Eduard Haber

Johann Karl Emil Eduard Haber (born October 1, 1866 in Risa near Mechernich , † January 14, 1947 in Tübingen - Lustnau ) was a German colonial official and diplomat.

Life

After graduating from high school in Brilon in 1884 , Eduard Haber studied mining at the universities of Freiburg , Aachen and Bonn from 1885 to 1888 . In 1888 he joined the Corps Rhenania Bonn .

After completing his studies, Haber first worked as a mountain trainee teacher from 1888 and as an assessor at the Bonn Mining Authority from 1893 . After a trip that took him to Mexico and Peru in 1889, he was given a teaching position at the Bergakademie Berlin . From 1896 he traveled to Australia and America for Deutsche Bank . After his return, Haber was appointed deputy steelworks inspector at the Friedrichshütte (Silesia) steelworks office in 1900 and was appointed to the Reich Colonial Service of the Foreign Office in the same year .

In 1901 he worked as a mountain official in the Dar-es-Salam governorate in German East Africa . In 1903 Haber, who had been appointed government councilor the year before, was appointed first advisor to the governorate and in 1906 promoted to secret government councilor. In 1907 Haber moved to the Reichskolonialamt in Berlin as a lecturer, and in 1910 he was appointed to the Secret Upper Government Council.

In 1913, Haber was appointed Deputy Governor of German New Guinea (DNG), Albert Hahl , and he left on January 22, 1914. Due to the illness of Hahl, who was on leave to Germany, he led the official business in Rabaul provisionally.

He found out about the beginning of the First World War in Morobe . He returned to Rabaul on August 14, where he organized armed resistance with a force of around 50 settlers and 250 local people. After signing the surrender on September 17, 1914, he had to take the oath of neutrality. Together with 11 other German prisoners of war , he was brought to Sydney on the captured steamer Komet and interned in the Holdsworthy concentration camp on October 29, 1914 . On January 15, 1915, he and his secretary Münz were deported on board the Sonoma to San Francisco , from where he was finally allowed to return to the Reich.

In Berlin, he formally continued the official business as the managing governor of German New Guinea. On December 14, 1917, Wilhelm Solf named him the successor of Hahl, who had been declared unfit for the tropics, officially the last governor of German New Guinea. Both Kaiser Wilhelm II and Erich Ludendorff considered this appointment during the war to be hasty and ill-considered because the Pacific colony no longer played a role in their plans.

During the peace negotiations for the C-mandate of the League of Nations , Haber was subsequently appointed as a second member of the German delegation in May 1919, but because of the hopelessness of his work he resigned and took over the management of the Mecklenburg coal industry.

In 1920 Haber served as president of the Reichsausgleichsamt . After retiring from service in the Reich in 1923, he took on a teaching position at the Clausthal Mining Academy until 1927, and in 1924 he was appointed honorary professor. 1928–45, Haber taught at the University of Tübingen as a lecturer in international colonial science and raw materials management. In March 1933 he signed the declaration of 300 university lecturers for Adolf Hitler . Haber never did a doctorate, although he was often referred to as “Dr.”. His application for an honorary doctorate to be awarded to him was rejected on the grounds that he was satisfied with the honorary senatorial title awarded to him in 1936.

During his lifetime, in 1936, the city of Tübingen honored him by naming a street that is still named after him today.

Awards

• 1905: Red Eagle Order 4th class
• 1906: Red Eagle Order 4th class with the Johanniterkreuz on the white ribbon
• 1910: Royal Crown Order 3rd class
• 1912: Red Eagle Order 3rd class with ribbon
• 1915: Iron Cross 2nd class
• 1915: 3rd class Red Cross medal
• 1915: Order of Military Merit 3rd class with crown and swords
• 1915: Friedrichs-Orden Commentary Cross 2nd class
• 1915: Iron Crescent
• 1918: Red Cross medal 2nd class
• 1918: Austrian Military Merit Cross 2nd Class with the war decoration
• 1923: Iron Cross 1st class
• 1924: Honorary professor at the Clausthal mining academy

literature

• Walter Serlo: The Prussian Bergassessors . 4th edition. Essen 1933, p. 132.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1930, 15 , 565
2. ↑ Biographical Handbook German New Guinea . 2nd Edition. Fassberg, 2002, p. 123.
3. ↑ Biographisches Handbuch ..., p 123: Letter from PG Prof. Dr. Bacher, Berlin, quoting.