Richard D. Volkmann

Richard Dietrich Volkmann (born June 23, 1870 in Schulpforta ; † February 9, 1954 in Sondershausen ) was a German colonial officer in the German colony of German South West Africa .

Life

Volkmann was the second of five sons of the rector of the Fürstenschule Schulpforta Diederich Volkmann and his wife Clementine, née Breslau (1845-1923). He attended the Prince's School Schulpforta and entered 1889 as a cadet in the third Thuringian Infantry Regiment. 71 in Sondershausen one in which he for the November 20, 1890 second lieutenant was appointed. In April 1894 he joined the Imperial Protection Force for German South West Africa .

Immediately after his arrival in the German colony , Volkmann took part in the campaign against Hendrik Witbooi , the storming of the Naukluft and subsequent skirmishes. In late 1894 he was appointed district chief of Omaruru . His duties in the remote station included protecting German farmers and exploring the country. Promoted to first lieutenant in 1898 , he was transferred to Keetmanshoop as company commander , before serving as district chief of Grootfontein from 1899 to 1904 , from where he led several long expeditions up the Okavango River into the Caprivi Strip, which lasted several months .

In November 1903, after the murder of several European traders and missionaries from Grootfontein , Volkmann led a punitive expedition to the Portuguese-Angola border , which led to bloody clashes with local people. In 1904 he took part in the Herero uprising and the Waterberg as well as in the persecution of the Herero in the Omaheke . In 1905 he was promoted to captain of the Imperial Protection Force. In 1906 Volkmann suddenly became known throughout Germany when, after weeks of chase , he captured the captain of Bethanien , Cornelius Frederiks, with his tribe. Volkmann then received a personal congratulatory telegram and a private invitation from Kaiser Wilhelm to the Berlin City Palace .

After twelve years of service with the Schutztruppe, Volkmann took his leave in 1906 and in 1907 became director of the “Lüderitzbucht Society” in Berlin.

Soon after his return he married in on July 28, 1906 Berlin garrison church Alice Teltscher, the daughter of the late businessman and former imperial Austro-Hungarian consul in Porto Alegre Edmund Teltscher and his wife Hedwig, born Huch, a cousin of Ricarda Huch . The twins, two sons Edmund (1907–1995) and Richard (1907–1965) were born a year later.

When the First World War broke out , Volkmann was reused as a major in the reserve . In the 12th Reserve Division he was initially in the west , before he went to Bucharest from 1916 as a fortress commander . After the armistice in 1918, he led the officers and men of the Imperial Command in a four-week march back to Germany, about which a little book was published entitled Travel Adventure of the Volkmann Battalion .

Volkmann was also hit hard by the end of the war. The “Lüderitzbucht-Gesellschaft” no longer existed, the reduced Reichswehr had no use for him and for a man of almost fifty years of age, a new start in his career was hardly possible. He worked as a consultant for various companies in Berlin. In 1928 he retires in Sondershausen.

Awards

• Order of the Crown III. Class with swords
• Order of the Red Eagle IV class with swords
• Prussian service award cross
• Knight's Cross II. Class of the House Order of Vigilance with Swords
• Cross of Honor of Schwarzburg III. Class with swords
• Knight's Cross of the New Year's Order
• Colonial Memorial Coin
• South West Africa commemorative coin with the battle clips Groß-Namaland, Omaheke, Waterberg and Hereroland
• Centenary medal
• Princely Schwarzburg-Sondershäuser commemorative medal
• Iron Cross (1914) 2nd and 1st class
• Bavarian Military Merit Order IV. Class with the crown and swords
• Franz Joseph Order with the war decoration
• Austrian Military Merit Cross with the war decoration
• Iron crescent

literature

• The fighting of the German troops in South West Africa. Volume 1 and 2, ES Mittler & Sohn . Berlin 1906.
• Walter Nuhn: Enemy everywhere. The great Nama uprising in 1904-1908 in German South West Africa. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 2000.
• Walter Nuhn: Storm over Southwest. Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Bonn 1994.
• Volker Lohse: Ludwig Schlueter, a rider in German Southwest. Traditional association of former protection and overseas troops, Volume 3, 1984.
• Andreas E. Eckl: rule, power and influence. Colonial interactions on the Kavango (Northern Namibia) from 1891 to 1921. Rüdiger Koppe Verlag. Cologne 2004.
• History of the Volkmann family. Private printing 2002. Bremen State Archives.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Prussian War Ministry (ed.): Ranking list of the Royal Prussian Army and the XIII. (Royal Württemberg) Army Corps for 1906. ES Mittler & Sohn. Berlin 1906. p. 1164.