Elo Wilhelm Sambo

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Elo Wilhelm Sambo (born April 1, 1885 as Elo Sambo in Yaoundé in the German colony of Cameroon ; † July 12, 1933 in Cologne ) was a German- Cameroonian military musician .

Life

childhood

Elo Sambo was born in Cameroon in 1885. In 1891 the Rittmeister Stolzenberg brought the six-year-old orphan to Germany. In Potsdam he was brought up in a military orphanage and trained as a groom. There he became the godchild of the German Emperor Wilhelm II and was given the middle name "Wilhelm".

Military career

As a volunteer, he joined the 4th Company of the No. 1 Railway Regiment on October 1, 1905 for two years . After his service, he changed on September 28, 1907 to the body squadron of the body guard hussar regiment . There he was trained as a kettle drum maker and successor to the kettle drum maker Arara, who was also of African origin.

During the First World War , Sambo fought on various fronts, in 1914 in East Prussia, in 1916 off Verdun and most recently with the Ottoman Army in Palestine, where he was taken prisoner by the English in 1918. He was wounded several times during his combat missions.

After his return to Germany he served from 1920 in Potsdam as a kettle drumstick with the rank of vice-sergeant in the cavalry regiment No. 4 , which was led in the form of the guard cavalry .

In 1923 Sambo was discharged from the army after 18 years of service.

Time after military service

After his discharge from the army, Sambo initially worked as a tour guide in the castles of Potsdam . Then he moved to Münster and worked as a coffee cook in the classy restaurant of his old comrade Albin Middendorf on the Prinzipalmarkt . Prince Eitel Friedrich von Prussia , the son of his godfather, visited him there. On behalf of Middendorf, the artist Fritz Grotemeyer painted an equestrian painting Sambo in 1927, which was hung in the restaurant. In 2012 this picture was acquired by the Military History Museum of the Bundeswehr in Dresden.

Eventually Sambo moved to Cologne. The sources give different reasons for this: Either he was brought to Cologne by old Rhenish comrades of the former Leib-Garde-Hussar Regiment - or he fell in love with a Rhinelander.

Sambo took an active part in the Cologne Carnival . As a member of one of the oldest Blue Funken carnival societies , which traditionally open the Rose Monday procession, he rode with the band at the head of the Rose Monday procession until the end. As a result, he was known and loved in Cologne, especially with children.

death

Sambo died in 1933 at the age of 48 in a Cologne hospital. He last lived in Cologne's Südstadt , Am Duffesbach 6, and was not married. His solemn burial in Cologne's southern cemetery took place with the participation of the bodyguard hussars, regimental associations and war clubs. From exile in the Netherlands, the abdicated Kaiser Wilhelm II sent a wreath for the grave of his godchild. The tomb no longer exists.

Orders and awards

For his service in the First World War, Sambo was awarded the Wound Badge and the Iron Cross 2nd Class.

literature

  • Carsten Krystofiak: Münster - Every week has its stories. Oktober-Verlag, 2012, ISBN 978-3941895270 , p. 170 f.
  • Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst: Elo Wilhelm Sambo - godchild of the emperor and blue spark. In: Marianne Bechhaus-Gerst, Anne-Kathrin Horstmann (eds.): Cologne and German colonialism: a search for traces. Böhlau-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3412210175 , pp. 175-178.
  • Klaus Schlegel: Cologne and its Prussian soldiers. The history of the garrison and fortress Cologne from 1814 to 1914.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Death certificate No. 372 from July 12, 1933, registry office Cologne III. In: LAV NRW R civil status register. Retrieved January 24, 2019 .
  2. ↑ cleared grave site in the database of Find a Grave . Retrieved November 24, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Sambo, Elo Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sambo, Elo (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Cameroonian military musician
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Yaoundé , German colony of Cameroon
DATE OF DEATH July 12, 1933
Place of death Cologne