Wilhelm Knappe

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Wilhelm Knappe

Wilhelm Knappe (born October 20, 1855 in Erfurt , † February 5, 1910 in Berlin-Grunewald ) was a lawyer, German consular officer and ethnologist.

Life

Wilhelm Knappe was born as the eldest son of the Erfurt master glove maker Carl Knappe (1823–1907) and his wife Henriette Hulda. Krehl (1829–1894) born in Erfurt. He came from a petty-bourgeois family background. In the parental home he experienced a Catholic character. After attending preschool in Erfurt, he switched to the Erfurt grammar school in 1863. Here he passed his Abitur on March 27, 1874. After graduating from high school, he began to study law at the University of Leipzig in the same year . Against his father's wishes, he became a student in the " Corps Thuringia Leipzig " and shortly afterwards in Göttinger in the "Hildeso Guestphalia Göttingen". Later he proved himself as a senior . In 1875 he moved to the Georg-August University in Göttingen and became consenior in the " Corps Hildeso-Guestphalia Göttingen ".

During his studies in Göttingen, Wilhelm Knappe did his military service as a one-year volunteer from April 1875. This took place in the 2nd Hessian Infantry Regiment No. 82. With that he had taken the step to the officer patents, which he then acquired in 1878 in the 3rd Thuringian Infantry Regiment No. 71. On May 14, 1878, he was second lieutenant dR In between he had to take part in reserve exercises of the imperial army in Erfurt.

When he was inactive , he moved to the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin . Here he also passed his legal traineeship on February 16, 1878. After "diligently and successfully" studies conducted Wilhelm Knappe on 11 March 1878 in Goettingen Dr. iur. PhD . He passed his legal examination at the Royal Court of Justice in Berlin. Since March 6, 1878, he worked as a trainee lawyer in the Prussian judicial service, which he served at the Weissensee District Court, the Erfurt District Court and the Naumburg Higher Regional Court. He passed his assessor exam on December 18, 1882. At that time he had already sent a request to the Foreign Office with a request for a trial employment in consular duties.

This was immediately granted and so he began his service on January 21, 1883, initially as an unpaid unskilled worker in the Foreign Office in Berlin. From February 1, Wilhelm Knappe was employed here in Department II (trade policy and law). After he had gained his first experience in the house, he was appointed Vice Consul for Samoa on April 21 with an annual salary of 15,000 marks. He then took up his local service on June 29, 1885 and became the first Imperial Commissioner of the Marshall Islands in Jaluit on September 22 of the following year . When he went through severe malaria in 1888, he had to return to Germany to recover. This inevitably ended his office as Commissioner of the Marshall Islands. His successor was Dr. Franz Sonnenschein, whom he had made familiar with the conditions there shortly before his departure. His strongly motivated approach, guided by beneficial interests and his linguistic and cultural accessibility had considerably strengthened his reputation in the Foreign Office. During this time he wrote the article "Religious beliefs of the Marshall Islanders". After the first improvements in his state of health, he was temporarily employed again in the Foreign Office in April, May and June 1888. This was especially true in preparation for his next assignment as consul in Apia. In the Samoa Islands, an extraordinarily difficult situation and conflicts with the locals had come together during the consul's term of office, which led to his recall. Before leaving Berlin, he had the opportunity to familiarize himself with the situation by studying files. His task was to calm the situation in the main town of Apia, where he was the seat of the embassy. It was carried out on June 17, 1888, with the instructions of conduct and high expectations from Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck . However, the clashes intensified even more violently after his arrival. As he announced in his report of December 3, 1888, the Tamasese rivals had rearranged themselves behind the tribal chief through the influence of American actors. There were always conflicts similar to civil wars, which also led to damage on the farms of the "German Trading and Plantation Society" (DHPG). With Bismarck's backing, Knappe resorted to military support from the warships stationed in the coastal area and had disarmament operations carried out against the local population. That ended in bloody chaos and a "state of war on January 19, 1889" proclaimed by Knappe. This triggered an even more violent conflict over Samoa , which led to further bloody battles and diplomatic resentments with Great Britain and the United States , making Knappes name world famous. On February 21, disciplinary proceedings against Knappe were opened in the Foreign Office. He was recalled after heavy complaints from London and Washington. But before he could leave the island, a hurricane raged from March 15 to 17, 1889 so violent that two of the German warships sank and a third stranded with great damage. From the bank, Knappe led the rescue operation, in which locals also took part. On April 5, 1889, he started his journey home with the post steamer "Lübeck". The disciplinary process resulted in a reprimand, cost him the position and the transfer to temporary retirement. During his stay in his hometown in 1889, he gave the Museum of Erfurt his South Seas collection for sale, which he had started in Samoa, the Marshall Islands and New Guinea.

Still bitter about his dishonorable dismissal, Wilhelm Knappe traveled to South Africa at the beginning of 1890 as a legal member of a commission commissioned by a banking syndicate in South Africa to obtain a license for a state bank to be established. After successful negotiations in Pretoria with the South African President Paul Kruger "Ohm", he headed the "Nationale Bank de Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek" ( Transvaal ) as managing director and director from 1891 to 1894 . It was a German-Dutch joint project. After completing all the necessary contracts for building the bank, Knappe asked the German Chancellor Leo von Caprivi to be allowed to take up residence in Pretoria. In this context, he was appointed acting head of the consulate in Pretoria for the months from June to August 1891. Shortly before that, he stayed in Marseille, where he married Charlotte von Eckardt, the daughter of the German consul in Marseille, on February 27, 1891. During this time he also published a "Description and explanation of the ethnographic collections made on the islands of the South Pacific in the years 1885–1889" to support the museum in Erfurt and to open up its South Sea exhibits. In 1894 he returned to Germany. Even before his return, his father-in-law and his wife had persuaded him - after Otto von Bismarck's abdication - to return to the Foreign Office.

Back in Germany, however, his stay here did not last long. From January 10, 1895 he became German consul in Canton . He took over the business on March 18, 1895. With that, Wilhelm Knappe was entrusted with the acting management of the German consulate in Hong Kong and the management of the German trade commission for East Asia. He carried out the associated tasks with great sensitivity and strict respect for cultural peculiarities. As a result, he gained great recognition among the political and economic leadership circles of the respective regions. Even the difficult political situation that arose after the murder of two German missionaries in 1897 managed to control his area of ​​responsibility quite well. This reputation of Knappes after a few years of his renewed diplomatic assignment had reached the Naval State Secretary Alfred von Tirpitz in Berlin, who, unlike the other German colonies, was responsible for Kiautschou. In a letter dated February 4, 1898, Tirpitz urged the superiors in the Foreign Office to “contact the Imperial Consul Dr. Kindly make available scarce ". Spontaneously the latter replied to the request that he was then directed to a possible change that he had no inclinations for an office as “civil commissioner” under military auspices. With effect from July 25, 1898 he was given the character of Consul General.

From August 4, 1898, Wilhelm Knappe became consul general in Shanghai and took over the local business on August 30. Here he kept in close contact with Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein , who had taken over the official duties as German envoy in Beijing after the murder of Klemens von Ketteler . And during this time he experienced the confusion of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900/1901. Through his busy consular work, numerous personal networks, connections and acquaintances with the Chinese social elite and the imperial family, he was always very well informed. To this end, Knappe had built up his private intelligence service over the years, which for years obtained secret Chinese government documents in the interests of the German Reich through trustworthy sources but also by bribing Chinese officials. In 1901 he played a key role in the organization and the creation of suitable framework conditions for the journey of the "Atonement" Chun II. To Berlin and the encounters there with Kaiser Wilhelm II take a stricken health home leave. During this time he was called several times for temporary employment at the Foreign Office in order to make preparations for the conclusion of the German-Chinese trade agreement with other employees of the office. As a result of this work he was given the character of a secret legation councilor in 1904. At the beginning of 1905 he was in charge of a high-ranking Chinese foreign commission for the study of administration, administration of justice and education in Germany. As a result of severe tropical diseases , Knappe had to retire from service in Shanghai at the end of 1905. His successor at the German Consulate General in Shanghai was Paul von Buri , who later became the head of the Central Office for Foreign Service of the Foreign Office in Berlin. Before he went home on November 4, 1905, Wilhelm Knappe was given a very dignified farewell to his place of work. Many of his partners and foreign representatives attested him an unusual charisma during these years.

Even after his return, he was distinguished by unrest and the desire to pass on the experience he had gathered over many years to others. He gave lectures, edited publications and gave lectures in small discussion groups. In addition, he continued the work he had already started in China on the supervisory boards of the German-Asian Bank and the Schantung-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft. On the advice of the doctors, because his health had deteriorated further, Knappe was then given final retirement on June 30, 1906.

Wilhelm Knappe was married to Charlotte v. Eckardt, daughter of the diplomat Julius von Eckardt , and Isabella David, daughter of the Leipzig concertmaster Ferdinand David . Their daughter Sophie, born on December 10, 1894, emerged from the marriage.

He died on February 5, 1910 at the age of 54 in Berlin in his villa in Grunewald.

meaning

Admiral Felix von Bendemann (right), Consul General Knappe and the envoy Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein (left) after his arrival in China in front of the Imperial Consulate General in Shanghai

Although Wilhelm Knappe assumed acting as a furor consularis through Otto von Bismarck after the "Samoa War" in 1889 , Knappe did not belong to the type of Wilhelmine "saber-rascal" who tried to acquire influence and colonies for Germany at all costs . Contemporaries also attested to his great interest in the livelihoods and culture of the locals, which was also reflected in his work as an ethnologist. The scientific ethnology recognizes the very remarkable achievements in this field for a colonial official, especially for the area of ​​the South Seas and Papua New Guinea ( Hermann Joseph Hiery ). Scarce's extensive South Sea collection can be viewed in the holdings of the Erfurt Folklore Museum . In China, Knappe emerged as a promoter of German cultural interests and a co-initiator of today's Tongji University (1907). When he left his service in Shanghai, diplomats from all over the world and Chinese dignitaries paid him the greatest respect.

One of his hobbies was photography, which was still very little widespread at the time. Many photographs in his estate and the exhibition in the Erfurt Museum are due to his special eye for “typical” items.

Honors

  • Go Legation Council
  • Chinese Order of the Dragon 1st Class , awarded by the Emperor of China
  • Order of the red eagle second class with crown

Publications

  • Religious beliefs of the Marshall Islanders. 1888.
  • Catalog of ethnographic collections. 1890. (new edition 1909)
  • Description and explanations ... on the ethnographic collections made on the islands of the South Seas in the years 1885–1889. Erfurt 1891.
  • German cultural endeavors in China. (= Writings of the German-Asian society. 3). Lecture. 1906.

literature

  • Steffen Raßloff : Wilhelm Knappe (1855-1910). Statesman and ethnologist in the focus of German world politics. Glaux-Verlag, Jena 2005, ISBN 3-931743-86-1 .
  • Foreign Office, Historical Service (ed.): Biographical manual of the German Foreign Service. 1871-1945. Volume 2: Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: G – K. Schöningh, Paderborn 2005, ISBN 3-506-71841-X .
  • Marina Moritz, Kai Uwe Schierz (Ed.): Travel to Paradise. The Erfurt South Sea Collection in the Mirror of Art (= writings of the Museum for Thuringian Folklore Erfurt. Volume 23). Museum for Thuringian Folklore, among others, Erfurt 2005.
  • Jürgen Schmidt: The procurement of secret information by official institutions of the German Empire in China 1896–1917. In: Berliner China-Hefte. 29, 2006, pp. 102-121. ISSN  1860-2290

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Kösener Corpslisten 1930, 97 , 135; 46 , 155.
  2. ^ Steffen Raßloff: Wilhelm Knappe (1855-1910). Glaux Verlag Christine Weber, Jena 2005, p. 17.
  3. ^ Gerhard Keiper: Biographical Manual of the German Foreign Service 1871-1945. Volume 2, published by the Foreign Office. Paderborn 2005, p. 559f.
  4. ^ Alfred Weck: Germany's policy on the Samoa question. Waldenburg 1933.
  5. ↑ http://www.erfurt-web.de/Erfurter_S%C3%BCdseesammlung
  6. ↑ Marina Moritz, Kai Schierz: Journeys in Paradise. The Erfurt South Sea Collection. Erfurt 2005.
  7. ^ Steffen Raßloff: Wilhelm Knappe (1855-1910). Glaux Verlag Christine Weber, Jena 2005, p. 52.
  8. ^ Gerhard Keiper: Biographical Manual of the German Foreign Service 1871-1945. Volume 2, published by the Foreign Office. Paderborn 2005, p. 559f.
  9. ↑ Jürgen W. Schmidt: The procurement of secret information by official institutions of the German rice in China 1896-1917. In: Berliner China-Hefte. vol. 29, 2006, p. 102 ff.
  10. ^ Alfred Overmann: History of the municipal museum in Erfurt. Special print. Erfurt 1922.
predecessor Office successor
Otto von Struebel German Consul General in Shanghai
1899–1905 		Paul of Buri
personal data
SURNAME Knappe, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German colonial official and ethnologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Erfurt
DATE OF DEATH February 5, 1910
Place of death Berlin