August Sabac el Cher
August Albrecht Sabac el Cher (* around 1836 in Kurdufan ( Egypt , today Sudan ), † September 21, 1885 in Berlin ) was the valet of the Prussian Prince Albrecht . He is regarded as the earliest outstanding representative of the African diaspora in Berlin and, alongside Anton Wilhelm Amo, one of the first socially integrated Afro-Germans .
origin
August Sabac el Cher was born around 1836 in what was then the southern Egyptian province of Kurdufan (marked Kordofan on the adjacent map ). According to family legend, he came from a Nubian sheikh dynasty. His father is said to have fallen in an uprising against the Egyptian occupation forces, which is why his mother committed suicide according to an old custom. The son of this connection is said to have been brought to Cairo by the victorious Egyptians to be educated there at a cadet school. Due to temporal inconsistencies, the truth of this tradition is disputed.
As a "gift" for Prince Albrecht
Prince Albrecht of Prussia , the youngest brother of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. , Traveled with two officers and a few servants to Egypt via Genoa in February 1843 . A few months earlier, the Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius had started archaeological excavations. Interest in the Orient was en vogue in the Prussian capital , which is why Prince Albrecht also went on an expedition. On February 25, 1843, the Prussian delegation arrived in Alexandria to continue to Cairo . At that time, Egypt, as the Ottoman viceroyalty, was under the rule of Muhammad Ali Pascha , who consolidated his absolute position of power through internal modernization.
In March 1843 Prince Albrecht was received with full honors by Muhammad Ali in the Cairo Citadel . At the end of the audience, the viceroy also presented his guest with a small Nubian Bedouin boy who had previously received lessons at the Egyptian court. Giving away " Moorish children " was not uncommon at the time. The Prussian prince chose the only Arabic phrase he knew as the name : Sabac el Cher (from the Arabicصباح الخير), which means good morning .
The tour group took a paddle steamer under the Prussian flag along small settlements up the Nile. Another shore leave was made in Assiut to visit some tombs. In the following weeks, Prince Albrecht's group traveled via Aswan to Abu Simbel , which for him was the highlight of his trip to Egypt. He was entranced by the "immense underground chambers [and the] magnificent rows of columns". However, up to this point in time, his travel records were more evidence of a depressed mood because of the dirt and the "desert".
From Wadi Halfa , beyond the First Nile Cataract , they started their way back. In April 1843 they returned to Cairo. The tour group united there with the Lepsius expedition. At the end of your stay in Egypt you climbed the Great Pyramid together . On one of the following days the company set out for Palestine . With a caravan of camels they traveled via Suez , Gaza and Ramla to Jerusalem . This section of the journey was also documented by pictures. One of them shows August Sabac el Cher in Chan Yunis (today in the Gaza Strip ) at the prince's feet, busy plugging a pipe.
In Jerusalem, the entire tour group visited the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher . The route to Jaffa led along the ruins of Jericho and the Jordan . On May 11, 1843, the company arrived in Haifa , from where it continued via Tiberias to Damascus . There the Prussian delegation was ceremoniously adopted. Prince Albrecht and his entourage then embarked in Beirut . On their way home they spent a few days in Constantinople in June 1843 , where they enjoyed a bath at the Dardanelles . After stops in Athens and Vienna , the tour group returned to Berlin in August 1843. The Nubian boy Sabac el Cher had accompanied Prince Albrecht the entire trip and stood at his service. With him he left his homeland forever.
Career at the Prussian royal court
As a lackey in the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais
In Berlin, the youngest member of the royal court was subjected to a medical examination. His age was estimated at seven years. Sabac el Cher was to continue to work as a servant to Prince Albrecht in Prussia. Therefore he lived under the servants in the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais from the day of his arrival . He grew up in the immediate vicinity of the court in the Prussian capital and was taught the German language and Christian religion. His upbringing was carried out by private tutors at court and was - according to Prussian tradition - strict and focused on unconditional discipline. In contrast to numerous African children who had been kidnapped to European aristocratic houses before him, he obviously did not suffer from the foreign climate and the culture shock , but rather fitted in and was described as an “attentive student”.
When the March Revolution broke out in 1848 , the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais was spared an attack. After the revolution was violently ended, King Friedrich Wilhelm IV donated a commemorative coin on a ribbon for the defenders of the royal family, which Sabac el Cher and all servants of Prince Albrecht were awarded. On May 28, 1851, he began his career as a valet in the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais. The 15-year-old Sabac el Cher was placed under an officer as a lackey . From the beginning, his area of responsibility included numerous activities, such as cleaning and setting the table. As a " chamber black ", as it already existed in Brandenburg-Prussia at the time of the Great Elector , special attention was paid to him from all sides. Xenophobic resentments towards him are not recorded.
In April 1852 the Protestant baptism took place in a small circle in the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais. Sabac el Cher - then 16 years old - was given the first names August and Albrecht . His parish was that of the traditional Jerusalem Church in Berlin-Friedrichstadt . The godfather was primarily August Ferdinand Ströhmer, Fourier of Prince Albrecht, in whose care Sabac el Cher had probably already been given in Egypt and whose first name he was given. Presumably he saw Ströhmer as a kind of foster father. The daughter of August Ferdinand Ströhmers and the valet Adolph Otto are named as other witnesses.
At this point in time, Prince Albrecht's marriage to Marianne von Oranien-Nassau had only existed on paper for a long time. Both surrendered to other love affairs and mutually tolerated this. Already on March 28, 1849, the marriage had been divorced before the Berlin Court of Appeal, but a divorce in the royal house required the countersignature by Friedrich Wilhelm IV., Who was only ready to do so in 1853. Princess Marianne moved to Reinhartshausen Castle in the Rheingau , while Albrecht took his long-time lover Rosalie von Rauch to his second wife in the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen . Friedrich Wilhelm IV. Banished his brother's new wife (now Countess von Hohenau) "forever from the Prussian borders". The couple moved to the newly equipped Albrechtsberg Castle near Dresden , where August Sabac el Cher and the entire servants followed them. However, Prince Albrecht often had to commute between Berlin / Potsdam and Dresden, as he still had to be present at court. His servant Sabac el Cher accompanied him on these train journeys.
In the Caucasus
Prince Albrecht often visited his sister Charlotte of Prussia , who as the wife of Nicholas I had been Russian tsarina since 1825 . Nicholas I was particularly interested in asserting Russian influence in the Caucasus . For years the tsar's army fought against the Circassians . The 53-year-old Prince Albrecht was given the opportunity to demonstrate his military skills for the first time in 1862. Together with his entourage, including August Sabac el Cher, he embarked in Budapest . The Danube went down there to the Romanian city of Galati . From there the journey continued by carriages to Odessa . After several weeks of travel, the group arrived in October 1862 in Stavropol , the headquarters of the Russian Caucasus troops.
Since the Russian generals considered an operation at the beginning of November more sensible, the Prussian delegation went on a six-week round trip, which they - escorted by Cossacks - took them to the mineral baths of the Caucasus, such as Mineralnye Vody and Pyatigorsk . August Sabac el Cher traveled through Tbilisi and Baku with the prince's group to Mount Ararat .
The dense forest cover of the Caucasus offered the mountain peoples good conditions for a sustained guerrilla war against the Russians. These proceeded with particular cruelty according to the scorched earth principle . Fields, forests and villages were razed to the ground without further ado in order to transform them into “an open terrain accessible to all branches of the army”. Prince Albrecht's mission began on November 12th. On the way from Stavropol, however, his carriage crashed, and August Sabac el Cher was probably also injured. Nevertheless, Prince Albrecht insisted on the military undertaking. On behalf of the Russian commander, he took some abandoned villages and decided several skirmishes for the Russian army . After the end of the company, Tsar Nicholas I awarded his brother-in-law the Russian military award, the Order of St. George . August Sabac el Cher received a gold pocket watch from the tsarina, which survived the two world wars and is still owned by the family today.
Participation in the German Wars of Unification
Two years after his stay in the Caucasus, August Sabac el Cher took part in the first German war of unification, the German-Danish War , in 1864 in Prussian uniform . At the side of Prince Albrecht, he mainly served in the headquarters and was not in direct combat. It was different in 1866: in the Battle of Königgrätz he fought in an infantry corps. For his work he received the Memorial Cross for Combatants . His employer was awarded the Pour le mérite .
On November 25, 1867, August Sabac el Cher married the 24-year-old Anna Maria Jung from Berlin in the Dreifaltigkeitskirche in Mohrenstrasse . As a valet in the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais, Sabac el Cher was a good match for the daughter of a wealthy textile merchant who promised contacts to the royal family and a secure income. At the time of the wedding, she was also six months pregnant. Gustav Sabac el Cher saw the light of day on March 10, 1868 . In 1869 Anna Sabac el Cher gave birth to a daughter who was baptized with the name Elise Bertha Charlotte . Their daughter Gertrud Julie Anna was born on August 6, 1875, but died again on October 25, 1880. How the black son-in-law was received in the Jung family can no longer be determined. There are, however, numerous testimonies to the love for the grandchildren.
In 1870 Sabac el Cher went to the Franco-Prussian War : with Prince Albrecht he took part in the siege of Metz , the battle of Artenay , the battle of Loigny and Poupry and the battle of Orléans . He received numerous military awards, including the Iron Cross . In 1870/71 Albrecht was not attached to the headquarters by his brother Wilhelm , who had succeeded Friedrich Wilhelm IV on the throne in 1861. With the active fighting, however, he took over and collapsed on January 18, 1871 near Paris. On July 16, he suffered a stroke . Prince Albrecht died on October 14, 1872 as a result of his second stroke (September 8, 1872).
After the death of Prince Albrecht
The Nubian boy Sabac el Cher had made a great career as a servant in the royal family, which did not end with the death of his employer. His eldest son, Albrecht , appointed August Sabac el Cher as silver administrator of the Prinz-Albrecht-Palais in 1873. With the high annual income of 600 gold marks , which was topped up by numerous bonuses , the family was able to lead an economically carefree life. With the professional advancement, it was now also possible to move into her own apartment. While Sabac el Cher had shone as a valet primarily with his "exoticism" (he often worked in oriental fantasy costumes), he was now given a prominent position: he was given the supervision of all silver , porcelain , table decorations and glass of the princely household. Several silver servants and silver washerwomen reported to him.
In 1876 August Sabac el Cher resigned from service at court - presumably for health reasons. On October 25, 1882 he, who had seen all the German wars of unification, received the certificate of naturalization from the Berlin police chief. Thus he was legally equal as a Prussian citizen.
Sabac el Cher died on September 21, 1885 in his apartment on Bergmannstrasse in Berlin . The church book names stomach cancer as the cause of death. His grave in the Holy Trinity Cemetery no longer exists today. His wife Anna, 42 years old and widowed, never married a second time. His son Gustav (1868–1934) became a famous military musician and media star in the German Empire . The descendants of the “little Nubian boy” still live in Germany today.
August Sabac el Cher was one of the first socially integrated Afro-Germans in Berlin. It is therefore of particular importance in the history of the African diaspora in Germany. His life story paints the picture of a Prussian patriot. Since 2006 there has been a posthumous tribute to his eventful life, which has resulted in numerous publications on Afro-Germans and a work on the Sabac el Cher family.
Filmography
- Prussian love luck . - TV documentary film (58 minutes). RBB Germany 2007. Author: Gorch Pieken , Sönke el Bitar. Director: Sönke el Bitar.
literature
- Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst and Reinhard Klein-Arendt (editors): The (colonial) encounter. Africans in Germany 1880–1945. Germans in Africa 1880–1918. Frankfurt am Main 2003. ISBN 3-631-39175-7 .
- Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst and Sunna Gieseke: Colonial and post-colonial constructions of Africa and people of African origin in everyday German culture . Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2007. ISBN 3-631-54662-9 .
- Gorch Pieken and Cornelia Kruse: Prussian love luck - A German family from Africa . Propylaen Verlag, Berlin 2007. ISBN 3-549-07337-2 .
- Ulrich van der Heyden and Joachim Zeller (editors): Colonial metropolis Berlin - A search for traces . Berlin Edition, Berlin 2002. ISBN 3-8148-0092-3 .
- Dietrich Wildung: Prussia on the Nile . G + H publishing house. Berlin 2003. ISBN 3-931768-68-6 .
Web links
- Article in the "world"
- "Prussian love luck" - documentary, arte 2007 ( Memento from April 18, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- Literature by and about August Sabac el Cher in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pieken u. Kruse, p. 60.
- ↑ Pieken, Kruse. P. 61.
- ↑ See Paulette Reed – Anderson: A History of More than 100 Years. The beginnings of the African diaspora in Berlin . Berlin 1995.
- ^ Album of the Oriental Journey from February – August 1843 , Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Inv.-No .: Do 2001/28.
- ^ Pieken, Kruse. P. 52.
- ^ Pieken, Kruse. P.56.
- ^ Pieken, Kruse. P. 65.
- ^ Pieken, Kruse. P. 62.
- ^ Pieken, Kruse. P. 69.
- ↑ Pieken, Kruse. P. 73 f.
- ^ Leopold von Schlözer: Generalfeldmarschall von Loë, a military picture of the time and life . Berlin 1914, p. 276.
- ^ Pieken, Kruse. P. 75.
- ^ Pieken, Kruse. P. 77.
- ↑ a b Pieken, Kruse. P. 78.
- ^ Pieken, Kruse. P. 80.
- ↑ a b Pieken, Kruse. P. 86.
- ↑ Death register, registry office Berlin 4a, No. 1659/1885. When reporting his death, the widow gave March 26, 1833 as his birthday.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sabac el Cher, August |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sabac el Cher, August Albrecht |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | German valet of African origin |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1836 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kurdufan , Egypt , today Sudan |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 21, 1885 |
| Place of death | Berlin |
