German South West Africa

German Schutztruppe in German South West Africa, c. 1910

German South West Africa was the name of a short-lived German colony in south-western Africa, one which corresponds almost exactly with the modern-day nation of Namibia. The Germans established a colony here in 1884 and lost it just over three decades later when the British, mostly in the shape of Commonwealth troops from the Union of South Africa, occupied the colony in 1915 in the midst of the First World War. This dispensation was formalized in 1919 through the Treaty of Versailles. German colonial rule, though brief, was significant in shaping the demography of the region, mostly in nefarious ways. Firstly, it led to the settlement of a few thousand Germans here, a community which still exists in Namibia over a century after German colonial rule ended. Secondly, it resulted in what has been termed the first genocide of the twentieth century, one perpetrated by the Germans against the Herero and Namaqua people. Finally, the way in which German colonial rule ended saw Namibia joined to South Africa for much of the remainder of the twentieth century and led to the further expansion of the Afrikaner community here.

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German South West Africa chronology of events

Germany was a highly decentralized and fragmented part of Europe throughout the late medieval and early modern periods, one in which hundreds of small states controlled varying amounts of territory. This, combined with its relative lack of important Atlantic seaports, ensured that no German power emerged as a participant in the European age of exploration and colonialism in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the way which the Spanish, Portuguese, English, French and Dutch did. Moreover, when a German Empire was formed in 1871 to finally unite the disparate states of Germany under Prussian rule, its pre-eminent first Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, was opposed to Germany entering the European age of imperialism in Africa and parts of Asia.

Despite Bismarck’s reservations, in the 1880s a number of pressure groups formed in Germany to try to convince the German government to enter the Scramble for Africa or to seek to acquire private contracts to establish protectorates in countries that were as yet unclaimed by Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal or the United States. One of the regions that these advocates of German imperialism began to focus on was south-western Africa, a region close to the British colonies of southern Africa, and one which had a decades-long tradition of German and Finnish Christian missionaries proselytizing amongst the native Herero, Namaqua and Ovambo people there. In 1884 the German merchant, Adolf Luderitz, established their first colonial trading station here. The following year the German Colonial Society for Southwest Africa was established and over the next few years it acquired greater control over the region. This became a more formal German national colony from 1888 onwards after the accession of Wilhelm II as the new German Kaiser, a figure who was an advocate of colonialism and who fired Bismarck from his position as Chancellor in 1890.

German South West Africa would only be ruled as a full German colony for just over a quarter of a century after Wilhelm II’s accession. In 1914, when the First World War broke out, it was completely exposed to attack from Britain’s quasi-independent colonies in South Africa and it was overrun in 1915. After the war ended, Germany was stripped of all its colonial possessions, which were generally handed over to countries like Britain to administer as ‘Mandates’. Later the region came under the jurisdiction of the United Nations and South Africa and was not granted full independence until 1990 after becoming embroiled in the long-running South African Border War between 1966 and 1990. German colonial rule between 1884 and 1915, though comparatively brief, left a bitter legacy, as the Germans engaged in genocidal policies towards the Herero and Namaqua people between 1904 and 1908, actions which have been termed the first genocide of the twentieth century.

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Extent of migration to German South West Africa

The Dorsland Trek, 1874 to 1881

The level of migration associated with German colonial activity in south-western Africa between 1884 and 1915 was relatively limited. This is one of the most inhospitable parts of Africa, a vast desert country, the nature of which explains why it remained un-colonized until so late in the nineteenth century. As such, it was not an attractive place for German colonists to head to in the 1880s, 1890s and 1900s and beyond several thousand German colonial administrators and soldiers there was limited migration to it from Germany itself. The small German colonial community was supplemented by the arrival of a few hundred Boers from southern Africa, as both Namibia and Angola had been established as potential sites for settlement amongst these people through the Dorsland Trek between 1874 and 1881, through which the Boers sought to escape from British colonial rule further to the south.

Demographic impact of German colonial rule

Herero and Namaqua prisoners

While the scale of German colonization of German South West Africa between 1884 and 1915 might have been limited, it has had a lasting impact on the demography and culture of Namibia. There are around 30,000 people of German ancestry in the country today, while one will still find many places bearing German names and Lutheranism, the prevailing strand of Protestantism in Germany, is the dominant type of Christianity in Namibia today.

Perhaps more significantly, though in a disheartening manner, Namibia is one of the most thinly populated countries in the world today. This is in part owing to the genocide of the Herero and Namaqua people in Germany South West Africa between 1904 and 1908. The genocide began in response to efforts by the Herero and Namaqua to oppose German appropriation of their lands. A rebellion by the Herero early in 1904, in which over a hundred German colonists were killed, was the spark which ignited a brutal policy of retaliation by the newly appointed Lieutenant General, Lothar von Trotha. Von Trotha initiated a military campaign against the Herero and then followed it up by forcing the natives, including the Namaqua, into the desert and harassing them in a sustained manner until many starved to death. Others were corralled into concentration camps and died there. It is understood that around 60,000 Herero and 10,000 Namaqua were killed in the campaign, constituting a sizeable proportion of these two ethnic groups. Were it not for these actions the population of Namibia would be greater today than it is.

See also

• Germany
• Namibia
• South Africa
• South African genealogy

Explore more about German South West Africa

• Namibia: A timeline of Germany's brutal colonial history at Deutsche Welle
• Namibia at South African History Online
• South Africa, Dutch Reformed Church Registers, 1660-1970 records collection on MyHeritage

References

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