Clemens Denhardt

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Clemens Denhardt

Clemens Andreas Denhardt (born August 3, 1852 in Zeitz ; † June 7, 1929 in Bad Sulza ) was a German geographer and African explorer at the time of the race for Africa .

Life

Map of the lower Tana with the inscription Denhardt's Land bei Witu.

Clemens Denhardt received his training in Berlin. He and his younger brother Gustav Denhardt (* June 16, 1856; † July 17, 1917) were prepared for a trip to the east of the continent by the Africa expert Otto Kersten . In 1877 they planned an expedition to explore and trade the area between Abyssinia and Lake Victoria . Clemens and Gustav Denhardt embarked for Zanzibar in December 1877 , where they were joined as planned by the doctor and Africa researcher Gustav Adolf Fischer . In May 1878 they began the mainland journey that took them to the Tana River region in what is now Kenya . When they started their return journey in November 1878, they had gathered geodetic , geographical and zoological knowledge and made inquiries about the land between Mombasa and Lake Victoria. This made it possible to draw up a map of the area in question. Gustav Denhardt had to cancel the trip for health reasons. Clemens Denhardt stayed longer in East Africa , carried out surveys between Mombasa and the Pangani and did not return to Germany until 1879.

When he returned to Germany, he and his brother Gustav tried to found a company whose aim was to build a station at the mouth of the Tana. A trading colony with a connection to the hinterland should emerge from this. Denhardt succeeded in winning over colonial supporters as well as liberal politicians and entrepreneurs for the plan. In July 1884 the committee for the establishment of a station for economic purposes on the Tana in central East Africa (Tana committee for short) was founded. In December 1884 the Denhardts arrived in Zanzibar and reached Lamu Island in February 1885 . From Lamu, Clemens Denhardt set out on an expedition to nearby Witu in March 1885 . There he asked the Sultan of Swahili to create a friendship or protection treaty with Germany, based on the proposals he had made 18 years earlier when he asked Richard Brenner , who was traveling to Africa , to broker a protection treaty with Prussia. Although the Sultan of Zanzibar , Barghasch ibn Said , who saw himself as Sovereign Witus, disapproved of the company, Clemens Denhardt tried to initiate a German occupation of Witus. At the mediation of the German consul general Gerhard Rohlfs , the Swahili sultan's request for protection was accepted in May 1885, subject to the rights of third parties.

Some of the areas that were "acquired" by Clemens Denhardt, he sold in July 1886 for 50,000  gold marks to the President of the German Colonial Association , Hermann zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg . In December 1887 the Deutsche Witu-Gesellschaft was constituted with Hohenlohe-Langenburg as chairman of the administrative board. However, the company was not up to the rivalry with the Imperial British East Africa Company and was taken over by the German East African Society .

In 1890, Germany made an exchange deal with Great Britain , which went down in history as the " Helgoland-Zanzibar Treaty ". All territorial claims north of German East Africa in what is now Kenya were transferred to the British . In return, Germany got the island of Heligoland and the Caprivi Strip . As compensation, the German Reichstag finally granted the brothers compensation of 150,000 gold marks. However, the Denhardts were not ready to recognize the related waiver of Witu, so the sum was not paid out.

Works

An important work by Clemens Denhardt was published in 1883 under the title Instructions for geographic work during research trips , in the communications of the Geography Association in Leipzig . Two articles entitled Inquiries in Equatorial East Africa appeared in Petermann's Geographische Mitteilungen in 1881 .

reception

Memorial stone in Bad Sulza (2002)

During the Third Reich, Denhardt's activity was instrumentalized in the interests of the National Socialist rulers and NS colonial policy . On the 10th anniversary of his death in 1939 in Bad Sulza , a memorial plaque was inaugurated on his former home by the Reichskolonialbund , representatives of the Wehrmacht and SS . The city named a street after him. Local NSDAP and Hitler Youth leaders kept guard of honor at his grave . Something similar happened on the 15th anniversary of his death in 1944.

In 2002 the city unveiled a new memorial stone for its honorary citizen in the presence of members of the traditional association of former protection and overseas troops who had come with the " St. Peter's flag ".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ original map of the lower Tana-area , the result of Clemens Denhahrdt and Gustav Fischer in 1878 conducted research expedition in Tanagebiet.
  2. ↑ Hermann Schreiber: Denhardt's grip on Africa. Scherl, Berlin 1938, p. 226.
  3. ^ Clemens Denhardt: Inquiries in equatorial East Africa, in: E. Behm (Hrsg.): Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen. 27th Volume, 1881, pp. 11-99, 130-143. ( Online on the website of the University of Jena. )

literature

Web links

Commons : Clemens Denhardt  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Denhardt, Clemens
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Denhardt, Clemens Andreas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Africa explorer
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Time
DATE OF DEATH June 7, 1929
Place of death Bad Sulza