Lothar von Trotha

[JohnW]

All,

I was wondering if anyone had any aditional info on this man. Saw a pic on another thread and became interested. Especially interested in what decorations he received.

John

[Peter H]

All I can find on von Trotha was that he was born in 1848 and died in 1920.He was a veteran of the Franco-Prussian War and the Boxer Rebellion.Some accounts mention that he saw action in German East Africa in the 1890s revolts as well.

Count Schlieffen on Trotha:

"He wants to exterminate the whole nation or drive it out of the country.In this we can only agree with him...One racial war has broken out it can only finish with the annihilation of one of the parties."

Nevertheless,Schlieffen ordered Trotha to change his proclamation of extermination.

[Dave Danner]

Adrian Dietrich Lothar von Trotha was commander of the Schutztruppe für Deutsch-Südwestafrika from 1904 to 1906 (he was also briefly in 1904 the acting Gouverneur). He commanded the expedition against the Herero and is "credited" with ordering their annihilation.

He entered the 2. Garderegiment zu Fuß on November 24, 1865 as an officer candidate and fought as a Fähnrich in the Austro-Prussian War. On Aug. 6, 1866, he was commissioned a lieutenant.

In the Franco-Prussian War, he served with the 1. Kurhessischen Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 47. He was wounded at Wörth and won the Iron Cross.

1873 - Premierleutnant
September 1877 - Hauptmann
September 1888 - Major

As an Oberstleutnant, he served with the Schutztruppe in East Africa. From 1896 to 1897, he commanded the Schutztruppe für Deutsch-Ostafrika. Returning to Germany, he bacame commander of Infanterie Regiment von Stülpnagel Nr. 48. In Decemebr 1899, he took command of the 77. Infanteriebrigade and was promoted to Generalmajor.

On August 17, 1900, he took command of the 1. Ostasiatischen Infanteriebrigade and served in 7 campaigns in the Boxer Rebellion. On returning to Germany he took command of the 16. Infanteriebrigade. He was promoted to Generalleutnant on March 1, 1903 and took command of the 16. Division in Trier.

He was sent to German Southwest Africa in May 1904. He returned on August 19, 1905 and was decorated with the Order "pour le mérite".
__________________________

I don't have a rank list with him in it, but visible in the pictures below are:

Neck badges:
Prussian Order of the Red Eagle 2nd Class with Swords
Prussian Crown Order 2nd Class with Star with Swords on Ring
Saxon Albert Order Commander with Crown and Swords
? (maybe a Zähringen Lion Commander)
Saxe-Weimar White Falcon Commander with Swords
Order of the Italian Crown Grand Officer

Breast Stars: the only one I can clearly make out is for the aforementioned Crown Order with Swords on Ring. The lower 8-pointed one appears to be for the Order of the Italian Crown.

Medal bar: Iron Cross 2nd Class 1870 with 25 Year oakleaves, a Crown Order 3rd Class (?) with Swords, and an Austrian Order of the Iron Crown at the end; plus a few others (KDM 1870/71, Centenar, 25 year long service, Red Eagle, etc.)

[grassi]

After about 20 years of debate the Von-Trotha-Straße in München-Waldtrudering was finally renamed.
It is now Hererostraße.
One of the old street signs with von Trotha's name disappeared ahead of schedule (one year transition period or something like that) - maybe it was stolen.

In the 1930ies Waldtrudering got many street names related to the colonies.
The former independet politicial community of Waldtrudering became part of Munich in 1932 - renaming of double street names was necessary.
By the way it is the community of Heinrich Himmler's chicken farm.

The photos were taken on November 13th 2007.

grassi