Roger Casement

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sir Roger Casement

Roger David Casement ( Irish : Ruairí Dáithí Mac Easmainn , born September 1, 1864 in Sandycove , a district of Dublin ; † August 3, 1916 in London ) was a British diplomat who was instrumental in clearing up the atrocities of the Congo and later became Irish nationalist campaigned for Ireland's independence from Great Britain. During the First World War he negotiated with the German government to support the Irish resistance. Considered a traitor by the British and a national hero by the Irish , he was convicted of high treason and hanged in 1916 .

resume

Early years

Casement was born in 1864 near Dublin to a well-off Protestant family. Orphaned by the age of ten and raised by relatives in Ballymena, Northern Ireland . In 1883 he went on a trip to Africa, where he worked in the Congo Free State for various companies and for the International Society for Africa of King Leopold II . During his stay in the Congo, Casement met the explorer and Africa traveler Henry Morton Stanley and the later writer Joseph Conrad .

Uncovering the atrocities of the Congo

In 1892 Casement left the Congo to join the Colonial Office in Nigeria . In 1895 he became consul in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo ). Around 1900 he traveled back to the Congo, where he was commissioned by the British government to investigate the living and working conditions of the local population. In his report on the Congo, published for the first time in 1904, Casement drew attention to the catastrophic conditions in the Congo and thereby increased international pressure on the Belgian King Leopold II , who then had to convene a commission of inquiry. Shortly before, Casement had met the journalist Edmund Dene Morel , who was to give him strong support in his concern to alleviate the suffering of the Congolese people. Morel and Casement should be linked by a lifelong friendship and cooperation. Casement, who was obliged to be neutral due to his diplomatic status, convinced Morel to found the Congo Reform Association . His humanitarian work in the service of the Congolese people brought Casement international reputation. In recognition of his services, he was made Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George in 1911 .

Mission in Peru

Roger Casement in Putumayo.

In 1906 the British Foreign Ministry transferred Casement to Brazil , first as consul in Pará and Santos , then as consul general in Rio de Janeiro . In 1910 the government sent him to the Peruvian Amazon to investigate allegations against the Peruvian Amazon Company , a British-Peruvian rubber company led by Julio César Arana . The company, which had a great deal of British capital and was listed on the London Stock Exchange, was accused of being accused of being against the Leopold II regime in the Congo years earlier. In an area on the Río Putumayo that is now part of Colombia, the company had set up a system of forced labor , which is estimated to have killed more than 30,000 Uitotos . As head of a commission, Casement first traveled to Iquitos , then to the jungle areas on the Rio Putumayo, where he verified these allegations in a mission lasting several months. Back in London, he made the almost complete extermination of the Indians public and thus achieved that Arana's company was closed.

Struggle for the independence of Ireland

Due to his poor health, Casement withdrew from his work as a diplomat in 1912. A year later he joined the paramilitary Irish Volunteers who were demanding Irish independence. He became a close friend of the head of the organization, Eoin MacNeill . When the First World War broke out, he traveled to Germany via the USA to organize weapons and financial support for the movement. Casement made contact with the German ambassador in Washington via the Irish-American Clan-na-Gael . His idea of ​​organizing the Irish uprising with the help of the Germans was also controversial among the Irish. Casement traveled to Berlin via Norway in October 1914. While in Kristiania he became aware of the observation by the British secret service . The British ambassador there tried to bribe Casement's servant so that he would extradite him to his compatriots or make him disappear.

Casement blackboard, Riederau am Ammersee .

Arrived in Germany, Casement first tried to recruit a volunteer brigade from Irish prisoners of war. After this plan failed, Casement convinced the German military to deliver 20,000 rifles, ten machine guns and ammunition to the Irish Volunteers. Casement had hoped for far more material, but the German government did not trust him enough to grant all his wishes. However, he was able to persuade the German government to issue a benevolent declaration for Ireland's independence . The plan for the Easter Rising was then initiated through the Clan-na-Gael without his knowledge. Casement did not find out the date for the uprising until after planning was completed in April 1916.

However, the arms delivery promised by Germany never reached its destination. The transport ship, the Libau , disguised as the Norwegian ship Aud , had already left Lübeck on April 9, 1916. Since the date for the uprising had meanwhile been postponed from Easter Sunday to Easter Monday, the German captain Karl Spindler waited in vain in the Bay of Tralee for the weapons to be unloaded. The British had meanwhile picked up German radio messages and set the aud on the morning of April 21. The aud was escorted to Queenstown , where the captain blew up the ship with the cargo at the port entrance. Casement, accompanied by two companions, left Germany shortly after the audition on board the German U- 19 submarine under Oberleutnant zur See Raimund Weisbach . On the morning of April 21, the boat reached the south-west coast of Ireland in County Kerry . Casement and his companions landed in a rubber dinghy and buried a box of weapons and ammunition on the beach. Their arrival did not go unnoticed, however, and so Casement, who was hiding in a ruin, was arrested shortly afterwards. In his honor, a memorial column was later erected on the site of this ruin - the so-called Casement Fort. He was transferred to London, where he revealed his identity to the authorities. The Easter Rising began, despite the news of Casement's arrest on April 24, 1916 Easter Monday. The lack of preparation, however, meant that he was bloodily suppressed by the British after just four days.

Casement was meanwhile charged with high treason , sabotage and espionage against the Crown. Casement's activities in Germany were used as evidence of his guilt. Casement said he was acting for the good of Ireland and was not guilty of anything. He tried repeatedly to commit suicide while in prison.

Casement's order of St. Michael and George was denied him. The trial against him began on June 26, 1916. The judge and jury were convinced of Casement's guilt; he was sentenced to death .

A final pardon was refused despite being signed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and George Bernard Shaw . His friend Morel was no longer able to visit Casement in prison as he was subjected to massive attacks due to his pacifist attitude. Casement was executed by hanging in Pentonville Prison in London on August 3, 1916, at the age of 51 . The executioner was the British executioner John Ellis , who reported this in his memoir. On the day of his execution, Casement converted to the Catholic faith at his request and was accompanied on his last journey by two Catholic priests.

Casements diaries

Even before his execution , rumors spread in the press that Casement was not only a traitor, but also homosexual . Homosexuality was a criminal offense in most states at the time. The allegation was first brought forward by William Reginald Hall , then head of the British naval reconnaissance, at a press conference on May 3, 1916. Hall, who had interrogated Casement after his arrest, presented the journalists present with copies of handwritten texts that he said had come from Casement's diaries. These described piquant details about homosexual contacts. The texts were also specifically brought to people who intended to support Casement's petition for clemency. The lyrics did not fail to have their effect and finally destroyed Casement's good reputation. High-ranking figures in public life such as US President Woodrow Wilson and the Archbishop of Canterbury then declined to sign the pardon for Casement.

In contrast, the Irish population quickly became convinced that the texts were forgeries by the British. A later comparison of scripts with other texts from the so-called White Diaries came to the conclusion that the texts came from Casement. The result of the study is controversial, however, as only a comparative written examination and no forensic handwriting examination was carried out. The texts could therefore have been forged despite the typeface. This is supported by the fact that the discoverer of the compromising texts, Scotland Yard boss Basil Thomson, later reported five divergent versions of the texts found. The fact that Thomson was warned by the British Parliament in 1920 for forging Russian documents reinforced doubts about the authenticity of the Black Diaries. Another theory suggests that the diary entries are a mixture of Casement's own diary entries and transcripts that Casement had made on behalf of Scotland Yard from the diaries of a South American named Armando Normand.

The British later always pointed out that no such campaign was carried out against any other party involved in the Easter Rising. However, there was no comparable sympathy and respect for any of the other defendants.

The discussion about Casement's sexual orientation has also been controversial recently. Although this is no longer relevant for the evaluation of his political activities these days, conservative Irish Catholics in particular largely refuse to accept that one of their national heroes should have been homosexual.

State funeral in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery

Roger Casement's grave in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery. The grave inscription reads: "Roger Casement suffered death for Ireland in August 1916 - rest in peace".

As was customary at the time, Casement's body was interred in the grounds of Pentonville Prison shortly after his execution . On February 23, 1965, his remains were transferred to Ireland and, after an act of state, brought to a Dublin church with full military honors. His coffin stayed there for five days. Ireland's President Éamon de Valera paid his final respects. On February 28, the coffin was buried in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery . The ceremony was attended by over 30,000 Irish.

In the 1990s, doubts arose as to whether the coffin buried in Glasnevin Cemetery actually contained Casement's remains. It was believed that when the prison grave was opened, it was impossible to distinguish Casement's bones from those of other executed people. Therefore, supposedly, various bones found there were simply put together to form a skeleton. It has been alleged on several occasions that the bones belonged to Hawley Harvey Crippen , a known murderer who was also executed and buried in Pentonville Prison. The allegations were denied by those involved in the exhumation. A possibly clarifying DNA comparison has not yet been carried out.

reception

The Irish national hero

Casement is considered a national hero in Ireland; so z. B. a Belfast Gaelic Football site named after him Roger Casement Park . Casement's contemporary Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created a literary monument in his fantasy novel The Forgotten World in 1912 in the form of the character of Lord John Roxton.

A memorial to Casement has been on the beach at Banna Beach near Tralee since 1966, the 50th anniversary of his landing there.

The following is named after Casement:

  • Numerous football clubs such as Roger Casements GAA Club (Coventry, England) and Roger Casements GAC (Portglenone, Northern Ireland)
  • The Gaelscoil Mhic Easmainn (Irish for Casement) School in Tralee , County Kerry
  • Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel , an Irish air force base near Dublin
  • Casement Rail and Bus Station in Tralee
  • Roger Casement Park in Cork
  • Casement Road, Park, Drive and Grove in Finglas, County Dublin.
  • Casement Street in Darien , Connecticut

novel

The Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa published a biographical novel about Roger Casement in 2010 under the title The Dream of the Celt . In 2011 the work was published in German.

Works

literature

  • Reinhard R. Doerries : Prelude to the Easter Rising: Sir Roger Casement in Imperial Germany . Routledge, London & Portland 2000. ISBN 978-0-71465-003-6 .
  • Angus Mitchell: 16 Lives: Roger Casement. O'Brien Press, Dublin 2013, ISBN 978-1-84717-264-8 . (engl.)
  • Wilfried Pott: Looking for support for Ireland: Roger Casement's work in Germany and the German support for the Easter Rising. AVM - Akademische Verlagsgemeinschaft München, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-86924-127-2 .
  • Karin Wolf: Sir Roger Casement and German-Irish relations. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-02709-4 .

Movies

Web links

Commons : Roger Casement  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Roger Casement  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence


personal data
SURNAME Casement, Roger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Casement, Roger David (full name); Easmainn, Ruairí Dáithí Mac (Irish)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British diplomat and Irish national hero
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Sandycove , County Dublin
DATE OF DEATH August 3, 1916
Place of death London , UK