South West Africa Company
| South West Africa Company Limited | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | August 18, 1892 |
| resolution | 1920 |
| Seat |
 London
|
| Branch | Colonial economy |
| Status: 2020 | |
The South West Africa Company Limited ( German about Southwest African Society ) was one by British founded law on August 18, 1892 company with headquarters in London and a representative office in Berlin .
history
It was established at a time when the German Colonial Society for South West Africa was in a difficult financial situation. Since German capitalists showed little concession, the Hamburg syndicate , which wanted to take care of the beleaguered German " protected area " German South West Africa economically, also turned to Great Britain, so that the company, which had a share capital of 40 million marks, was made up of British and German shareholders existed. According to the statutes, the board of directors had to have at least 3 German members; but mostly 4–7 of the 8–10 directors were Germans. Furthermore, by resolution of March 2, 1900, the company had to submit to the supervision of the Reich Chancellor . The South West African Society acquired the so-called Damaraland concession, which the German government granted the merchant Wichmann and the lawyer Julius Scharlach on August 3, 1892 , provided that a company was founded within a certain period to utilize the rights granted. In return for numerous benefits granted to it, the most important of which were the free land transfer of 13,000 km² and the monopoly of mining exploitation of Damaraland, the company undertook, among other things, to build a railway ( Otavibahn ) leading from Swakopmund to the Otavimines .
Through several expeditions, the company had its area examined for its economic and mining value and the railway line determined. The year of the rinder plague in 1897 brought about a change, as, on the basis of new agreements with the government, the company waived the sole right to build railways in northern German Southwest Africa in return for appropriate compensation . Thanks to its rich means, the South West African Society has gradually turned its hand to other ventures in the protected area, so that, in addition to the Damaraland concession, it has half of the capital of the Hanseatic Land, Mining and Trading Company for German South West Africa, over four fifths of the capital owned the Kaokoland and Mining Company, most of the capital of the Damara and Namakwa Trading Company, and a significant stake (8 million marks) in the Otavi Mining and Railway Company ( OMEG ).
The South West African Society was dissolved in the early 1920s.
literature
- Richard Andrew Voeltz: German Colonialism and the South West Africa Company, 1884-1914 , Ohio University, Center for International Studies, 1988.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hans Emil Lenssen: Chronicle of German South West Africa 1883 - 1915. 7th edition, Namibia Scientific Society , Windhoek 2002, ISBN 3-933117-51-8 , p. 44 f.
