Karl Peters

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Karl Peters (September 27, 1856 - September 10, 1918), German traveller in Africa, one of the founders of German East Africa (East Africa, today's Tanzania), was born at Neuhaus on the Elbe, the son of a Lutheran clergyman.

He studied at Göttingen, Tübingen and Berlin, and in 1879 was awarded a gold medal by the Berlin University for his Frieden zu Venedig. Working in London 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 Gesellschaft für Deutsche Kolonisation (society for German colonization). 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 Company.

The German government under Bismarck was originally opposed to these pland 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 Conference demanding an imperial charter. Peters, however, blackmailed the Chancellor successfully by threatening to sell his acquisitions to King Léopold II of Belgium who was eager to expand his Congo Empire. As his National Liberal Allies in parliament were pro-colonial minded anyway Bismarck finally gave in 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 Zanzibar who leased his coastal dominions in what was to be Tanganyika to the German East Africa Company.

In 1888 Peters undertook an expedition from the east coast of Africa, avowedly for the relief of Emin Pasha. This expedition was not sanctioned by the German government and was regarded by the British authorities as a filibustering (in the 19th century sense of the word) exploit. One of its objects was to extend the sphere of German influence, and, reaching Uganda 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 Company, and on reaching Zanzibar learned that his treaty was useless, as an agreement between Germany and Great Britain had been come to whereby Uganda was left in the British sphere.

While Peters toured the Interior the empire of his company collapsed when the coastal population rose against the implementation of the lease agreement between the Sultan and the Germans. The German government had to intervene and took over the possessions as a colony.

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. In 1891 he went out again to East Africa as 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. 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 Chagga 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, and after three investigations had been held he 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 Rhodesia and Portuguese East Africa. In the interests of a company he formed, Peters explored the Fura district and Macombes country on the Zambezi, 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 Sabi rivers.

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 Hitler 20 years after his death when the Nazis had discovered him as an ideological relative.

Critical voices among the Social Democrats and Catholics in the Reichstag called Peters a butcher and a national shame. One of his constant nicknames in the critical press was "Hänge-Peters" (translate as "Hangman-Peters").

[edit] References

Norbert Aas, Werena Rosenke (Hg.): Kolonialgeschichte im Familienalbum. Frühe Fotos aus der Kolonie Deutsch-Ostafrika. ISBN 3-928300-13-X. In this book, Werena Rosenke devotes an extensive essay to Carl Peters.
E. Salburg: Karl Peters und sein Volk. Duncker Verlag, 1929
Winfried Speitkamp: "Totengedenken als Berlin-Kritik. Der Kult um die Kolonialpioniere". In: Ulrich van der Heyden, Joachim Zeller (Ed.) "... Macht und Anteil an der Weltherrschaft." Berlin und der deutsche Kolonialismus. Unrast-Verlag. Münster 2005, ISBN 3-89771-024-2
Hermann Krätschell: Carl Peters 1856 - 1918. Ein Beitrag zur Publizistik des imperialistischen Nationalismus in Deutschland, Berlin-Dahlem 1959. Doctoral thesis discussing Peters's impact on journalism in view of National Socialism, which developed later.
Arne Perras: Carl Peters and German Imperialism 1856-1918. A political Biography, Clarendon Press, Oxford 2004. ISBN 0-19-926510-0. Exhaustive biography of Peters with a dissertation on his political weight in view of Bismarck's colonial politics; research includes sources only recently made available.