German Pondoland Society

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German Pondoland Society
legal form Limited partnership
founding 1886
resolution after 1901
Seat Berlin , German EmpireGerman EmpireThe German Imperium 
management Otto Kersten
Branch Agriculture and forestry

Call of the DPLG to subscribe for shares in the journal Export , 1889
Map of the Pondoland and East Griqualand from the 1880 DPLG concession area
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The German Pondoland Society (DPLG) was a Berlin colonial and limited partnership with economic interests in the South African Pondoland . The main purpose of the company was the exploitation of a concession concluded by Emil Nagel with Pondo heads .

history

The society emerged in 1886 from the Berlin South African Association . The lieutenant a. In June 1885, D. Emil Nagel had signed a concession agreement for a land and colonization company with the Pondo heads Umhlangaso and Umquikela. The DPLG wanted to exploit the land rights mentioned in the contract economically and to settle German colonialists in Pondoland. The founder and driving force behind the company was the geographer and Africa explorer Otto Kersten . In August 1889 the company was renamed Deutsche Pondoland-Gesellschaft, Kommanditgesellschaft Dr. Kersten, Bauer & Co. entered in the Berlin commercial register. At that time, the DPLG office was at Friedrichstrasse 71, at what is now Quartier 206 .

Unlike Lüderitz 'acquisition in South West Africa or Denhardt and Peters ' claims in East Africa, private property in Pondoland was never a German colony . Rather, a declaration of protection by the Reich in March 1887 was considered "excluded". As in the case of Santa Lucia Bay to the north, the imperial government also recognized this part of South Africa as a British sphere of interest . The DPLG therefore did not acquire any colonial political significance, but remained a purely private company. Nevertheless, both the German Colonial Society and the Association for Commercial Geography of the DPLG assured their support.

One of the company's activities is the Pondoland expedition of 1887/1888 to investigate the conditions for agriculture and forestry. The members of the expedition obtained confirmation and transfer of the concession to the DPLG from Pondo heir to the throne Usigkao on March 10, 1888 after long negotiations. The company's land holdings grew to around 150,000 hectares (approx. 1,500 km²), which was roughly the size of the County of Glatz in Silesia. Although the support from the DPLG was little, according to member Franz Bachmann , the construction of several test stations was started, which Konrad Beyrich operated for about two years.

About 10,000 hectares of the community area were high forest . The company had high hopes for the wood in the Ekossa forest. At the Intsubana station built there , wood samples were collected and sent to the DPLG in Berlin. Near Port Grosvenor also insisted on the coast of Pondolandes the station Lamba (also Lombaas ), should serve agricultural experiments. In German newspapers, investors were called on to subscribe for shares and settlers to emigrate.

The company's capital was set at 700,000 marks at the first general meeting  . After deducting the severance payment to former buyers of the land and the expenses of the investigation expedition, around 400,000 marks remained as working capital. Of this, 200,000 marks were issued as shares (see picture of the call). Little is known about further activities of the company. The DPLG can be traced in Berlin telephone books up to 1901.

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Werner van der Merwe: Sixty Years of SADK 1932–1992. University of South Africa, Pretoria 1992, ISBN 978-0-869-81750-6 , p. 151.
  2. ↑ According to Werner Schmidt-Pretoria, the DPLG was founded in 1885, but the South African Association was founded in 1886 by Otto Kersten. Werner Schmidt-Pretoria: German migration to South Africa in the 19th century. Dietrich Reimer, Berlin: 1955. ( Register of names online at safrika.org )
  3. ↑ Without author: Messages from the German Colonial Society - Berlin Department, in: Deutsche Kolonialzeitung. Volume 1 (new series), No. 47, Berlin November 24, 1888, p. 381. ( Online in the Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library , Frankfurt am Main)
  4. ^ Moritz Schanz: East and South Africa. Wilhelm Süsserott, Berlin 1902, p. 307. ( Online at archive.org )
  5. ↑ Without author: Small messages, in: Deutsche Kolonialzeitung. Volume 2 (new series), No. 32, Berlin September 14, 1889, pp. 179–180. ( Online in the Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library , Frankfurt am Main)
  6. ↑ The term Deutsch-Pondoland sometimes used at the time did not express a constitutional relationship. Without author: Die deutsche Pondolandgesellschaft, in: Export - Organ of the Central Association for Commercial Geography and Promotion of German Interests Abroad. XI. Vol., No. 15, pp. 216-217. ( Online at archive.org )
  7. ↑ Without author: A new colonization company in South Africa, in: Colonial-political correspondence. Volume 3, No. 10, March 12, 1887, pp. 77-78. ( Online in the Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library , Frankfurt am Main)
  8. ↑ Otto Kersten: Südostafrika, in: Deutsche Kolonialzeitung. Volume 2 (new series), No. 10, Berlin March 9, 1889, p. 77. ( Online in the Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library , Frankfurt am Main)
  9. ^ Franz Bachmann: Vereinnachrichten, in: Export - Organ of the Central Association for Commercial Geography and Promotion of German Interests Abroad. XI. Vol., No. 12, pp. 177-178. ( Online at archive.org )
  10. ↑ Franz Bachmann: South Africa - Travel, Experiences and Observations during a six-year stay in the Cape Colony, Natal and Pondoland . H. Eichblatt, Berlin 1901, DNB 57912536X .
  11. ↑ Otto Kersten: Überseeische Waldwirtschaft, in: Gustav Meinecke (Hrsg.): Koloniales Jahrbuch - Das Jahr 1888. 1. Jg., Carl Heymann, Berlin 1889, pp. 61–80. ( Online at archive.org )
  12. ^ Franz Bachmann: A ride through the Ekossa forest and on the coast of Pondoland (Southeast Africa), in: Deutsche Kolonialzeitung. Volume 1 (new series), No. 25, Berlin June 23, 1888, pp. 194–197. ( Online in the Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library , Frankfurt am Main)
  13. ^ Hugh F. Glen, Gerrit Germishuizen (ed.): Botanical exploration of southern Africa. 2nd ed., Strelitzia 26, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria 2010, ISBN 978-1-919976-54-9 , p. 83. ( Online at biodiversitylibrary.org )
  14. ↑ Without author: New colonial enterprises - The German Pondoland company, in: Deutsche Kolonialzeitung. Volume 2 (new series), No. 10, Berlin March 9, 1889, pp. 78–79. ( Online in the Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library , Frankfurt am Main)
  15. ↑ Without author: Politische Tagesschau, in: Thorner Presse , Vol. VII, No. 85, April 10, 1889, p. 2. ( Online on the website of the Toruń University Library )
  16. ↑ Without author: Die deutsche Pondolandgesellschaft, in: Export - Organ of the Central Association for Commercial Geography and Promotion of German Interests Abroad. XI. Vol., No. 15, pp. 216-217.
  17. ↑ A 1902 publication stated that difficulties with British administration prevented the company from developing further. Moritz Schanz: East and South Africa. Wilhelm Süsserott, Berlin 1902, p. 307.
  18. ↑ Address book for Berlin and its suburbs. Edition 1901, p. 261. ( Online in the digital state library Berlin )