Riot of the Sokehs

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Riot of the Sokehs
date October 18, 1910 to February 1911
place Jokadsch / Pohnpei , Caroline Islands
output German victory
Parties to the conflict

No flag.svg Sokehs

German EmpireThe German Imperium German Empire

Troop strength
about 200 fighters four warships
745 members of the Navy
approx. 200 Melanesian police soldiers
losses

6–10 killed,
17 executed

min. seven dead

The uprising of the Sokehs began on October 18, 1910 on an island of the Caroline Islands , which at that time belonged to German New Guinea , and was a rebellion against the German colonial rule there .

history

Between 1910 and 1911, the Sokehs revolted on Ponape . At that time, the tax could be paid in the form of work. As the construction of a road on Dschokadsch ( 6 ° 58 '  N , 158 ° 11'  O ), a small, situated right next to Ponape Island, a young Sokeh defied the instructions of a supervisor and was therefore punished the Sokeh laid the next day down the work. When the district official Gustav Boeder wanted to bring the stubborn "to reason", he, his secretary, the foreman and four other people were shot.

The Germans then fled to Kolonia and called the local police force for help. After 40 days, the warships of the East Asia Squadron , the SMS Emden and the SMS Nürnberg, as well as the gunboat SMS Cormoran from New Guinea with 138 local police soldiers under the command of First Lieutenant Edgar von Spiegel arrived .

The 200 insurgent Sokehs had withdrawn to a rocky area on Jokaj, where they were first shot at from the ships and then attacked by the troops. There was an exchange of fire, but the majority of the insurgents escaped capture. The Sokehs adopted guerrilla tactics ; the Germans, led by Hermann Kersting , the newly appointed Vice-Governor of the Carolines, responded with a scorched earth tactic . In the next few months, most of the insurgents and supporters, around 500 people in total, were captured, including the leader Soumadau en Sokehs.

On February 23, 1911, 15 sokehs were shot on Ponape and two sokehs brought to Yap as punishment . The grave site of the 15 Sokehs is now a memorial ( 6 ° 58 ′ 10 ″  N , 158 ° 12 ′ 17.5 ″  E ). In 1976, however, the burial site consisted only of a rock and two betel nut palms, which marked the otherwise overgrown, 5 × 5 m grave. It was restored as a national monument in 1999 (following the independence of the Federated States of Micronesia in 1986/1991). The remaining Sokehs were exiled to Babelthuap , their estates were nationalized, and the men were forced to work in the phosphate mines on Angaur . After the end of German New Guinea, the Sokehs were able to return to Ponape.

In the 1980s, the death of the leader Soumadau en Sokehs was declared a public holiday by the Pohnpei government.

gallery

  • The German naval power in the Sokeh uprising

  • SMS Emden

  • SMS Nuremberg

  • SMS Cormoran

See also

Sources and literature

  • Garzke: The uprising in Ponape and its overthrow by SM ships Emden, Nuremberg, Cormoran, Planet . In: Marine Rundschau. Scientific journal on naval issues . Edited by the news office of the Reichs-Marine-Amt, 22nd year, 6th issue 1911, pp. 703–738
  • Edgar von Spiegel from and to Peckelsheim : War pictures from Ponape. Experiences of a naval officer in the uprising on the Karolinen , Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft , Stuttgart, Berlin, Leipzig 1912 (Reprint Wolfenbüttel 2013)
  • Edgar von Spiegel from and to Peckelsheim: seas, islands, people. From midshipman to submarine commander . Verlag August Scherl , Berlin 1934, pp. 168–197
  • Thomas Morlang: Cruel robbers that we were , published in the time (No. 39) of September 23, 2010, p. 22
  • Thomas Morlang: Rebellion in the South Seas. The uprising on Ponape against the German colonial rulers in 1910/11. Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-604-8 .
  • Peter Sack: The 'Ponape Rebellion' and the Phantomization of History . In: Journal de la Société des océanistes 104, 1997, pp. 23-38.
  • Sokehs Rebels Mass Grave Site rehabilitation: final project report, ed. Pohnpei (Micronesia) . Office of Historic Preservation and Cultural Affairs / United States. National Park Service. Pacific Great Basin Support Systems Office, Pohnpei State Government 1999
  • Sibylle Knauss: The missionary . Novel. Hoffmann & Campe, Hamburg 1997, ISBN 3-455-03866-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Morlang: Rebellion in the South Seas. Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2010, p. 9.
  2. ↑ Thomas Morlang: Rebellion in the South Seas. Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2010, p. 10.
  3. ↑ geographic.org: Island of Jokadsch - Federated States of Micronesia
  4. ↑ Thomas Morlang: The German New Guinea Police Force 1887–1914 (PDF file; 80 kB)
  5. ↑ Cf. Garzke: The uprising in Ponape and its overthrow by SM ships Emden, Nuremberg, Cormoran, Planet . In: Marine Rundschau. Scientific journal on naval issues. Ed. By the news office of the Reichs-Marine-Amt, 22nd year, 6th issue 1911, pp. 703 - 738 (esp. Pp. 711, 717); Edgar von Spiegel: Seas, Islands, People. From midshipman to submarine commander . Verlag August Scherl, Berlin 1934, pp. 168–197.
  6. ↑ National Register of historic places inventory (PDF file; 357 kB)
  7. ^ The Catholic Church In Palau ( Memento of November 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ The Nan-yô Gunto Special Prefecture
  9. ↑ Micronesian Seminar: The Sokehs Rebellion