German New Guinea
| German New Guinea Deutsch-Neu-Guinea
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| Capital | Finschhafen (1884–1891) Madang (1891–1899) Herbertshöhe (1899–1910) Simpsonhafen (1910–1914/20) | |||||
| Currency | New Guinean mark | |||||
German New Guinea (German: Deutsch-Neu-Guinea) was a German dependency from 16 June 1884 until de facto 1914, officially 1920. After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles (signed June 1919; enacted January 1920), Australia received a mandate administration (a League of Nations Mandate Territory under Australian administration) over German New Guinea (Territorium Neuguinea), which meant that the colony was lost to Germany. Papua New Guinea gained its independence from Australia in 1975.
Contents
History
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New Guinea in 1884–1919. The Netherlands controlled the western half of New Guinea and the territory remained neutral during World War I. Germany controlled the north-eastern part, which was invaded by the Australians at the outbreak of the war. Britain controlled the south-eastern part. The boundary between Papua (British protectorate) and Kaiser-Wilhelmsland (German protectorate) was in question: see the territory marked in blue.
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Germans and Melanesians under Hermann Detzner (right) during military training in 1914; In 1914, Detzner hid with a few men in the bush of New Guinea for four years, waged a guerrilla war against the Australians and only capitulated after the end of the First World War in January 1919. After serving in the "Abwehr" since 1935, he was reactivated by the Wehrmacht in 1939 and served until the surrender of the Wehrmacht in 1945, last as Colonel z. V. of the Heer in World War II.
- German New Guinea was a former German protectorate from 1884 to 1914 within the German colonial empire, consisting of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups. German New Guinea is now entirely part of Papua New Guinea. The main part of German New Guinea was formed by Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, the northeastern part of New Guinea. The islands to the east of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland were called the Bismarck Archipelago and consisted of Neu-Pommern (or New Pomerania, now New Britain) and Neu-Mecklenburg (now New Ireland). With the exception of German Samoa, all German islands in the Pacific were administratively part of German New Guinea: the German Solomon Islands (Buka, Bougainville and several smaller islands), the Carolines, Palau, the Marianas (except for Guam), the Marshall Islands and Nauru. Total land area was 249,500 km². From the point of view of the local population, the Germans left little real lasting impact on their life, except that people were alerted to the reality of a wider world and to the existence of technologies of which they were previously unaware. Due to the way that Germany lost her colonies, including New Guinea, which were confiscated by the victors of World War I German colonies never engaged in lengthy wars of independence. [...] Owing to its delayed unification by land-oriented Prussia in 1871, Germany came late to the imperialist scramble for colonial territory—their so-called "place in the sun." The German states prior to 1870 had retained separate political structures and goals, and German foreign policy up to and including the age of Otto von Bismarck concentrated on resolving the "German question" (de) in Europe and securing German interests on that same continent. On the other hand, Germans had traditions of foreign sea-borne trade dating back to the Hanseatic League; a tradition existed of German emigration (eastward in the direction of Russia and Romania and westward to North America); and North German merchants and missionaries showed lively interest in overseas lands. Many Germans in the late nineteenth century viewed colonial acquisitions as a true indication of having achieved nationhood, and the demand for prestigious colonies went hand-in-hand with dreams of a High Seas Fleet. This become a reality and was soon perceived as a threat by the United Kingdom. Initially, Bismarck—whose Prussian heritage had always regarded Europe as the space in which German imperialist ambition found expression—opposed the idea of seeking colonies. He argued that that the burden of obtaining and defending them would outweigh the potential benefits. During the late 1870s, however, public opinion shifted to favor the idea of a colonial empire. During the early 1880s the first colonial possessions and protectorates were acquired. Several colonial adventures, including that in German New Guinea, began with the chartering of a Company. Although the western half of New Guinea had been administered by the Netherlands for some time, the eastern half had not yet been annexed by any European power until the 1880s. In 1883, the British colony of Queensland (Australia) annexed the southeastern part of New Guinea against the wishes of the British government. This initiated German interest in the remaining third of the island. On November 3, 1884, under the flag of the newly founded Neuguinea-Kompanie (New Guinea Company), the German flag was flown over Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, the Bismarck Archipelago (formerly New Britain) and the German Solomon Islands. This secured "nearly a quarter of New Guinea" for Germany. Not everyone in Germany expressed enthusiasm for the project; the German High Command pointed out that the island had no strategic value and were too far from Germany to "have any military use." On April 1, 1899 the German government formally took control of these lands, and the area became a protectorate. A treaty with Spain, signed later that year on July 30, ensured German control over several island groups in the Pacific, and these were added to the protectorate of German New Guinea. The Marshall Islands were added in 1906. Until 1908, New Guinea was the "most heavily subsidized of all German colonies" although when established the aim had been for the colony to produce a profit. Many local people refused to work on the German plantations, and those that did often died. Too few Germans settled in the colony to provide adequate labor. The reason that the German government took over control from the New Guinea Company was that by 1899 "nine million marks" had been, "like the dead, buried in the soil of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland." The Company itself remained a major commercial player in the region because after taking the German government obliged the colony to pay "four hundred thousand marks" to the company annually for the next ten years. [...] Hiery describes Hahl as an "exceptional man" who genuinely tried to learn from mistakes made elsewhere as well as from the example set by other colonial rulers, such as the British. He describes how the Germans succeeded in ending inter-tribal conflict by "fighting (and thus damaging) belligerent tribes until they gave up." Hiery says that under Halh there was a marked tendency to "tolerate indigenous ideas of behavior" and genuine concern for the welfare of the non-settler population.[1]
Hermann Detzner
In early 1914, the German government sent Detzner to explore and chart the interior of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, the imperial protectorate on the island of New Guinea. When World War I broke out in Europe, he was well into the interior and without radio contact. He refused to surrender to Australian troops when they occupied German New Guinea, concealing himself in the jungle with a band of approximately 20 soldiers. For four years, Detzner and his troops provocatively marched through the bush, singing "Watch on the Rhine" and flying the German Imperial flag. Detzner, the "Lettow-Vorbeck of the German South Seas", led at least one expedition from the Huon Peninsula to the north coast, and a second by a mountain route, to attempt an escape to the neutral Dutch colony to the west. He explored areas of the Guinean interior formerly unseen by Europeans and surrendered in full dress uniform, flying the Imperial flag, to Australian forces in January 1919.
Leadership
Emperor
- 1884–1888 Wilhelm I
- 1888 Friedrich III
- 1888–1914 Wilhelm II
Provincial Governors and Imperial Commissioners
The heads of administration held the title of provincial governor (Landeshauptmann) or commissioner/Reich commissioner (Kommissar/Reichskommissar) until the New Guinea Company (Neuguinea-Kompagnie) finally returned sovereignty to the German Reich in 1899.
- 16 June 1884 to 1887 Gustav Carl Heinrich Lucas von Oertzen (Kommissar); 1885 to 1886 also acting Commissioner of the Marshall Islands
- Dr. jur. Wilhelm Knappe (1855–1910) would become Imperial Commissioner/Commissar (Reichskommissar) of the Marshall Islands (since 1906 officially a part of German New Guinea) in Jaluit on 22 September 1886 until 1888, then Dr. Franz Leopold Sonnenschein (1857–1897) took over until 1899.
- 1886–1888 Georg von Schleinitz
- 1888–1889 Reinhold Kraetke
- 1889–1892 Fritz Rose (Kommissar)
- 1892–1895 Georg Schmiele
- 1895–1896 Hugo Rüdiger
- 1896–1897 Curt von Hagen
- 1897 Albert Hahl (managing)
- 1897–1899 Hugo Skopnik
Governors
- 1899 to 1901 Rudolf von Bennigsen
- Rudolf von Bennigsen (1859–1912), son of politician Karl Wilhelm Rudolf von Bennigsen, was the first official governor of German New Guinea (1899-1901) following the German state takeover of the colony from the New Guinea Company. He hailed from lower Saxonian nobility and studied law in Strasbourg (Reichsland Elsaß-Lothringen). Following his studies, he worked in Strasbourg before joining colonial service in the 1890s. In 1893 he became financial director in German East Africa. His appointment as first governor of German New Guinea came as a surprise to the small circle of colonial settlers as von Bennigsen had little experience with the Pacific territory. In order to familiarize himself with the vast, and through the Micronesian possessions, greatly expanding territory, Bennigsen undertook a number of ship voyages to explore the territory. At the time this was no easy matter as the official government steamer Seestern (Starfish) did not start running until 1903--a good two years after Bennigsen had left his job. He was thus forced to make do with the diverse means of transportation available to him--the naval survey ship SMS Möve (Seagull), visiting warships from the Imperial German Navy and the occasional cutter and motor steamers of the commercial companies active in the territory. As governor, von Bennigsen welcomed wealthy visitors such as Bruno Mencke’s expeditions equipped with its costly yacht and personally joined the venture. The governor cited ill health for his retirement in the summer of 1901, leaving the office to his much better-known successor Albert Hahl. Von Bennigsen’s approach to governance could have not been more contrastive as historian Peter Hempenstall wrote: “Von Bennigsen was an old-style Prussian army official, whose scarred face betrayed the number of duels fought in his youth. His formula for control was brutally direct and simple: expansion by pacification; and his short tenure of office is notable for several campaigns against rebellious New Guineas. [...] Hahl’s approach to the job was more methodological.” Following his departure from New Guinea and until his death in 1912, von Bennigsen worked for the German Colonial Society of German Southwest Africa, assuming the society’s directorship in 1909.
- 10. Juli 1901 bis 1914 Albert Hahl
- After Rudolf von Bennigsen's resignation, Albert Hahl initially held the office of governor on an interim basis as deputy governor from 10 July 1901. He returned to Germany in June 1902 because of blackwater fever, where he was finally appointed governor of German New Guinea on 20 November 1902. He held this office until 13 April 1914.
- 1914 to 1920 Eduard Haber
- 1913 Johann Karl Emil Eduard Haber was appointed Deputy Governor of German New Guinea (DNG), Albert Hahl; he departed on 22 January 1914. Due to Hahl's illness, who was on leave to Germany, he ran the official business in Rabaul on an interim basis. He learned about the beginning of the First World War in Morobe. He returned to Rabaul on 14 August 1914, where he organized armed resistance with a force of about 50 settlers and 250 locals. After signing the capitulation on 17 September 1914, he had to take the oath of neutrality. Together with eleven other German prisoners of war, he was taken to Sydney on the captured steamer "Komet" and interned in Holdsworthy concentration camp on 29 October 1914. On 15 January 1915, he and his secretary Münz were deported to San Francisco aboard the "Sonoma", from where he was finally allowed to return to the German Empire. In Berlin he formally continued the official business as acting governor of German New Guinea. On 14 December 1917, Wilhelm Solf officially appointed him as the last governor of German New Guinea, succeeding Hahl, who had been declared unfit for the tropics.
Flags (proposed)
Flag of the German New Guinea Company, 1885–1899
Proposed flag for „Deutsch-Neuguinea“, 1914
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External links
References
- ↑ German New Guinea, New World Encyclopedia
