Reichskolonialamt | |
Agency overview | |
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Formed | May 17, 1907 |
Dissolved | February 20, 1919 |
Superseding agency |
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Jurisdiction | Reich Chancellery |
Headquarters | Wilhelmstrasse 62 Berlin |
Agency executive |
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The Imperial Colonial Office or Reich Colonial Office (German : Reichskolonialamt) was a governmental agency of the German Empire tasked with managing Germany's overseas territories. Dissolved after World War I, on 20 February 1919 the Reich Colonial Ministry (Reichskolonialministerium) of the German Weimar Republic replaced the Imperial Colonial Office, dealing with settlements and closing-out of affairs of the occupied and lost colonies.
From its inception in 1884, a colonial service organization performed administrative functions (policy and management) for the executive arm of the imperial government. By order of Reich Chancellor Leo von Caprivi on 1 April 1890, responsibility for the colonial service was with the Colonial Department (Kolonialabteilung), still as a subsection in the German Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt), but led by a head of section answerable to the Chancellor. By the law of 18 July 1896 the department further co-supervised the colonial military or protection force, the Schutztruppe , with its headquarters (Kommando der Schutztruppen) formerly billeted in the Imperial Naval Office (Reichsmarineamt). By the late 19th century the need evolved for a separate, higher ranking agency that shall report directly to the Reich Chancellor.
A decree by Emperor Wilhelm II of 17 May 1907 removed the Colonial Department together with the Schutztruppe command from the Foreign Office and elevated it to a central authority in its own right, the Reichskolonialamt, to be managed by a cabinet-level Secretary of State. The new office was then physically relocated to a building on Berlin’s Wilhelmstrasse No. 62 (demolished in 1938) near Wilhelmplatz, where the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office had resided since 1905. The Schutztruppe command structure was also reorganized and moved to Mauerstrasse No. 45/46, in close proximity of the Reichskolonialamt location. This legislation represented a complete reorganization and was a direct response to the nationwide so-called "Hottentot election", after allegations of colonial malfeasance, corruption and brutality (e.g. the Herero and Namaqua Genocide in German South-West Africa) surfaced in the German print media and culminated in the dissolution of the Reichstag parliament. The shake-up subsequently involved extensive and wide-ranging personnel changes in civil service positions in the colonies.
The newly established Reichskolonialamt led by Secretary of State Bernhard Dernburg reported directly to the head of government, the Reich Chancellor.
The new Reichskolonialamt had three departments Abteilungen:
The Kolonialrat colonial advisory board was replaced in 1908 (after the major reorganizations of 1907) by a panel of independent experts. A Landeskundliche Kommission scientific and geographic commission for exploration functioned for several years before its mission was modified and replaced in 1911 by the Ständige Wirtschaftliche Kommission permanent economic commission. Further commissions were formed by the German Agriculture Council and tasked with advising the colonial office.
The records of the Reichskolonialamt and other documents from the colonies are now preserved at the branch location at Berlin-Lichterfelde of the German Federal Archives and were previously held at the Deutsches Zentralarchiv, Potsdam, an agency of the former East German regime.
Theobald Theodor Friedrich Alfred von Bethmann Hollweg was a German politician who was chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917. He oversaw the German entry into World War I and played a key role during its first three years. He was replaced as chancellor in July 1917 due in large part to opposition to his policies by leaders in the military.
German East Africa was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Mozambique. GEA's area was 994,996 km2 (384,170 sq mi), which was nearly three times the area of present-day Germany and almost double the area of metropolitan Germany at the time.
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Chlodwig Carl Viktor, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Prince of Ratibor and Corvey, usually referred to as the Prince of Hohenlohe, was a German statesman, who served as the chancellor of the German Empire and minister-president of Prussia from 1894 to 1900. Prior to his appointment as Chancellor, he had served in a number of other positions, including as minister-president of Bavaria (1866–1870), German Ambassador to Paris (1873–1880), Foreign Secretary (1880) and Imperial Lieutenant of Alsace-Lorraine (1885–1894). He was regarded as one of the most prominent liberal politicians of his time in Germany.
Schutztruppe was the official name of the colonial troops in the African territories of the German colonial empire from the late 19th century to 1918. Similar to other colonial armies, the Schutztruppen consisted of volunteer European commissioned and non-commissioned officers, medical and veterinary officers. Most enlisted ranks were recruited from indigenous communities within the German colonies or from elsewhere in Africa.
The German colonial empire constituted the overseas colonies, dependencies, and territories of the German Empire. Unified in 1871, the chancellor of this time period was Otto von Bismarck. Short-lived attempts at colonization by individual German states had occurred in preceding centuries, but Bismarck resisted pressure to construct a colonial empire until the Scramble for Africa in 1884. Claiming much of the remaining uncolonized areas of Africa, Germany built the third-largest colonial empire at the time, after the British and French. The German colonial empire encompassed parts of several African countries, including parts of present-day Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Namibia, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, as well as northeastern New Guinea, Samoa and numerous Micronesian islands.
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Jesko Albert Eugen von Puttkamer was a German diplomat, colonial administrator, and military officer who served as colonial governor of German Kamerun from 1895 to 1907.
Curt Karl Bruno von François was a German geographer, cartographer, Schutztruppe officer and commissioner of the imperial colonial army of the German Empire, particularly in German South West Africa where he was responsible on behalf of Kaiser for the foundation of the city of Windhoek on 18 October 1890 and the harbor of Swakopmund on 4 August 1892.
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The Reichskolonialbund (RKB) was a collective body that absorbed all German colonial organisations during the time of the Third Reich. It was led by Franz Ritter von Epp.
The Imperial Naval Office was a government agency of the German Empire. It was established in April 1889, when the German Imperial Admiralty was abolished and its duties divided among three new entities: the Imperial Naval High Command, the Imperial Naval Cabinet and the Imperial Naval Office performing the functions of a ministry for the Imperial German Navy.
Bernhard Dernburg was a German liberal politician and banker. He served as the secretary for Colonial Affairs and head of the Imperial Colonial Office from May 1907 to 9 June 1910, and as the minister of Finance and vice-chancellor of Germany from 17 April to 20 June 1919.
German South West Africa was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles.
Heinrich Albert Schnee was a German lawyer, colonial civil servant, politician, writer, and association official. He served as the last Governor of German East Africa.
Bayume Mohamed Husen was an Afro-German soldier, actor and victim of Nazi persecution.
Rudolf Albert August Wilhelm Asmis was a German jurist, colonial official and diplomat who served as Minister to Siam and Consul-General for Australia.
Franz Vollrath Carl Wilhelm Joseph von Bülow was a German author, soldier and homosexual activist.
The German Colonial Museum was a museum in the Berlin district of Moabit that existed from 1899 to 1915. The museum aimed to inform the German public about the German colonies overseas. Its collection consisted of more than 70,000 artifacts, and it attracted a significant number of visitors, with around 481,259 visitors between 1899 and 1911.
Zeller, Joachim & von der Heyden, Ulrich. Kolonialmetropole Berlin - eine Spurensuche Colonial Metropolis Berlin - a Search for Traces. Berlin. 2002.