Henning von Burgsdorff

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Henning von Burgsdorff around 1900

Karl Henning Conrad of Burgdorff , partly Burgdorf written (*, 19th February 1867 in Demmin , † 4. October 1904 in Mariental in today's Namibia ) was an officer of the Imperial Colonial Army and bailiff of the district of Gibeon in German South West Africa .

Life

Henning von Burgdorff came as a son of the Lancers - Captain Karl Ehrenreich of Burgdorff and his wife Hedwig on 19 February 1867 in the Pomeranian Demmin county seat to the world. He enjoyed his education and training at the Prussian main cadet institute in Groß-Lichterfelde near Berlin. In 1886 he joined the 3rd Guards Regiment on foot as a lieutenant and in 1891 was promoted to adjutant of the 1st battalion. In 1893 he was promoted to first lieutenant. In 1894 he registered for the newly formed Imperial Protection Force and in the same year was shipped to German South West Africa on the Woermann line steamer "Lulu Bohlen", where he arrived in Swakopmund on July 16, 1894 . He was part of a contingent that was needed by the then governor Theodor Leutwein to strengthen his units in the fight against the Hottentot tribe of the Witbooi under their captain Hendrik Witbooi .

He soon took part in battles in the Naukluft Mountains . Through this German offensive under the command of Curt von François , the Witbooi could be forced to negotiate on September 11, 1894. After the end of the fighting, Burgsdorff, who was employed as the military director of the Gibeon station, got to know and appreciate his former opponent Hendrik Witbooi. Their mutual respect and sympathy led to a much-noticed friendship between men in the years that followed. In 1896, Burgsdorff left the Schutztruppe pro forma in order to take over the office of district administrator of Gibeon in the civil administration. On June 15, 1896, he and his wife Martha Beate Louise, known as Malta , married the divorced Andrée, née von Dallwitz, in Walvis Bay . Von Burgsdorff founded today's village of Maltahöhe in 1899, four years after he established a police station there , which he named after his wife.

When Hendrik Witbooi terminated the protection contract in a letter to Burgsdorff on October 3, 1904 and declared war on the Germans, the district official immediately tried to find an understanding and the next day rode alone to Mariental to keep his friend Hendrik from hostilities. When Burgsdorff arrived at the camp, however, he was shot by a member of the Baster Hottentots named Salomon Sahl. Burgsdorff was the first German to be killed in the Witbooi uprising.

Consequences of the attack

At first, the Germans seemed to believe that Burgsdorff had been lured into the Witbooi camp to kill him there. But there is no evidence to support this opinion. In all likelihood the murder, which meant the irrevocable break with the Germans, did not correspond to Hendrik Witbooi's wishes. Nevertheless, around 40 German soldiers and civilians fell victim to the attacks by the Witbooi in the next few days. The Herero rebellion had expanded into the Herero and Nama uprising and the protection force was now forced to take military action against the Nama as well.

The exact circumstances of Henning von Burgsdorff's death have not been fully clarified, despite various witness statements. After the uprising was put down, the prophet Shepherd Stuurman , who as a supporter of the “ Ethiopian Movement ” was pursuing a “war against the whites” and had great influence on Hendrik Witbooi, was accused by several of the Witbooi of having ordered the murder of Henning von Burgsdorff .

obituary

In the official German historiography, the death of Burgsdorff (who was actually a decent, hardworking civil servant) was portrayed gospel: "He was killed by members of a tribe for which he had only done good in the previous ten years" .

The dried up corpse of Burgsdorff was not recovered from a crevice until a year later and transferred to the German Empire , where it was buried on June 2, 1906 in Hohenjesar , the ancestral home of the von Burgsdorff family , north of Frankfurt an der Oder .

The Burgsdorf farm not far from Mariental is named after Burgsdorff .

Awards

literature

  • Alhard von Burgsdorff-Garath: The captain Henning von Burgsdorff. Of the brave life and death of the district captain of Gibeon . John Meinert, Windhoek 1982, ISBN 0-620-05863-3 .

References and comments

  1. ^ Daniel Joseph Walther: Creating Germans Abroad: Cultural Policies and National Identity in Namibia , Athens 2002, Ohio University Press, ISBN 0-8214-1458-5 , p. 87.
  2. ↑ MALTAHÖHE - WHERE THE TAR ROAD ENDS. Travel News Namibia. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  3. ↑ Helmut Bley (Ed.), Namibia Under German Rule
  4. ^ Jon M. Bridgman: The Revolt of the Hereros , University of California Press, Berkeley 1981, ISBN 0-520-04113-5 , p. 139.
  5. ^ Jon Bridgman: The Revolt of the Hereros . University of California Press, Oakland 1981, ISBN 978-0-520-04113-4 ( google.de [accessed March 17, 2019]).
  6. ^ Burgsdorf Guest Farm. Official website. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Burgsdorff, Henning von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burgsdorff, Karl Henning Konrad von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Officer of the Imperial Protection Force and District Administrator of Gibeon in German South West Africa
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Demmin
DATE OF DEATH 4th October 1904
Place of death Mariental (Namibia)