Friedrich Colin

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Friedrich Colin

Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Johann Colin (born June 25, 1844 in Landau in the Palatinate , † after 1911) was a German merchant and officer. He gained fame through the initiation of a short-lived German colony in Kapitaï and Koba (today parts of Guinea ).

Life

Friedrich Colin was the son of the language teacher Coelestin Marie Colin (1814–1873), who came from Avranches . The latter had already moved from France to Landau in the Palatinate - at that time part of the Kingdom of Bavaria on the left bank of the Rhine - before the birth of his son . Colin's father taught French and English at the Royal Bavarian Latin School there . Until 1860 Colin attended the Royal Bavarian Agricultural and Trade School (today's Otto Hahn Gymnasium ) in Landau in the Palatinate as a trainee . For the school year 1858/59, a praise in French has been proven. Colin was a soldier in the 12th Infantry Regiment and was promoted to second lieutenant in 1866 . In 1870 he left the army as a first lieutenant .

Commercial agent and self-employment

Colin worked for the 1870-1882 in Marseille -based, French trading house CA Verminck that on the West African coast between Dakar and Freetown factories entertained. In addition to French nationals, British, German and Swiss people were also employed in the trading branches. Colin worked as an agent in Rufisque or on the island of Gorée , among others . After being laid off in 1882, Colin traded as an oil manufacturer in Besigheim, Württemberg, and later as a businessman in Stuttgart. He began an exchange of letters with the co-founder of the German Colonial Association Hermann von Maltzan . He wanted to acquire branches in Senegambia for the German Empire and had already established contacts with financiers in Frankfurt am Main and Stuttgart. Colin was to become a consultant and leader of the project. Colin suggested to Maltzan to establish a German colony near Conakry on the Dubreka and Foreakarea rivers as soon as possible before other European powers took possession of it. Colin is now trying to implement his plans independently of the German Colonial Association. Through the mediation of his brother Ludwig Christian Colin , who was director of the Württembergische Vereinsbank , he obtained the financial participation of the Stuttgart industrialist Gustav Siegle . Colin started his own business and had a trading post built at the mouth of the Dubreka in September and October 1883, for which he bought land from a local ruler named Bala Demba for 1,260 marks . The so-called Frederick Factory was in Boulbiné on the Tumbo peninsula near Conakry. Colin only visited his trading post briefly in November 1883 and posted German employees. From the very beginning, however, a central employee of the Colin company was the Swiss Louis Baur , who had previously also been employed at CA Verminck and who now drove the commercial and colonial- political intentions for Colin on site.

“Colinsland” and the German-African Business Company

The Hamburg headquarters of the German-African Business company was located at Bleichenbrücke 25.
Claims of European states to coastal regions of West Africa, around 1885: Rivières du Sud or Kapitaï and Koba were controversial between France and Germany

As part of the onset of German colonialism, Colin tried to influence the Reich government and Otto von Bismarck to have his branches officially placed under German protection. At the end of March 1884, Colin went public with his request when he presented the project during an event organized by the local colonial association in Stuttgart. On the recommendation of Hermann zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg , Colin was received by Bismarck on April 28, 1884, together with Hanseatic merchants - including Adolf Lüderitz and Adolph Woermann . Colin's suggestions and a letter of friendship from Bala Dembas to the German Emperor, which Colin presented in Berlin, were included in the instructions for the new Reich Commissioner for West Africa, Gustav Nachtigal . But when Nachtigal, together with Max Buchner, called at Guinea in June 1884 in order to confirm the friendship request through a protection contract through Baur's mediation , Bala Demba refused to accept it. Colin then fell out of favor with Bismarck and his project temporarily became a taboo subject in the Foreign Office . Nevertheless, on behalf of Colin, Louis Baur made further agreements with neighboring local rulers, whose territories were regarded as independent of the neighboring French zone of influence. Colin turned again to Bismarck in October 1884 with the support of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. According to Colin, a southern German trading company to be founded on Dubreka would only have a chance of success under Reich protection. Under the impression of well-known investors, the possibility of access to the upper Niger and not least in view of the prospect of a "compensation object" in compensation with France, Bismarck also accepted this second request. At the beginning of January 1885, the coastal lands Kapitaï and Koba were officially placed under the protection of the Empire and the establishment of a German colony - as in other parts of West Africa at the same time - seemed sealed. Colonial authors called the claimed area Colinsland . Colin now founded the company Friedrich Colin, German-African business in Hamburg , which came into being in March 1885 in Frankfurt am Main. Colin transferred the general agency to the Hamburg company G. W. Wolf .

In June 1885 Colin traveled back to Baur in the Boulbiné branch. The attempt to promote the establishment of the colony economically, however, soon failed because of the Franco-German diplomacy: In December 1885, Germany gave Kapitaï and Koba to France in exchange for territory in Togo . The Colin branches were from now on in French colonial territory. In the Franco-German agreement of December 24, 1885, special rights and privileges were set out, which the French state granted the Colins company at the request of the German government. The requests included the protection of property, the recognition of private rights, equality with similar French companies and the assurance of the same customs regime as in neighboring areas. The agreement worked to the advantage of both the French state and Colin's company, because the factories were profitable, so that the customs duties paid soon made up more than half of the customs revenue on Dubreka. In 1888, the company received government compensation after French warships damaged one of the factories fighting locals. The company nonetheless continued, employed German employees and existed until around 1908.

Little is known about Colin's further biography: in 1890 he sought a seat on the Colonial Council, which apparently remained unsuccessful. In 1896 he tried in vain to obtain French citizenship. From 1889 his private address was in Hamburg address books. In July 1912 he registered in Hamburg and announced Freiburg im Breisgau as his new place of residence.

family

On July 19, 1873 Colin married Maria-Elisabeth Regnault in Speyer . From the marriage the daughters Marie Blanche Colin (born October 15, 1875 in Gorée, Senegal) and Élise Madeleine Colin (born March 19, 1884 in Stuttgart) emerged.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jean Suret-Canale: La maison de négoce de Friedrich Colin, la “German-African business” et la tentative d'implantation allemande en Guinée (1880–1908), in: Hubert Bonin, Michel Cahen et al. (Ed.): Négoce blanc en Afrique noire - L'évolution du commerce à longue distance en Afrique noire du 18e au 20e siècles. Société française d'histoire d'outre mer, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-85970-024-2 , p. 275.
  2. ↑ Conrad Weidmann: German Men in Africa - Lexicon of the most outstanding German Africa researchers, missionaries, etc. Verlag Buchhandlung Bernhard Nöhring, Lübeck 1894, p. 26 ( digitized on archive.org ).
  3. ↑ Information online at Geneanet
  4. ↑ Friedrich Gilardone (Ed.): Official directory and statistics of the Royal Bavarian Government District of the Palatinate. Kranzbühler, Speyer 1874, p. 65 ( digitized in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek ).
  5. ^ Royal Bavarian Latin School (Landau, Pfalz): Annual report on the Kgl. Latin school in Landau in the Palatinate. for the academic year 1869–1870. Kaußler, Landau in der Pfalz 1870, p. 3 ( digitized on bavarikon.de ).
  6. ↑ Royal Bavarian. Landwirthschafts- & Gewerbsschule first class in Landau in the Palatinate: Annual report on the Royal Bavarian. Agriculture & Trade School First Class in Landau in the Palatinate for the school year 1859 - 60. Landau in the Palatinate 1860, p. 11 ( digitized on bavarikon.de ).
  7. ↑ Royal Bavarian. Landwirthschafts- & Gewerbsschule first class in Landau in the Palatinate: Annual report on the Royal Bavarian. Landwirthschafts- & Gewerbsschule first class in Landau in the Palatinate for the school year 1858–59. Landau in der Pfalz 1859, p. 12 ( digitized from bavarikon.de ).
  8. ^ Kingdom of Bavaria: Government sheet for the Kingdom of Bavaria. Munich 1866, p. 682 ( digitized from bavarikon.de ).
  9. ^ Kingdom of Bavaria: Government Gazette for the Kingdom of Bavaria. Munich 1870, p. 1804 ( digitized from bavarikon.de ).
  10. ↑ Hans Peter Müller: The Kingdom of Württemberg and the Beginnings of German Colonial Policy (1879/80 - 90), in: Commission for Geschichtliche Landeskunde in Baden-Württemberg and Württembergischer Geschichts- und Altertumsverein Stuttgart (ed.): Journal for Württemberg State History. Volume 66, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2007, p. 439, ISSN  0044-3786 .
  11. ↑ Hans Werner Debrunner: Swiss witnesses and participants in the beginnings of German colonization in Africa, in: Peter Heine, Ulrich van der Heyden (ed.): Studies on the history of German colonialism in Africa - Festschrift for the 60th birthday of Peter Sebald . Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1995, p. 186, ISBN 3-89085-939-9 .
  12. ↑ a b Müller 2007, p. 440.
  13. ^ Hans Werner Debrunner: Swiss in colonial Africa. Basler Afrika Bibliographien, Basel 1991, p. 124, ISBN 3-905141-51-5 .
  14. ↑ Hans Werner Debrunner: Louis Baur. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . June 28, 2002 , accessed July 10, 2017 .
  15. ^ Colin & Co., Fr .: German-African business , advertisement, undated. In: State and University Library Hamburg Carl von Ossietzky: Hamburg address books .
  16. ^ A b Max von Koschitzky: German Colonial History. Volume 2 - Acquisition of the Reich Protected Areas until the Carolinen Controversy was settled, Paul Frohberg's publishing house, Leipzig 1888, pp. 190 ff. ( Online ).
  17. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Wehler : Bismarck and Imperialism. 4th edition, dtv, Munich 1976, p. 331, ISBN 3-423-04187-0 .
  18. ↑ Max Buchner: Aurora colonialis - fragments of a diary from the first beginning of our colonial policy 1884/1885. Piloty & Loehle, Munich 1914, p. 16 ff. (Unchanged facsimile reprint, Fines Mundi, Saarbrücken 2016).
  19. ↑ Wehler 1976, p. 331 f.
  20. ^ Kurt Hassert : Germany's colonies - acquisition and development history, regional and folklore and economic importance of our protected areas. Dr. Soul & Co., Leipzig 1899, p. 34.
  21. ↑ August Totzke: Germany's colonies and its colonial policy. Bruns: Minden i. W. 1885, p. 229 ff.
  22. ^ Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg: Estate of Prince Hermann zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg , accessed on July 10, 2017
  23. ↑ Debrunner 1995, p. 194.
  24. ↑ Otto von Bismarck: Protocol on the German and French possessions etc., in: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Ed.): Negotiations of the Reichstag, Volume 90 1885/86, File No. 121, Berlin 1886, p. 610 ff. ( Digitized on reichstagsprotocol.de ).
  25. ↑ Debrunner 1995, p. 195.
  26. ↑ a b c Müller 2007, p. 441.
  27. ↑ Debrunner 1991, p. 126.
  28. ↑ Suret-Canale 2001, p. 275.
  29. ↑ Debrunner 1995, p. 195.
  30. ↑ Suret-Canale 2001, p. 275.
  31. ↑ "Germany Marriages, 1558-1929," database, FamilySearch ( online since Dec. 26, 2014), Friedrich Wilhelm Carl Johann Colin and Marie Elise Henriette Regnault, 19 July 1873; citing Civil, Speyer, Pfalz, Bavaria; FHL microfilm 192,415.
  32. ↑ Suret-Canale 2001, p. 271.
personal data
SURNAME Colin, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Colin, Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Johann (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German merchant and officer
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Landau in the Palatinate
DATE OF DEATH after 1911