Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land

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Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land (black)
Overview of the German possessions in the Pacific
Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land

Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land was the name of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea , which belonged to the German colonial empire until 1919 . Together with the Bismarck Archipelago , the northern Solomon Islands , the Carolines , Palau , Nauru , the Marshall Islands and the Marianas , it formed the imperial government and the German colony of German New Guinea . At the same time it was the largest part in terms of area.

topography

The area was bordered to the west by the Dutch (from 1969 the Indonesian province of Papua ) and to the south by the British (since 1906 Australian) part of the island. It extended from longitude 141 ° eastward and south to latitude 8 ° south. The land area was 181,650 km² with 110,000 inhabitants at the time (as of 1902).

The island part consists mainly of mountains, only the extreme north contains more extensive plains on the Empress Augusta River and Ramu . The south is characterized by mountain ranges, some of which rise more than 4000 m: Kraetkegebirge , Bismarckgebirge and Hagengebirge . The watercourses are mostly just mountain rivers.

history

When Great Britain captured the eastern part of New Guinea (see British New Guinea ) for the crown in August 1884 , the agent of the New Guinea consortium Otto Finsch claimed the north coast of New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago in December of the same year. On May 17, 1885, the New Guinea Company (successor to the New Guinea Consortium) received the imperial “letter of protection” for sovereign rights over Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land (Northeast New Guinea) and the Bismarck Archipelago. From 1889 the western part of New Guinea became a colony of the Netherlands. (see Dutch New Guinea ).

Colonial administration

The main administrative headquarters of German New Guinea, which was administered by the investors of the private New Guinea company until 1899 , were in Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land for the first few decades. Georg von Schleinitz was appointed as the first governor , and from 1886 he took up residence in Finschhafen . Until the great malaria epidemic in 1891, the town remained the seat of the governor, then the town was abandoned and only re-established in 1901. After Stephansort became the main town in Astrolabe Bay for a short time , the state administration was relocated to nearby Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen (today Madang ) on September 17, 1892 . With the end of administration by the New Guinea Company in 1899 and the takeover of the properties by the German Empire , the main administrative seat of the colony was relocated to the island of New Pomerania (today New Britain ) in Herbertshöhe (today Kokopo ). Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen remained the seat of the Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen district .

From 1921 the area became an Australian mandate area under international law . In 1975 it was united with the Australian Papua to Papua New Guinea and became independent.

exploration

In 1882, the two companies Deutsche Handels- und Plantagengesellschaft (successor to Godeffroy ) and Robertson & Hernsheim (the latter through their Filia Hernsheim & Co ) represented German commercial interests near New Guinea . In order to take the first steps towards a German colonization on the mainland of New Guinea , 45-year-old Otto Finsch was chosen by financiers such as Adolph von Hansemann .

Finsch traveled to New Guinea in early 1884 and visited almost the entire north coast from Mioko on three voyages aboard Samoa . During his travels he discovered seven harbors and the Kaiserin Augusta River , concluded contracts for land acquisitions and hoisted the German flag. The first station was founded on November 5th, 1885 in Finschhafen . She formed the origin of the New Guinea Company . Hatzfeldhafen and Konstantinhafen soon followed . Stephansort was added in 1888, Erima in 1890 and others later. To measure the border between German New Guinea and the territory of Papua , which was under the administration of Australia , the German-English New Guinea border expedition was carried out from November 1908 to October 1909 . To determine the position of the border meridian 141 degrees east , between German New Guinea and Dutch New Guinea , the German-Dutch New Guinea border expedition took place from February 1910 to February 1911 .

Finschhafen was up to the major malaria - epidemic in 1891 the seat of the provincial governor .

Far fewer ethnic groups practiced cannibalism in Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land than in the Bismarck Archipelago, but with the same degree of self-evident. Missionaries around Hermann Böttger from Neuendettelsau were confronted with the cannibalism of the locals at an early stage. Partly cannibalism was related to headhunting . It is reported that field thieves were eaten in part or in whole, as well as people who were chosen for the purpose of initiating young men among the warriors. Contemporary reports also held the hunger-related killing of the European expedition leader, Otto Ehrenfried Ehlers , in October 1895 to be highly probable. Due to different sources, however, there is no certainty.

European population of the colony

The European population of the German colony Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land never came close to that of the German colonies in Africa . Initial attempts to recruit settlers for a settlement colony failed. In 1900 about 50 Germans and only a few other Europeans lived in the colony, in addition to the Germans some French, British and Australians, Danes and other Scandinavians. They were in the colonial administration, administrative officials of the New Guinea company, which exercised the sovereignty, as well as their small " protection force ", as missionaries , traders and planters.

Population development figures are available for the years 1894 and 1913. In 1894 a total of 112 Europeans were counted (80 men, 15 women and 17 children). In 1913 the number of European residents had grown to 283 (165 men, 80 women and 38 children). The focus in 1913 was on Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen, today's Madang, with 224 people, Eitape with 47 people and the Morobe district with 12 people. Statistics at that time also indicated 17 mixed race , 10 of them in Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen, 3 in Eitape and 4 in Morobe. The Bismarck Archipelago, on the other hand, recorded an increase from 67 people of European origin in 1894 to a total of 685 in 1913.

Fluctuations in the population resulted from the imported diseases such as dysentery, smallpox, tuberculosis and venereal diseases.

See also

literature

  • Otto Finsch: Samoa trips. Travels in Kaiser Wilhelms-Land and English New Guinea in 1884 a. 1885 on board the German steamer Samoa. Ferdinand Hirt & Sohn, Leipzig 1888 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive )
  • Karl Sapper : Kaiser-Wilhelmsland . In: Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon . Volume II. Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig 1920, pp. 144 ff.
  • Simon Haberberger: Colonialism and Cannibalism. Cases from German New Guinea and British New Guinea 1884–1914 . Sources u. Research on the South Seas. Series B. Research 3. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 3-447-05578-2
  • Hermann Böttger: A Peace Journey to the Laewomba (= Peace on Earth 2) , Neuendettelsau 1912
  • Georg Pilhofer: History of the Neuendettelsauer Mission in New Guinea. 3 volumes, Neuendettelsau 1961–1963.
  • Paul Steffen: Mission Beginning in New Guinea. The beginnings of the Rhenish, Neuendettelsauer and Steyler missionary work in New Guinea. (= Studia Instituti Missiologici SVD ; 61) Steyler Verlag, Nettetal 1995, ISBN 3-8050-0351-X .
  • Karl Josef Rivinius: In the run-up to the Steyler missionary activity in New Guinea: Negotiations in connection with the takeover of the Apostolic Prefecture Wilhelmsland . In: Steyler Missionswissenschaftliches Institut (Ed.): Divine Word Missionaries in Papua New Guinea 1896–1996. Festschrift , pp. 41–70, ISBN 3-8050-0380-3 .
  • Hermann Joseph Hiery (ed.): Die Deutsche Südsee 1884–1914. A manual . 2nd revised and improved edition. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-73912-3 .
  • Rufus Pesch: The Evangelical Missions in German New Guinea 1886–1921. In: Hermann Joseph Hiery (ed.): Die Deutsche Südsee 1884–1914. 2nd revised and improved edition. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-73912-3 , pp. 384-416.
  • Paul B. Steffen: The Catholic Missions in German New Guinea. In: Hermann Joseph Hiery (ed.): The German South Sea 1884–1914. A manual. 2nd revised and improved edition. Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-73912-3 , pp. 343-383.
  • Matthias Heine : Last day of school in Kaiser-Wilhelmsland: How the First World War changed the German language forever . Hoffmann and Campe Verlag, Hamburg 2018, ISBN 3-455-00281-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Samoa Travels . 1888. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
  2. ↑ Horst founder : History of the German colonies. 5th edition. Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-8252-1332-3 , p. 92 ( UTB.History 1332).
  3. ^ SG Frith: The New Guinea Company, 1885-1899: a case of unprofitable imperialism. In: Historical Studies. Vol. 15, Issue 59, 1972, pp. 361-377, doi: 10.1080 / 10314617208595478 , ISSN  0075-0743 .
  4. ↑ Rudolf Hafeneder: German Colonial Cartography 1884–1919 (PDF; 1.4 MB) ( Memento from February 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), dissertation to obtain the academic degree of a doctorate in engineering, University of the Bundeswehr Munich, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Surveying, 2008
  5. ↑ Hermann Böttger: A Peace Journey to the Laewomba . P. 6 (see lit.)
  6. ^ A b Simon Haberberger: Colonialism and cannibalism . Pp. 89–93 (see lit.)
  7. ↑ Hagen, Curt v. In: Biographisches Handbuch Deutsch-Neuguinea . 2nd Edition. Fassberg, 2002
  8. ^ Hermann Joseph Hiery (ed.): Die Deutsche Südsee 1884-1914. A manual. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2001, ISBN 3-506-73912-3 , p. 417, Table 1: Europeans in Kaiser-Wilhelmsland and in the Bismarck Archipelago.
  9. ^ Margrit Davies: The health system in Kaiser-Wilhelmsland and in the Bismarck archipelago. In: Hermann Joseph Hiery (ed.): Die Deutsche Südsee 1884–1914. Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2001, pp. 417-449.