[Prohibited Comparisons? Population Statistics and the Question of Comparability in the German Colonies (1885-1914)]

This article explores the relationship between statistical classifications and comparisons in German colonial statistics between 1885 and 1914. It questions the importance and the characteristics of comparison in terms of space and population in colonial statistics. The aim is to sharpen the view of statistical methods and categories in an imperial context. The results show that the statistical observation of colonies was based on a territorial distinction between metropole and colonies, which led to the use of different methods. I argue that this territorial and methodological distinction was interwoven with a fundamental incomparability between colonized populations and colonizers.