The May 1912 Reichstag debate on interracial marriage was the most significant and explicit discussion of (colonial) racial biopolitics on a national level in the German Empire before World War I. It served as a preparation for the legal regulation of such marriages in the German colonial empire and of the status of children from such unions. It is evidence of the racial-political ideas of German political parties at the time and also of the precursors of the more aggressive racism of the interwar period in Germany. The debate came about during a period when most European governments had outlawed interracial liaisons in their colonies.