Peter Kempermann

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Peter Franz Kempermann, from: The Sydney Mail, November 17, 1900, p. 1182

Peter Franz Kempermann (born March 1, 1845 in Krefeld ; † November 6, 1900 in Sydney ) was a German lawyer, diplomat, interpreter, East Asian explorer and explorer.

Life path

Peter Franz Kempermann, born on March 1, 1845 in Krefeld, attended high school in Münster and then studied philosophy, law and political science in Berlin . as well as East Asian Studies . Apparently he had a PhD. Kempermann apparently learned the Japanese language at the seminar for oriental languages in Berlin. Kempermann's diplomatic career began in December 1866 as an interpreter at the North German Consulate General and the later Imperial German Embassy in Japan, where he further improved his Japanese language skills. From June 1867 Kempermann was employed in the Prussian consulate. His official seat was first in Yokohama and from January 1869 in Tokyo . His service in Japan ended in 1879. During this time he temporarily headed the German consulates in Hyogo and Yokohama. Kempermann was secretary to Max von Brandt who, after signing a Japanese-Prussian trade agreement on January 24, 1861, was first consul from January 1, 1863, later consul general of the North German Confederation and, after the establishment of the German Reich, from 1872, German Minister-Resident in Japan.

Kempermann was involved in the German Society for Nature and Ethnology of East Asia (East Asia Society ; OAG) founded in 1873 . At the ordinary general assembly of the OAG in Yokohama on January 19, 1878, he was elected its deputy chairman. Kempermann later became the fifth chairman of the OAG.

Kempermann traveled extensively in Japan. His travelogues, especially about his trip to what is now Shimane Prefecture in 1877, give a good overview of the people, geography, nature, products, etc. in Japan in the last quarter of the 19th century. Kempermann was particularly interested in Shintoism . For this reason he also visited the famous Shinto shrines Izumo-Taisha and Hinomisaki .

Kempermann accompanied the Austrian diplomat Count Alexander von Hübner on an excursion to Mount Fuji . The geographer Johannes Justus Rein mentions Kempermann several times in his "Letters of a German Geographer from Japan 1873–1875". The Imperial and Royal Legation Councilor J. Camille Samson also mentions Kempermann in his report "My trip to Siam 1888-1889".

A younger brother of Peter Kempermann was a businessman in Kobe . TH [Th.] Kempermann came to Japan in 1872 on behalf of the trading and insurance company Gutschow & Co. and was deployed in Yokohama. In 1875 he became head of the Kobe branch. The Gutschow & Co. company went bankrupt as early as 1880 and was taken over by Frederick Christopher Boyes (1850–1900). TH Kempermann has left Japan.

In 1872 Kempermann was made a knight of the Austrian Leopold Order .

On January 29, 1879, Peter Kempermann was appointed German Vice Consul in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong and began his service there on April 29, 1879.

His other diplomatic missions were from 1881 to 1886 as Prime Minister in Manila (Philippines), from 1886 to 1887 in Seoul (Korea), from 1888 to 1897 in Bangkok (Thailand) and most recently as Privy Councilor and Consul General in Sydney (Australia).

During his time at the consulate in Manila, in the Carolinian dispute with Spain , Kempermann proposed to the German Reich to annex the Philippine island of Mindanao , which was then under Spanish ownership, but his proposal went unheeded.

During his time as German Minister-Resident in Bangkok on May 2, 1891, Kempermann founded the German Club there.

On February 11, 1888, Peter Kempermann married Martha Kähler († August 1899) from Hamburg, a daughter of the Hamburg Senator Alexander Kähler. The couple had five children, Emma Hildegard (* July 3, 1889), Anna Gertrud (* July 22, 1890), Alexander Wilhelm (* July 9, 1891), Martha Luise (* January 19, 1894) and Hedwig Josefine (* July 22, 1897).

Peter Kempermann died on November 6, 1900 at the age of only 55 in Sydney of a liver disease.

A brother of Peter Kempermann lived as a doctor in Witten an der Ruhr.

The five children of Peter Franz and Martha Kempermann were orphaned by the early death of their parents in 1899 and 1900, when the oldest of them, Emma Hildegard Kempermann, was only eleven years old.

Publications by Peter Kempermann

  • Kempermann, Peter, The Hundred Laws left by Iyeyassu and laid down in the treasury (continued), Mittheilungen der Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, Volume I (1873–1876), Issue 2, pp. 2-8, https : //oag.jp/books/band-i-1873-1876-heft-2/

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd Lepach, Meji-Portraits, "KEMPERMANN, Peter K.", http://www.meiji-portraits.de/meiji_portraits_k.html
  2. ↑ see: Director Prof. Dr. Justus Brinkmann, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, report for 1905, purchases and donations in 1905, Japanese books, from p. 265, p. 333/334, in: Yearbook of the Hamburg Scientific Institutions, XXIII (23rd) year 1905, commissioned by Lucas Gräfe & Sillem, Hamburg 1906, https://archive.org/details/jahrbuchderhambu231905hamb/page/334/mode/2up?q=Kempermann  : “This collection was previously owned by Dr. Kempermann, who lived as a diplomat in the service of the German Reich in Korea and Japan, later for eight years as Minister-Resident in Bangkok and finally as Secret Legation Councilor and Consul General for Australia in Sydney. "
  3. ↑ see: Meissner, Kurt; Schinzinger, Robert (Ed.), "Germans in Japan 1639-1960", Supplementary Volume XXVI, 1961, p. 62/63, https://oag.jp/img/1961/01/oag-mitteilung-sup-Bd- 26-deutsche-in-japan-complete-1639-1960.pdf  : “Among the other officials working in the embassy and consulates, the consuls, consuls general and embassy councilors who had emerged from their career as interpreters were most closely connected to the German community. Before the First World War, young lawyers with language training at the Oriental Seminar in Berlin came to Japan from time to time, who stayed in Japan and who gradually moved up from the interpreter to the consul general or embassy counselor. Some first-rate Japanese experts, such as the fifth OAG chairman Kempermann, the later Consul General in Shanghai F. Thiel [Fritz August Thiel (diplomat) (1863-1931)] and the later Consul General Emil Ohrt (1893-1934), emerged from this career as an interpreter . Your work was particularly successful. At the same time, by publishing a number of good works, they have done a lot to increase knowledge about Japan in Germany. ”(= P. 75/76 of the PDF file).
  4. ^ Boguslawski, Georg Heinrich von / Reiss, Wilhelm / Güssfeldt, Paul et al. (Ed.), Negotiations of the Society for Geography in Berlin, 1900, No. 9 and 10, meeting on December 8, 1900, Chairman: Freiherr von Richthofen, p. 471 ff., P. 475, https: // archive. org / details / bub_gb_kJZIAAAAYAAJ / page / n493 / mode / 2up
  5. ↑ Bernd Lepach, Meji-Portraits, "KEMPERMANN, Peter K.", http://www.meiji-portraits.de/meiji_portraits_k.html
  6. ↑ Matthias Koch, Sebastian Conrad (ed.), "Johannes Justus Rein - Letters of a German Geographer from Japan 1873-1875", monographs, published by the German Institute for Japanese Studies, Volume 40, 2006, Letter No. 43, Kofu in Koshiu ( Kai), Aug. 30, 1874, p. 273, https://www.dijtokyo.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/DIJ-Mono_40_Koch_Conrad.pdf
  7. ↑ see: Communications from the German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia, issue 14, meeting reports, Ordinary General Assembly in Yokohama on January 19th, 1878, p. 156, https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_FCxPAAAAYAAJ/page/n303/mode / 2up
  8. ↑ Matthias Koch, Sebastian Conrad (ed.), "Johannes Justus Rein - Letters of a German Geographer from Japan 1873-1875", monographs, published by the German Institute for Japanese Studies, Volume 40, 2006, Letter No. 11. German Legation, Yedo [= Tokyo], 26/12/73, p. 147, fn. 50, https://www.dijtokyo.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/DIJ-Mono_40_Koch_Conrad.pdf
  9. ↑ esp .: "Journey through the Central Provinces of Japan", in: Communications of the German Society for Natural and Ethnographic East Asia, No. 14, April 1878, pp. 121-145, https://oag.jp/books/ volume-ii-1876-1880-booklet-14 /
  10. ↑ Bernd Lepach, Meji-Portraits, "KEMPERMANN, Peter K.", http://www.meiji-portraits.de/meiji_portraits_k.html
  11. ↑ Alexander Graf von Hübner, A Walk Around the World: [America, Japan, China]. 7th edition, Leipzig 1891, Verlag TO Weigel Successor, p. 262: “(August 3) The Dutch envoy, Mr van der Hoeven, had suggested that I join him on an excursion to Fujiyama. A precious opportunity to visit the little-known areas in the north and east of the volcano. We are six traveling companions, including Mr. Kempermann, an excellent Japanologist and interpreter at the legation of the North German Federation. «, Https://archive.org/details/einspaziergangu00hbgoog/page/n281/mode/2up
  12. ^ Matthias Koch, Sebastian Conrad (ed.), Johannes Justus Rein - Letters of a German Geographer from Japan 1873–1875, Monographs, published by the German Institute for Japanese Studies, Volume 40, 2006, https://www.dijtokyo.org/wp -content / uploads / 2016/09 / DIJ-Mono_40_Koch_Conrad.pdf
  13. ^ Publisher: Holzhausen [printed as a manuscript in 1901], Vienna, 1901, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/48374/48374-h/48374-h.htm
  14. ↑ Matthias Koch / Sebastian Conrad (eds.), Johannes Justus Rein - Letters by a German Geographer from Japan 1873–1875, monographs, published by the German Institute for Japanese Studies, Volume 40, Iudicum Verlag Munich 2006, p. 343, https: // www.dijtokyo.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/DIJ-Mono_40_Koch_Conrad.pdf
  15. ↑ Bernd Lepach, Meji-Portraits, "KEMPERMANN, TH [Th.]", Http://www.meiji-portraits.de/meiji_portraits_k.html
  16. ↑ s. Court and State Handbook of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy: compiled for the year 1882 from official sources, printed and published by the KK Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1882, I. Part, Ritter-Orden. Knight. Dated 1872, p. 179, https://books.google.de/books?id=UPpfLKAsvTEC&pg=PA179&lpg=PA179
  17. ↑ Bernd Lepach, Meji-Portraits, "KEMPERMANN, Peter K.", http://www.meiji-portraits.de/meiji_portraits_k.html
  18. ↑ Bernd Lepach, Meji-Portraits, "KEMPERMANN, Peter K.", http://www.meiji-portraits.de/meiji_portraits_k.html
  19. ↑ Angel Velasco Shaw / Luis H. Francia (Eds.), Vestiges of war - the Philippine-American War and the aftermath of an imperial dream, 1899–1999, New York University Press, New York 2002, p. 23, https: //archive.org/details/vestigesofwarphi0000unse?q=Kempermann »The first serious considerations of a possible German acquisition of Philippine territory can be dated to 1885, when Germany and Spain were engaged in a dispute over the Carolines. Anticipating a possible escalation of German-Spanish tension, Peter Kempermann, the German consul in Manila, dispatched a proposal for the annexiation of Mindanao to Berlin. Kempermann's suggestion, however, seems to have been ignored, and it was only in the 1890s, a decade during which German foreign policy was at its most expansionist, that the Philippines reemerged on the agenda of German foreign policy. "
  20. ↑ Alois Payer, Chronicle of Thailand 1891 (Rama V.), "1891-05-02 Bangkok: The German Minister-Resident Peter F. Kempermann (1845-1900) founds the German Club.", Http://www.payer.de/ thailandchronik / chronik1891.htm
  21. ↑ see “The Late Herr Kempermann”, in: The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, November 17, 1900, p. 1181, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/163694373  : “A year ago Ms. Kempermann died, ... "
  22. ↑ Bernd Lepach, Meji-Portraits, "KEMPERMANN, Peter K.", http://www.meiji-portraits.de/meiji_portraits_k.html
  23. ↑ see Director Prof. Dr. Justus Brinkmann, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, report for 1905, purchases and donations in 1905, Japanese books, from p. 265, p. 333/334, in: Yearbook of the Hamburg Scientific Institutions, XXIII (23rd) year 1905, commissioned by Lucas Graefe & Sillem, Hamburg 1906, https://archive.org/details/jahrbuchderhambu231905hamb/page/334/mode/2up  : “Since his and his wife passed away in 1900 at the last place of his official activity his Japanese library was in the custody of his father-in-law, the Senator Mr. Alexander Kähler of Hamburg. "
  24. ↑ Bernd Lepach, Meji-Portraits, "KEMPERMANN, Peter K.", http://www.meiji-portraits.de/meiji_portraits_k.html
  25. ^ "The Late Herr Kempermann", in: The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, November 17, 1900, p. 1181; https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/163694373
  26. ↑ Director Prof. Dr. Justus Brinkmann, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, report for 1905, purchases and donations in 1905, Japanese books, from p. 265, p. 333/334, in: Yearbook of the Hamburg Scientific Institutions, XXIII (23rd) year 1905, commissioned by Lucas Gräfe & Sillem, Hamburg 1906, https://archive.org/details/jahrbuchderhambu231905hamb/page/334/mode/2up?q=Kempermann
  27. ↑ see “The Late Herr Kempermann”, in: The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, November 17, 1900, p. 1181, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/163694373  : “A year ago Frau Kempermann died, leaving five children, and these little ones - the eldest is 11 - are now fully orphaned. "
personal data
SURNAME Kempermann, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kempermann, Peter Franz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat, interpreter and East Asia expert
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH Krefeld
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 1900
Place of death Sydney