Emil Nagel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emil Carl Nagel (born March 24, 1853 in Karlsruhe ; † December 19, 1933 there ) was a German officer and traveler to Africa.

Life

Emil Nagel came as the child of hatter Carl and Caroline Nagel, née Scherer, born in Karlsruhe. He attended the Grand Ducal Lyceum in Karlsruhe . After his school days, Nagel joined the Baden army and the German army and became a prime lieutenant in the 1st Baden Leibgrenadierregiment No. 109 .

In South Africa

Nagel retired from active military service and went to South Africa . In 1876 he traveled from Pietermaritzburg through the colony of Natal to the Orange Free State and Matabeleland . Nagel published an article about this trip in the journal Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen . Later he settled in Pondoland . In the second half of the 19th century, the area of ​​today's Republic of South Africa was not yet a unified nation-state, but consisted of British colonies, Boer republics and still partially independent African regions. Control over the latter became the goal of missionary, colonial and settlement efforts. A small German current of these endeavors was based on initiatives by Germans abroad. In addition to Nagel, they included August Einwald and Adolf Schiel .

The Pondoland Concession

Map of the Pondoland and East Griqualand from 1880 concession area by Emil Nagel
!
View of the concession area at Port St. Johns on the Mzimvubu Estuary (right bank; photo from 2007)

On June 20, 1885, Nagel concluded agreements with the heads of Pondoland, the brothers Umhlangaso and Umquikela, on a land concession for a rural and colonization society . The property was approximately 160 square miles or 41,125 hectares . It was east of the Mzimvubu River and included a forest area, the Egosa or Ekossi bush . The coast stretched to the northern Wild Coast on the Indian Ocean between the 31st and 32nd degrees of southern latitude . In return, Nagel promised the residents of Pondoland protection from the British. In addition, two sons of the royal family were to be brought up through the Hermannsburg Mission in Germany . Nagel brought the two Pondojungen via Durban to Germany and treated them henceforth as a bargaining chip against the Pondoherrschern. One of the king's sons, seventeen-year-old Oskar Umhlangaso, fell so seriously ill soon after his arrival in Germany that he left with the help of the missionaries and died on the way back to Africa. Because of this tragic incident and because of unsustainable promises, Nagel became a persona non grata in Pondoland . In the following months, Nagel unsuccessfully campaigned in Berlin for recognition of the agreements to establish a German colony . Although the German government never seriously considered annexing the Pondoland, Nagel's initiative was followed closely by the Empire and the correspondence on the Pondoland affair was documented. Eventually Pondoland became a protectorate of Great Britain in 1887. Nagel was no longer personally involved in the later transfer of the concession rights and obligations to the German Pondoland Society .

Little is known about Nagel's later life. In April 1886 he became engaged to Clara Schleich, daughter of the married couple Wilhelm and Elisabeth Schleich, née. Vollmer, from Berlin. The civil marriage took place on September 11, 1886 in Berlin. The Baden Grand Duke Friedrich I granted Nagel support in 1889. In the same year, Nagel asked the Baden Ministry of State for employment in the Foreign Office .

Fonts

  • The northern gold fields of Matabili country - From the diary of a traveler to Africa. In: Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen , Volume 28, 1882, pp. 342–347. ( Online on the website of the University of Jena. )
  • Practical guide to the Kaffir language. For easy communication with the native Kaffirs of South Africa. T. O. Weigel, Leipzig 1887. ( Online on the website of the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. )
  • together with M. Bauer and F. Hendweiller: Utilization of E. Nagel's contract for land acquisition in Pondolande, South Africa. Gronau, 1885.
  • Experiences in Africa, in: Wilhelm Spemann (ed.): From rock to sea. Volume 1 (October 1887 to March 1888), p. 1579 ff.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Register Office Berlin III: marriage register . No. 607/1886.
  2. ^ Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg: Nagel, Emil Karl (Seconde-Leutnant). Finding aid entry online at landesarchiv-bw.de .
  3. a b Without author: Program of the Grand Ducal Lyceum in Karlsruhe: for the school year 1863–64. G. Braun'sche Hofdruckerei, Karlsruhe 1864, p. 30. ( Online at Google. )
  4. ^ Association of former Badischer Leibdragoner, in: Badische Presse , morning edition of December 21, 1933 (obituary notice of December 20, 1933), No. 594, p. 7. ( Online on the pages of the Badische Landesbibliothek. )
  5. a b c United Kingdom (Ed.): Cape Colony. Correspondance respecting the affairs of Pondoland. London 1887, p. 60 and passim ( online at hdl.handle.net ).
  6. ^ Conrad Weidmann : German men in Africa - Lexicon of the most outstanding German Africa researchers, missionaries, etc. Bernhard Nöhring, Lübeck 1894, p. 131 f. ( Online at archive.org )
  7. ^ Werner Schmidt-Pretoria: German migration to South Africa in the 19th century. D. Reimer, Berlin 1955, p. 274 ( name register online at safrika.org ).
  8. ^ William Beinart: European Traders and the Mpondo Paramountcy, 1878-1886. In: The Journal of African History. Vol. 20, No. 4 (1979): p. 483 f. ( online at JSTOR ).
  9. ^ A b Baden-Württemberg State Archives: Emil Nagel, former lieutenant from Baden. Finding aid entry online at landesarchiv-bw.de .
  10. Without author: Pondoland , in: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon , Volume 16, Leipzig 1908, pp. 145–146. ( Online at Zeno.org. )
  11. Fred Morris: A Visit to the Pondo King Umquikela - South African Sketches by Fred Morris , in: Library of Entertainment and Knowledge. Volume 3, Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart / Berlin / Leipzig 1900, p. 214. ( Online at archive.org )
  12. ^ Franz Hertwig: The coastal area of ​​Natal and Pondoland in its economic development , in: Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen. 34th volume, 1888, p. 358. ( Online on the website of the University of Jena. )
  13. Martin Tamcke : Afrikaner in Hermannsburg of the 19th century , in: Inge Mager, Hans Otte (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the Society for Lower Saxony Church History . Volume 99, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Braunschweig / Limbach 2001, pp. 207–226.
  14. Agnes M. Hutton: Pondoland - Her Cape And Natal Neighbors 1878-1894. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2013 (original from 1935), p. 69 ff. ( Online on the website of the University of Witwatersrand )
  15. Franz Bachmann: South Africa - Travel, Experiences and Observations during a six-year stay in the Cape Colony, Natal and Pondoland. Hermann Eichblatt, Berlin 1901, p. 116 ff. ( Online at archive.org )
  16. ^ Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg: Use by the Grand Duke for the benefit of various people. Finding aid entry .
  17. ^ Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg: Request of the Prime Lieutenant of the Landwehr Infantry Emil Nagel in Karlsruhe for employment in the Foreign Office. Finding aid entry online at landesarchiv-bw.de .

Web links