Recommended books on German Colonies & Overseas Expediti

[Chris Dale]

I've just been reading the excellent new "Unter dem Kreuz des Südens: Auf Spuren der Kaiserlichen Landespolizei von Deutsch-Südwestafrika" by S Schepp (available from http://www.polizeiwissenschaft.de/info. ... &width=620 ).

It's the definitive study of the Landespolizei in South West Africa covering their history, organisation, deployment and uniforms. It's got everything you'd want to know about them including a lot of biographical studies. Well recommended.

Cheers
Chris

[Berndkarl]

I am not sure if this forum is still alive, nevertheless I share with you some books, all in German with lots of interesting photos. They are partly not of the best quality but at least they are not the ones that you find whenever you open a colonial book.
1. Kurzgeschichten aus Südwestafrika, von Schutztruppenoffizier G.H. Mehnert
2. Kriegsgeschichten aus Südwestafrika, von Schutztruppenoffizier G.H. Mehnert
3. Mit Schwert & Pflugschar, von Schutztruppenoffizier G.H. Mehnert
4. Liebes Väterchen..., von Schutztruppenoffizier Erich von Schauroth
5. Für Kaiser & Reich, Das Leben des Regiment-Adjutanten Christian Ahrens
6. Bis in das Sandfeld hinein, Der Hererofeldzug von Adda von Liliencron
In Germany sold at Namibiana Buchdepot in Delmenhorst
E-mail Address(es):
buchdepot@namibiana.de
For a publication I urgently need photos of the following persons Deutsch Südwest-Afrika:
Kopper (Copper), Simon; Tschirnhaus, von; Runkel, Leutnant; Grüner, Hauptmann; Willeke, Hauptmann; Kathen von, Leutnant; Geibel, Leutnant; Ebinger, Leutnant Kontakt: berutho@mweb.com.na
Thanx for your interest
Bernd

[Sunbury]

The Kaiser's Holocaust is a fascinating book on how Germany set up the world's first modern Concentration Camps in South West Africa (work will set you free, slave labour, subhuman inmates etc). How the experiences in those camps evolved under Nazism 40 years later. Hermann Göring's father was the Governor at the time. Mengles was taught the psuedo science of eugnics from of the Camp's doctors.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kaisers-Holocau ... 0571231411

The unknown story of the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples in Germany’s forgotten African Empire – an atrocity that foreshadowed the Nazi genocides forty years later. ...............................................The colonies first Governor was the father of Hermann Göring, the uniform of the SA was that of the Wilhelm II's brown shirted colonial army. More significantly, the colonial period saw the emergence of the pseudo science of eugenics and the legal framework to protect the purity of German settlers from racial contamination. Terms appear that are to be more infamously used later: Rassenschande (Racial shame), Rassenreinheit (Racial purity). Interracial marriage is made illegal. This was all to make the colony racially safe for emigration for a Volk that needed Lebensraum (living space) to expand into and escape population pressure at home.

[Peter H]

Discussed here: http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 3#p1515443

[Chris Dale]

Hi Sunbury,

Thanks for that recommendation. I think I'm going to have to buy it just to find out what's going on from their point of view. I doubt the whole concept of the connection between the Herero Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. I'm not doubting either genocide occurred and I'm sure as they were dealt out by the same country within 40 years of each other some of the same people may have been involved in both, but it just strikes me on first glance that some of their connections are very flimsy or false.

Hermann Göring's father was the Governor at the time.

I don't think he was. Göring senior was governor in the early 1890s as I recall. A decade before the Herero Rebellion. The author opening the book with an account of the younger Göring's suicide in Nuremberg in 1946 seems a little dramatic and unconnected to me.

the uniform of the SA was that of the Wilhelm II's brown shirted colonial army.

Again I can't see the connection. Yes, they were a very similar colour. But the cut of the uniform- pockets, buttons, piping are completely different as is the cloth used from the examples I've seen. I've read this tale a few times and never been able to find the source of the story. So they wore the same colour uniform? Is that enough evidence to convict them?

As I say, both events were horrific. I just can't see the connection. I'll have to get the book...

Cheers
Chris

PS The ticket inspectors on my local trains wear Prussian blue. Are they Frederick the Great's descendants trying to wrest Silesia from the Austro-Hungarian Empire?

[DSWA]

Thanks Bernd

Regards

DSWA
Swakopmund

[gustav109]

A couple I have read:

For German naval activities in the Pacific including a chapter on the Germans IN PNG a good book is
German Raiders of the South Seas by Robin Bromby
For an good account of the voyage of Zeppelin L57, which attemtpted (almost successfully) to supply Von Lettow Vorbeck in Africa refer to ""The Zeppelin in Combat" by Douglas Robinson. This book includes a manifest of the cargo however the Zepp was to be completely disassembled and used for the army (ie Covering was to be made into uniforms and tent material!).
Finally, "The Germans who never Lost" bu Edwin Hoyt the story of the Cruiser Konigsberg which was beached and dismanted to be used by Von Lettow Vorbecks army in German East Africa.

Cheers

Michael

[Chris Dale]

Thanks for those recommendations Gustav... they sound very interesting. And I was supposed to be saving money this month to get the garden landscaped... now which is more fun gardens or Zeppelins?... mmmm....

Cheers
Chris

[sherwood-forester]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, I have looked through the thread but not seen it.

Tanganyikan Guerrilla, East African campaign 1914-1918. Major J R Sibley.

It is one of the Pan/Ballantine, illustrated history of the first world war series (No 4). 160 pages, it was published in 1973.

It does not cover the campaign in great depth but it is very readable and looks at all areas of the war in DOA.
There are quite a few 'simple' maps but lots of pic's, in fact more pic's than pages.

[sherwood-forester]

Another that may have been mentioned.
Duel for Kilimanjaro. Leonard Mosley. 1963. 244 pages, Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Been a while since I read it and can't think what I thought of it!

[sherwood-forester]

For a rather specialist look at the economy and commercial infrastructure of both BEA and DOA.

British and German East Africa. Their economic & commercial relations, Heinrich Brode, 1911. (reprinted by Arno press 1977)

It is a good book for building up what the colonies were like pre-war. It covers the development of agriculture, trade, the building of the railroads and their associated lake shipping.

The author complains a lot about the quality of the local labour but it seem a good thrashing works wonders!

[akagi]

Maybe someone mentioned it before but there's my latest buy:

"The German Colonial Experience" by Arthur J. Knoll & Hermann J. Hiery.

It's basically collection of selected documents and memoirs about German rule in their posessions in Africa, Pacific and Asia. I was particularly interested about German colonies in Pacific as I didn't know anything about situation on these territories under German rule. Book is divided in chapters by theme - economy, law, infrastructure, religion, education, interracial relations, colonists self-organization, governance, charter Companies (unfortunately not too much about them in my opinion) and others. Book covers almost every aspect of daily life in German colonies and provides a good source of german source texts about mentioned above topics (translated to english of course). Book has about 550 pages and it's available on Ebay for almost 60$, hovewer I ordered it in bookstore in Dublin where I live and it costed me about 48 eur. highly recommended stuff for those who would like to see whole picture of German colonies and colonialism and this book provides one in concise form.

[Berndkarl]

Hi Sunbury,

Thanks for that recommendation. I think I'm going to have to buy it just to find out what's going on from their point of view. I doubt the whole concept of the connection between the Herero Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust. I'm not doubting either genocide occurred and I'm sure as they were dealt out by the same country within 40 years of each other some of the same people may have been involved in both, but it just strikes me on first glance that some of their connections are very flimsy or false.

Hermann Göring's father was the Governor at the time.

I don't think he was.
-----------------------------------------------------
You are correct Chris! This book is true propaganda with not much substance. I also do not support the genocide-idea. This was first propagated by a East German historian and quickly adopted by some "modern" historians like Zimmerer and Zeller. There are plenty publications by more senior historians who did not "copy and paste" but did their own research and come up with different views: Dr. Fisch, Brigitte Lau, Mr. Schneider-Waterberg or the latest book on the market "Gewisse Ungewissheiten" by Rainer Tröndle.
All the best to you in 2013
Bernd

[Berndkarl]

Those interested in German kolonial history, be informed about two new books, covering WW 1 in German Southwest Africa:
Der 1. Weltkrieg in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1914/15, by Historicus Africanus, Book 1 covering the pre-war situation, the first hostilitie and the war, including Sandfontein-battle, until December 1914. ISBN: 978-99916-872-1-6, with plenty of photos.
Book 2 covers the expedition of Major Franke into Angola where he attacked Fort "Naulila" in retaliatory for the assassination of a a German Official, Dr. Schultze-Jena. The Historian Historicus Africanus spent years in researching not only the German sources but also available sources in the opponents archives. ISBN: 978-99916-872-3-0. This book also contains plenty of relevant photos.
Both books can get ordered at Namibiana Buchdepot in Delmenhorst/Germany e-mail:buchdepot@namibiana.de

[Berndkarl]

On 19 december 2012 Glanz + Gloria Verlag published a photobook called "Fotografische Erinnerungen an Deutsch-Südwestafrika", a photobook containing photos and postcards from days in peace and wars. The book is built up chronological, starting with a photo of Schutztruppler Hermann Röhlig bevore his departure to Southwestafrica in 1889, we find photos of the native-chiefs, some German officers who were the protagonists in previous books by this publisher, we find excellent landscape photos of the arid south of DSWA, the bush-savanna of the central region but also the lush and fertile north with Kunene and Kavango region. We see photos of military centres, the outbreak of the 1st WW in German Southwestafrica with the invasion of English/Southafrican troops, the German surrender at Khorab and live of the Germans behind barbed-wire. We notice that the innovative Germans built clay-houses, while their guards had to endure extreme heat, but also cold in their tents...and we see the German troops leaving the country in 1919 on a ship, that was 30 years later and is was the end of german rule in DSWA. Most of the 130 photos were never published before, that is what makes the book unique. ISBN: 978-99916-872-4-7, Book can be ordered by Namibiana Buchdepot in Delmenhorst/Germany, e-mail: buchdepot@namibiana.de