Curt of François

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Curt von François in colonial uniform

Curt Karl Bruno von François (born October 2, 1852 in Luxembourg ; † December 28, 1931 in Königs Wusterhausen ) was an officer in the German protection force in the former colony of German South West Africa , today's Namibia . He founded the Namibian capital Windhoek (Windhoek) on October 18, 1890 .

Career and life

childhood and education

Curt von François was the son of the Prussian general Bruno Hugo Karl Friedrich von François and Marie Amalie Helene, born. from Wentzel. The family was of Huguenot origin. He visited the Cadet House in Wahlstatt and the Central Cadet Institute in Berlin and took part in the Franco-German War . His father was killed in this war in 1870 when he stormed the Spicherer Heights .

In 1883 Curt von François took part in Hermann von Wissmann's Kasai expedition and in 1885 went on a research trip to Tschuapa and Lulongo with George Grenfell . After his return to Germany he was appointed to the Great General Staff and promoted to captain . From 1887 he was employed as a surveying and research officer in the German colonies of Togo and Cameroon . In 1887 François went to Togo on behalf of the Foreign Office and traveled north via Salaga to the land of the Mossi up to the 12th parallel.

South West Africa 1890-1892

In Togo, in 1889, he was asked whether he would be prepared to set up and lead a protection force on behalf of the German Colonial Society in German South West Africa to safeguard German interests. Between October 1888 and July 1889 the German commissariat was expelled and the exercise of sovereignty in Okahandja was interrupted . He accepted this offer and traveled to Tenerife, where at the beginning of June 1889 he met the protection force that had landed there under the leadership of his younger brother Hugo von François . It consisted of 21 soldiers, eight active members from the Imperial Army and 13 volunteers. François took over this troop and landed with it on June 24, 1889 in the port of Walvis Bay, which was under British sovereignty . From there, Captain von François led his soldiers on foot to Otjimbingwe and set up his headquarters here on July 8, 1889. At the time, Otjimbingwe was the seat of the first Reich Commissioner for German South West Africa, Heinrich Ernst Göring .

Curt von François monument in Windhoek

As a first military measure, François had a fortified station (the so-called "Wilhelmsfeste") built on the Swakop near Tsaobis in August 1889 to control the trade route there. Then he went with his protection force, without the approval of the commissioner, on an almost two-year exploration tour through the east and north of the still largely unexplored country. After his return in 1890 he found not only the requested 50 men reinforcement in Otjimbingwe, but also a Göring who had already been recalled and was therefore on the move. As his successor, François also took over his job. In the position of Reich Commissioner, in May 1890 he renewed the protection treaty with Maharero , the chief of the Herero , which had already been concluded in October 1885 but was revoked shortly afterwards , and on this occasion also obtained his consent to settle in the currently uninhabited settlement of Windhoek and a to build a fortified station. Samuel Maharero , the son and successor of Maharero, who died shortly after the conclusion of the contract, tried to annul this contract again, but failed because of the energetic insistence of the new governor François. On October 18, 1890, the foundation stone for the "Alte Feste" and thus for the city of Windhoek was laid. Although Windhoek had already existed under Jonker Afrikaner ( ǀHara-mûb or ǀHôa-ǀaramab ) since 1840 with a considerable population of around 30,000, it was attacked and destroyed several times afterwards and ceased to exist as a place. A monument by Curt von François, still standing in Windhoek on Independence Avenue , commemorates the event that the city was founded in 1890.

From 1890 to 1892 François, together with his brother Hugo, mainly devoted himself to mapping the country. After the completion of the “Old Fortress” in 1891, the headquarters and the Reichskommissariat were relocated from Otjimbingwe to Windhoek, making Windhoek the capital of German South West Africa. François attached particular importance to the creation of a seaport independent of the British; During his exploration tours he found what he was looking for at the Swakop estuary and founded the port city of Swakopmund here on September 12, 1892 .

The attack on "Hornkranz" in 1893

Since the Nama under the leadership of their captain Hendrik Witbooi ( ǃNanseb ǀGabemab ) did not recognize the “protectorate” of the Germans, conflicts arose increasingly. After the arrival of military reinforcements of 225 soldiers from the German Reich, François attacked the private residence of Hendrik Witbooi, the fortress "Hornkranz", on April 12, 1893. The German protection force killed at least 80 people, including many women and children. Witbooi himself managed to escape. François' approach violated the general order of the Foreign Office in Berlin not to engage in acts of war, but only to take action against individuals. The massacre on Hornkranz kept the international press busy in the following months, although the actual number of victims could not be conclusively clarified.

South West Africa 1894

On January 1, 1894, the designated successor to the previous Reich Commissioner and Commander of the Schutztruppe arrived in Swakopmund, Major Theodor Leutwein . He was initially subordinate to François, who was also promoted to major, and was instructed by him in the colony and its problems. Both undertook separate but coordinated exploratory expeditions to the south of the country, where in March 1894 François had fortified protection force stations built in Gibeon and Keetmanshoop (then called “Modderfontein” or “Swartmodder”). In 1894 there was a major change in the status of the Schutztruppe: up to now it was more or less a private army of the German Colonial Society ; this changed by an imperial decree of May of that year. The Schutztruppe was now declared an official part of the Imperial Armed Forces and was given the name "Imperial Schutztruppe for German South West Africa" ​​(which was also associated with the new uniforms - the now blue ones).

In August 1894 Curt von François left German South West Africa via Cape Town . He left extensive and well-founded maps for his successor, on the basis of which the first military maps of the entire colony could be made.

additional

François was married to the Damara Princess Amalia Gereses for the first time. A daughter comes from this marriage. After Gereses' death he married Margarethe Meyer zu Bohmte in 1896 , with whom he had four children. In 1911 they got divorced.

François returned to Germany and finished his military service in 1895. In 1897 he married Margret von François, née Meyer. He lived in Zernsdorf until his death in 1931 , he was buried in the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin, his tomb has not been preserved.

On June 30, 2018, the grave was given a grave plaque in a solemn grave consecration and restoration was restored.

Hugo von François , the younger brother of Curt von François, returned to South West Africa in 1901 to his farm "François", where he was killed in the Herero War in 1904 .

Fonts

  • The exploration of Tschuapa and Lulongo: Travels in Central Africa , Brockhaus, Leipzig 1888.
  • German South West Africa , Georg Reimer Verlag , Berlin 1899.
  • German South West Africa: From colonization to the outbreak of war with Witbooi. Unikum Verlag, originally April 1893, ISBN 9783845722801 .
  • Warfare in South Africa , Georg Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1900.
  • Lessons from the South African War for the German Army. With 8 sketches , published by ES Mittler & Sohn, Berlin 1901.
  • State or society in our colonies? Presentation made for the 11th general meeting of the " Bund der Deutschen Bodenreformer " , Harrwitz, Berlin 1901.
  • The Hottentot uprising. Study of the processes in Namalande v. Jan. 1904 to Jan. 2, 1905 ud prospects d. Prostration d. Uprising. , Berlin 1905.
  • Administrative General Staff trips, Verlag Reichsdr., Berlin 1910.

Afterlife

Named after Curt von François were or are:

annotation

  1. ↑ Note: This article contains characters from the alphabet of the Khoisan languages spoken in southern Africa . The display contains characters of the click letters ǀ , ǁ , ǂ and ǃ . For more information on the pronunciation of long or nasal vowels or certain clicks , see e.g. B. under Khoekhoegowab .

literature

Web links

Commons : Curt von François  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b CV
  2. ↑ a b c d Jörg Schildknecht: Bismarck, South West Africa and the Congo Conference: The international legal foundations of the effective occupation and its secondary obligations using the example of the acquisition of the first German colony. LIT-Verlag, 2000.
  3. ^ Klaus Dierks : Biographies of Namibian personalities online
  4. ^ Curt von François leaves noteworthy Legacy to Namibia. Gondwana Collection Namibia, January 16, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME François, Curt von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES François, Kurt von; François, Curt Karl Bruno von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military; Founder of Windhoek
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Luxembourg , Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1931
Place of death King Wusterhausen