Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (1913)

Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (born March 20, 1870 in Saarlouis , † March 9, 1964 in Hamburg-Othmarschen ) was the German major general in command of the protection force for German East Africa during the First World War . He became a writer after retiring from the military in 1919 .

Life

origin

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck's parents were the later Prussian infantry general Paul Karl von Lettow-Vorbeck (1832-1919) from the Pomeranian noble family Lettow-Vorbeck and his wife Marie, née von Eisenhart-Rothe (1842-1919). She was the daughter of the landscape director Ferdinand von Eisenhart-Rothe and Emilie von Loeper . Major General Moritz Eduard von Lettow-Vorbeck (1835–1920) and Max Friedrich von Lettow-Vorbeck (1837–1912) were his uncles.

Military career

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, 1904

Lettow-Vorbeck was accepted as a cadet in the Potsdam Cadet House in 1881 and transferred to the Hauptkadettenanstalt in Groß-Lichterfelde in 1884 , where he passed the Abitur in 1888. He joined on February 7, 1888 as Portepee - ensign in the 4th Guards Regiment walk through was in 1889 second lieutenant and 1895 first lieutenant . In 1900/01 he took part as adjutant of the 1st East Asian Infantry Brigade in the smashing of the boxer movement in China, where he was promoted to captain for his services . In the colony of German South West Africa between 1904 and 1906 he took part in the genocide of the Herero and Nama as First Adjutant in the staff of the commander of the Schutztruppe Lothar von Trotha and as a company commander . Among other things, he was involved in the tactical planning of the Battle of Waterberg . While he considered Trotha's overall strategy of encircling and annihilating the enemy to be correct, he was critical of Trotha's specific operational plan. However, his own draft was never implemented. The genocidal warfare Trothas he defended strongly.

In January 1906 Lettow-Vorbeck was badly wounded in the eye in a battle, and after a convalescent leave in South Africa, he returned to Germany in autumn 1906 and was assigned to the General Staff . In 1907 he was promoted to redundant major to adjutant of the General Command of the XI. Army Corps appointed. In March 1909 he became the commander of the Second  Sea Battalion in Wilhelmshaven . The sea battalion was an elite unit in which the teams voluntarily served three instead of two years and which was equipped more like a regiment with z. B. a machine gun division. Lettow-Vorbeck also took part in a boat trip from Kaiser Wilhelm II to Norway.

Promoted to lieutenant colonel on October 1, 1913 , he was appointed commander of the Imperial Guard for Cameroon on October 18, 1913 . Before he could take up his command there, he was assigned to represent the commander of the Schutztruppe for German East Africa , which he had also formally headed as commander since April 13, 1914.

War mission in German East Africa

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in the First World War
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (left) in a photo montage with Heinrich Schnee

During the First World War, with the Schutztruppe for German East Africa, he succeeded in asserting this successfully against the British until 1916, where he repulsed an attempt to land by numerically superior forces of the Anglo-Indian army in the battle of Tanga . After both the British in Kenya and Belgians in the Congo had strengthened their forces and switched to the major offensive from January 1916 (the conquest of Tabora by the Belgian General Charles Tombeur ), the protection force had to withdraw gradually and was moved to the south of the colony from the end of 1916 pushed away.

Lettow-Vorbeck, promoted to Colonel in 1916 , switched to guerrilla tactics in the hunting fight of the entire protection force in individual columns and repeatedly maneuvered the Allied units through speed and enormous marching performance to avoid open field battles. In November 1917, Lettow-Vorbeck, now as major general , withdrew with the remains of the German colonial troops in the Battle of Ngomano from German East Africa to Mozambique (then Portuguese East Africa ) and continued his bush war there. In doing so, he continued to tie up considerable British and, above all, South African troops ( Union Defense Force ), who never succeeded in making the protection force decisive. His main opponent for a long time was the South African general Jan Christiaan Smuts , later a lifelong friend. In mid-1918, in the face of British reinforcements in Mozambique, Lettow-Vorbeck turned north again and surprisingly marched back to German East Africa. It reached northern Rhodesia through the south of the country . There he learned about the armistice in Europe from Kasama . A memorial was later erected here.

In his white officers and non-commissioned officers, as well as in the German civil administration, he often aroused displeasure through war-related orders that restricted the colonial luxury life. From the beginning there were considerable differences with Governor Heinrich Schnee about the war aims: While Schnee attached great importance to the preservation of the protected area and was prepared to make concessions to the British, Lettow-Vorbeck tried to relieve the front on Theater of war in Europe to bind as many Allied troops as possible to the African theater of war. Despite a multiple numerical inferiority, he and his troops continued to fight in isolation from the German motherland and was the only German commander of the First World War to invade British territory.

The human losses of his and the Allied warfare had to be borne primarily by the African population of the colony and the colonies of Mozambique and Northern Rhodesia invaded by him. Both sides avoided direct combat and tried to cut off supplies. Contested areas were devastated, able-bodied men and food were taken away. Many died of hunger and disease. According to knowledgeable estimates, the recruitment of porters for replenishment and material transport in the poor country by all warring sides cost the lives of at least 100,000 porters on the British side alone.

Most of Lettow-Vorbeck's troops consisted of native Askari . Only a few hundred Germans fought in his troops and mainly formed the officer corps. In mid-1915, the survivors of the SMS Königsberg with the salvaged ship artillery and the Somali crew were integrated into his troops.

End of the First World War

Lettow-Vorbeck (center) with (left) British and (right) German officers, 1919

On November 13, 1918, two days after the armistice in Europe, Lettow-Vorbeck , who had meanwhile been promoted to major general , learned of the Compiègne armistice and the ordered surrender of the Protected areas within a month. He mistrusted the message because he could not have the message confirmed by the German high command due to a lack of communication options. Finally, a confirmation of the armistice arrived from Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia , of which there was no doubt. On November 18, 1918, the last fighting units on both sides learned of the ceasefire in Europe.

According to the Compiègne armistice, they agreed with the British for the purpose of transfer to Germany to march together to Abercorn south of Lake Tanganyika , where Lettow-Vorbeck laid down his arms on November 25, 1918. The Schutztruppe was interned and transported to Germany from January 1919. The withdrawal of the militarily undefeated protection force back home was one of the few concessions made by the winners in the armistice agreement.

Freikorps and Kapp Putsch

Lettow-Vorbeck was briefly in Dar es Salaam during internment by the British and South African military . Celebrated as heroes after their return to Germany, Lettow-Vorbeck and Schnee led their troops through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on March 2, 1919 .

On March 5, 1919 Lettow-Vorbeck married Martha Wallroth (1884-1953).

In April 1919 he took over the leadership of the Marine Division , which was subordinate to the Guard Cavalry Rifle Corps , to which the Schutztruppen Regiment 1 also belonged.

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his wife Martha (1919)

On June 23, 1919, riots began in Hamburg over spoiled food (the so-called brawn riots ). Four days after the end of the unrest, Lettow-Vorbeck marched into the city with the "Korps Lettow" (strength approx. 10,000 soldiers) on July 1, 1919, although the situation had already calmed down significantly. The deployment of the Reichswehr under Lettow-Vorbeck was ultimately able to end the riots and disarm the fighting Hamburg citizens; As a result of the corps' rigorous action, the number of deaths rose from 15 to 80.

From October 1919 Lettow-Vorbeck led Reichswehr Brigade 9 of the "Transitional Army" in Schwerin . On January 30, 1920 he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Saxon Military Order of St. Henry . He had already received the highest Prussian military order, the Pour le Mérite , on November 4, 1916, and the oak leaves on October 10, 1917.

Lettow-Vorbeck, who had probably been in on the plans for a putsch to remove the government since 1919, followed the orders of his superior military leader of the Kapp putsch, Walther von Lüttwitz , in March 1920 and took over executive power in the Free States belonging to his area of ​​command Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz . He deposed the government of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, which was not willing to cooperate, and took its members into protective custody; he also imposed a state of siege and set up martial law . From Berlin he asked the Freikorps Roßbach for support. After the return of the imperial government, he tried to excuse his actions and to serve them again. However, he was immediately given leave and an investigation was initiated against him.

A trial before the Reichsgericht for alleged high treason did not take place; after preliminary investigation by the Reichsgericht regarding the alleged involvement in this process by subordinating the Reichswehr Brigade 9 under his command to General von Lüttwitz as direct superior in good faith, the Reichsgericht issued a dismissal order of September 20, 1920. On October 20, Lettow-Vorbeck was with A characterization as Lieutenant General while retaining his pension entitlements and with the honorable right to continue to wear his uniform, dismissed from the Reichswehr.

Weimar Republic and the time of National Socialism

Shortly after the end of the war, he published two books that dealt with his time in East Africa (see below) and are controversial today. In it he demanded the return of the colonies on the grounds that the victorious powers had incorporated them to expand their own colonial holdings, and that there could be no question of “liberation”.

In May 1923 Lettow-Vorbeck moved to Bremen , where he worked as a wholesaler at Conrad Kellner & Cie . From 1923 to 1945 he lived in Bremen- Schwachhausen , Colmarer Straße 39. The semi-detached house was destroyed in 1944 and rebuilt after 1945, but changed somewhat. He was the center of the conservative circles and from 1919 a member of the Bremen local group of the front-line soldiers' association " Stahlhelm ". In 1926 he was able to ensure that the former Askari of the German-East African "Schutztruppe" received the pay that had been outstanding since 1917 and also a small pension, which was later continued to be paid by the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 1929 he visited Great Britain at the invitation of British veterans of the East African campaign and was treated as a guest of honor. He lived with Richard Meinertzhagen . He met people like Jan Christiaan Smuts and received an audience with the Prince of Wales . There were receptions and meals in honor of Lettow-Vorbeck. He also attended a gala dinner for 1,100 veterans of the East African campaign. The British War Office presented him with his medals and diaries, which he had buried in Africa in 1916 but were found by the British.

From 1928 to 1930 he was a member of the conservative German National People's Party in the Reichstag. He was a backbencher in the Reichstag without influence. He spoke to the Reichstag on military matters only three times. When the German National People's Party split in July 1930, he switched to the moderate people's conservative association. For their successor, the Conservative People's Party , he ran in the 1930 Reichstag election at the top of the list of the constituency of Upper Bavaria-Swabia. In Upper Bavaria, the constituency of Lettow-Vorbeck, the KVP achieved its best regional result with around 3% and marginalized the DNVP (2.1%). Lettow-Vorbeck did not move back into parliament, however, as the KVP received less than 1% of the votes in the Reich. After that he was no longer politically active. In the spring of 1932 his name was at the forefront of the Bremen appeal for Hindenburg for the re-election of President Paul von Hindenburg .

He sponsored the construction of the imperial colonial honorary monument (today anti-colonial monument ) in Bremen, which he inaugurated in 1932 . At the inauguration ceremony, he gave one of the speeches that mainly dealt with the reclamation of the German colonies .

Lettow-Vorbeck was courted by Hitler in 1933 and unsuccessfully asked to join the NSDAP . He declined to lead the Reich Colonial Ministry that was offered to him. In April 1933 he protested unsuccessfully to President Hindenburg against the dismissal of the Bremen police colonel Walter Caspari by the National Socialists. Nevertheless, on September 25, 1933, he was appointed to the Bremen State Council, which was supposed to advise the Senate on government issues and in which Lettow-Vorbeck was responsible for colonial issues. Lettow-Vorbeck came into conflict with National Socialism in 1934 when he firmly advocated that the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten, should not be transferred to the SA reserve. Instead, he campaigned for a new soldiers' union. In Bremen there had been attacks by SA men on members of the “Stahlhelm” and also on Lettow-Vorbeck's office, against which he protested to Hindenburg, Ernst Röhm and Hitler. His initiative was unsuccessful, however, and since Lettow-Vorbeck evidently did not leave the SA reserve either, he too became a member of the SA in 1933.

Contrary to his alleged opposition after the war, Lettow-Vorbeck did not distance himself from National Socialism, but instead campaigned for the new regime among his “East Africans”. During the Nazi era he remained a central figure in the colonial soldiers' community and appeared at rallies and commemorative events, including the “Colonial Remembrance Day of the German People” in 1936 in Breslau and at the “East African Meeting” in Hamburg in 1938. His person and his warfare in German East Africa were staged as a prime example of German soldiery. Stylized as a “brilliant soldier” to mark his 50th “service anniversary” in 1938, Hitler honored him on the 25th “ Tannenberg Day ”, August 27, 1939, by conferring the character of a general in the infantry .

Lettow-Vorbeck (right) as a guest at the major troop maneuvers near Celle with the commander of Wehrkreis VI Lieutenant General Günther von Kluge , September 1935

Lettow-Vorbeck's propaganda activities in the context of military colonial propaganda were judged differently by the National Socialist elites. While General Field Marshal August von Mackensen suggested that Hitler put Lettow-Vorbeck more in the foreground of the propaganda, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels noted on January 21, 1938 about Lettow-Vorbeck in his diary: “Also such a reactionary! I'm going to spoil it for him. ”And on February 2, 1938:“ Lettow-Vorbeck is stinging against the state and against the party. I'll have him forbidden to speak in public. ”For some National Socialists, Lettow-Vorbeck no longer seemed to embody the right attitude. Carl Peters, on the other hand, who died in 1918, was frowned upon in the Weimar Republic because of his open violence against indigenous peoples, was ideologically preferred to him.

Lettow-Vorbeck repeatedly recalled the allegiance of the Askari and at the same time designed a heroic conception of the German soldier. This "Askari myth" underlined the military and civilizational achievements of the white Germans. The fact that the Askari could also go through a Germanization in his imagination brought him into contradiction to the National Socialist race doctrine, which did not allow Africans to adapt or educate themselves. According to the biography of the historian Uwe Schulte-Varendorff , the legend of the “loyal” Askari, represented by Lettow-Vorbeck, was “nothing but pure colonial propaganda which only served the purpose of legitimizing the demand for the return of the colonies.” Lettow-Vorbeck treated his Askari badly, and for him Africans were only “primitive blacks” with less intelligence and lower cultural status. Overall, he had represented the racist attitude of the superiority of the whites over all other races, was anti-Semitic and national-ethnic. During the Nazi era, he himself emerged as an advocate of race care and race hygiene .

Lettow-Vorbeck's son Rüdiger von Lettow-Vorbeck fell on June 5, 1940, and his brother Arnd on October 19, 1941. In 1945 the Lettow-Vorbeck house in Bremen was destroyed by an air raid. He moved to the Eutin district and then to Hamburg.

The National Socialists tried to use Lettow-Vorbeck's popularity for their own purposes, but he remained true to his German nationalist attitude and campaigned for the return of the colonies. When the National Socialists finally rejected colonial revisionism in favor of conquering the "living space East" from 1943 onwards, Lettow-Vorbeck became of no interest to them.

Lettow-Vorbeck was, according to Uwe Schulte-Varendorff's biography, a "militarist who saw the soldiery as the highest form of human existence". In the war all means were allowed for him, as his ruthless warfare in East Africa shows. He considered the Africans, who are racially inferior to him, as pure "human material". As an “authoritarian self-promoter” and “absolute power man” he shaped his own reality in his “self-glorifying writings”.

post war period

Since he initially received no pension or pension after the war, his opponent from the First World War, Jan Christiaan Smuts , collected financial support for him among his officers. In 1953, on behalf of a magazine, he again toured his former places of work in Africa. 400 former Askari greeted him in Dar es Salaam, who “celebrated a reunion” with him. His book Africa as I saw it again , published shortly afterwards, is a justification for colonial rule. Admittedly, “the natives should govern themselves once and for all,” he admitted, but this could only be a long-term goal: “Until that happens, European leadership is necessary; The discreet blacks see that too. ”He also welcomed the South African apartheid regime . In 1956 von Lettow-Vorbeck was made an honorary citizen of his native Saarlouis . In 1957 his memoirs entitled My Life were published .

When von Lettow-Vorbeck died in Hamburg in 1964, the federal government, with the help of the Bundeswehr, had two former Askari flown in as state guests so that they could pay their last respects to “their” general. Some Bundeswehr officers were assigned to the honor guard. Defense Minister Kai-Uwe von Hassel - son of a Schutztruppe officer from German East Africa - held the funeral speech with the key sentence that the deceased was “truly undefeated in the field”. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was buried in Pronstorf , Segeberg district , Schleswig-Holstein in the cemetery of the Vicelinkirche .

Commemoration

Skeleton reconstruction of Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki in the Berlin Museum of Natural History
German East African Memorial in Aumühle at the Bismarck Mill

In several German cities streets were and are named after Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Schools and barracks also got his name.

Since the turn of the millennium, a critical appraisal of Germany's colonial past has led to debates about this naming practice. As a result, streets were renamed Saarlouis , Wuppertal and Hanover . In Hanover, the name was only changed after an administrative dispute. An appeal to the OVG should be requested. This either did not take place or was unsuccessful.

The barracks in the East Frisian town of Leer bore his name until it was renamed “Evenburg barracks” in autumn 2010. The Lettow-Vorbeck-Kaserne in Bad Segeberg finally closed its doors on December 31, 2008. The former Lettow-Vorbeck barracks in Hamburg-Jenfeld and the Lettow-Vorbeck barracks in Bremen are also no longer used as barracks.

A dinosaur is named Dysalotosaurus lettowvorbecki in honor of Lettow-Vorbeck . Numerous, partly well-preserved fossils of this type were found during excavations of the Berlin Tendaguru expedition in what was then German East Africa together with other dinosaurs. The name was given by Hans Virchow (son of Rudolf Virchow ) in 1919.

Fonts

  • My memories from East Africa. Koehler, Leipzig 1920
  • Hey Safari! - Germany's fight in East Africa. Koehler & Amelang, Leipzig 1920 (abridged version of the previous title) blurb
  • Africa as I saw it again. Lehmann, Munich 1955.
  • Kwa Heri Bwana! Goodbye Mr. Klein, Lengerich 1954.
  • My life. Koehler, Biberach an der Riss 1957. online excerpts
  • As editor: The World War I Espionage: Authentic revelations about the genesis, type, work, technology, tricks, actions, effects and secrets of espionage before, during and after the war on the basis of official material from war, military, court and imperial archives. Of life and death, of the deeds and adventures of the most important agents among friends and foes. Munich (Justin Moser) 1931.

Movie

  • Lettow-Vorbeck. The German-East African imperative. (FRG 1984, director: Christian Doermer , documentary film)

literature

Web links

Commons : Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ General a. D. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck died yesterday at the age of 94 in Hamburg . In: Hamburger Abendblatt of March 10, 1964.
  2. ↑ Tanja Bührer: The Imperial Protection Force for German East Africa. Colonial security policy and transcultural warfare, 1885 to 1918. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-70442-6 , p. 404.
  3. ↑ Uwe Schulte-Varendorff: Colonial hero for emperors and leaders. General Lettow-Vorbeck - Myth and Reality. Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86153-412-6 , p. 18f .; Isabel V. Hull : Absolute destruction. Military culture and the practices of war in Imperial Germany. Cornell University Press, Ithaca 2005, ISBN 0-8014-4258-3 , p. 37.
  4. ↑ Tanja Bührer: The Imperial Protection Force for German East Africa. Colonial security policy and transcultural warfare, 1885 to 1918. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-486-70442-6 , p. 405. Sandra Maß: White heroes, black warriors. On the history of colonial masculinity in Germany 1918–1964. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2006, ISBN 3-412-32305-5 , p. 41 f.
  5. ↑ Eckard Michels: "The hero of German East Africa." Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. A Prussian colonial officer. Schöningh, Paderborn 2008, ISBN 978-3-506-76370-9 , pp. 98f.
  6. ↑ Eckard Michels: Der Held von Deutsch-Ostafrika Schöningh, Paderborn 2008, p. 104 f.
  7. ^ John Iliffe : A Modern History of Tanganyika. Pp. 249 ff and 269 f. (Google books)
  8. ^ At the end of the war: Robert Gerwarth : The greatest of all revolutions: November 1918 and the dawn of a new era. Siedler, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-8275-0036-6 , pp. 170–177.
  9. ↑ Thilo Thielke: "Lion of Africa". In: Joachim Mohr (Ed.): The First World War. Story of a disaster. DVA / Spiegel, Munich / Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-42104642-0 , p. 234.
  10. ^ Charles Miller: Battle for the Bundu. The First World War in German East Africa. Macdonald and Jane's, London 1974, p. 327.
  11. ↑ adelsmatrikel.de ( Memento from February 1, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Sülze riots - With the mice to the ragout . In: Hamburger Abendblatt , June 25, 2002.
    Schuld und Sülze. einestages.spiegel.de. January 7th, 2012. The article was created in cooperation with the Federal President's history competition : Sensation, outrage, annoyance: Scandals 2010/2011.
  13. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736-1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 423.
  14. ↑ On this and the following: Uwe Schulte-Varendorff: Colonial hero for emperors and leaders. General Lettow-Vorbeck - Myth and Reality. Ch. Links Verlag, 2006. S. 84ff.
  15. ↑ Federal Archives, file number N 103/55
  16. ↑ Frank Hethey: Colonialist to the end . In: WK Geschichte Bremen 1918–1939 . Ed .: Weser-Kurier , Bremen 2019.
  17. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 364.
  18. ↑ Eckard Michels: The hero of German East Africa. Schöningh, Paderborn 2008, p. 306 f.
  19. ↑ Eckard Michels: The hero of German East Africa. Schöningh, Paderborn 2008, pp. 300 + 301
  20. ↑ Eckard Michels: The hero of German East Africa. Schöningh, Paderborn 2008, pp. 304-306
  21. ↑ Uwe Schulte-Varendorff: Colonial hero for emperors and leaders. General Lettow-Vorbeck - Myth and Reality. Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86153-412-6 , p. 108 f.
  22. ↑ Sandra Maß: White Heroes, Black Warriors. On the history of colonial masculinity in Germany 1918–1964. Böhlau, Cologne 2006, p. 228 f.
  23. ↑ Sandra Maß: White Heroes, Black Warriors. On the history of colonial masculinity in Germany 1918–1964. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne 2006, pp. 229–233.
  24. ↑ Sandra Maß: White Heroes, Black Warriors. On the history of colonial masculinity in Germany 1918–1964. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne 2006, p. 241f.
  25. ↑ Sandra Maß: White Heroes, Black Warriors. On the history of colonial masculinity in Germany 1918–1964. Böhlau, Cologne 2006, pp. 238–240.
  26. ↑ Uwe Schulte-Varendorff: Colonial hero for emperors and leaders. General Lettow-Vorbeck - Myth and Reality. Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86153-412-6 , p. 147 f.
  27. ↑ Christoph Waldecker :  Lettow-Vorbeck, Paul von. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 25, Bautz, Nordhausen 2005, ISBN 3-88309-332-7 , Sp. 820-839.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  28. ↑ Uwe Schulte-Varendorff: Colonial hero for emperors and leaders. General Lettow-Vorbeck - Myth and Reality. Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86153-412-6 , p. 147ff.
  29. ↑ Uwe Schulte-Varendorff: Colonial hero for emperors and leaders. General Lettow-Vorbeck - Myth and Reality. Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86153-412-6 , p. 125.
  30. ↑ Hans Krech : The fighting in the former German colonies in Africa during the 1st World War (1914-1918). Köster, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89574-356-9 , p. 1.
  31. ^ Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck: Africa as I saw it again. Lehmanns, Munich 1955, p. 13.
  32. ↑ Uwe Schulte-Varendorff: Colonial hero for emperors and leaders. General Lettow-Vorbeck - Myth and Reality. Links, Berlin 2006, p. 125.
  33. ↑ The dark side of the "Lion of Africa". In: SPIEGEL history, issue 5/2013.
  34. ↑ City council approves new street names. Saarbrücker Zeitung , May 3, 2010.
  35. ^ The judgment of March 3, 2011
  36. ↑ Lettow-Vorbeck-Allee becomes Namibia-Allee , press release of the Hanover Administrative Court, March 3, 2011, 2020 the street was named Namibia-Allee
  37. ^ Report on the renaming of the barracks
  38. ↑ Ben Creisler: Dinosauria Translation and Pronunciation Guide. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011 ; Retrieved December 3, 2013 .
  39. ↑ Walter Ruckteschell written as a ghostwriter most of von Lettow-Vorbeck's successful book Heia Safari! Germany's fight in East Africa , for which he officially only provided the illustrations. See contract with the publishing house: Uwe Schulte-Varendorff: Colonial hero for emperors and leaders. General Lettow-Vorbeck - Myth and Reality. Ch. Links Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-86153-412-9 , p. 104.
personal data
SURNAME Lettow-Vorbeck, Paul von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lettow-Vorbeck, Paul Emil von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German infantry general, writer and politician (DNVP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Saarlouis
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1964
Place of death Hamburg-Othmarschen