Oskar von Truppel

Truppel around 1905

Oskar von Truppel (born May 17, 1854 in Katzhütte , † August 20, 1931 in Berlin-Frohnau ) was a German naval officer , most recently an admiral and from 1901 to 1911 governor of Kiautschou .

Life

Truppel was the son of pastor Johann Christian Truppel and Bertha Schwartz. He became an orphan at the age of six. He first attended grammar school in Rudolstadt before joining the Imperial Navy as a cadet on May 31, 1871 , where he held various tasks and positions, both on land and at sea, until 1886. He had sailed almost all the waters, had been both torpedo division chief and artillery instructor , and had also taught at the Naval Academy . In 1891 he married Anna Müller-Sauvalle in Bremen , with whom he had two sons and a daughter. From 1894 to 1897 Truppel was a department head at the Navy High Command .

His career in the German colony of Kiautschou in China began in December 1897, when Truppel was given command of Princess Wilhelm , who at the time was operating off Tsingtau. On board the Darmstadt and in the company of ships of the III. Sea Battalion Truppel finally landed there in late January 1898 and acted as the interim commanding officer of Jiaozhou Bay from 11 February to 15 April. At that time he was corvette captain with lieutenant colonel rank. After the arrival of the first governor Carl Rosendahl in Tsingtau, Truppel commanded the Prinzess Wilhelm in East Asian waters until 1899. In July 1899 he took over a department in the Reichsmarineamt in Berlin, but on February 20, 1901 he was appointed the third governor of Kiautschou. Truppel took over the post on June 8, 1901 with the rank of sea ​​captain . While this was generally seen as a good decision, it also had to do with luck. The former governor Paul Jaeschke died of typhus in January 1901 and Max Rollmann was only his provisional successor. Under Truppel, Kiautschou grew into a " model colony ". He promoted industry and the construction of new buildings (including the government building and the police station). In addition, new living space had to be created in a short time for the Chinese who were attracted to the flourishing city of Tsingtau . Truppel was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1905 and lived in his residence, which was completed that same year and which is now a tourist attraction. In 1907 he was promoted to vice admiral .

Troop in Kiautschou

Truppel's head of administration in the Reichsmarineamt Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz wrote the following about Truppel's character and his administration in China in 1907:

“ Has a positive effect on the development of the protected area. Energetic in all investigations of a political and economic nature, he sometimes forgets the necessary consideration of the financial situation and financial regulations of the Reich (...). Vice Admiral Truppel is not devoid of vanity. "

In 1911 Truppel resigned from his post surprisingly and at his own request, and he and his family embarked on May 14, 1911 on the Gneisenau just a few months after his appointment as admiral . After his return to Germany, Truppel was raised to hereditary nobility on August 19, 1911 by Wilhelm II and at the same time put up for disposition .

At first he taught again at the Naval Academy, but shortly afterwards he moved with his family to Berlin and died there in 1931.

literature

• Dermot Bradley (eds.), Hans H. Hildebrand, Ernest Henriot: Germany's Admirals 1849-1945. The military careers of naval, engineering, medical, weapons and administrative officers with admiral rank. Volume 3: P-Z. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1990. ISBN 3-7648-1700-3 . Pp. 469-470.
• Hans-Martin Hinz, Christoph Lind (Ed.): Tsingtau. A chapter of German colonial history 1897–1914. German Historical Museum u. a., Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-86102-100-5 , online .

Web links

• Christoph Lind: Homeland idyll and claim to colonial rule: Architecture in Tsingtau , essay in Tsingtau - a chapter of German colonial history in Chine, 1897-1914
• Newspaper article about Oskar von Truppel in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Family picture ( Memento of the original from April 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Federal Archives: Government of the Kiautschou Protected Area . Koblenz 2008 ( online ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ) 
3. ↑ Farewell
4. ↑ Biography of Oskar Truppels Dr. Wilhelm Matzat, Bonn
5. ↑ The older son died in Tsingtau in 1906 at the age of only 13
6. ↑ the other emigrated to the USA
7. ↑ the daughter, widowed, to Brazil