Walter Reinhardt Sombre

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Walter Reinhardt Sombre (also Walter Balthasar Reinhardt , Walter Reinhard or Walter Reinert ; * around 1725; † May 4, 1778 in Agra ) was an adventurer and mercenary who was active in India from the 1750s .

origin

Reinhardt's place of birth and nationality are unclear. The Imperial Gazetteer of India , a reference work published between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, describes him as a native Luxembourgish butcher who came to India in the service of French. According to other sources, he was born in Trier or Alsace and worked as a carpenter. In yet other sources the name "Walter Sommer" (memories of a French officer) and a place of birth "Michelbach" appear. There are other variants of names and origins known. The origin of the name Sombre is also unclear. It could have been a battle name . In various, mostly Indian, sources the name is given as Samru , Samroo or similar.

Mercenary activity

Church of Akbar 5.jpg

Reinhardt came to India around 1754 as a mercenary for the French East India Company . He defected to the British troops and achieved the rank of non-commissioned officer. From there he deserted again to enter French services again in Chandernagore . After this base was dissolved, he joined Jean Law de Lauriston on his travels through India from 1757 to 1760. He stayed there until the end of 1760 when this force was broken up in support of Shah Alam II . He then entered the service of Prince Mir Qazim, Nawab Nizam of Bengal and Orissa . The British accused him of having murdered around 60 British prisoners in Patna in 1763 on his behalf . He then fled to Oudh , where he served a number of local rulers. Together with François Xavier Wendel SJ, Walter Reinhardt participated in the reconstruction of the destroyed Church of Akbar until 1772 . In 1777 he entered the service of Mirza Najaf Khan , meanwhile with his own mercenary troops, an ally of Shah Alam II, who gave him control over the region (Pargana) Sardhana as a reward . Reinhardt died on May 4, 1778 in Agra , his grave in the Roman Catholic cemetery there is still preserved today. The grave bears the Portuguese inscription: "Aqui jaz o Walter Reinhard morreo aos 4 de Mayo no anno de 1778".

Private life

Around 1765 or 1767, Reinhardt, around 45 years old, met the then fourteen-year-old nautch dancer Farzana in the red light district , who later became known as Begum Samru . He had a relationship with her, according to some sources he married her. However, it is still uncertain whether a legal marriage was entered into. Begum Samru, of Arab descent, converted to Catholicism . She took the name Joanna Nobilis Sombre and after Reinhardt's death took over his function and his mercenary troops. Begum Samru was considered the only Catholic ruler in India. She had no biological children and in 1834 adopted David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, the great-grandson of Walter Reinhardt Sombre.

Legendary wealth

Reinhardt or Begum Samru was said to have enormous private wealth, the amount of which was estimated at 18 billion German marks in the 1950s and which is said to be under the administration of the British Crown. In the course of the time after Reinhardt and Begum Samru's deaths, several people and organizations have come forward to claim this legendary fortune. In the German-speaking area there is a "Reinhardt's community of heirs" which states that it represents the claims of Walter Reinhardt's heirs. There are similar organizations in the USA .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Henry George Keene: The Fall of the Moghul Empire: An Historical Essay . London 1876, p. 135 ( google.de ).
  2. ↑ a b pp. 105-106 in The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. XXII , The Clarendon Press , Oxford , 1908, published in the “Digital South Asia Library” of the University of Chicago
  3. ^ The soldier of fortune. In: The Hindu . April 14, 2000, accessed July 11, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b c The heirs quarrel with the English crown. In: Heilbronn voice . January 26, 2009. Retrieved July 11, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b c Begum Samru and her church in Sardhana. In: The Hindu. March 5, 2017, accessed July 11, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b c Tanushree Podder: Church did Begum Samru built. In: Tribune India . November 11, 2007, accessed July 11, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Jochen Reinert: A Franconian held court in Agra. In: New Germany. December 24, 1996, archived from the original ; accessed on June 6, 2020 .
  8. ^ Patna (Behar) in Encyclopædia Britannica , 1911, published on Wikisource
  9. ↑ DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: India . 2011, ISBN 978-1-4053-6936-7 , pp. 169–170 ( google.de ).
  10. ^ Edward Arthur Henry Blunt: List of Inscriptions on Christian Tombs and Tablets of Historical Interest in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh . Allahabad 1911, p. 43-45 ( archive.org ).
  11. ^ Edwin Thomas Atkinson: Statistical, Descriptive and Historical Account of the North-Western Provinces of India . Volume 2 - Meerut Division: Part 1. Allahabad 1875, p. 96 ( google.de ).
  12. ↑ Rana Safvi: A 'Taj Mahal' for a husband. September 2, 2018, archived from the original on May 7, 2019 ; accessed on June 3, 2020 (English).
  13. ↑ Durba Ghosh: Sex and the Family in Colonial India: The Making of Empire . Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-316-17584-2 , pp. 151 (English).
  14. ↑ Begum Samru's Haveli. In: The Times of India . Accessed July 11, 2018 .
  15. ^ Edward Arthur Henry Blunt: List of Inscriptions on Christian Tombs and Tablets of Historical Interest in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh . Allahabad 1911, p. 17 ( archive.org ).
  16. ↑ George Clement Boase: Dyce-Sombre, David Ochterlony . In: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900 . tape 16 . Elder Smith & Co., 1888, p. 281-282 ( wikisource.org ).
personal data
SURNAME Sombre, Walter Reinhardt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reinhardt, Walter Balthasar; Reinhard, Walter; Reinert, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Adventurer and mercenary who worked in India from the 1750s
DATE OF BIRTH around 1725
DATE OF DEATH May 4, 1778
Place of death Agra