German South West Africa: Difference between revisions

German South West Africa
*Deutsch-Südwestafrika*
German South West Africa Deutsch-Südwestafrika
1884–1915
	Flag of South-West Africa Flag Coat of arms
	Green: Territory comprising German colony of German South-West Africa; Gray: Other German possessions; Black: German Empire Note: The map uses the borders of the present-day, but the historical extent for German territories are depicted.
Status	German colony
Capital	Windhoek (from 1891)
Governor
• 1898–1905	Theodor von Leutwein
• 1905–1907	Friedrich von Lindequist
• 1907–1910	Bruno von Schuckmann
• 1910–1915	Theodor Seitz
Historical era	The Scramble for Africa
• Established	7 August 1884
• Genocide	1904–1907
• Disestablished	9 July 1915
• Treaty of Versailles	1919
Area
	835,100 km2 (322,400 sq mi)
Currency	German South West African mark
	Succeeded by
South-West Africa

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German South West Africa (German: Deutsch-Südwestafrika, DSWA) was a colony of Germany from 1884 until 1915, when it was taken over by South Africa (as part of the British Empire) and administered as South West Africa, finally becoming Namibia in 1990. With an area of 835,100 km², it was easily one and a half times the size of the mainland German Empire in Europe (without its colonies) at the time.

Early settlements

Initial European contact with the areas which would become German South-West Africa came from traders and sailors, starting in January 1486 when Diogo Cão, possibly accompanied by Martin Behaim, landed in what would become Namibia. However, for several centuries, European settlement would remain small and temporary. In February 1805 the London Missionary Society established a small mission in Blydeverwacht. The efforts of this group met with little success. In 1840 the London Missionary Society transferred all of its activities to the Rhenish Missionary Society. Some of the first representatives of this organization were Franz Heinrich Kleinschmidt who arrived in October 1842 and Carl Hugo Hahn, arrived in December 1842. They began founding churches throughout what would become Namibia. The Rhenish missionaries had a significant impact initially on culture and dress, and then later on politics. During the same time that the Rhenish missionaries were active, merchants and farmers were establishing outposts.

Early history

On 16 November 1882 a merchant from Bremen, German Empire, Adolf Lüderitz, requested protection for a station that he planned to build in South-West Africa, from Chancellor Bismarck. Once this was granted, his employee Heinrich Vogelsang purchased land from a native chief and established a city at Angra Pequena which was renamed Lüderitz. On 24 April 1884, he placed the area under the protection of Imperial Germany to deter British encroachment. In early 1884, the Kaiserliche Marine ship Nautilus visited to review the situation. A favourable report from the government, and acquiescence from the British, resulted in a visit from the Leipzig and Elisabeth. The German flag was finally raised in South West Africa on 7 August 1884. The German claims on this land were confirmed during the Conference of Berlin. In fact, the indigenous peoples never held the idea of individually held land as "private property": land could never be alienated by any individual, no matter what his rank. All German land claims were fraudulent. In October, the newly-appointed Commissioner for West Africa, Gustav Nachtigal, arrived on the Möwe.^[1]

In April 1885, the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft für Südwest-Afrika (German Colonial Society for Southwest Africa, known as DKGSWA) was founded with the support of German bankers (Gerson von Bleichröder, Adolph von Hansemann), industrialists (Count Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck) and politicians (Frankfurt mayor Johannes von Miquel). DKGSWA was granted monopoly rights to expolit mineral deposits.^[2] The new Society soon bought the assets of Lüderitz's failing enterprises. Later, in 1908, diamonds were discovered. Thus along with gold, copper, platinum, and other minerals, diamonds became a major investment. Earlier, the colonial aim was to dispossess the indigenous peoples of their land, for use of German settlers, as well as be a source of raw materials and a market of German industrial products. ^[2]

Lüderitz drowned in 1886 while on an expedition to the Orange River. The company bought all of Lüderitz’ land and mining rights, following Bismarck's policy that private rather than public money should be used to develop the colonies. In May, Heinrich Ernst Göring was appointed Commissioner and established his administration at Otjimbingwe. Then, on April 17, 1886, a law creating the legal system of the colony was passed, creating a dual system with laws for Europeans and different laws for natives.^[3]

Over the next several years relations between the Germans and indigenous peoples continued to worsen. Additionally, the British settlement at Walvis Bay as well as numerous small farmers and missionaries were all involved in the area. A complex web of treaties, agreements and vendettas increased the unrest in the area. In 1888 the first group of Schutztruppen—colonial protectorate troops—arrived (they were sent secretly) to protect the base at Otjimbingwe. The Schutztruppe detachment consisted of two officers, five non-commissioned officers, and 20 black soldiers.

By the end of the year, the German commissioner Heinrich Ernst Göring was forced to flee to Walvis Bay after negotiations failed with a local tribe. Also, by the late 1880s, the South West Africa Company was nearly bankrupt and had to ask Bismarck for help and additional troops. By 1890 the colony was declared a Crown Colony and additional troops were sent to the area.^[4] At the same time the colony grew through the acquisition of the Caprivi Strip in the northeast, which promised new trade routes. This territory was acquired through the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty between Britain and Germany.^[5]

Almost simultaneously, in August through September, 1892, the South West Africa Company, Ltd (SWAC) was established by the German, British, and Cape Colony governments, aided by financiers to raise the capital required in order to enlarge mineral exploitation (specifically, the Damaraland concession's copper deposit interests).

German South-West Africa was the only German colony where Germans settled in large numbers. German settlers were drawn to the colony by economic possibilities in diamond and copper mining, and especially farming. In 1902 the colony had 200,000 inhabitants, though only 2,595 were German, 1,354 were Afrikaner, and 452 were British. By 1914, 9,000 more German settlers had arrived. There were probably around 80,000 Herero, 60,000 Ovambo, and 10,000 Nama, who were disparagingly referred to as Hottentots.

Rebellion against German rule

Through 1893 and 1894, the first "Hottentot Uprising" of the Nama and their legendary leader Hendrik Witbooi occurred. The following years saw many further local uprisings against German rule. Before the Herero and Namaqua Genocide of 1904-1907, the Herero and Nama had good reasons to distrust the Germans. This is discussed in Khaua-Mbandjeru Rebellion. This rebellion, in which the Germans tried to control the Khaua by seizing their property by artificially imposing European legal views of property ownership, led to the largest of the rebellions, known as the Herero Wars (or Herero Genocide) of 1904.

Remote farms were attacked, and approximately 150 German settlers were killed. The Schutztruppe of only 766 troops and native auxiliary forces was, at first, no match for the Herero. The Herero went on the offensive, sometimes surrounding Okahandja and Windhoek, and destroying the railway bridge to Osona. Additional 14,000 troops, hastened from Germany under Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha, crushed the rebellion in the Battle of Waterberg.

Earlier von Trotha issued an ultimatum to the Herero people, denying them the right of being German subjects and ordering them to leave the country, or be killed. In order to escape, the Herero retreated into the waterless Omaheke region, a western arm of the Kalahari Desert, where many of them died of thirst. The German forces guarded every water source and were given orders to shoot any adult male Herero on sight. Only a few Herero managed to escape into neighbouring British territories.^[6]

The German official military report on the campaign lauded the tactics:

This bold enterprise shows up in the most brilliant light the ruthless energy of the German command in pursuing their beaten enemy. No pains, no sacrifices were spared in eliminating the last remnants of enemy resistance. Like a wounded beast the enemy was tracked down from one water-hole to the next, until finally he became the victim of his own environment. The arid Omaheke [desert] was to complete what the German army had begun: the extermination of the Herero nation.
— 20px, 20px, Bley, 1971: 162

In late 1904, the Nama entered the struggles against the colonial power under their leaders Hendrik Witbooi and Jakobus Morenga, the latter often referred to as "the black Napoleon". This uprising was finally quashed during 1907 – 1908 In total, between 25,000 and 100,000 Herero, more than 10,000 Nama and 1,749 Germans died in the conflict.

After the official end of the conflict, the remaining natives, when finally released from detention, were subject to a policy of dispossession, deportation, forced labor, and racial segregation and discrimination in a system that in many ways anticipated apartheid and even perhaps foreshadowed the industrial-scale killing in Nazi Germany. The genocide remains relevant to ethnic identity in independent Namibia and to relations with Germany.^[7]

Concentration camps

The Germans maintained a number of concentration camps in the colony during their war against the Herero and Nama peoples.

In the table below, Extermination camps are highlighted in light red; Concentration camps are highlighted in blue, Collection or Work camps are unmarked.

Name^[8]^[9]	Est. deaths^[10]	Notes
Bondelslokation
Karibib
Keetmanshoop
Lüdertiz
Okahandja		Four subcamps or kraals: ^[11] #1: Young children; #2: Prisoners of War; #3: Sick and dying; #4: Police camp (mostly Damara)
Okomitombe
Omaruru
Omburo
Otjihaenena
Otjozongombe
Shark Island	3,000	(In Lüderitzbucht, 121.2% for Nama, 30% for Herero)
Swakopmund	74%
Windhoek	50.4%	There were two lager (camps) at Windhoek.

Besides these camps the indigenous people were interned in other places. These included private businesses and government projects,^[12], ships offshore,^[13]^[14]^[15]

Etappenkommando in charge of supplies of prisoners to companies, private persons, etc., as well as any other materials. Concentration camps implies poor sanitation and a population density that would imply disease.^[16]

Prisoners were used as slave laborers in mines and railways, for use by the military or settlers.^[17]^[18]^[19]^[20]^[21] ^[22]

Genocide of the indigenous people

Children were abused and exterminated; women and children were used as slave labor; women and children were used as 'comfort women' and sex slaves; and the entire object of gaining profit for the Second Reich was placed into doubt at home in Germany.

One of the following images has been censored^{[clarification needed]}, though it appears in many books and is in the public domain; see Jurgen Zimmerer, Joachim Zeller and E. J. Neather, "Genocide in German South-West Africa: The Colonial War of 1904-1908 and Its Aftermath", Merlin Press (December 1, 2007), p. 137.

The Herero and Namaqua genocide has been recognised by the United Nations and by the German Federal Republic. At the 100th anniversary of the camp's foundation, German Minister for Economic Development and Cooperation Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul commemorated the dead on-site and apologised for the camp on behalf of Germany.^[23]^[24]

Children were abused and exterminated; women and children were used as slave labor; women and children were used as 'comfort women' and sex slaves; and the entire object of gaining profit for the Second Reich was placed into doubt at home in Germany.

One of the following images has been censored^{[clarification needed]}, though it appears in many books and is in the public domain; see Jurgen Zimmerer, Joachim Zeller and E. J. Neather, "Genocide in German South-West Africa: The Colonial War of 1904-1908 and Its Aftermath", Merlin Press (December 1, 2007), p. 137.

Rohrbach tried to establish an independent Ukraine in 1918^[25]
Rohrbach was associated with the Reichsgau Wartheland during the Third Reich |- | Heinrich Schneem || member NSDAP, governor German East Africa,
president Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG),
president Deutsche weltwirtschaftliche gessellschaft |- | Theodore Seitz || governor of German Kamerun,
governor German South West Africa,
president Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG) |}

The bridge between the the Second Reich and the Third Reich was through Germany's African colonial empire! See German Ost (East).

Bridging the Second and Third Reichs in German South West Africa

There was at least one German citizen who visited German South West Africa during the period between 1904 and 1908, as well as working closely with the Nazi Party in Germany (straddling the Second Reich and Third Reich): Eugen Fischer, director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics (KWI-A). Fischer also worked closely for many years with his old friend Baron Ottmar von Verschuer, who was his successor at the KWI-A. It is indisputable that Eugen Fischer was fully apprised of the activities of the Nazis.^[26]^[27]^[28]^[29]^[30]

Paul Rohrbach was the Settlements Commissioner in GSWA. Concerned with miscegenation, he is quoted as follows:

"In order to secure the peaceful White settlement against the bad, culturally inept and predatory native tribe, it is possible that its actual eradication may become necessary under certain conditions."^[31]

Independent of what was happening in German South West Africa, in 1918 the Germans had invaded the Ukraine while people like Symon Petliura were also trying to establish an independent Ukraine. Rohrbach worked with Field Marshal Hermann von Eichhorn, commander of the German forces in the Ukraine, to install General Pavel Petrovitch Skoropadski as "Hetmann" of the Ukraine.^[32]

During the Third Reich, German colonists from German East Africa were moved into Polish land "annexed" in 1939, displacing Poles (the indigenous population), Jews and Gypsies. This new settlement area was called the Reichsgau Wartheland; as the people in Poland and the Ukraine were considered inferior, they could thus be exterminated and replaced with Germans from the former African colonies and other places.

"... Hitler, Darré, and other Nazi ideologues played down overseas colonialism and concentrated instead on contiguous German settlements in Eastern Europe and especially Ukraine where the Aryan 'soldier-peasant' tilled the soil with a weapon at his side, ready to defend the farm from the 'Asian hordes.' As for the Ukrainians whom the Nazis pejoratively branded 'Negroes,' Hitler remarked that the Germans would supply them 'with scarves, glass beads and everything that colonial people like.'"^[33]

Also active both in Deutsch-Südwestafrika and in Nazi Germany were two members of a well-known family: Heinrich Ernst Göring and Hermann Göring.

Franz Ritter von Epp also straddled both the Second Reich and the Third Reich. He served as a company commander in the German colony Deutsch-Südwestafrika, where he took part in the bloody Herero and Namaqua Genocide.^[34] Von Epp also served as the NSDAP's head of its Military-Political Office from 1928 to 1945, and later as leader of the German Colonial Society, an organization devoted to regaining Germany's lost colonies.

Ernst Heinrich Göring	Friedrich von Lindequist	File:Paul Rohrbach.jpg Paul Rohrbach

Since several later NSDAP leaders were either active in, or informed about, the camp's operation, it has been described as an important predecessor of later Nazi extermination camps during the holocaust.^[35]

Several other notable members of the NSDAP received their initial education repressing people in German colonies^[36], including:

Franz Ritter von Epp	Reichsstatthalter of Bavaria, member of GSWA schutztruppen
Heinrich Ernst Göring Hermann Göring	Heinrich worked in German Southwest Africa, Hermann was a well known member of the NSDAP
Hans Grimm	Originated the slogan Lebensraum while in GSWA in 1910 A sympathizer who influenced the NSDAP since 1923, and held many of the same beliefs^[37]
Eduard von Liebert	member NSDAP, governor German South West Africa
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck	joined NSDAP in 1928, German South West Africa German Kamerun and German East Africa, with General von Trotha
Friedrich von Lindequist	member NSDAP, governor German South West Africa
Karl Peters	member NSDAP in 1933, founder of German East Africa, (praised by Kaiser Wilhelm II and Hitler)
Wilhelm Röemann	member NSDAP, in German South West Africa (under General von Trotha)
Paul Rohrbach	Settlement commissioner in GSWA^[38] Rohrbach tried to establish an independent Ukraine in 1918^[39] Rohrbach was associated with the Reichsgau Wartheland during the Third Reich
Heinrich Schneem	member NSDAP, governor German East Africa, president Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG), president Deutsche weltwirtschaftliche gessellschaft
Theodore Seitz	governor of German Kamerun, governor German South West Africa, president Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG)

The bridge between the the Second Reich and the Third Reich was through Germany's African colonial empire! See German Ost (East).

Major personages and propaganda

The objective of the policy of German South West Africa Governor Theodor von Leutwein was not to destroy the indigenous populations (Herero, Nama, Damara) in order to seize their land to encourage settlement of German farmers; nor was it to seize or kill the cattle. Leutwein's objective was not genocide, and he was wise enough to realize that the indigenous population could be used as a labor supply. However, such Flavian tactics left Leutwein open to attack at home, with a public who wanted the instant gratification of a decisive defeat of the indigenous peoples of German South West Africa. (This was the same problem Augustus Flavius had with the Roman public, who wanted him to quickly defeat Hannibal.) As a consequence, Leutwein was pushed aside by Kaiser Wilhelm II and replaced by Lothar von Trotha, already known for his brutality in China as well as German East Africa. The result was the genocide of the indigenous population, the economic ruin of German South West Africa, and the eventual loss of the German colonial empire. ^[40]^[41]

As a consequence of this failed, brutal policy, Trotha was forced to leave German South West Africa and replaced by Friedrich von Lindequist, who completed the genocide with the use of extermination camps and concentration camps. In order for this policy to be acceptable at home, propaganda was employed. The claim was made that the 'barbaric' indigenous population wished to murder defenseless women and children. In fact, only four German women were killed, and one German child.

World War I

During World War I, South African troops opened hostilities with an assault on the Ramansdrift police station on 13 September 1914. German settlers were transported to prison camps near Pretoria and later in Pietermaritzburg. Because of the overwhelming superiority of the South African troops, the German Schutztruppe, along with groups of Afrikaner volunteers fighting in the Maritz Rebellion on the German side, offered opposition only as a delaying tactic. On 9 July 1915, Victor Franke, the last commander of the Schutztruppe, capitulated near Khorab.

After the war, the territory came under the control of Britain, and then was made a South African League of Nations mandate. In 1990, the former colony became independent as Namibia, governed by the former liberation movement SWAPO.

German legacy

Many German names, buildings, and businesses still exist in the country, and about 30,000 people of German descent still live there. German is still widely used in Namibia, with the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation operating a German language radio station, while the daily newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung, founded in 1916, remains in publication.

References

Notes

^ Chronology 1884 Section
^ ^a ^b "39-1885". Retrieved 2009-05-12.
^ Chronology 1886 Section
^ Chronology 1890 Section
^ "Africa". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1. 1910. p. 343. Retrieved 2009-02-10.
^ "Michael Mann - German South-West Africa: The Genocide of the Hereros, 1904-5". Retrieved 2009-02-06.
^ Reinhart Kössler, and Henning Melber, "Völkermord und Gedenken: Der Genozid an den Herero und Nama in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1904-1908," ("Genocide and memory: the genocide of the Herero and Nama in German South-West Africa, 1904-08") Jahrbuch zur Geschichte und Wirkung des Holocaust 2004: 37-75
^ Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 23
^ Jeremy Silver, Casper Erichsen, "Luderitz's Forgotten Concentration Camp", at [1]
^ "The other annual average death rates (for the period Oct. 1904 to Mar. 1907) were as follows: Okahandja, 37.2%; Windhuk, 50.4%; Swakopmund, 74%; Shark Island in Lüderitzbucht, 121.2% for Nama, 30% for Herero. Traugott Tjienda, headsman of the Herero at Tsumbe and foreman of a large group of prisoners at the Otavi lines for two years, testified years later to a death rate of 28% (148 dead of 528 laborers) in his unit, Union of South Africa, 'Report on the Natives', 101." In this excerpt, "BA-Berlin" means Bundesarchiv (Berlin-Lichterfelde); "Lüderitzbucht" means Lüderitz Bay; Tsumbe was a copper mine; Otavi was the railroad that the inmates of Shark Island were forced to build. See "Absolute Destruction: Military, Culture And the Practices of War in Imperial Germany", Isabel V. Hull, Cornell University Press, 2006; see footnote #64, pp. 81-82, 'Sterblichkeit in den Kriegsgefangenlargern,' Nr. KA II.1181, copy of undated report compiled by the Schutztruppe Command, read in Col. Dept. 24 M. 1908, BA-Berlin, R 1001. Nr. 2040, pp. 161-62.
^ A kraal is typically reserved for animals
^ Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 49
^ Erichsen, p. 23
^ Erichsen, pp. 59, 111
^ Erichsen, p. 76
^ Erichsen, p. 113
^ Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 43
^ “The loads … are out of all proportion to their strength. I have often seen women and children dropping down, especially when engaged on this work, and also when carrying very heavy bags of grain, weighing from 100 to 160lbs.” Erichsen, p. 58
^ “The unfortunate [POW] women are daily compelled to carry heavy iron for construction work, also big stacks of compressed fodder. I have often noticed cases where women have fallen under the load and have been made to go on by being thrashed and kicked by the soldiers and conductors. The rations supplied to the women are insufficient and they are made to cook the food themselves. They are always hungry, and we, labourers from the Cape Colony, have frequently thrown food into their camp. The women in many cases are not properly clothed. It is a common thing to see women going about in public almost naked. Have also noticed that … old women are also made to work and are constantly kicked and thrashed by soldiers. This treatment is meted out in the presence of the German officers, and I have never noticed any officers interfering.” Erichsen, pp. 60-61
^ “I have seen women and children with my own eyes at Angra Pequena, dying of starvation and overwork, nothing but skin and bone, getting flogged every time they fell under the heavy loads. I have seen them picking up bits of bread and refuse food thrown away outside our tents (…) … most of the prisoners, who compose the working gangs at Angra Pequena, are sent up from Swakopmund. There are hundreds of them, mostly women and children and a few old men… When they fall they are sjamboked by the soldier in charge of the gang, with his full force, until they get up. Across the face was the favourite place for the sjamboking and I have often seen the blood flowing down the faces of the women and children and from their bodies, from the cuts of the weapon. (…) The women had to carry the corpses and dig the hole into which they were placed. They had no burial ceremony of any kind … The corpse would be wrapped in a blanket and carried on a rough stretcher … I have never heard one cry, even when their flesh was being cut to pieces with the sjambok. All feeling seemed to have gone out of them (…)” Erichsen, p. 78
^ “I left Cape Town during the year 1906, and signed on with the Protectorate troops in South West Africa. I arrived at Lüderitzbrucht, and after staying there a few minutes I perceived nearly 500 native women lying on the beach, all bearing indications of being slowly starved to death. Every morning and towards evening four women carried a stretcher containing about four or five corpses, and they had also to dig the graves and bury them. I then started to trek to Kubub and Aus, and on the road I discovered bodies of native women lying between stones and devoured by birds of prey. Some bore signs of having been beaten to death … If a prisoner were found outside the Herero prisoners’ camp, he would be brought before the Lieutenant and flogged with a sjambok. Fifty lashes were generally imposed. The manner in which the flogging was carried out was the most cruel imaginable … .pieces of flesh would fly from the victim’s body into the air …” Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 80
^ “Forcing women to pull carts as if they were animals was in tune with the treatment generally meted out to Herero prisoners in Lüderitz as elsewhere in the colony. Missionary Vedder in Swakopmund noted that overall, prisoners were regarded no better than animals. He said: ‘Like cattle hundreds were driven to their death and like cattle they were buried.’” Erichsen, p 84
^ “Germany admits Namibia genocide,” BBC News, August 14, 2004
^ “Namibia - Genocide and the second Reich”
^ President of the German-Ukrainian Society during WWI; see Ihor Kamenetsky, "Hitler's Occupation of the Ukraine: A Study in Totalitarian Imperialism", Hailer Publishing, 2006
^ Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, pp. 336-337: "At the end of his colonial policy conclusions, Fischer designed a system of apartheid for German Southwest Africa, long before such a system was introduced in South Africa: the Ovambo and Herero were to be deployed as agricultural laborers, the Hottentots as herders. The "Bastards of Rehoboth," in contrast, were assigned an important function as a privileged intermediate class, "as native craftsmen and manual laborers [...], as policemen, i.e minor officers, foremen, and leaders of the entire supply lines and vehicle pool of the government, troops and private persons, in part as small farmers in their bastard country, to which everyone returns after serving their time." Despite his paternalistic attitude toward the "little nation of bastards," Fischer regarded the Rehoboths from the perspective of the colonial masters:

So they will be granted just that degree of protection which they need as a race inferior to us, in order to endure, no more and only as long as they are useful to us -- otherwise free competition, i.e. in my opinion, here downfall!

This last comment by Fischer reads like a retrospective justification of the war of extermination the German colonial troops had led against the rebellious Herero and Nama from 1904 to 1908. Fischer had profited from this genocide directly, for he apparently brought skulls and skeletons of "Hottentots" with him from Southwest Africa, which may have come from the internment camps on Shark Island, where people died like flies. The skeleton of the Nama leader Cornelius Frederiks (1907) also supposedly came into Fischer's collection in this way."
^ Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, p. 253: "In July 1940 -- by this time Fischer had coordinated his plans for reorganizing the institute with Baron Ottmar von Verschuer -- the departing director expressed himself more clearly to Telschow:

In repetition of earlier conversations, Prof. Eugen Fischer designated prof. von Verschuer in Frankfort as a suitable successor. [...]
^ Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, p. 279: "In July 1942 Verschuer reported to the race biologist Wolfgang Lehmann of Strasborg, a member of the "Dahlem circle": "I will take almost all of my staff from here, first of all[Heinrich] Schade and [Hans] Grebe, later [Josef] Mengele [...]"
^ Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, p. 284: "Verschuer [...] filled the ranks of assistants with Hans Grebe, Siegfried Liebau, Hans Ritter, and Karin Magnussen [...]"
^ Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, pp. 379-381. In her interrogation by the Bremen Denazification Commission on May 25, 1949, Karin Magnussen testified that she worked closely with Dr. Josef Mengele and that Prof. von Verschuer worked closely with both Magnussen and Mengele.
^ Jeremy Sarkin, "Germany's Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers", James Currey, 2011, p. 102
^ See Hans-Joachim Torke and John-Paul Himka, "German-Ukrainian Relations in Historical Perspective", Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, Edmonton, 1994 (review).
^ See Jonathan Petropoulos, John K. Roth, "Gray zones: ambiguity and compromise in the Holocaust and its aftermath", Berghahn Books, 2006, pp. 187-188
^ Genocide and Gross Human Rights Violations google book review, author: Kurt Jonassohn, Karin Solveig Björnson, publisher: Transaction Publishers
^ Benjamin Madley, "From Africa to Auschwitz: How German South West Africa Incubated Ideas and Methods Adopted and Developed by the Nazis in Eastern Europe", European History Quarterly 2005 35, pp. 430-432
^ http://techcrunch.com/2007/12/06/wikipedia-sued-for-nazi-sympathies/; see also Katina Schubert, Lutz Heilmann
^ Eric Ames, Marcia Klotz, and Lora Wildenthal (Eds), “Race, Gender, and Sexuality in German Southwest Africa: Hans Grimm’s Südafrikanische Novellen.” Germany’s Colonial Pasts. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 2005, pp. 63-75.
^ Examples of views by individuals such as Paul Rohrbach and Eugen Fischer that were specific links between GSWA and Nazi Germany are given in Jeremy Sarkin, "Germany's Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers", James Currey, 2011, p. 25. "Jonassohn points out how the writings of Paul Rohrbach, advocating the extermination or expulsion of the indigenous population to provide space for white settlers, later became part of the Nazi ethos. To confirm the link between the two eras Jonassohn also refers to Eugen Fischer, who conducted human experiments in GSWA and later Nazi Germany."
^ President of the German-Ukrainian Society during WWI; see Ihor Kamenetsky, "Hitler's Occupation of the Ukraine: A Study in Totalitarian Imperialism", Hailer Publishing, 2006
^ Jeremy Sarkin, "Germany's Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers", James Currey, 2011
^ Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them," African Studies Center, University of Leiden, Netherlands, 2003

Bibliography

Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them": Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908, African Studies Centre, University of Leiden, 2005

External links

22°34′12″S 17°05′01″E / 22.57000°S 17.08361°E / -22.57000; 17.08361

[Chronology38-1] Chronology 1884 Section

[39-1885-2] "39-1885". Retrieved 2009-05-12.

[Chronology40-3] Chronology 1886 Section

[4] Chronology 1890 Section

[5] "Africa". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1. 1910. p. 343. Retrieved 2009-02-10.

[Michael_Mann-6] "Michael Mann - German South-West Africa: The Genocide of the Hereros, 1904-5". Retrieved 2009-02-06.

[7] Reinhart Kössler, and Henning Melber, "Völkermord und Gedenken: Der Genozid an den Herero und Nama in Deutsch-Südwestafrika 1904-1908," ("Genocide and memory: the genocide of the Herero and Nama in German South-West Africa, 1904-08") Jahrbuch zur Geschichte und Wirkung des Holocaust 2004: 37-75

[8] Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 23

[9] Jeremy Silver, Casper Erichsen, "Luderitz's Forgotten Concentration Camp", at [1]

[10] "The other annual average death rates (for the period Oct. 1904 to Mar. 1907) were as follows: Okahandja, 37.2%; Windhuk, 50.4%; Swakopmund, 74%; Shark Island in Lüderitzbucht, 121.2% for Nama, 30% for Herero. Traugott Tjienda, headsman of the Herero at Tsumbe and foreman of a large group of prisoners at the Otavi lines for two years, testified years later to a death rate of 28% (148 dead of 528 laborers) in his unit, Union of South Africa, 'Report on the Natives', 101." In this excerpt, "BA-Berlin" means Bundesarchiv (Berlin-Lichterfelde); "Lüderitzbucht" means Lüderitz Bay; Tsumbe was a copper mine; Otavi was the railroad that the inmates of Shark Island were forced to build. See "Absolute Destruction: Military, Culture And the Practices of War in Imperial Germany", Isabel V. Hull, Cornell University Press, 2006; see footnote #64, pp. 81-82, 'Sterblichkeit in den Kriegsgefangenlargern,' Nr. KA II.1181, copy of undated report compiled by the Schutztruppe Command, read in Col. Dept. 24 M. 1908, BA-Berlin, R 1001. Nr. 2040, pp. 161-62.

[11] A kraal is typically reserved for animals

[12] Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 49

[13] Erichsen, p. 23

[14] Erichsen, pp. 59, 111

[15] Erichsen, p. 76

[16] Erichsen, p. 113

[17] Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 43

[18] “The loads … are out of all proportion to their strength. I have often seen women and children dropping down, especially when engaged on this work, and also when carrying very heavy bags of grain, weighing from 100 to 160lbs.” Erichsen, p. 58

[19] “The unfortunate [POW] women are daily compelled to carry heavy iron for construction work, also big stacks of compressed fodder. I have often noticed cases where women have fallen under the load and have been made to go on by being thrashed and kicked by the soldiers and conductors. The rations supplied to the women are insufficient and they are made to cook the food themselves. They are always hungry, and we, labourers from the Cape Colony, have frequently thrown food into their camp. The women in many cases are not properly clothed. It is a common thing to see women going about in public almost naked. Have also noticed that … old women are also made to work and are constantly kicked and thrashed by soldiers. This treatment is meted out in the presence of the German officers, and I have never noticed any officers interfering.” Erichsen, pp. 60-61

[20] “I have seen women and children with my own eyes at Angra Pequena, dying of starvation and overwork, nothing but skin and bone, getting flogged every time they fell under the heavy loads. I have seen them picking up bits of bread and refuse food thrown away outside our tents (…) … most of the prisoners, who compose the working gangs at Angra Pequena, are sent up from Swakopmund. There are hundreds of them, mostly women and children and a few old men… When they fall they are sjamboked by the soldier in charge of the gang, with his full force, until they get up. Across the face was the favourite place for the sjamboking and I have often seen the blood flowing down the faces of the women and children and from their bodies, from the cuts of the weapon. (…) The women had to carry the corpses and dig the hole into which they were placed. They had no burial ceremony of any kind … The corpse would be wrapped in a blanket and carried on a rough stretcher … I have never heard one cry, even when their flesh was being cut to pieces with the sjambok. All feeling seemed to have gone out of them (…)” Erichsen, p. 78

[21] “I left Cape Town during the year 1906, and signed on with the Protectorate troops in South West Africa. I arrived at Lüderitzbrucht, and after staying there a few minutes I perceived nearly 500 native women lying on the beach, all bearing indications of being slowly starved to death. Every morning and towards evening four women carried a stretcher containing about four or five corpses, and they had also to dig the graves and bury them. I then started to trek to Kubub and Aus, and on the road I discovered bodies of native women lying between stones and devoured by birds of prey. Some bore signs of having been beaten to death … If a prisoner were found outside the Herero prisoners’ camp, he would be brought before the Lieutenant and flogged with a sjambok. Fifty lashes were generally imposed. The manner in which the flogging was carried out was the most cruel imaginable … .pieces of flesh would fly from the victim’s body into the air …” Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them: Concentration camps and prisoners-of-war in Namibia, 1904-1908," African Studies Centre, Leiden, 2005, p. 80

[22] “Forcing women to pull carts as if they were animals was in tune with the treatment generally meted out to Herero prisoners in Lüderitz as elsewhere in the colony. Missionary Vedder in Swakopmund noted that overall, prisoners were regarded no better than animals. He said: ‘Like cattle hundreds were driven to their death and like cattle they were buried.’” Erichsen, p 84

[23] “Germany admits Namibia genocide,” BBC News, August 14, 2004

[24] “Namibia - Genocide and the second Reich”

[25] President of the German-Ukrainian Society during WWI; see Ihor Kamenetsky, "Hitler's Occupation of the Ukraine: A Study in Totalitarian Imperialism", Hailer Publishing, 2006

[26] Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, pp. 336-337: "At the end of his colonial policy conclusions, Fischer designed a system of apartheid for German Southwest Africa, long before such a system was introduced in South Africa: the Ovambo and Herero were to be deployed as agricultural laborers, the Hottentots as herders. The "Bastards of Rehoboth," in contrast, were assigned an important function as a privileged intermediate class, "as native craftsmen and manual laborers [...], as policemen, i.e minor officers, foremen, and leaders of the entire supply lines and vehicle pool of the government, troops and private persons, in part as small farmers in their bastard country, to which everyone returns after serving their time." Despite his paternalistic attitude toward the "little nation of bastards," Fischer regarded the Rehoboths from the perspective of the colonial masters:

So they will be granted just that degree of protection which they need as a race inferior to us, in order to endure, no more and only as long as they are useful to us -- otherwise free competition, i.e. in my opinion, here downfall!

This last comment by Fischer reads like a retrospective justification of the war of extermination the German colonial troops had led against the rebellious Herero and Nama from 1904 to 1908. Fischer had profited from this genocide directly, for he apparently brought skulls and skeletons of "Hottentots" with him from Southwest Africa, which may have come from the internment camps on Shark Island, where people died like flies. The skeleton of the Nama leader Cornelius Frederiks (1907) also supposedly came into Fischer's collection in this way."

[27] Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, p. 253: "In July 1940 -- by this time Fischer had coordinated his plans for reorganizing the institute with Baron Ottmar von Verschuer -- the departing director expressed himself more clearly to Telschow:

In repetition of earlier conversations, Prof. Eugen Fischer designated prof. von Verschuer in Frankfort as a suitable successor. [...]

[28] Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, p. 279: "In July 1942 Verschuer reported to the race biologist Wolfgang Lehmann of Strasborg, a member of the "Dahlem circle": "I will take almost all of my staff from here, first of all[Heinrich] Schade and [Hans] Grebe, later [Josef] Mengele [...]"

[29] Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, p. 284: "Verschuer [...] filled the ranks of assistants with Hans Grebe, Siegfried Liebau, Hans Ritter, and Karin Magnussen [...]"

[30] Hans-Walter Schmuhl, "The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, 1927-1945" Springer, 2003, pp. 379-381. In her interrogation by the Bremen Denazification Commission on May 25, 1949, Karin Magnussen testified that she worked closely with Dr. Josef Mengele and that Prof. von Verschuer worked closely with both Magnussen and Mengele.

[31] Jeremy Sarkin, "Germany's Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers", James Currey, 2011, p. 102

[32] See Hans-Joachim Torke and John-Paul Himka, "German-Ukrainian Relations in Historical Perspective", Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, Edmonton, 1994 (review).

[33] See Jonathan Petropoulos, John K. Roth, "Gray zones: ambiguity and compromise in the Holocaust and its aftermath", Berghahn Books, 2006, pp. 187-188

[34] Genocide and Gross Human Rights Violations google book review, author: Kurt Jonassohn, Karin Solveig Björnson, publisher: Transaction Publishers

[35] Benjamin Madley, "From Africa to Auschwitz: How German South West Africa Incubated Ideas and Methods Adopted and Developed by the Nazis in Eastern Europe", European History Quarterly 2005 35, pp. 430-432

[36] ttp://techcrunch.com/2007/12/06/wikipedia-sued-for-nazi-sympathies/; see also Katina Schubert, Lutz Heilmann

[37] Eric Ames, Marcia Klotz, and Lora Wildenthal (Eds), “Race, Gender, and Sexuality in German Southwest Africa: Hans Grimm’s Südafrikanische Novellen.” Germany’s Colonial Pasts. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 2005, pp. 63-75.

[38] Examples of views by individuals such as Paul Rohrbach and Eugen Fischer that were specific links between GSWA and Nazi Germany are given in Jeremy Sarkin, "Germany's Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers", James Currey, 2011, p. 25. "Jonassohn points out how the writings of Paul Rohrbach, advocating the extermination or expulsion of the indigenous population to provide space for white settlers, later became part of the Nazi ethos. To confirm the link between the two eras Jonassohn also refers to Eugen Fischer, who conducted human experiments in GSWA and later Nazi Germany."

[39] President of the German-Ukrainian Society during WWI; see Ihor Kamenetsky, "Hitler's Occupation of the Ukraine: A Study in Totalitarian Imperialism", Hailer Publishing, 2006

[40] Jeremy Sarkin, "Germany's Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers", James Currey, 2011

[41] Casper Erichsen, "The angel of death has descended violently among them," African Studies Center, University of Leiden, Netherlands, 2003

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@@ Line 161: / Line 161: @@
 The [[Herero and Namaqua genocide]] has been recognised by the United Nations and by the [[German Federal Republic]]. At the 100th anniversary of the camp's foundation, [[Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (Germany)|German Minister for Economic Development and Cooperation]] [[Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul]] commemorated the dead on-site and apologised for the camp on behalf of Germany.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3565938.stm “Germany admits Namibia genocide,” [[BBC News]], August 14, 2004]</ref><ref>[http://www.mazalien.com/namibia-genocide-and-the-second-reich.html “Namibia - Genocide and the second Reich”]</ref>
+Children were abused and exterminated; women and children were used as slave labor; women and children were used as 'comfort women' and sex slaves; and the entire object of gaining profit for the Second Reich was placed into doubt at home in Germany.
+One of the following images has been censored{{clarify|date=December 2011}}, though it appears in many books and is in the public domain; see Jurgen Zimmerer, Joachim Zeller and E. J. Neather, "Genocide in German South-West Africa: The Colonial War of 1904-1908 and Its Aftermath", Merlin Press (December 1, 2007), p. 137.
+{| class="wikitable"
+|-
+| [[Image:Erichsen Abused San or Nama child prisoners p. 52 v2.jpg|center|thumb|150px|]] || [[Image:Erichsen p.59 v2.jpg|center|thumb|150px|]] || [[Image:Erichsen slave labour p. 83 v2.jpg|center|thumb|150px|]] || [[Image:Erichsen p.92 v2.jpg|center|thumb|135px|]]
+|}
+{| class="wikitable"
+|-
+| [[Image:Sarkin p. 225.jpg|center|thumb|175px| ]] || [[Image:Erichsen p.57 v2.jpg|center|thumb|175px|]] || [[Image:Zimmerer+Zeller Genocide in GSWA p.137.jpg|center|thumb|175px|]]
+|}
+Rohrbach tried to establish an independent Ukraine in 1918<ref>President of the German-Ukrainian Society during WWI; see Ihor Kamenetsky, "Hitler's Occupation of the Ukraine: A Study in Totalitarian Imperialism", Hailer Publishing, 2006</ref>
+<br>
+Rohrbach was associated with the [[Reichsgau]] [[Reichsgau Wartheland|Wartheland]] during the Third Reich
+|-
+| Heinrich Schneem || member NSDAP, governor German East Africa, <br> president Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG), <br> president Deutsche weltwirtschaftliche gessellschaft
+|-
+| Theodore Seitz || governor of German Kamerun, <br> governor German South West Africa, <br>
+president Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG)
+|}
+The bridge between the the Second Reich and the Third Reich was through Germany's African colonial empire! See [[German Ost (East)]].
 ==Bridging the Second and Third Reichs in German South West Africa==
@@ Line 235: / Line 261: @@
 |-
 | Paul Rohrbach || Settlement commissioner in GSWA<ref>Examples of views by individuals such as Paul Rohrbach and [[Eugen Fischer]] that were specific links between GSWA and Nazi Germany are given in Jeremy Sarkin, "Germany's Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His Settlers, His Soldiers", James Currey, 2011, p. 25. "Jonassohn points out how the writings of Paul Rohrbach, advocating the extermination or expulsion of the indigenous population to provide space for white settlers, later became part of the Nazi ethos. To confirm the link between the two eras Jonassohn also refers to Eugen Fischer, who conducted human experiments in GSWA and later Nazi Germany."</ref>
-Rohrbach tried to establish an independent Ukraine in 1918<ref>President of the German-Ukrainian Society during WWI; see Ihor Kamenetsky, "Hitler's Occupation of the Ukraine: A Study in Totalitarian Imperialism", Hailer Publishing, 2006</ref>
-<br>
-Rohrbach was associated with the [[Reichsgau]] [[Reichsgau Wartheland|Wartheland]] during the Third Reich
-|-
-| Heinrich Schneem || member NSDAP, governor German East Africa, <br> president Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG), <br> president Deutsche weltwirtschaftliche gessellschaft
-|-
-| Theodore Seitz || governor of German Kamerun, <br> governor German South West Africa, <br>
-president Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft (DKG)
-|}
-The bridge between the the Second Reich and the Third Reich was through Germany's African colonial empire! See [[German Ost (East)]].
-==Extermination of the indigenous people of GSWA==
-Children were abused and exterminated; women and children were used as slave labor; women and children were used as 'comfort women' and sex slaves; and the entire object of gaining profit for the Second Reich was placed into doubt at home in Germany.
-One of the following images has been censored{{clarify|date=December 2011}}, though it appears in many books and is in the public domain; see Jurgen Zimmerer, Joachim Zeller and E. J. Neather, "Genocide in German South-West Africa: The Colonial War of 1904-1908 and Its Aftermath", Merlin Press (December 1, 2007), p. 137.
-{| class="wikitable"
-|-
-| [[Image:Erichsen Abused San or Nama child prisoners p. 52 v2.jpg|center|thumb|150px|]] || [[Image:Erichsen p.59 v2.jpg|center|thumb|150px|]] || [[Image:Erichsen slave labour p. 83 v2.jpg|center|thumb|150px|]] || [[Image:Erichsen p.92 v2.jpg|center|thumb|135px|]]
-|}
-{| class="wikitable"
-|-
-| [[Image:Sarkin p. 225.jpg|center|thumb|175px| ]] || [[Image:Erichsen p.57 v2.jpg|center|thumb|175px|]] || [[Image:Zimmerer+Zeller Genocide in GSWA p.137.jpg|center|thumb|175px|]]
-|}
 Rohrbach tried to establish an independent Ukraine in 1918<ref>President of the German-Ukrainian Society during WWI; see Ihor Kamenetsky, "Hitler's Occupation of the Ukraine: A Study in Totalitarian Imperialism", Hailer Publishing, 2006</ref>
 <br>