Heinrich Vogelsang

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Heinrich Vogelsang, around 1885

Heinrich Vogelsang (* 17th March 1862 in Bremen ; † 25. May 1914 ) was a German businessman and head of the first Lüderitz - Expedition to Angra Pequena ( German South West Africa , now Namibia ).

biography

Vogelsang, the son of a wealthy Bremen tobacco dealer and already active in West and South Africa as well as in East Africa, met the Bremen merchant and tobacco dealer Adolf Lüderitz in 1882 and was employed in his company F. A. E. Lüderitz and sent to Angra Pequena (later Lüderitzbucht) in 1883 . Lüderitz wanted to buy land there on which one could not only trade but also settle German citizens.

Once in Angra Pequena on 9 April 1883 acquired Vogelsang already on 1 May in 1883 by an agreement with the Vethanien Nama - Kaptein . Joseph Frederiks II the port of Angra Pequena and the surrounding land within 5 Miles for 100 British pounds in gold and 200 rifles with accessories. In a second contract, he secured the company a 20-mile-deep coastal strip from the Orange to a latitude of 26 ° south. When it came to signing contracts, Vogelsang left it open as to whether it should be a German or the shorter English mile. Adolf Lüderitz later referred to the significantly longer German mile (7.5 compared to 1.6 kilometers). This misleading went down in history as a so-called "mile fraud".

In 1884 he was appointed consul of the Bethanien district and representative of the imperial government in Lüderitz Bay by consul general Gustav Nachtigal . In this role he concluded so-called protection treaties with some ethnic and tribal groups. While this failed with the Herero under Maharero , he was successful with the Rehobothern and others.

Vogelsang's tenure ended in 1885. He left the country, but returned to German South West Africa in 1888 in the service of the German Colonial Society . Then he finally dedicated himself to the tobacco trade in his hometown of Bremen.

After Vogelsang was Fort Vogelsang , the trading post of Luederitz firm in which later Lüderitzbucht named.

On May 1, 1908, 25 years after purchasing land in Africa, Vogelsang was honored by the Bremen Senate, the local commercial associations and colonial advocates. He is said to have rejected two medals awarded by the Reich government with reference to the Hanseatic ban on orders .

gallery

  • Contract between Frederiks and Vogelsang dated August 25, 1883

  • page 1

  • Page 2

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Emil Lenssen: Chronicle of German South West Africa 1883 - 1915. 7th edition, Namibia Scientific Society, Windhoek 2002, ISBN 3-933117-51-8 , pp. 1, 213, 293.
  2. ↑ Gisela Graichen and Horst Founders: German Colonies - Dream and Trauma . Ullstein, Berlin 2005, p. 72 ff., ISBN 3-550-07637-1 .
  3. ↑ Hans Schinz: German South-West Africa: Research trips through the German protected areas Groß-Nama-und Hereroland, to the Kunene, the Ngami-See and the Kalahari. unikum, Bremen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8457-2481-2 , p. 502.
  4. ↑ Hans Emil Lenssen: Chronik von Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1883 - 1915. 7th edition, Namibia Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, Windhoek 2002, ISBN 3-933117-51-8 , p. 196.

literature

  • Conrad Weidmann: German men in Africa - Lexicon of the most outstanding German Africa researchers, missionaries, etc. Bernhard Nöhring, Lübeck 1894, p. 177.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Vogelsang, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German businessman
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1914
Place of death Bremen