Protection force for German South West Africa

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Staff of Ludwig von Estorff, commander of the protection force until 1911
Gottlob Ludwig Haussmann, camel rider of the
German  protection force in German South West Africa

Imperial Protection Force for German South West Africa was the official name of a colonial force that the German Empire maintained in its colony German South West Africa . During the Herero and Nama uprising in 1904, she was held responsible for numerous war crimes . During the First World War, the Schutztruppe was subject to the troops of the South African Union in 1915 .

founding

On May 1, 1883 , the 22-year-old merchant's assistant Heinrich Vogelsang acquired the Bay of Angra Pequena, today's Lüderitz Bay and five miles of hinterland from the Nama people in Bethanien, on behalf of the Bremen tobacco dealer Adolf Lüderitz . On April 24, 1884, Bismarck telegraphed the German consul in Cape Town that “ Lüderitzland ” was under the protection of the German Empire .

Between October 1888 and July 1889, in the course of a dispute between the Witbooi and the Herero , the German commissariat was expelled and the German exercise of sovereignty in Okahandja was interrupted . The protection force that was then founded by the German Colonial Society for South West Africa consisted of 21 soldiers, eight soldiers from the Imperial Army and 13 volunteers under the command of Curt von François .

On May 3, 1894, an imperial cabinet order determined that the protection force previously subordinate to the colonial society should henceforth be called the Imperial Protection Force for German South West Africa . The formal establishment of the protection force for German South West Africa finally took place through the Reich Law of June 9, 1895. The comprehensive regulation of the legal relationships of the Ksl. Protection troops in the aforementioned African protected areas took place through the Reich Law of July 7/18, 1896 (RGBl. P. 653) (Protection Troops Act). The preservation of these troops was the responsibility of the respective protected area ( Reich Law on Income and Expenditures of the Protected Areas of March 30, 1892, RGBl. P. 369).

The uprising of the Herero and Nama

Grave of a German Schutztrupplers killed near Keetmanshoop shortly after the outbreak of the Nama uprising in 1904
Surviving Herero after escaping through the desert

After the ethnic group of the Herero saw themselves pushed back more and more from their settlement area by massive land purchases by the German Colonial Society, the Herero uprising under their captain Samuel Maharero took place on January 12, 1904 . Initially, individual farms, railway lines and trading posts were attacked. Around 140 Germans and seven Boers were killed. There was fierce fighting over the city of Okahandja . The initially clearly outnumbered German protection force was reinforced in February by 500 marines and volunteers. Since commander Theodor Leutwein misjudged the fighting strength of the Herero, he initially did not succeed in gaining decisive advantages. The Reich government was dissatisfied with the course of the operations and appointed Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha as the new commander in chief of the Schutztruppe. In contrast to Leutwein, von Trotha pursued the goal of the complete annihilation of the enemy and once again had reinforcements come from Germany. He put the Herero on August 11, 1904 in a decisive battle at Waterberg , which ended with their defeat. The Herero managed to evade to the southeast, as planned in the event of a defeat. But they were forced to flee through the Omaheke desert with their herds of cattle and goats, families and wounded . According to various sources, up to 60 percent of the Herero fighters and their families were killed during the fighting and the subsequent flight. Trotha's brutal and completely ruthless warfare against civilians is widely regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century. Even contemporaries viewed Trotha's actions as a crime or at least counterproductive for the colonial policy of the German Reich. This is how Governor Heinrich Schnee (a supporter of German colonial policy) judged :

“Trotha carried out the war in a purely military manner in the most ruthless manner, the result was extremely bad; many people were foolishly destroyed under deplorable circumstances. "

- Heinrich Schnee, last governor of German East Africa

In October 1904 the Nama also rose in the south of the country. The apostate Captain Hendrik Witbooi had the friendly district administrator of Gibeon von Burgsdorff killed. At the same time, Captain Jakob Morenga rose and intervened in the fighting. Years of grueling guerrilla warfare with the Schutztruppe followed, which only came to an end in 1907/08. The events cost the lives of between 24,000 and 64,000 Herero, around 10,000 Nama and 1,365 settlers and soldiers, according to estimates , through illness, hunger and thirst, fighting, raids, escape and in many cases inhumane abuses in the internment camps . 76 whites were considered missing and most likely died as a result of the war.

Structure before the First World War

Number of members of the protection force for German South West Africa (1898–1914)

By 1900 the protection force for German South West Africa had a strength of around 800 men. The number increased through the war against the Herero and Nama to more than 14,000 soldiers in 1905. After that, the number of troops was significantly reduced to just over 2,000 soldiers. In 1914, reservists and volunteers were able to roughly double this number.

Shortly before World War I was the force for German South West Africa in detail from 6 staff officers , 13 governors , 70 lieutenant and Lt. , 2 fireworks officers, 9 veterinary officers, 1 Kriegsgerichtsrat , 1 War Clerk, 2 Intendanturräten, 5 Intendantursekretären, 1 Intendanturbausekretär, 4 Proviantamt inspectors 2 clothing office inspectors, 2 staff pharmacists, 1 dentist, 1 gun inspector, 11 gun masters, 4 warehouse overseers, 20 outnumbered masters, 5 chief fireworkers and fireworkers, 2 harness masters, 342 NCOs and 1,444 crews. The protection force is divided into 9 companies , 3 batteries and 2 traffic trains. There were also African servants of the soldiers, so-called bamboos .

First World War and the end

Landing of South African troops in Lüderitz Bay, September 1914

The news of the outbreak of the First World War reached German South West Africa on August 2, 1914 via the Nauen - Kamina radio link and the large radio station still under construction in Windhoek . After the outbreak of World War I on August 1, 1914, an attack by the South African Union, allied with Great Britain, was also expected in German South West Africa, and on August 8, 1914 mobilization was announced and a 50-kilometer-wide strip along the border with South Africa was evacuated. On September 9, 1914, the South African parliament decided to participate in the war. On September 10, 1914, the German side succeeded in occupying the exclave of Walvis Bay, which belongs to the South African Union . The first clashes with South African troops occurred on September 13, 1914 at the police stations of Nakop and Ramansdrift. On September 19, around 2,000 men occupied Lüderitz Bay . A day later, a division of the Union troops crossed the Orange River, but were repulsed in the Battle of Sandfontein . The South Africans then relocated their attacks to Lüderitz Bay and were able to advance 70 kilometers inland along the railway line by November 9. The German commander Joachim von Heydebreck was killed in an explosion on November 12, 1914. On December 25, 1914, Walvis Bay had to be abandoned due to South African attacks. In March 1915, South African troops marched from Walvis Bay towards Keetmanshoop , which fell into their hands on April 19. In the south, the German protection force had to give way to the superior strength of the enemy and withdrew to the north. At the beginning of May, Governor Theodor Seitz moved his official residence from Windhoek to Grootfontein . The German Schutztruppe was hopelessly inferior to the South Africans in terms of both troop strength and equipment. Although the protection force was increased to 5,000 men by seamen, reservists, volunteers and locals when the war broke out, it faced 43,000 soldiers from South Africa. The Germans had two double-deckers made by Aviatik and LFG and five vehicles, while the South Africans had six military aircraft and over 2,000 vehicles. After the Union troops had pushed the German defenders further and further back, also in the north, Governor Seitz offered the South African General Botha an armistice on May 21, 1915, in vain. On July 1, the Schutztruppe suffered their final and final defeat in a battle near Otavi , west of Grootfontein. On July 9, 1915, Governor Seitz and Lieutenant Colonel Victor Franke signed a declaration on the handover of the German protection force to the South African Union.

The active part of the protection force was interned in a camp near Aus , the reservists were able to return to Germany. The South African military took over the administration of the German colony.

In October 1919, the official dissolution of all protection troops in Germany was ordered.

Commanders of the protection force for German South West Africa

Victor Franke

See also

literature

  • Protection troops. In: Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon. 1920, Volume III, p. 321 ff. ( Uni-frankfurt.de ).
  • Werner Haupt: The German Schutztruppe 1889-1918. Mission and history (= Dörfler Zeitgeschichte. ) Dörfler, Utting, ISBN 3-89555-032-9 ( archive.org ).
  • Jürgen Kraus , Thomas Müller: The German colonial and protection troops from 1889 to 1918. History, uniforms and equipment (= catalogs of the Bavarian Army Museum Ingolstadt. 7). Verlag Militaria, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-902526-24-3 .
  • Protection troops order for the imperial troops in Africa 1898/1908. Organizational regulations and uniforms. Melchior-Verlag, Wolfenbüttel 2011, ISBN 978-3-942562-52-2 .
  • Alejandro M. de Quesada, Stephen Walsh: Imperial German colonial and overseas troops 1885-1918. Osprey Publishers, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-1-78096-164-4 .

Web links

Commons : Schutztruppe of German South-West Africa  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jörg Schildknecht: Bismarck, South West Africa and the Congo Conference: The international legal foundations of the effective occupation and its secondary obligations using the example of the acquisition of the first German colony. LIT-Verlag, 2000, p. 229.
  2. ↑ Hans Emil Lenssen: Chronicle of German South West Africa 1883 - 1915. 7th edition, Namibia Scientific Society, Windhoek 2002, ISBN 3-933117-51-8 , p. 59.
  3. ↑ a b Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon. Volume III, 1920, p. 321 ff.
  4. ↑ Jürgen Zimmerer, Joachim Zeller (ed.): Genocide in German South West Africa. The colonial war (1904–1908) in Namibia and its consequences. Links, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-303-0 .
  5. ↑ Dominik J. Schaller: “I believe that the nation as such must be destroyed”: Colonial war and genocide in “German South West Africa” 1904–1907. In: Journal of genocide research. Volume 6, 2004, Issue 3, ISSN  1462-3528 , pp. 395-430, here: p. 385, doi: 10.1080 / 1462352042000265864 .
  6. ↑ Reinhart Kößler, Henning Melber : Genocide and Remembrance. The genocide of the Herero and Nama in German South West Africa 1904–1908. In: Irmtrud Wojak , Susanne Meinl (ed.): Genocide. Genocide and war crimes in the first half of the 20th century (=  yearbook on the history and effects of the Holocaust. Volume 8). Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2004, pp. 37–76.
  7. ↑ Medardus Brehl: "These blacks deserve death before God and people" The genocide of the Herero in 1904 and its contemporary legitimation. In: Irmtrud Wojak, Susanne Meinl (ed.): Genocide. Genocide and war crimes in the first half of the 20th century (=  yearbook on the history and effects of the Holocaust. Volume 8). Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2004, pp. 77–97.
  8. ↑ George Steinmetz : From the "indigenous policy" to the extermination strategy: German South West Africa, 1904. In: Periphery: Journal for politics and economics in the third world . Volume 97-98, vol. 25, 2005, pp. 195-227, here: p. 195 ( budrich-journals.de full text).
  9. ↑ Jörg Wassink: On the trail of the German genocide in South West Africa. The Herero / Nam uprising in German colonial literature. A literary historical analysis. Meidenbauer, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-89975-484-0 .
  10. ↑ Mihran Dabag, Horst founder, Uwe-Karsten Ketelsen: Colonialism, colonial discourse and genocide. Fink, 2004, ISBN 3-7705-4070-0 .
  11. ↑ quoted from: Hans Georg Steltzner: The Germans and their Colonial Empire . 1984, ISBN 3-7973-0416-1 , p. 206
  12. ^ A b Hans Emil Lenssen: Chronicle of German South West Africa 1883 - 1915. 7th edition, Namibia Scientific Society, Windhoek 2002, ISBN 3-933117-51-8 , pp. 94, 102, 107, 113, 118, 121 , 150, 175, 192, 194, 199, 202, 214 (missing data for the years 1906 and 1910–1912 were supplemented by mean values).
  13. ↑ Stefanie Michels: Black German Colonial Soldiers - Ambiguous Representation Rooms and Early Cosmopolitanism in Africa. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8376-1054-3 , p. 115 ( Open Access ).
  14. ↑ German Colonial Atlas with Yearbook 1918 - The War in German South West Africa. ( zum.de ).
  15. ↑ Uwe Schulte-Varendorff: "Schutztruppe", in: Ulrich van der Heyden and Joachim Zeller (eds.): Colonialism in this country - A search for traces in Germany. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-86680-269-8 , pp. 386-390 (here: p. 389).