List of commanders of the protection force

The commanders of the protection force held the authority of the colonial imperial protection force during its existence from 1891 until it was dissolved in October 1919. The warlord (commander in chief) of the protection force was directly the emperor . This regulation, analogous to that of the Imperial Navy , stood in contrast to the remaining troop contingents of the empire, which in peacetime were subordinate to the respective German federal princes as contingent lords , with the emperor as supreme warlord having the right to inspect. The protection troops were subordinate to the Reich Chancellor in his capacity as State Secretary of the Reich Colonial Office (RKA), who was represented by an Undersecretary of State. The Reichs-Kolonialamt, founded in 1907, was divided into four departments. Three handled the business of the colonial civil administration, the fourth, the command of the protection troops , was responsible for the military administration.

Commanders in command of the protection forces

Franz Georg von Glasenapp

Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand Quade (April 1, 1907 - October 18, 1908)
Major General Franz Georg von Glasenapp (October 18, 1908 - April 6, 1914)
Colonel Ernst von Below (April 7, 1914)

Commanders of the protection force for German East Africa

Emil von Zelewski (April 1, 1891 - August 17, 1891)
Colonel Friedrich von Schele (October 23, 1893 - March 25, 1895)
Lieutenant Colonel Lothar von Trotha (May 25, 1895 - August 17, 1897)
Major General Eduard von Liebert (September 22, 1897 - March 12, 1901)
Major Gustav Adolf Graf von Götzen (March 12, 1901 - April 14, 1906)
Lieutenant Colonel Kurt von Schleinitz (May 28, 1907 - April 13, 1914)
Major General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (April 13, 1914 - November 25, 1918)

Commanders of the protection force for German South West Africa

Victor Franke

Major Curt von François (June 1, 1894 - January 6, 1895)
Colonel Theodor Leutwein (November 10, 1897 - May 16, 1904)
Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha (May 17, 1904 - November 19, 1905)
Colonel Cai Theodor Dame (acting: November 19, 1905 - May 22, 1906)
Major General Berthold von Deimling (May 22, 1906 - March 31, 1907)
Colonel Ludwig von Estorff (April 1, 1907 - March 19, 1911)
Lieutenant Colonel Joachim von Heydebreck (November 19, 1912 - November 12, 1914, fatal accident)
Lieutenant Colonel Victor Franke (November 13, 1914 - July 9, 1915, surrender)

Commanders of the protection force for Cameroon

Captain Max von Stetten (July 8, 1894 - August 6, 1896)
Major Oltwig von Kamptz (October 18, 1897 - April 17, 1901)
Colonel Kurt Pavel (May 18, 1901 - January 31, 1903)
Major General Wilhelm Mueller (April 6, 1903 - February 18, 1908)
Lieutenant Colonel Harry Puder (February 18, 1908 - September 13, 1913)
Major Carl Zimmermann (April 13, 1914 - February 1916)

literature

Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon , Quelle & Meyer Verlag, Leipzig 1920. - 3 vols.

Wolfgang-Eisenhardt Maillard, Jürgen Schröder: The officer corps of the protection force for German East Africa in World War 1914-18 , traditional association of former protection and overseas troops e. V., 2003

William Stephenson: The Lion of Africa. The legendary General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his struggle for East Africa . Munich: Goldmann, 1984. ISBN 3-442-06719-7 .

Leutwein, Theodor: Eleven years governor in German South West Africa . 4th edition, Namibia Scientific Society , Windhoek, Namibia 1997, ISBN 99916-40-07-X

Claus Piedmont: Master list of officers and medical officers of the former 5th Rhine. Infantry Regiment No. 65. Hanover, 3rd edition 1937, pp. 143f.

Florian Hoffmann: Occupation and military administration in Cameroon. Establishment and institutionalization of the colonial monopoly of violence 1891–1914 , Göttingen 2007

Genealogical manual of the nobility , noble houses A volume VII, page 120, volume 34 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1965, ISSN 0435-2408

Georg Rau: German South West Africa. Images from the wars against the Hereros and Hottentots . With a foreword by Lieutenant General ZD Lothar v. Trotha; Stern & Schiele Publishing House, Berlin-Schöneberg 1907

Complete genealogy of the Old Pomeranian family of the hereditary, castle and palace residents of Glasenapp / E. von Glasenapp; Berlin 1897

Gothaisches Genealogical Pocket Book of the Noble Houses , Part B 1941, Verlag Justus Perthes, Gotha 1941

Reinhart Bindseil: Rwanda as portrayed by the officer, Africa explorer and Imperial Governor Gustav Adolf Graf von Götzen (1866–1910). With an outline of the contemporary explorers Franz Stuhlmann, Oscar Baumann, Richard Kandt, Adolf Friedrich Herzog zu Mecklenburg and Hans Meyer . Berlin 1992. ISBN 3-496-00427-4

Franz Volkmer , Memorable Men from the County of Glatz ; in: Blätter für Geschichte und Heimatkunde der Grafschaft Glatz, Volume I, 1906–1910, pp. 17–18

Web links

Commons : Commanders of the protection force - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Edgar Loening: Concise Dictionary of Political Sciences , G. Fischer Verlag, 1920, pp. 205f.
↑ Uwe Schulte-Varendorff: "Schutztruppe", in: Ulrich van der Heyden and Joachim Zeller (eds.): Colonialism in this country - A search for traces in Germany. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-269-8 , pp. 386-390 (here: p. 389).
↑ The Constitution of the German Empire of April 16, 1871, Art. 63
^ Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon , Quelle & Meyer Verlag, Leipzig 1920, p. 54

[1] Edgar Loening: Concise Dictionary of Political Sciences , G. Fischer Verlag, 1920, pp. 205f.

[2] Uwe Schulte-Varendorff: "Schutztruppe", in: Ulrich van der Heyden and Joachim Zeller (eds.): Colonialism in this country - A search for traces in Germany. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-269-8 , pp. 386-390 (here: p. 389).

[3] The Constitution of the German Empire of April 16, 1871, Art. 63

[4] Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon , Quelle & Meyer Verlag, Leipzig 1920, p. 54