Ludwig Cramer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ludwig Cramer (born December 16, 1866 in Warburg ; † 1917 ) came to German South West Africa in 1906 as a failed coffee trader to try a new beginning. He was the son of the Bielefeld Royal Building Councilor Ludwig Karl Cramer and his wife Ida, née Goeldner. The couple had eight children, three sons and five daughters.

biography

Ludwig Cramer grew up in a middle-class family in Bielefeld, from 1876 he attended the sixth grade of the Ratsgymnasium , in 1885 he applied for admission to the Abitur examination. In 1891 Cramer married his then seventeen-year-old cousin Adelheid Cramer. Together with Carl and Otto Wiskott, Ludwig Cramer founded the coffee import company Wiskott & Cramer in Hamburg. The eldest daughter Hildegard was born in 1894, and three more children followed by 1902: Ernst Ludwig , Elisabeth and Friedrich.

In 1906 the company had to be sold. After all creditors were satisfied, Cramer still had enough money to start a new existence. He and his wife decided to settle in what was then the German protected area of ​​German South West Africa to become farmers. On May 26, 1907, the couple embarked on the "Adolph Woermann" that was to take them to Swakopmund . Cramer acquired the 10,000 hectare Otjosororindi farm in the Gobabis district , 150 kilometers northeast of Windhoek on the Black Nossob .

In 1908 the two daughters, Hildegard and Elisabeth, moved from Germany to their parents' farm, Ernst Ludwig did not follow until 1912 when he was almost eighteen.

The Cramer case

On the farm, Ludwig Cramer abused several of his workers for "reasons of education". So he had among other things

  • a Herero woman whipped until she was bloody and kicked her head and abdomen with her feet in such a way that she was injured,
  • Miscarries a pregnant woman by being whipped and kicked in the abdomen,
  • an already beaten woman handcuffed in an unhealthy position for several days.

As a result, Cramer had to answer ten cases of grievous bodily harm in the Windhoek court . In 1913 he was sentenced "for dangerous bodily harm in unity with coercion, committed against natives to four months imprisonment and a fine of 2,700 marks". Other sources, however, speak of a 21-month prison sentence as a sentence.

The historian Helmut Bley diagnosed a connection between imperial colonialism and the racial ideology of National Socialism , according to which the “methods of treating people” had an influence on ideas in Germany. After the end of the First World War , this case was used by the English as an example that Germany was unable to administer colonies.

After serving his sentence, Ludwig Cramer returned to his farm. In 1917, when he was using dynamite to dig holes for planting fruit trees, he accidentally blew himself up.

family

Ludwig Cramer's brother Otto Cramer was a lawyer at Dürkopp in Bielefeld and took over the defense in the process.

His wife Ada Cramer (actually Adelheid, née Cramer, * 1874 in Brieg (now Brzeg ), † 1962 in Aerzen ) assisted in the crimes by cutting the clothes of his female victims so that he could strike better. She was free of any remorse and took the mild sentence against her husband as an exaggeration. She then wrote a publication in which she tried to justify slavery, racism and colonialism as well as violence against Africans. In the reception, a manifestation of the mastermind is noted here, which preceded the later National Socialism.

His sister Ida was the wife of the mayor of Halle (Westf.) Eduard Kisker .

literature

  • Ada Cramer: White or Black. The years of apprenticeship and suffering of a farmer in the southwest in the light of racial hatred. Berlin 1913
  • Helmut Bley: Colonial rule and social structure in German South West Africa 1894 to 1914. Leibniz-Verlag, Hamburg 1968 (dissertation)
  • Martha Mamozai: Women and Colonialism - A feminine variant of "master humanity". Text as PDF

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bielefeld City Archives, inventory 104.3 / residents' registration office, No. 58 film 12.
  2. ↑ The sons of Wilhelm, b. 1865, Ludwig, b. 1866 and Otto, b. 1868 (StABi, inventory 150,14 / Ratsgymnasium, No. 3: student album 1867–1888) and the daughters Ida, Anna, Ella, Clara and Helene (Ludwig Cramer obituary, Westfälische Zeitung of October 16, 1909)
  3. ↑ National Archives of Namibia , Imperial District Office Gobabis, L.5.D73.
  4. ↑ Article in DER SPIEGEL 10/1969: Deutsche Gesittung , accessed on July 17, 2013
  5. ↑ World Bielefeld to Kiskerhaus in Bielefeld and expatriates of the city
  6. ↑ Article in DER SPIEGEL 10/1969: Deutsche Gesittung , accessed on July 17, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Cramer, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Colonialist in German South West Africa
DATE OF BIRTH December 16, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Warburg
DATE OF DEATH 1917