukes castle. He both the first African known to have attended a Germany Universities (Halle) and the first to obtain a Doctorate Degree (in 1729) As a Professor, under his preferred name of Antonius Guilmus Amo after he taught at two German Universities and published several scholar works, including a Latin treatise entitled De Arte Scbrie et Accurate Philosophand (1736). On the Art of Philosophizing Soberly and Accurated) knowing the level of his Achievements.
Its all the more surprising to learn that Amo returned to Africa in 1747: Most account claimed that his return to Africa was the Racial Discrimination he encountered in Germany. Then as now, Africans in Europe were seen as some exotic and foreign. The first sizable influx of African to Germany came from German African colonies in the 19th century. Some Afro-German living in Germany today can claim ancestry going back five generation to that time.
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