Ludwig Freiherr von Stein zu Lausnitz

Ludwig Freiherr von Stein zu Lausnitz (born March 3, 1868 in Darmstadt , † October 7, 1934 in Hamburg ) was a German officer and explorer .

School and military service

Stein came from the Stein zu Lausnitz family and attended high school in Darmstadt, Hildburghausen , Magdeburg and Laubach and in March 1888 joined the 3rd Grand Ducal Hessian Infantry Regiment (Leibregiment) No. 117 in Mainz . In 1888 he became ensign and in 1889 second lieutenant. In December 1894 he resigned from the army and was assigned as a company officer to the Imperial Guard for Cameroon . In 1897 he was promoted to prime lieutenant and in 1904 to captain. In 1910 he retired from active military service.

In Cameroon

Stein was one of the first German officers in Cameroon. From 1895 to 1898 he took part in several military expeditions against the indigenous societies in the south-west of the colony ( Bakoko , Bane , Bulu ). 1897/98 was temporarily head of the Lolodorf district . In September 1899 he was put to use at the Foreign Office à la suite and appointed head of the Sanga-Ngoko district in Southeast Cameroon. During his activity there, he undertook extensive expeditions through the district area, during which he collected valuable data on the geography, population, flora and fauna of the country. In April 1901 he founded the Jukaduma (today: Yokadouma) post . After the violent submission of the resident Kunabembe (1903), he returned to the coast and for the first time opened up a land connection between the coast and the Sanga-Ngoko area, which until then could only be reached via the Congo .

As part of his further work, Stein was entrusted with researching the navigability of the Njong and with the preparation of cartographic recordings. In May 1905 he was involved in the overthrow of the Makaa and set up the Abongmbang post in their settlement area .

From 1907 to 1909 he worked in the region between Edea , Yaoundé and Jabassi . After his departure (1910), he withdrew to his plantation in Atok . In 1913 he was called upon again for official duties as the leader of a geographic-economic expedition on the lower Sanga in New Cameroon . During the First World War he was head of the Ayoshöhe POW camp . He left Cameroon with the main body of the Schutztruppe in February 1916 and was interned in Spain.

Ludwig Freiherr von Stein made a major contribution to the "pacification", but also to the exploration of Southeast Cameroon. His reports and articles published in the Deutsches Kolonialblatt and other organs are among the most detailed contemporary news about the region and are still an important source for the history and ethno-history of Southeast Cameroon.

Further career

After the First World War he worked as a writer. In 1929 he moved to the Canary Islands.

Others

Ludwig Freiherr vom Stein was Knight of Honor of the Order of St. John and holder of the Knight's Cross of the French Legion of Honor (1910).

Own publications

• From Mpim station . In: Deutsches Kolonialblatt . Volume 7, 1896, pp. 444-446
• Across the Ossa (Lungasi) lake, Kamerunggebiet . In: Messages from explorers and scholars from the German protected areas . Volume 10, 1897, pp. 155-164
• About the geographical conditions of the Lolodorf district . In: Messages from explorers and scholars from the German protected areas . Volume 12, 1899, pp. 119–140 see also http://edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2008/9925/
• About the southern Bakoko area . In: Messages from explorers and scholars from the German protected areas . Volume 12, 1899, pp. 141–142, see also http://edocs.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2008/9895/
• Research expedition in southeastern Cameroon . In: Deutsches Kolonialblatt . Volume 12, 1901, pp. 183-186
• The Ndsimu landscapes . In: Deutsches Kolonialblatt . Volume 12, 1901, pp. 358-360
• A major road from Duala to Cameroon's eastern border . In: Deutsches Kolonialblatt . Volume 19, 1908, pp. 999-1004

literature

• Brix Förster: From the southeast corner of Cameroon . In: Globus . Volume 81, 1902, pp. 157-158
• Baron von Stein zu Lausnitz 60 years . In: The Colonial German . Volume 8, 1928, p. 75