Karl Peters (September 27, 1856 - September 10, 1918),
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
traveler in Africa, one of the founders of
German East AfricaGerman East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, including what are now Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganyika...
(
East AfricaEast Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
, today's
TanzaniaThe United Republic of Tanzania is a country in central East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.The United...
), was born at
NeuhausAmt Neuhaus is a municipality in district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany.- History :Amt Neuhaus has been part of the province Hanover in the state Prussia, and after World War II part of East Germany. Amt Neuhaus became part of Lower Saxony in 1993....
an der
ElbeThe River Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It originates in the Krkonose Mountains of northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
near Hannover, the son of a Lutheran clergyman.
Peters studied history and philosophy at Göttingen, Tübingen and in
BerlinThe Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...
under
Heinrich von TreitschkeHeinrich Gotthard von Treitschke was a nationalist German historian and political writer during the time of the German Empire.-Early life and teaching career:...
. In 1879 he was awarded a gold medal by the Berlin Frederick William University for his dissertation on the 1177
Treaty of VeniceThe Treaty or Peace of Venice, 1177, was an important peace treaty between the papacy and its allies, the north Italian city-states of the Lombard League, and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor...
.
East Africa Company
Working in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
with a family enterprise after his studies Peters became acquainted with English principles of colonization and imperialism. When he returned to Berlin he founded the
Society for German ColonizationThe Society for German Colonization was founded on March 28, 1884, by Dr. Karl Peters. The goal of the Gesellschaft für Deutsche Kolonisation was to acquire German colonial territories in overseas countries....
(Gesellschaft für Deutsche Kolonisation). In the autumn of 1884 he proceeded with two companions to East Africa, and concluded in the name of his society treaties with the chiefs of Useguha, Nguru, Ijsagara and Ukami. Returning to Europe early in 1885, he formed the
German East Africa CompanyThe German East Africa Company was an organisation founded by Karl Peters on April 2, 1885, to govern German East Africa...
.
The German government under
Otto von BismarckOtto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was a Prussian German statesman and aristocrat of the 19th century. As Ministerpräsident of Prussia from 1862–1890, he oversaw the unification of Germany. In 1867 he became Chancellor of the North German Confederation...
was originally opposed to these plans and had refused any backing when Peters set out. Bismarck refused a second time when Peters returned to Germany in the closing days of the
Berlin ConferenceThe Berlin Conference of 1884–85 regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power...
demanding an imperial charter. Peters, however, blackmailed the
Chancellor successfully by threatening to sell his acquisitions to King
Léopold II of BelgiumLeopold II was King of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne in 1865 and remained king until his death. He was the brother of Empress Carlota of Mexico and first cousin to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom...
who was eager to expand his
CongoThe Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and the dawn of Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Background: 1884-1908:Until the later...
Empire. As his
National LiberalThe National Liberal Party was a German political party which flourished between 1867 and 1918. It was formed by those Prussian liberals who put aside their differences with Bismarck over domestic policy due to their support for his highly successful foreign policy, which resulted in the...
allies in parliament were pro-colonial minded anyway Bismarck finally gave in to "the stupid guy" and the charter was made out. This constituted the necessary backing for further expansion on the East African mainland in the following years. 1887 Peters achieved an agreement with the Sultan of
ZanzibarZanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of the United Republic of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
who leased his coastal dominions in what was to be
TanganyikaTanganyika was an East African territory lying between the Indian Ocean and the largest of the African great lakes: Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika. From 9 December 1961 to 26 April 1964 it was also an independent nation. Once part of the colony of German East Africa , it comprised...
to the German East Africa Company.
In 1888 Peters undertook an expedition from the east coast of Africa, avowedly for the relief of
Emin PashaMehmet Emin Pasha — he was born Isaak Eduard Schnitzer and baptized Eduard Carl Oscar Theodor Schnitzer — was a physician, naturalist and governor of the Egyptian province of Equatoria on the upper Nile...
. This expedition was not sanctioned by the German government and was regarded by the British authorities as a
filibusteringA filibuster is someone who engages in an unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country to foment or support a revolution. The term is usually used to describe United States citizens who attempted to foment insurrections in Latin America in the mid-19th century.Filibusters were irregular...
(in the 19th century sense of the word) exploit. One of its objects was to extend the sphere of German influence, and, reaching
UgandaThe Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania...
in early 1890, Peters concluded a treaty with the king of that country in favour of Germany.
He left Uganda hastily on the approach of a representative of the
Imperial British East Africa CompanyThe Imperial British East Africa Company was the administrator of British East Africa, which was the forerunner of the East Africa Protectorate, later Kenya. The IBEAC was a commercial association founded to develop African trade in the areas controlled by the British colonial power...
, and on reaching
ZanzibarZanzibar is a semi-autonomous part of the United Republic of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
learned that his efforts were useless, as the
Heligoland-Zanzibar TreatyThe Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty of 1 July 1890 was an agreement between the United Kingdom and the German Empire concerning mainly territorial interests in Africa.-Terms:...
between Germany and Great Britain had been come to whereby Uganda was left in the British sphere. Meanwhile the empire of his company had collapsed when the coastal population rose in the
Abushiri RevoltThe Abushiri Revolt was a so-called insurrection in 1888-1889 by the Arab population of the areas of the East African coast which were granted to Germany by the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1888...
against the implementation of the lease agreement between the Sultan and the Germans. The German government had to intervene by sending troops under
Hermann WissmannHermann Wissmann was a German explorer and administrator in Africa.In 1880, Wissmann accompanied explorer Paul Pogge on a journey through the Congo Basin. In the eastern Congo, Pogge and Wissmann parted company...
, suppressed the insurrection and took over the company's possessions as a colony.
Nevertheless on his return to Germany Peters was received with great honours, and in 1891 published an account of his expedition entitled
Die deutsche Emin Pasha Expedition, which was translated into English. He also endorsed the foundation of the
Alldeutscher VerbandAlldeutscher Verband was a German far-right organization which promoted pangermanism and imperialism, created in 1891 in protest to the exchange of Heligoland for Zanzibar. Ernst Hasse was its first president, and was succeeded by Heinrich Class in 1908. The industrialist Emil Kirdorf was also a...
in protest to the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty.
Reichskommissar
In 1891 he went out again to East Africa as
ReichskommissarReichskommissar , in German history, was an official gubernatorial title used for various public offices during the period of the German Empire and the Nazi Third Reich....
(Imperial High Commissioner) for the Kilimanjaro district, and in 1892 was one of the commissioners for delimiting the Anglo-German boundary in that region. In the same time Peters by his brutal behaviour against the local population provoked an uprising which was to cost him his office. He used local girls as concubines and when he discovered that his lover Jagodja had an affair with his man-servant, he had both of them hanged and their home villages destroyed. This provoked resistance by the local
ChagaThe Chaga are Bantu-speaking indigenous Africans and the third largest ethnic group in Tanzania. They live on the southern and eastern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, as well as in the Moshi area...
people and necessitated costly military action. Peters was recalled to Berlin and employed in the colonial office from 1893 to 1895. During this time official accusations were brought against him of excesses in his treatment of the native population. In a sitting of the
ReichstagThe Reichstag was the parliament of the Holy Roman Empire, and subsequently of the North German Confederation, and of Germany until 1945...
on March 13, 1896
August BebelAugust Ferdinand Bebel was a German social democrat and one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.-Biography:...
made the killings public, citing from a letter by Peters to Bishop
Alfred TuckerAlfred Tucker was the Bishop of Uganda from 1897, the inception of the diocese, until 1911.- Early days :Tucker was born in 1849 and grew up in the Lake District in England. Following in the footsteps of his family, he became an artist, exhibiting at the Royal Academy.- Church life :In 1879,...
. After three investigations had been held Peters was, in 1897, deprived of his commission for misuse of official power losing all his pension benefits.
Peters evaded the final sentence by removing to London, where he occupied himself in schemes for exploiting parts of
RhodesiaWhen the former colony of Northern Rhodesia changed its name to Zambia on independence in 1964, the colony of Southern Rhodesia changed its name to just plain 'Rhodesia'. The change had not yet been officialy ratified when Rhodesia declared itself independent on 11 November 1965...
and
Portuguese East AfricaPortuguese East Africa is the common name by which the Portuguese Empire's territorial expansion in East Africa was known across different periods of time...
. In the interests of a company he formed, Peters explored the Fura district and Macombes country on the
ZambeziThe Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is 1,390,000 km² , slightly less than half that of the Nile...
river, where in 1899 he discovered ruins of ancient cities and deserted gold mines. He returned in 1901 and gave an account of his explorations in
Im Goldland des Altertums (The Eldorado of the Ancients) (1902). In 1905 he again visited the region between the Zambezi and
SabiThe Save is a river of southeastern Africa, flowing through Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The river has its source in Zimbabwe, some 80 km south of Harare, then flows south and then east, from the Zimbabwean highveld to its confluence with the Odzi River...
rivers.
Legacy
Besides the books already mentioned and some smaller treatises Peters published a philosophic work entitled
Willenswelt und Weltwille (1883), and a disquisition on early gold production entitled
Das goldene Ophir Salomo's (1895), translated into English in 1898.
Among colonial minded circles in Germany he was feted as a national hero. Kaiser Wilhelm II by personal decree bestowed upon him the right to use the title of an Imperial Commissioner again and gave him a pension from his personal budget while his sentence by the disciplinary court remained in force. Peters was officially rehabilitated by personal decree of
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
20 years after his death when the Nazis had discovered him as an ideological relative. A propaganda film
"Carl Peters" by
Herbert SelpinHerbert Selpin was a German film director and screenplay author.-Biography:Herbert Selpin was born on May 29, 1902 in Berlin. After his medical studies in the same city, Selpin worked as a dancer, boxer, librarian, and art seller before he obtained, in the mid-1920s, an internship at the Ufa film...
was released in 1941, starring
Hans AlbersHans Albers was a German actor and singer. He was the single biggest male movie star in Germany between 1930 and 1945 and one of the most popular German actors of the twentieth century.- Life and work :...
. Today several towns in Germany still have streets named after Peters, some of them being a cause for debate.
Critical voices among
Social DemocraticThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is Germany's oldest political party. The party governed at the federal level in a grand coalition with the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union until conceding defeat in the federal election of September 2009...
,
CatholicThe German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic...
and Free-minded politicians yet during his lifetime called Peters a butcher and a national shame. The
AustrianAustria–Hungary, also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the k.u.k. Monarchy, or Dual State, was a monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe...
Africanist
Oscar BaumannOscar Baumann was an Austrian cartographer with a keen interest in ethnography.He attended classes on natural history and geography at the University of Vienna, and in 1885 was part of an Austrian exploratory expedition of the Congo Basin headed by Oskar Lenz. However, he had to leave the...
referred to him as "half crazy". One of his constant nicknames in the critical press was "Hänge-Peters" ("Hangman-Peters").
External links
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