Connected histories of racial exclusion, family separation, and adoptees’ efforts to recover their histories and relationships.
Denmark belongs in the history of Black German transnational adoption. Alongside adoptions to the United States, Danish placements moved German-born Black children across borders and into different racial and cultural environments. These histories need to be read together, while attending to differences in families, institutions, and adult adoptees’ experiences. [1] [3] [6]
How Black German children came to Denmark
In their Danish article, Matilde Hørmand-Pallesen, Amalie Kønigsfeldt, and Amalie Linde reconstruct placements using archives, correspondence, adoption papers, and testimony. They describe private intermediaries operating without required authorization and some prospective parents avoiding the scrutiny applied to domestic adoption. Tytte Botfeldt was a central intermediary. [1, pp. 18–20]
Kasper Emil Rosbjørn Eriksen traces connections between recuperative visits, private placements, and adoption. His research emphasizes prospective parents’ demand for children and the state’s accommodation of activities already underway. In 1964, authorities recommended authorizing Glemte Børn—“Forgotten Children”—under conditions requiring examination and approval of parents and children. Regulation therefore developed after years of informal activity. [3, sections 6.1 and 6.3]
Azziza B. Malanda’s research
Historian Azziza B. Malanda has investigated adoption placements of Black German children in Denmark. Her 2022 conference abstract outlines research into the institutions and individuals involved, white Danish families’ motivations, and German authorities’ reasons for supporting these placements. It situates the Danish route alongside adoptions to the United States. [12]
Her book ÜberLebenswege (2024) complements this history through the biographical accounts of Black Germans who grew up in West German welfare institutions. Read or download the free German edition. Its principal focus is institutional care in West Germany.
Why the numbers require care
The Danish investigators estimate that up to 3,000 Afro-German children crossed into Denmark from the 1950s to the mid-1970s for foster placement or adoption, while acknowledging missing statistics. This is not a verified count of finalized adoptions. [1, p. 18] Eriksen explains that residence-permit records captured only some cases. [3, section 6.1] Comparisons require matching dates, populations, and placement categories.
Adoptees’ accounts change the questions
Martina Koegeler-Abdi’s peer-reviewed study examines racial discrimination together with hostility toward German parentage and the lasting effects of family secrecy. Her comparison of two testimonies shows how practices intended to manage stigma could also obstruct knowledge of family history. This small case study identifies mechanisms of harm; it does not establish how frequently they occurred across the entire population. [4]
Elizabeth Löwe Hunter’s 2023 dissertation centers first-person accounts of Black life in Denmark. Its discussion of German-born adoptees places their histories within racial isolation and Danish claims to racial innocence. An adoptee called Anne recalls learning that her German mother had visited her regularly before she was sent abroad. Hunter reads this testimony as challenging assumptions of abandonment and consent. It is an individual account warranting investigation, rather than proof about every adoption. [5, especially pp. 76–79]
The Danish investigative book Børneimporten reconstructs personal histories and overseas adoption. Its national library record identifies a 2013 work by three journalists. It should be distinguished from a peer-reviewed academic study. The full book was not available for review; analysis of the authors’ findings here rests on their accessible article. [2]
Connections with adoption to the United States
Yara-Colette Lemke Muniz de Faria’s research documents the importance of the African American press, civil-rights advocacy, immigration arrangements, and the Brown Baby Plan. It shows how German debates about removing Black children could disregard mothers’ wishes. Adoption initiatives emerged within unequal racial and political conditions, alongside individuals’ efforts to provide homes. [6]
| Question | Denmark | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Who organized placements? | Botfeldt and private contacts played important roles before a regulated system developed. [3] | Black advocacy, intermediaries, and immigration institutions shaped pathways to adoption. [6] |
| What racial setting awaited children? | Research examines white Danish family environments and the minimization of racism. [3, 5] | Many placements involved African American families. Shared racial identification did not necessarily mean shared language, national history, or childhood experience. [6, 8] |
| What do adult accounts reveal? | Secrecy, racial isolation, and efforts to understand origins and relationships. [4, 5] | Searches and reconnections continuing across the Atlantic long after childhood adoption. [8] |
Rosemarie Peña’s study of searches documented in William Gage’s Geborener Deutscher brings adult Black German adoptees’ perspectives into this comparison. Its attention to cross-border searches helps shift the focus from placement to adoptees’ continuing lives, knowledge, and relationships. [8]
Black Austrian adoptees: a related postwar cohort
Black Austrian children born to Austrian women and African American servicemen belong to the same wider postwar generation. Their Austrian origins and distinct institutions need to remain visible within this shared history. Some were adopted to the United States during the 1950s and 1960s. The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute’s account of the 2016 exhibition SchwarzÖsterreich describes separation from mothers, institutional and foster care, and difficulties after U.S. adoption, including language and unresolved legal status. [9]
The Lost in Administration project reconstructs these lives through biographical interviews and Austrian and U.S. archives. Its research informed the exhibition curated by Philipp Rohrbach and Niko Wahl, with a video installation by Tal Adler. [10] Lukas Schretter and Barbara Stelzl-Marx’s English-language study places Black Austrian children within the wider history of welfare policy and children of Allied servicemen. [11]
Comparative research: Austrian and German-born adoptees’ accounts can be read together to examine racial exclusion, family separation and adult searches. These sources document an Austrian–U.S. pathway; they do not establish an Austrian–Denmark adoption route.
What the Danish and German sources contribute
Danish: Den kaotiske begyndelse can be rendered as The Chaotic Beginning; Børneimporten as The Child Import. The article documents irregular mediation and weak oversight. Unlawful intermediary activity and the legal status of a completed adoption are distinct questions. [1]
German: Zwischen Fürsorge und Ausgrenzung: Afrodeutsche “Besatzungskinder” im Nachkriegsdeutschland may be rendered as Between Welfare and Exclusion: Afro-German “Occupation Children” in Postwar Germany. Lemke Muniz de Faria’s German author abstract describes competing projects of segregation and integration, shaped by racial assumptions about who could be German. This summary is based on the abstract, not a full reading or translation of the monograph. [7]
Implications for recognition and further research
BGHRA’s comparative analysis: These histories support research following people across borders and throughout their lives. Priorities include preserving adoptees’ testimony; comparing German, Danish, and U.S. records; examining consent and pressures on original families; and documenting searches, reconnection, and obstacles to historical knowledge.
A comparative account must also include children who remained with relatives, lived in institutions, or experienced other placements. Adoption abroad cannot stand in for every Black German childhood. Access to history should not depend on proving that every case followed the same pattern. Questions about a particular adoption’s legality, nationality consequences, or remedies require individual records and appropriate expertise.
Sources and reading guide
- Hørmand-Pallesen, Matilde; Amalie Kønigsfeldt; and Amalie Linde (2014). “Den kaotiske begyndelse – adoption af afrotyske børn til Danmark i tiden efter 2. verdenskrig.” Social Kritik 137: 18–27. Danish; article consulted. Read the article (PDF).
- Linde, Amalie; Amalie Kønigsfeldt; and Mathilde Hørmand-Pallesen (2013). Børneimporten: Et mørkt kapitel i fortællingen om udenlandsk adoption. Kristeligt Dagblads Forlag. Danish; bibliographic record reviewed, full book not reviewed. The catalog uses “Mathilde”; the article byline uses “Matilde.” National library record.
- Eriksen, Kasper Emil Rosbjørn (2020). “A Great Desire for Children: The Beginning of Transnational Adoption in Denmark and Norway during the 1960’s.” Genealogy 4(4): 104. English; peer-reviewed article, full text consulted. Article and DOI · Open PDF.
- Koegeler-Abdi, Martina (2022). “‘Brown Babies’ in Post-WWII Denmark: A Case Study of the Vulnerabilities of Adopted Children Born of War.” JAAAS 4(1): 111–129. English; peer-reviewed article, full text consulted. Article and DOI · Open PDF.
- Hunter, Elizabeth Löwe (2023). Black Racial Isolation: Understanding African Diaspora Subjectivity in Post-Racial Denmark. PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. English; abstract and relevant sections consulted. University repository.
- Lemke Muniz de Faria, Yara-Colette (2003). “‘Germany’s ‘Brown Babies’ Must Be Helped! Will You?’: U.S. Adoption Plans for Afro-German Children, 1950–1955.” Callaloo 26(2): 342–362. English; scholarly article, full text consulted. Article and DOI.
- Lemke Muniz de Faria, Yara-Colette (2002). Zwischen Fürsorge und Ausgrenzung: Afrodeutsche “Besatzungskinder” im Nachkriegsdeutschland. Berlin: Metropol. German; author abstract and record reviewed, full monograph not reviewed. German author abstract and record.
- Peña, Rosemarie (2018). “From Both Sides of the Atlantic: Black German Adoptee Searches in William Gage’s Geborener Deutscher (Born German).” Genealogy 2(4): 40. English; abstract and indexed excerpts consulted. Article and DOI.
- Vienna Wiesenthal Institute (2016). “SchwarzÖsterreich. Die Kinder afroamerikanischer Besatzungssoldaten.” German; institutional exhibition account consulted and paraphrased in English. Exhibition and research account.
- Vienna Wiesenthal Institute. “Lost in Administration.” German; institutional project description consulted and paraphrased in English. Research project.
- Schretter, Lukas, and Barbara Stelzl-Marx (2022). “‘Collateral damage’ of occupation? Social and political responses to nonmarital children of Allied soldiers and Austrian women after the Second World War.” Frontiers in Political Science 4:822859. English; peer-reviewed article, relevant sections consulted. Open article.
- Malanda, Azziza B. (2022). “‘Vergessene Kinder’? Adoptionsvermittlungen afrodeutscher Kinder nach Dänemark” [“‘Forgotten Children’? Adoption Placements of Afro-German Children in Denmark”; working translation]. Conference presentation, 14. Österreichischer Zeitgeschichtetag, Salzburg, April 22. Programme, p. 45. German; published conference abstract consulted, not a full paper. Programme and abstract (PDF).
- Malanda, Azziza B. (2024). ÜberLebenswege: Erinnerungen und Erfahrungen Schwarzer Deutscher der Nachkriegsgeneration. Imagining Black Europe 4. Peter Lang. DOI: 10.3726/b18561. German; publisher’s description and introduction consulted; open access. Free edition.
This selective research guide is not a complete bibliography or a determination about any individual adoption. Source notes identify the level of access used.