Hansheinrich von Wolf

Duwisib

Hansheinrich von Wolf (sometimes also Hans-Heinrich , born January 11, 1873 in Dresden ; † September 4, 1916 near La Foret , France ) was a German nobleman and officer who served during the Herero uprising in German South West Africa and later the Duwisib Castle in what is now Namibia . Together with his wife Jayta von Wolf, née Humphreys, he lived in the castle for the first few years after it was built and cultivated the surrounding lands .

origin

Hansheinrich von Wolf came from the respected Saxon noble family of the von Wolfs, who were ennobled in 1790. The Wolfs, however, were not barons , although this is often reported. The alleged affiliation of the Saxon Wolfs to the Baltic German lineage of Lüdinghausen-Wolff turned out to be a mistake. His father was the Saxon major general Ernst Hugo von Wolf .

Military advancement to service in German South West Africa

In November 1890 Wolf joined the 1st Field Artillery Regiment No. 12 of the Saxon Army as an ensign and was promoted to secondary lieutenant in 1891 . In 1896 Wolf traveled to Egypt , where he traveled through the Sahara in a caravan . Promoted to prime lieutenant in 1898 , Wolf was assigned to the Hanover Military Riding Institute a year later . From 1900 he served in the cavalry department of the 4th Field Artillery Regiment No. 48 in Königsbrück near Dresden. In the same year he was ordered back to Hanover as a riding instructor and then rejoined his regiment in Königsbrück in 1901, now as a captain .

Herero uprising

In 1904 the Herero uprising broke out in German South West Africa , and the protection force there initially suffered numerous defeats, so that the situation became an increasingly serious threat to the German civilian population there. Therefore, in the German Reich, young men were increasingly being recruited for active military service in the colony . As a result, in 1904 Wolf asked to be released from the Saxon Army in order to be able to join the Schutztruppe. The captain was by no means driven there solely by a sense of duty to his fatherland , but also by a good deal of adventure. In October of the same year he was appointed commander of the 2nd reserve gun group within the Schutztruppe. Shortly afterwards, Wolf set out on the steamer Gertrud Woermann with 24 officers, 376 men and 300 horses from Hamburg to German South West Africa.

After previous landing difficulties of Gertrud Woermann , the ship ran aground about ten kilometers north of Swakopmund . Wolf arrived in Swakopmund on November 20, 1904. From there he went quickly to Gibeon and then via Maltahöhe to Gochas , where Wolf took over command of the 5th gun group.

On May 17, 1905, Wolf led a patrol of 28 men and was involved in a battle with the Fransman- Nama under Captain Simon Kooper in Kowes on the Auob-Rivier, about 30 km south of Gochas , who were also derogatory by the Germans as "Franzmann- Hottentotten " were designated. At this encounter, the Fransman-Nama proved to be superior to the troops led by Wolf in terms of number and armament. Wolf's patrol lost a few officers and cavalrymen early on in the battle . In view of the grave situation, Wolf ordered those who, in retrospect in military circles, were considered hasty by the majority, to retreat in order to avert an absolute defeat. A field gun and a lot of ammunition had to be left behind.

Because of the course of this battle, there was an initial investigation against Wolf. However, he was ultimately acquitted of all allegations and again entrusted with the command of the 5th gun group. On September 25, 1905 there was another battle with the Fransman-Nama under Simon Kooper under Wolf's leadership at Aus . Another battle in northern Gochas Zwartfontein followed on 13 October 1905. In November 1905, with the wolf Red Eagle Award IV. Class with swords. In addition, in January 1906 he was awarded the Knight's Cross First Class of the Order of Albrecht with Swords.

Return to Germany and marriage

Because he had meanwhile been wounded in combat, Wolf received permission to return to Germany on the steamer Professor Woermann in April 1906 . In October of the same year Wolf was officially released from the Schutztruppe and rejoined the 4th Field Artillery Regiment No. 48 in Koenigsbrück.

Because of his work in the colony of German South West Africa, Wolf was now a local celebrity in Dresden, even if his military reputation had suffered permanently due to the defeats. He began a relationship with the stepdaughter of the city-based American Consul General , Jayta Humphreys. Wolf and Humphries were married on April 8, 1907 in Dresden.

Jayta was the granddaughter of a wealthy New York drug maker with homeopathic specialization, Frederick Humphreys . She was born in Summit , New Jersey in 1881 . Wolf initially took a leave of absence from military service and was officially released on April 17, 1909. Two weeks after the wedding, the couple boarded the Post Ship Windhoek in Hamburg with the goal of German South West Africa in order to build a new life there.

Emigration to German South West Africa

On May 25, 1907, the couple arrived in Swakopmund and shortly afterwards took the train to Windhoek , where they found accommodation in the Hotel Kaiserkrone.

Wolf, who was not a sovereign in spite of his noble title , planned to acquire extensive lands in the sparsely populated German Southwest Africa , which included the area around the later Duwisib Castle. He applied to the German government to acquire around 140,000 hectares of land in southern German Southwest Africa. This very extensive land claim on the part of a private individual was initially received with great skepticism by the government. Ultimately, however, the Wolfs were allowed to purchase at least 20,000 hectares of land, with Wolf having to pay around 40 pfennigs per hectare. He acquired the lands granted to him and immediately submitted new applications for the acquisition of a further 150,000 hectares of land.

Duwisib Castle

The Wolfs soon decided to build a castle on their newly acquired African lands. Wolf's experiences during the Herero uprising led to this decision, so that one longed for a safe and "impregnable" residence. As a result, the Wolfs commissioned the architect Wilhelm Sander to build a castle for them.

The castle was christened "Duwisib Castle".

The fact that Duwisib Castle was built with reinforced doors and small windows clearly shows that the property was designed by the builders and their architect in such a way that it would withstand prolonged sieges. The castle itself was equipped with the standard of comfort, despite the complex's defensive nature. A wine cellar was also laid out. The associated lands were located around 300 km east of the coast and around 400 km south of Windhoek, which is why the construction of the castle became a major infrastructural challenge. After two years of construction - 1907/09 - the castle was completed. During the construction period, the couple lived together with a manager, an apprentice from Dresden, a horse overseer and a Herero servant in a primitive hut and in tents on the construction site in order to be able to monitor and advance the work.

Duwisib Castle was essentially a rectangle of 35 meters by 31 meters with four corner projections and was built from stone from local quarries. Everything else had to be imported, however. The materials required for construction and interior decoration such as B. Iron, wood, cement and skylights were shipped from Hamburg via Lüderitz and then transported to the construction site in a 24-tension ox wagon through the Namib Desert . Stonemasons from Italy and carpenters from Scandinavia and Ireland were hired. During the two-year construction period, the number of employees on site, usually Herero, rose steadily.

At the end of 1908 the Wolfs briefly traveled back to Germany in order to be able to emphasize their demand for the acquisition of another 150,000 hectares of land in Berlin . Ultimately, however, only the acquisition of a further 30,000 hectares was granted. The Wolfs had also used this visit to Germany intensively to purchase suitable furniture for their African castle on a large scale in their mother country and to have them shipped there. The Wolfs were able to acquire part of the furniture during the auction of Gottorf Castle . In March 1909, the Wolfs returned to Duwisib Castle with new furniture and 30,000 additional hectares of land in their luggage.

With regard to the furnishings of their castle, the Wolfs had a tendency towards antiquities , so that u. a. a lion table from the Renaissance , chests 18th century, leather chairs with double eagles , horses stitches and an oil painting with a portrait of Crown Prince Wilhelm made their way to West Africa. A Biedermeier room with a couch and fireplace chairs was also set up on Duwisib , so that the castle ultimately became a curious hodgepodge .

The couple traveled to the United States during the construction period to use Jayta's relationships to raise more capital for the construction project.

Wolf wanted to use his land, which surrounded Duwisib Castle, in a lucrative way from the start. Above all, he saw the protection force and the police as a potentially promising market for horses and mules that were to be bred on his lands: Until now, the animals required were mainly imported from the motherland. With his own breeding in the colony, he was able to undercut the German breeders through shorter and therefore more reliable sales channels. After years of war in German South West Africa, a large part of the horses, cattle, oxen, sheep and donkeys had died of exhaustion or died of thirst, so that this project can be regarded as rational.

At the end of 1909, Wolf kept 95 Hereford cattle, 18 mules and donkeys, 600 merino sheep , 10 pigs and 60 chickens on his land . He also spent 72 horses on his lands, including 38 valuable mares. 9 of these mares were thoroughbreds . By 1911 the number of horses had grown to 350. In addition, Wolf proved to be very foresighted when he started breeding Karakul sheep on his lands that same year , which would later become an important industry in South West Africa . It is also worth mentioning that the von Wolfs even imported camels from Arabia for breeding.

Although a Protestant himself , Wolf and his wife planned to build a Catholic church with a mission station on the grounds of Duwisib Castle to give his unbaptized Herero employees and their families a religious education. For this purpose, an altar, an organ and glass windows were commissioned in the United States, which were to be shipped from New York via Hamburg to South West Africa.

However, when the steamer Muanza arrived in Lüderitz on August 1, 1914 with the material ordered for the church, the First World War broke out on the same day , so that the ship immediately set course for South America together with the church furnishings without unloading the cargo .

The First World War and the end

On the same day the Wolfs boarded the steamer Gertrud Woermann in Swakopmund , which was supposed to bring them to England. There they had ordered a thoroughbred stallion from an English breed, whom they wanted to accompany on his transport to Africa. On 4 August 1914, the third day at sea, it was learned on the Gertrud Woermann of the declaration of war Britain to Germany and thus the outbreak of World War I, after which the steamer heading for Rio de Janeiro in Brazil took to an application by the British Navy to escape. Have, according to other sources wolf shall prior to departure the upcoming World War have "sensed" he that the European trip ever not commence because he will never go into Africa in Allied captivity wanted to be taken while the mother country was under arms. Therefore, he allegedly preferred to get home as soon as possible and wait for orders there.

When he arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Wolf was interned as a former German officer for a short time. He was soon released, however, and the couple first traveled to the United States. In New York, Wolf then booked on the Dutch Nieuw Amsterdam a passage about the Spanish Vigo to Rotterdam in the neutral Netherlands .

To be absolutely sure, before crossing British and French waters during the stopover in Vigo , the Wolfs staged the alleged abandonment of the ship by Wolf and he pretended to want to make his way from Spain by land to Germany. In truth, Wolf hid himself in a large trunk from Vigo. Jayta von Wolf had checked it in as a piece of luggage in New York for exactly this purpose and had it put in her cabin.

The journey from Vigo to Rotterdam should only take two or three days. But despite violent protests from the Dutch occupation, the Nieuw Amsterdam was unexpectedly stopped in the English Channel by the British Navy and forced to anchor in Southampton . The ship was then searched specifically for German officers. While two German officers were actually discovered and taken away, Wolf remained undiscovered in his hiding place. Although the Nieuw Amsterdam was held in Southampton for two weeks, Wolf persevered. Everything that was necessary was secretly supplied to him by Jayta von Wolf. “The necessary” consisted of large amounts of alcohol .

That is why there was soon talk of an American woman on board who, according to the captain , “got the bottle” out of longing for her husband. In fact, the stewards were amazed at the insatiable appetite and alcohol consumption of the rather petite Jayta von Wolf, but she used the not exactly pleasant thought processes of the other passengers and the crew and was able to remain unsuspicious in her cabin the whole time . During searches, she lay on the bed and hoped for the officers' discretion .
When the “Nieuw Amsterdam” reached Rotterdam two weeks late, the von Wolfs managed to go ashore in a mess between passengers and sailors , separated from one another but nonetheless unmolested. Shortly afterwards they met again in a hotel in the city and two days later traveled to Dresden, where Hansheinrich von Wolf immediately contacted the German military authorities.

At the beginning of 1915, Wolf reported to his former regiment, the 4th Field Artillery Regiment No. 48, in Königsbrück for duty. As a result, Wolf was promoted to major and transferred to Flanders , where he initially suffered minor injuries. Before he could fully recover from these injuries, however, he was transferred to the Western Front in France as a battalion commander in Reserve Infantry Regiment No. 242 . He was fatally wounded in the stomach by a shrapnel during the Battle of the Somme and died on September 4, 1916 at the age of 43 near the village of La Foret.

Duwisib Castle after the Wolfs

After the Wolfs left Duwisib in 1914, Max Graf von Lüttichau, as a close friend of the couple, initially received all the necessary powers to manage the farm. Soon after the end of the war, however, the property was declared bankrupt and, including its inventory, was sold to the Swedish Murrmann family for £ 7,050. Murrmann Senior died shortly after moving to South West Africa and the only son who served in the South African Air Force died in World War II , so that Duwisib was bought by a company for £ 25,000 shortly after World War II.

Duwisib and the surrounding lands later passed through different hands until the castle became state property in the 1970s. The surrounding farmland of the farm of the same name remained in private hands. The castle was renovated in 1991 and is now one of the most important sights in southern Namibia and a hotel of Namibia Wildlife Resorts .

Others

Because Jayta von Wolf is said to have been a great admirer of Sigmund Freud , she is considered by various sources to be the driving force behind the couple's return to South West Africa: According to Freud's teaching, based on these theories, she decisively persuaded her husband to move to his personal location Failure to return to face this still unfinished challenge.

During the First World War, Duwisib Castle was looted, for which Jayta von Wolf unsuccessfully demanded compensation from the South African mandate .

Hansheinrich von Wolf is said to have grown 1.98 m tall, which has always made him the “longest man” in his respective military units. The Saxon is also said to have played the piano very well and, according to his widow and other contemporary witnesses, was eccentric and very hard-drinking. He is also said to have had a weakness for gambling.

Hansheinrich von Wolf was also politically active in German South West Africa. In 1909 he was elected to the District Council and the Provincial Council of Maltahöhe, both of which acted as advisory bodies to the colonial government in Windhoek. In 1911 Wolf was appointed the farmers' representative in South West Africa with regard to railroad issues.

After her husband had fallen in World War I, Jayta von Wolf first lived in Munich , where her stepfather was now consul general. Later she lived on the Tegernsee . Because of her father's work, Jayta always had regular contact with diplomats and so she soon met Erich Schlemmer, the consul general for Siam , her future husband.

In the late 1930s, when the rule of the National Socialists in Germany became increasingly oppressive, Jayta moved from Wolf and Schlemmer to Switzerland and from then on lived in Zurich . In 1946 she returned to the United States, where she lived in Summit, New Jersey, until her death in 1963. She never returned to Duwisib Castle

The wild horses that occur in southern Namibia near Garub (approx. 200 km northeast of Duwisib) are sometimes considered to be descendants of horses that allegedly broke out of horse breeding on Duwisib during the turmoil of the First World War. However, even after the von Wolfs' departure to Europe and after the death of Hansheinrich von Wolf, horse breeding was still in the hands of a farm manager. Furthermore, according to the records, no horses were lost until the late 1930s, while wild horses were reported at Garub as early as the 1920s. Another reason to refute the theory that the wild horses at Garub could have come from the breeding of the von Wolfs is the fact that horses tend not to be inclined to wander over such long distances (approx. 200 km).

literature

• Harald N. Nestroy: Duwisib. The German knight's castle in Namibia and its lord Hansheinrich von Wolf. Namibia Scientific Ges., Windhoek 2002, ISBN 3-933117-73-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Ranking list of the Royal Saxon Army for the year 1913. Ed .: Sächsisches Kriegsministerium, department for personal affairs, C. Heinrich, Dresden 1913, p. 488.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay} Hansheinrich von Wolf on Namibia-1on1.com , February 1, 2012 (English)
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Livia and Peter Pack: Namibia. DuMont, Cologne 2004, second, completely revised edition ISBN 3-7701-6137-8 .
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s} Golf Dornseif: Small indiscretions about the Duwisib history , February 1, 2012
5. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj} Z. del Buono: The castle that came across the sea ( With photos of Duwisib Castle by J. Vanhöfen) in: Mare No. 73 (April / May 2009), pp. 90-94, February 9, 2012
6. ↑ ^{a b c d} Press release of the Gondwana Desert Collection: Wild Horses of the Namib (PDF; 280 kB)
7. ↑ Duwisib Castle. Duwisib Guestfarm. Retrieved August 8, 2019.