Germany entered the scramble for the colonies very late. Mostly traders were actually the founders of the colonies and around 1884 the first colony was aquired. When the first World War was over, the colonies were shared by the victors, although a treaty actually forbade this. But a new word was created, calling thes former colonies a mandate.England, Japan, Belgium and France shared these former german colonies amonst each other.

So Germany had colonies for roughly 30 odd years.

A term called Schutzgebiete was created which means protected areas/land and the troops were called Schutztruppe which is a protecting army. The term Protectorate was used.

The colonies in Africa were Togo, Cameroon, German South-West Africa (Namibia), German East Arfica (Tanzania, Rwanda,Burundi).
The part of Papua New Guinea which the germans had was called Kaiser-Wilhelmland ( Emperor William Land), further Samoa as well as several smaller islands in the Pacific.

A harbour in China called Tsingtao was also part of the german crown. Here the german navy was in control.

A legend says that Queen Victoria gave Mount Kilimanjaro as a present to the german Emperor, the truth is that the harbour of Mombasa was the real reason.

source: Grass Roots, Black Liberation Front, 1973, von rado jadu 2000