The article focuses on the dynamics of relationship between majority and minority in the German Southwest Africa. It pays attention especially to the relationship between Germans and Rehoboth Basters, the offspring of Boers and native women. They settled in the town of Rehoboth in the year 1870. They lived in the territories southern to the river Orange before their arrival to Rehoboth. The paper focuses on the analysis of their interaction with German colonists, German colonial administration and their position as objects of racial research. The 19th century constitution, called Paternal Laws helped them initially to improve their stand in the colonised society. They were considered to be Europeanised and therefore, valued more than the African ethnics in the hierarchy of the society. It was further reflected in the protection agreement (Schutzvertrag) that granted their “rights and liberties” and was more generous than analogous treaty signed with the native ethnic of Hereros. The shift to different position in the society that was influenced by racist stereotypes can be exemplified at the case of the ban on mixed marriages. In 1905, the ban on mixed marriages was issued in the German Southwest Africa. The applications for the exceptions submitted by German men who wished to recognise their marriages to women from Rehoboth included the arguments about the special position of Rehoboth Basters who, according to the application, should be considered differently from the native population. Their applications encountered ignorance or refusal because the society started to be permeated by the racist idea a mixed‑race people were even more dangerous for the society than those of fully native origin. This argumentation was legitimised by pseudo‑science when the Rehoboth Basters became objects of racial research conducted by anthropologist and eugenist Eugen Fischer.

The article focuses on the dynamics of relationship between majority and minority in the German Southwest Africa. It pays attention especially to the relationship between Germans and Rehoboth Basters, the offspring of Boers and native women. They settled in the town of Rehoboth in the year 1870. They lived in the territories southern to the river Orange before their arrival to Rehoboth. The paper focuses on the analysis of their interaction with German colonists, German colonial administration and their position as objects of racial research. The 19th century constitution, called Paternal Laws helped them initially to improve their stand in the colonised society. They were considered to be Europeanised and therefore, valued more than the African ethnics in the hierarchy of the society. It was further reflected in the protection agreement (Schutzvertrag) that granted their “rights and liberties” and was more generous than analogous treaty signed with the native ethnic of Hereros. The shift to different position in the society that was influenced by racist stereotypes can be exemplified at the case of the ban on mixed marriages. In 1905, the ban on mixed marriages was issued in the German Southwest Africa. The applications for the exceptions submitted by German men who wished to recognise their marriages to women from Rehoboth included the arguments about the special position of Rehoboth Basters who, according to the application, should be considered differently from the native population. Their applications encountered ignorance or refusal because the society started to be permeated by the racist idea a mixed‑race people were even more dangerous for the society than those of fully native origin. This argumentation was legitimised by pseudo‑science when the Rehoboth Basters became objects of racial research conducted by anthropologist and eugenist Eugen Fischer.