Rudolf von Bennigsen (governor)

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Rudolf von Bennigsen as a member of the Corps Suevia Strasbourg, around 1879

Rudolf von Bennigsen (born May 12, 1859 at Gut Bennigsen near Springe ; † May 3, 1912 in Berlin ) was a German colonial official.

Life

Rudolf von Bennigsen was a son of the Reichstag member Rudolf von Bennigsen . He came from the Lower Saxon noble family von Bennigsen , which was named after his estate Bennigsen near Springe. He studied law at the Kaiser Wilhelms University and became a member of the Corps Suevia Strasbourg in 1878. When things were in need in the mid-1880s, he became active again and challenged the first batch as an assessor . For this, Suevia later awarded him honorary membership. The SC comradeship of the Corps was named after him in 1941 .

Rudolf von Bennigsen was a government assessor in the realm of Alsace-Lorraine , then district administrator of the Prussian district of Peine . In 1893 he became finance director in the colony of German East Africa , where he also served as the local governor's deputy . In German East Africa, on von Bennigsen's suggestion, the “hut tax” was introduced in 1897, the ruthless collection of which led to countless revolts among the local population in the following years.

On April 1, 1899 Bennigsen was appointed the first governor of German New Guinea and the island area of ​​the Carolines , Palau Islands and Mariana Islands . In the same year he moved the seat of the colonial administration from Friedrich-Wilhelm-Hafen to Kaiser-Wilhelms-Land to Herbertshöhe (today Kokopo ) on the island of Neupommern (today New Britain ). Rudolf von Bennigsen was mainly occupied with enforcing the colonial claim to power of the German Reich with punitive expeditions - he himself spoke of "regulating the neglected conditions of the colony of German New Guinea". In June 1900 Robert Koch was Rudolf von Bennigsen's guest in Herbertshöhe during his New Guinea expedition to research malaria . Whether for political or health reasons remains unclear, but on July 10, 1901, von Bennigsen ended his service in German New Guinea with the handover of the governorship to Albert Hahl .

In 1902 Bennigsen became a board member of the German Colonial Society for South West Africa . From 1904 to 1909 he was a representative of the Kölnische Zeitung in Berlin, from 1909 to 1912 director of the German Colonial Society for South West Africa, on whose behalf he made trips to German South West Africa in 1903 and 1910 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kösener corps lists 1910, 190/8
  2. ↑ Strasbourg Schwabenblatt, war edition 1941/42, No. 119/120, p. 10
  3. ↑ Martin Baer; Olaf Schröter: A headhunt. Germans in East Africa. Traces of colonial rule. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2001, p. 85, ISBN 978-3861532484
  4. ^ Horst founder: History of the German colonies. 5th edition Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2004, p. 173, ISBN 978-3825213329
  5. ^ Hermann Hiery: Pictures from the German South Seas - Photographs 1884-1914. Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 2001, p. 299, ISBN 978-3506701121
personal data
SURNAME Bennigsen, Rudolf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German colonial official
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1859
PLACE OF BIRTH Good Bennigsen at Springe
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1912
Place of death Berlin