THE ROLE OF THE IMPERIAL GERMAN NAVY IN COLONIAL AFFAIRS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Albert Harding Ganz, B.A., M.A. ke RH The Ohio State University 1972 Rpproved by Department of HiftoryCopyright by Albert Harding Ganz 1972PREFACE The maxim "trade follows the flag" was a commonly accepted one in the latter decades of the Nineteenth Century. That there was a close relationship between commercial and colonial activity and the direction of naval policy was generally assumed, and in Germany the Flottenverein (Navy League) and the Kolonialverein (Colonial Society) supported each other's goals in advocating imperialistic expansion. Warships required coaling stations, and mercantile interests needed raw materials and markets for their goods; the interdependence was obvious. But the story of the German Navy's role in colonial affairs is not so simple. The majority of Germany's African and Asian colonies were precipitously acquired by Chancellor Bismarck in 1884, at a time when the little German Navy was headed by Leo von Caprivi, an Army general who had no interest in colonial ventures. Then too, German steam-sail warships, sailing ships with auxiliary steam propulsion, were not yet dependent on coaling stations. When the Navy did become interested in overseas bases in the 1980s, because of the technological transition from sail to steam and because of the appeal of a commerce- iiraiding strategy of cruiser-warfare, it discovered that none of Germany's existing colonies fulfilled its logis- tical and strategic requirements. Indeed, colonial unrest only made even greater demands on ships and men than anticipated, and when the Navy was called on to participate in colonial affairs by administering the Schutztruppen (colonial forces), it showed extreme reluctance to do so. The cruiser-warfare strategy utilizing overseas bases was never really implemented, primarily because the Navy had no single head after 1889, In that year Navy administration was divided into three equal departments, each usually in conflict with the others. A coherent strategy and ship-building program was only introduced with the accession of Admiral Tirpitz to the Reichs- mai eamt (Reich Navy Office) in 1897, He was determined to concentrate on a battle fleet in home waters, and in general opposed further overseas commitments. The warships that dramatized German political policy in Samoa, South Africa, and Morocco were not under his operational control. The striking exception to the Navy's attitude toward overseas enterprises was its acquisition and administration of Kiaochow in China, If this acquisition was incompatible with Tirpitz's battle fleet policy, it nonetheless served a valuable function in its own right. Kiaochow was also adiunique in that it was the only one of Germany's possessions abroad that was administered by the military establishment. There were intrinsic differences between this protectorate and Germany's other colonies; yet the storm of controversy that arose concerning the civilian-administered territories left Kiaochow unscathed, and signified the unique achieve- ments of the German Navy in operating beyond its accustomed sphere. Most of the material for this subject is found in the personal papers and the German naval archives located in the Bundesarchiy-Militdrarchiv, Freiburg im Breisgau, and I would particularly like to thank Qberarchivrat Dr. Sandhofer for his helpful comments and suggestions. Additional related material is found in the Bundesarchiv itself in Koblenz. Then too, I would like to gratefully acknowledge the helpful guidance of my adviser, Professor Andreas Dorpalen, and finally the assistance and encourage- ment of my wife Diane.12 December 1938 196 ae mon) 1963... 20 1967-69 . 1. . 1969... ..4- 1969-71 2... 1971-72 2. ee Major Field: History 19th Century Europe. Military History. Russian History. American Revolution. VITA Born - New York City, New York B.A., Wittenberg University Springfield, Ohio M.A., Columbia University, New York City, New York Teaching Assistant, Department of History, The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio NDEA Fellowship Title IV Research in the Bundesarchiv- Militdrarchiv, Freiburg, and the Bundesarchiv, Koblenz Teaching Associate, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio Instructor, The Ohio State University, Newark, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Professor Andreas Dorpalen Professor Harry Coles Professor Charles Morley Professor Bradley ChapinPREFACE .. . VITA... LIs? OF MAPS . Chapter I. GERMANY ACQUIRES AN EMPIRE II. NAVAL SERVICE IN THE EMPIRE . III. TABLE OF CONTENTS Iv. THE SEIZURE OF KIAOCHOW . V. THE ADMINISTRATION OF KIAOCHOW VI. VII. ADMIRAL VIII, ECLIPSE APPENDIX Te. ep eae coe MII, we. BIBLIOGRAPHY . TRUPPEL'S KIAOCHOW OF EMPIRE vi THE VAGARIEZS OF WELTPOLITIK . THE STUTZPUNKT CONCEPT: A STILLBORN STRATEGY. Page di vi 34 59 76 135 172 207 253 288 289 290 291LIST OF MAPS Map Page 1. Africa in 1914... . ee ee eee ee ee 2 2. Pacific in 1914 .. 0. - ee eee eee eee 77 3. Shantung and Kiaochow .. +. +--+ +e e ee + 136 viiSTEAM~SAIL FRIGATE “LEIPZIG Burr i877 Ligut CRu1seER "EMDEN" Burtt 1908 viiiCHAPTER I GERMANY ACQUIRES AN EMPIRE On 24 April 1884, German Consul General Lippert in Capetown, South Africa, received a telegram from Chancellor Otto von Bismarck: According to statements of Mr. Lideritz [British] colonial authorities doubt as to his acquisitions north of Orange river being entitled to German protection. You will declare officially that he and his establish- ments are under protection of the Empire.+ The territory in question was a barren strip of land along the southwest African coast, acquired from various native chiefs by an enterprising Bremen merchant, F.A.E. (Franz Adolph Eduard) Lideritz. Its economic value was somewhat less than obvious. For mile after monotonous mile the coastline stretched, depressing in its featureless uni- formity, forbidding in its uninhabitable appearance. Seamen knew it by the ominous name “skeleton coast," for the wrecks of hapless ships were plainly seen, their bones lpa-K Kl. Erw. 340/I. BA-K will be cited for Bundesarchiv-Koblenz, which has the Nachldsse of various colonial officials and documents of Foreign Office depart- ments concerned with colonial affairs. The records of the later Reichskolonialamt itself are located in the Deutsches Zentralarchiv, Potsdam, D.D.R., and are not currently available to American researchers. 1Map 1. Africa in 1914 EUROPE Agere, lesbo SAHARA , DESERT FRENCH west AFRICA \ ANeto- 1 EGYPTIANS Fe AFRICA w i914 Scole {+ 40,000,000bleaching white in the hot sand. Any survivors almost always perished in the quicksands or in the Namib desert stretching inland. This desert wasteland itself, and the Kalahari desert farther on, was sparsely populated by the primitive Hottentot-Bushmen, a nomadic people many of whom Lived in holes in the ground and communicated in an adumbrated language of clicks. Bismarck himself later referred to the area contemptuously as a “little pot of 2 sand. Yet Southwest Africa had become the first German colony; for Bismarck's telegram marked a dramatic change im the course of German history, and Germany was about to become an imperial power with responsibilities that would encompass the globe. Southwest Africa had been a nagging if relatively insignificant irritation in Anglo-German relations for several years. In 1880 a stolen cow had sparked one of the periodic tribal wars between the Namas or Namaquas, a Hottentot people, and their more militant Bantu neighbors 23.H, Esterhuyse, South West Africa 1880-1894 (Cape Town, 1968), p. 66. Esterhuyse utilized the unpublished Landeshauptamt and Bezirksdmter archives of German South- west Africa, mandated to South Africa in 1919. The remark of MaryTownsend in The Rise and Fall of Germany's Colonial Empire 1884-1918 (New York, 1930), p. I30, that Southwest Beviea wae the only one [of Germany's colonies} entirely suited climatically to white settle- ment" is curious at best. Much of the area is still virtually uninhabited. A vivid description of the British- owned Walfish Bay region was later written by the Resident Magistrate Emile Rolland in his report of 20 December 1886. A copy is in BA-K Kl. Erw. 340/1II Bd. 2.