Africans in the Imperial German Navy and Army.

[Peter H]

Interesting pic here : http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?s=be46ea0b7 ... opic=36749

Warsaw of all places,poster Deruelle

[Eric Brothers]

The black soldier above being captured by the French may be Kwassi Bruce. In a letter he wrote in the early Nazi years, he mentioned that he served in the German military and was a prisoner of war for two years. I have been unable to locate any photos of Bruce that show him clearly as an adult. I saw one of him as a child sitting at a piano in Berlin. He was in the "Africa Show" in Nazi Germany but I haven't found a photo of him in it. I wrote an article about blacks who served on the German side in World War I. I got the idea for the article from reading the posts on this board. Here's a link http://www.suite101.com/content/black-a ... -i-a324213

Please take a look if you'd like. Thanks!

Eric

[Chris Dale]

Great article and thanks for the information on Kwassi Bruce...

Cheers
Chris

[Eric Brothers]

My pleasure, Chris. I'm always on the lookout for interesting and different stories to write about. The Axis History Forum has been giving me lots of inspiration for articles and I enjoy sharing them with everyone here.

Eric

[Eric Brothers]

I found some new information about Afro-Germans during Nazi Germany and Holocaust. I posted two videos on my blog:

http://propaganda-history.blogspot.com/ ... y-and.html

The first video is an interview with an Afro-German survivor of Buchenwald, but alas it is only in German with no subtitles. I understood barely half of it. The second one is a documentary in German (with English subtitles) that was recorded directly from a TV. Thus it is a bit distorted but fascinating. It is primarily a series of interviews with Afro-Germans whose black father was killed or "taken away." It also discusses the Afrika-Schau, which is difficult to find information about. Please take a look if this interests you. If any of you are teachers or know teachers, this would be a good piece to show students for Black History Month.

[Peter H]

From: http://desert-column.phpbb3now.com/view ... f=8&t=1132

Poster hans vogel

"20th Saxon Hussars Regiment, at Bautzen 1915"

[Chris Dale]

Thanks for posting that one Peter, so it seems there's more African soldiers in the Kaiser's army that we didn't know about out there...

Cheers
Chris

[Mischa]

Hi,
I think I've seen the photo in the Russian tsushima.su forum. It is, if I remember correctly, a Saxon regiment. When I re-embarking there today, I still love the photo, hopefully.
Regards
Mischa

[ErichvN]

I don't think anyone is still watching this post but I should point out that their was no standing Imperial army, each city state (or colony) maintained its own fighting force, some officers were exchanged but that was the limit. The only national force were the navy and the attached marines, it might be worth checking if either of those had African troops.

[Chris Dale]

Hi Erich,

I'm sure there's a few of us still checking this interesting thread!

You are of course right in that Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Wuerttemberg maintained control of their own armies to some extent in peacetime and smaller states had varying limited control. The title Imperial Army is an unofficial broad collective noun that was also used in Imperial times.

I've not seen Africans or Asians in photos of the navy or marines, but some might perhaps turn up one day!

Thanks for your input.

Cheers
Chris