Bismarckburg (Togo)

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Bismarckburg (1893)
Rubber map of Togo (1914): Bismarckburg in the middle of the largest rubber deposit

Bismarckburg was the name of a colonial station in the German colony of Togo . The place was named after the founder of the empire, Otto von Bismarck .

history

The station was founded in June 1888 by the researcher Ludwig Wolf . It was one of the first permanently inhabited European stations in the interior of West Africa and was located on the 750 meter high Adadoberg . In the years 1889/90 the station was headed by Erich Kling and was the starting point for several expeditions to explore the hinterland and to expand German influence in the area. Kling and his successor Richard Büttner had a palisade fence built for fortification . At that time the station consisted of nine adobe buildings arranged in a rectangle. The built-up area was 47 × 56 meters. The station was manned by two Germans - the station manager and a mechanic. Outside the palisades were agricultural areas on which cultivation trials with European crops and tropical crops were carried out. Around 1900 a cola and coffee plantation was still in operation.

The imperial commissioner under Jesko von Puttkamer was skeptical of the station due to its remoteness and economic inefficiency. Instead of directing trade to the German Togo coast, it strengthened the existing connections to the British Gold Coast . As early as June 30, 1894, the status as a European station was revoked. Between 1888 and 1897, a weather station of the German Seewarte was active in Bismarckburg . The colonial station was still under the control of a German district manager in Kete Krachi as a secondary station until 1914 . It remained economically important as African traders came to the area to buy rubber .

Nearby is now Yégué ( 8 ° 11 '  N , 0 ° 39'  O ) in the prefecture Sotouboua .

See also

Web links

Bibliography

  • Bismarckburg. In: Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1920, Volume I, p. 217 ( online ).
  • Meyer's Encyclopedic Lexicon .
  • The great world atlas , Cartographic Institute Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1963.
  • Peter Sebald : Togo 1884–1914. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1988, p. 82ff

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon (1920), keyword Wolf, Ludwig
  2. ^ Rochus Schmidt : Germany's colonies. Volume 2, Verlag des Verein der Buchfreunde Schall & Grund, Berlin 1898, p. 182 ff. (Reprint by Weltbild Verlag. Augsburg 1998)
  3. ^ Conrad Weidmann : German men in Africa. Bernhard Nöhring, Lübeck 1894, p. 187. ( Online version ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.forgottenbooks.com
  4. ^ Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon (1920), keyword Kling, Erich
  5. ↑ Captain Kling's journey from Lome via Salaga to Bismarckburg in the summer of 1891 . In: Messages from explorers and scholars from the German protected areas . Volume 5, 1892, ( pp. 1-6 ).
  6. ^ Report by Dr. Büttner via the Bismarckburg station (Togo area) . In: Deutsches Kolonialblatt , Volume 2, 1891, pp. 466–469 , pp. 492–494 .
  7. ^ A b Rudolf Fitzner: German Colonial Handbook . Volume 1, 2nd ext. Ed., Hermann Paetel, Berlin 1901, p. 48 f. (Reprint, Melchior Verlag, Wolfenbüttel).
  8. ^ German Weather Service: Station list of the overseas stations. As of January 11, 2019, p. 17. (pdf)

Coordinates: 8 ° 10 ′ 32.7 ″  N , 0 ° 41 ′ 9.4 ″  E