Hermann Consten

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Hermann Consten (born March 14, 1878 in Aachen ; † August 4, 1957 ibid) was a German travel writer, Mongolian researcher and photographer

Life and professional development

Hermann Consten was born in Aachen as the son of the wealthy Aachen distillery and pub owner Josef Consten. During his school education in his hometown and in Friedrichsdorf (Hessen) he did not find access to serious learning and often received bad grades. After graduating from school, he enrolled at the Technical University of Aachen in the subject of architecture . After two semesters, he moved to the University of Karlsruhe . Instead of serious studies, however, he threw himself more into student life and was a permanent guest in pubs and dance halls. He became a member of the Arminia Karlsruhe fraternity . He did not get an academic degree. In 1899, at the age of 21, he began training as an agronomist specializing in colonial agriculture at the Witzenhausen Colonial School . In September 1900 he received his diploma and at the end of 1900 he went on trips to German East Africa .

The first steps took Hermann Consten to Mombasa in East Africa . Here he began working as a plantation assistant. But in the following year he switched to administrative tasks in the Rheinische Handeï-Plantagen-Gesellschaft , whose owner was the German North Africa specialist Max von Oppenheim (1860-1946). Due to malaria , Consten had to return to Germany in 1905. In the same year he studied in Moscow at the "Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages". Here he dealt with geography, anthropology as well as the Russian and Mongolian languages . He was commissioned by one of his professors in Moscow to travel to Mongolia for an anthropological research project , to collect human heads from deceased Mongols in order to then scientifically evaluate the findings. In 1906 he undertook several exploratory trips and targeted expeditions from Moscow to the northern part of the Mongolian settlement areas. At that time, that was " Outer Mongolia ", which was under Manchurian rule, and from 1924 the territory of the "Mongolian People's Republic". On his travels he pursued geographical and cartographic topics in the not particularly well-developed terrain. In addition, Consten dealt with archaeological and ethnological topics. On site he witnessed the struggles of the individual tribes against the Manchurian domination in the region. He mainly found access as an advisor to Mongolian princes. A year later he expanded his travel radius with visits to Siberia , the Urals , the Altai Mountains and other parts of Mongolia. During these trips he was mainly equipped with Russian diplomatic passports and passports of the Manchu dynasty. During the excursions he documented the way of life, customs and religious reference points of the individual Mongolian tribes and photographed and made written sketches about the living conditions on site. His entries in the books he carried with him later served as the basis for detailed travel reports. But it was also increasingly about natural resources in which these regions are rich. During this time he became a member of the "Imperial Russian Geographical Society".

On one of these trips in 1907 he accompanied a German consul to Hovd (today Chowd) in western Mongolia. From that time on he became a constant source of information for the German embassy in St. Petersburg . He reported regularly on regional power shifts and the efforts of China, Japan and Russia to gain a foothold in Mongolia. This was also of great importance from a military-strategic point of view, since after the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904/1905 Germany was particularly interested in the resulting shifts in power in the East Asian region. The relationship of trust with individual tribal chiefs developed by Hermann Consten went so far that in 1911 the Mongolian governor of Hovd and Uljasutai raised him to the status of "count" and was thus allowed to bear the title of "gung".

During the First World War

He experienced the beginning of the First World War in Aachen. In August 1914, Hermann Consten was asked by the Foreign Office in Berlin whether he would be willing to take part in an expedition to central Asia. Here in Wilhelmstrasse, under the leadership of Max von Oppenheim (1860-1946), the plans for the secret strategy of insurrection - especially for the "revolutionizing of the Islamic areas of our enemies" - were already in progress. In the spheres of interest of Russia, England and France, this included influencing the regional population and the local ruling classes through propaganda material, stirring up contradictions and disharmonies against the occupiers, but also did not stop at arms deliveries, money transfers and direct military assistance. This was a method of general warfare approved and demanded by Kaiser Wilhelm II , which also made use of non-military tools. Arriving in Berlin, Hermann Consten was immediately assigned to a quickly assembled expedition group in the direction of Persia / Afghanistan , which was supposed to provoke an uprising against the British or Russians in the Central Asian region. Whereby the Spiritus Rector was the Turkish Minister of War Enver Pascha (1881–1929). The departure of the first group with 22 participants, to which Consten belonged, took place on September 6, 1914 from Berlin in the direction of Constantinople . Once there, it turned out that individual expedition participants lacked the seriousness necessary for such a mission. Vanities, boasting, chattering, intrigues and, last but not least, debauchery characterized their behavior at the first destination. With the influence of the German ambassador in Constantinople Hans Freiherr von Wangenheim (1859–1915), these “uncertain” candidates were exchanged and Wilhelm Wassmuss (1880–1931) was appointed head of the expedition. A second and third group followed with Oskar von Niedermayer (1885–1947) and Werner Otto von Hentig (1886–1984). Since there were again inconsistencies in the leadership and goal orientation of the group in Aleppo , a team of three, which included Hermann Consten, Oskar von Niedermayer and Wilhelm Waßmuß, was determined and confirmed by the German embassy. But the actual leadership was incumbent on the Turkish side with the representative of Enver Pascha, Rauf Orbay (1881–1964), who later became the Turkish government's naval minister. The group, to which Oskar von Niedermayer had now joined, reached Baghdad on January 9, 1915. From here on, the group split up in order to go to the respective intended areas of operation. While Waßmuss and seven colleagues took the direction to Buschehr / Chiraz in southern Persia, Niedermayer and Hentig continued on through Persia to Afghanistan. Hermann Consten also separated from the group from Baghdad in order to move further towards the Russian border and Mongolia, since other fields of work were intended for him as a “non-military”.

Consten only reappeared in Budapest shortly before the end of the war . Here he was exposed in connection with the affair of the Hungarian President Mihály Károlyi (1875–1955) as a liaison for the German military intelligence service in the Berlin General Staff .

Publicist and Mongolian specialist

When he returned to Germany, he devoted himself to sifting through, processing and assigning the records and materials he had gathered during the numerous expeditions. As early as May 1919, Hermann Consten's first major travel publication entitled Weideplätze der Mongolen - Im Reiche der Chalcha appeared in a two-volume edition. Shortly afterwards he settled in Bad Blankenburg in the Harz Mountains and continued his journalistic activities from here. He gave lectures about his impressions in Mongolia, about Buddhism and his house increasingly developed into a cultural meeting point for prominent Asian researchers. Sven Hedin (1865–1952) also belonged to this group . In several books, some in a narrative format, he described his experiences in the Mongolian regions and also his encounters with Buddhism. His leisure activities also included his membership in the Saalfeld " Schlaraffen-Club " - a men's association originally from Prague with maxims such as friendship, art and humor, whose heraldic animal is the eagle owl . In 1925, the Mongolian Minister of Culture and Education, Erdene Batukhan, paid Hermann Consten a visit to Bad Blankenburg during his stay in Germany. The minister paid great attention to the intensive preoccupation with his country and the documentation compiled by Consten. In parting he encouraged him to resume his research on Mongolia. A short time later, an invitation was received in Bad Blankenburg with the proposal to work as a consultant in setting up a scientific academy in Ulan Bator .

In the autumn of 1927, Hermann Consten set out again for Asia. On the outward journey he met the German Indologist and Tibet researcher Albert Grünwedel (1856–1952) in Ceylon . By early 1928 he put together his expedition team and the necessary materials. This time with his caravan he passed through the eastern gate of heaven of the Great Wall of China near Gubeikou and reached the highland summer residence of the Mongolian Yüan dynasty in Jehol . After they had to leave some loads behind, they reached the border with the Mongolian People's Republic in winter blizzards in October 1928 . Here he was arrested for three months in violent winter temperatures and the onward journey took place in January 1929 by car to Ulan Bator . After waiting again inactive, he was expelled in March 1929 with the requirement to leave the country the same way he had come. When he arrived in Beijing , he learned that his parents' business had gone bankrupt and that no financial aid could be expected from there. From this point on he was forced to financially create his own livelihood locally. He settled on the outskirts of Beijing, where he opened a riding school for foreigners - mainly with a tourist destination - and accompanied smaller excursions himself. In 1934 he met Eleanor von Erdberg , a 30-year-old specialist in Asian art history . Both married in March 1936 in Kamakura , Japan , south of Tokyo. In Japan, Hermann Consten had met the German journalist Klaus Mehnert (1906–1984) and from 1941 published several articles in the magazine he ran "XXth Century". After the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, both decided to leave the country. Both return to Germany at the end of 1950.

When they got home, they found shelter and support from relatives in Aachen. Hermann Consten resumed his lecturing activities and began working on a Mongolian grammar and an Encyclopedia Mongolica . Both planned publications have never been completed by him. He died unexpectedly on August 4, 1957 in Aachen.

Works and presentations

  • Pastures of the Mongols - In the kingdom of the Chalcha, Verlag Dietrich Reimers AG Berlin 1919
  • Mysteries. In the Land of Gods and Living Buddhas, Vossche Buchhandlung, Verlag Berlin, 1925
  • The fight for the Buddha's throne, Vossche Buchhandlung, Verlag Berlin, 1925
  • ... and I cry for you, German Africa, published by Strecker and Schröder, 1926
  • The red lama. An experience from Inner Asia, 1928

Exhibitions:

  • from June 17, 2005 to August 28, 2006 in the Forum for Photography in Cologne and
  • from November 24, 2007 to January 30, 2008 in the Ulrich Kneise gallery in Eisenach

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. An Aachener in the service of his majesty in East Asia, Aachener Nachrichten of September 13, 2013 in: https://www.aachener-nachrichten.de/lokales/aachen/ein-aachener-im-dienste-seiner-majestaet-in-ostasien_aid -31404089
  2. Rudolf Herrmann: In memory of Hermann Consten. In: Burschenschaftliche Blätter . 78th year, issue 3, pp. 65–67.
  3. Barbara Frey Näf, biographical sketch from September 2007, in: http://www.fotogaleriebohl.de/fotoausstellung%20mongoleiforcher_hermann_consten.htm
  4. Doris Götting, "Etzel". Researcher, adventurer and agent, Klaus Schwarz Verlag Berlin, 2012
  5. Klaus Walter Frey, Colonel W. Nicolai, head of the German Military Intelligence Service III B in the great General Staff (1913-1918) in: Jürgen W. Schmidt, Secret Services, Military and Politics, Ludwigsfelder Verlagsanstalten 2008
  6. ^ Max von Oppenheim, memorandum of August 1914 in: Marc Hanisch, Max von Oppenheim and the revolutionization of the Islamic world as anti-imperial liberation from above, Oldenbourg Verlag Munich 2014, p. 14ff
  7. Marginal notes by the emperor of July 30, 1914 on a telegram from the same day in: Max Montgelas, Walter Schücking (Ed.) German documents on the outbreak of war in 5 volumes Berlin 1919, volume 2, pp. 133f.
  8. “Memorandum of November 14, 1914 on the Proclamation of the Holy War” (Jihad) in: Wilfried Loth, Marc Hanisch (ed.) First World War and Jihad - The Germans and the Revolutionization of the Orient and Stefan M. Kreutzer, Jihad for the German Emperor. Max von Oppenheim and the reorientation of the Orient (1914–1918) Ares Verlag Graz 2012
  9. Wilfried Loth, Marc Hanisch (ed.) First World War and Jihad - The Germans and the Revolutionization of the Orient, Oldenbourg Verlag Munich 2014, p. 100
  10. ^ Matthias Friese, Stefan Geilen (ed.) Germans in Afghanistan. The adventures of Oskar von Niedermayer in the Hindu Kush, Aqua-Verlag Cologne, 2002, p. 45 ff.
  11. Barbara Frey Näf, biography about Hermann Consten, Basel, 2007, accompanying material for the photo exhibition in the Ulrich Kneise gallery from November 24, 2007 to January 31, 2009 in Eisenach, in: https://www.fotogaleriebohl.de/fotoausstellung%20mongoleiforscher_Hermann_Consten .html
  12. Barbara Frey Näf, biographical sketch from September 2007, in: http://www.fotogaleriebohl.de/fotoausstellung%20mongoleiforcher_hermann_consten.htm