Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

Since 1894… [t]his indefatigable, Hans Dominik could enact violence dashing, militarily and scholarly in the euphemistic name of justified distinguished officer made a pacification. His case is not unique Research Article name for himself…. Adored by his among the military in the colonies. A colored troops, he was the terror framework can be constructed in which of all agitators…. His name… colonial military violence in German made the colored hearts tremble. Africa can be explained by three causal Iron energy and the greatest factors: standardized military training Framing Military Violence in German lack of consideration for himself, and indoctrination in Germany; the he coupled this with a jubilant transfer of the “whole man” ideal from Africa: Metropolitan Indoctrination, temperament and an unfailing the metropole and its subsequent benevolence for his subordinates. transformation into hyper-masculine form in the colonies; and, stereotypic Masculinity, and the Conceptualized Eulogy for Major Hans conceptions of the colonized Other as Dominik, 19111 Other existing outside European or German norms. he popular newspaper This article attempts to specify an Kolonie und Heimat expressed origin of German violence in Africa these panegyric sentiments after within historical context, which has TMajor Dominik died from the strains hitherto remained historiographically Christopher Goodwin of quelling an uprising of the Maka problematic. Many previous studies Norwich University people in Cameroon. The uprising have focused on the genocide against began after Dominik led a “punitive the Herero as a precursor to the expedition” (Strafexpedition) in response Holocaust, often with allusions to the to a tale that a “German trader had once-ubiquitous Sonderweg theory. been ‘eaten’ in the area.”2 He was, in Although the issue of historical the end, regarded as a great pacifier Explanations for German colonial violence in Africa tend to revolve around either continuities is most often at the of the region. Dominik’s methods of proto–Holocaust centered theories or the colony as a permeated space of continual forefront, a subtler issue is the difficulty warfare would have been atypical on a violence. Both methods falter due to overgeneralization, often through lack of of building a comprehensive theory of European battlefield, but the underlying nuanced consideration of differing societal groups within the German colonial colonial violence predicated on a specific ideas originated in the metropole. This populations. This article addresses one of these populations, namely the German endpoint that was neither “the end,” nor military training was coupled with a military administrations and personnel, primarily before the scandal of the Herero a representative case.3 Some scholars form of masculinity also transmitted genocide resulted in a loss of relative administrative power for the colonial army. have attempted a generalized framework from the homeland, but adapted to Military violence in the colonies arose through a combination of army values in which colonists performed violence the colonial environment. The eulogy developed in Germany, an adapted version of metropolitan masculinity, and as an integral part of a system of

Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume depicts Dominik as the “whole man,” 1 5, Issue Volume potent interpretations of European discourse on the colonized peoples. Coercive dominance. While this piece does not occupying such contradictory positions command became standard policy to maintain the equilibrium of the perceived deny such a framework, a more nuanced 34 as idolized/feared, benevolent/ruthless, 35 power differential between colonizer and colonized. Although this balance became view shows that varying motivations and serious/exuberant. He is militaristic, the standard goal of native policy for all German societal groups within the colonies, among colonial societal groups resulted yet scholarly; energetic and dashing, but the military remained the only group with the ability to exert coercive command in differing levels and types of violence. contemplative when needed. Armed on a large scale. Central to investigating this theme are Past Tense Past with an overbearing and purposely Tense Past the strides made in the historiography manufactured feeling of superiority over since 1970, specifically in the way that the native African population, Major the colonial spheres are viewed. The Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

effects of colonialism are no longer subject to much less governmental Both nationalism and bourgeois ruralness could be the answer. It could ignored under the pretext of existing oversight as well as outside the effectual, sensibilities emphasized the idea of “the be a world created in masculine form, as an ephemeral phenomenon.4 More though highly circumscribed, realm whole man,” an ideal masculinity that emphasizing all of the characteristics recently, historians have used historical, of emerging international law. This harmoniously combined rationalism of “the whole man.” That this world cultural, and literary studies to probe provided the impetus for the evolution and emotionalism.6 Martina Kessel has would be distinctly masculine in nature the depths of colonists’ minds, but also of violence from military campaigns argued convincingly that this “holistic is supported by the fact that, even after those of the colonized.5 The following (Feldzüge) during the initial colonization version” of man amalgamated male and efforts to increase female presence, both framework for colonial violence takes phase to the punitive expeditions female characteristics in an attempt to German Southwest and East Africa a similar interdisciplinary approach of occupation. It is the peculiar create a distinctly masculine world.7 held ratios of seven German men to to include the effects and interactions manifestation of the latter that this article New societal norms emphasized only one white woman.10 The isolated of institutions and actors. The most attempts to explain. The fundamental traditional areas of masculinity, such nature of Africa distorted the whole- significant contribution of the recent difference between military campaigns as intellectualism and productivity, man concept into an extremely rugged historiography is that “actors” now and punitive expeditions was whether includes the colonized peoples, who a legitimate military goal existed. are no longer viewed simply as those Beyond this ambiguous definition, The heightened masculinity of the “acted upon.” This article continues punitive expeditions were more this historiographical trend by localized and often conducted during military found greater expression in an differentiating sources of agency, but times of occupation, rather than initial also by recognizing the interactivity of colonization. The dividing line became environment that promoted strength, groups. continually blurred as time went on, The German army is a useful especially in the cases of uprisings starting point for inquiry into (Aufstände). Thus suppression, usually danger, and domination group differentiation. Though many a job for garrison troops, became a institutions and classes of actors military goal for army governors and yet also espoused “typical” feminine and un-tempered version of those existed on the German side during commanders. The melding of campaigns characteristics of sensitivity and characteristics considered most manly. the colonial era, the army contrasted and punishment was sometimes passion. Society placed bounds on In essence, attributes of masculinity were most with other factions. The German characterized as “revenge campaigns” subjective versions of identity, asserting taken to extreme levels. Though precise army developed unique systems and (Rachefeldzüge). The haphazard the primacy of order and harmony, ideas of which aspects of masculinity beliefs that distinguished it from other blending found its greatest expression or the careful balance of male/female should be emphasized differed, the contemporary European militaries. in the Herero genocide (1904–1907), a attributes. Nonconformance to the new hyper-masculinized ideal of the whole Experiences in the Wars of Unification development that is analyzed in detail mores supposedly led from a depraved man became hegemonic during the formed an ideology that placed a below. The Maji Maji Rebellion (1905– individual to an ill nation-state, thus era. The methods of enforcement premium on harsh expedients in pursuit 1907) in Eastern Africa was another introducing a national peril that also differed by the class of the settler, of “military necessities.” Doctrines such curious admixture of campaigning and reinforced the need for widespread but in the military realm, hegemony as mission-based tactics (Auftragstaktik) suppressing. adherence.8 Industrialization promoted was enforced by “cultural consent, Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume gave individual commanders significant On a deeper level, the harsh urbanization, and nationalists felt that discursive centrality, institutionalization, 1 5, Issue Volume 36 amounts of autonomous authority and militaristic colonial environment concentration in the cities created and the marginalization or deligitmation 37 to determine military necessity. The also provoked the creation of a sexual abnormalcy, “alienation,” and a of alternatives,” but especially by army had little regard for international specific brand of masculinity. A crisis removal from the traditional German physical force against the native laws in Europe and even less so in the of masculinity taking place in the soil.9 The rapid pace of urbanization peoples.11 Furthermore, the heightened rugged and “uncivilized” context of the metropole arrived in the colonies, but and industrialization prompted a crisis masculinity of the military found Past Tense Past Past Tense Past African colonies. Without a specific the unique setting provided a means of in masculinity whenever the gender greater expression in an environment colonial army, Germany transferred escape, and eventually the formation order appeared in question. Africa, that promoted strength, danger, and its European-based military to an area of a hegemonic settler masculinity. therefore, with its abundant land and domination. Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

Military commanders subscribed of a mission [eines Auftrages], prudent on European battlefields during the of responsibility, especially for lower to a specific precolonial ethnographic deliberation, quick and appropriate Wars of Unification had shown the ranking personnel, such as junior discourse that, when wedded with decisions, and outstanding vigor relative merits of a flexible mission officers and noncommissioned officers.26 colonial masculinity and German and bravery.”16 Courses in military system compared to attempts at near- Authority predicated on mission- military ideology, created an ethos in history would “safeguard the officer absolute control of subordinates in the based tactics provided the pretext which extremely coercive measures, from excessive humanitarian outlooks Napoleonic Wars.21 German officers for much of the violent coercion that and eventually even genocide, were [Anschauungen]… that in war certain gave orders that lacked specific detail, colonial troops enacted. The system’s considered necessary.12 The inherently severities cannot be done without, that and they preferred troops to adapt interpretive nature allowed a wide scope violent nature of the military resulted in fact often the only true humanity when confronted with the fog of war for individual initiative, but without the in interpretations of ethnographic lies in their ruthless application.”17 or complications on the battlefield. usual restraints of specific military goals discourse that highlighted the allegedly Furthermore, the official field manual This was not, however, a free pass or a defined battlefield. The problem savage and inhuman nature of those sanctioned harsh “preventative measures” for an officer to do as he pleased. The became particularly acute when orders colonized. Coercive behavior against against occupied populations.18 While “coherence of the plan” was a guide from above conflicted with standard fellow whites in Europe became, fairly it would be a mischaracterization to to follow, and the fulfilment of the notions of European military ethics, easily, murderously violent acts against suggest that the colonial environment overall mission was always the goal.22 as will be shown in the context of the “inhuman” and “cruel” blacks in Africa. itself had no impact on troop behavior, On the other hand, it required a degree Herero uprising. The home government The metropole government made no indoctrination and military culture of latitude: officers were expected to reduced this authority only when serious attempt to restrain this behavior provided fundamental attitudes toward produce action and take risks, but with “mistakes” rose to the level of genocide, until the genocide of the Herero military practice wherever German the reciprocal expectation that mistakes and even then only because of the created a backlash that fundamentally troops were stationed. Unit formation in could happen and would be forgiven resulting furor in the metropole as well shifted colonial ideology away from the the colonies, however, differed markedly if it could be shown that the officer as by other colonial powers. Kulturmission imposed primarily by the from the metropolitan army. Colonial had worked within the framework of Nevertheless, the German government military.13 units were temporary and makeshift, Auftragstaktik.23 Any military action still condoned the army’s general resulting in a lack of cohesion normally that vaguely supported the intentions doctrine on the treatment of civilians, The Transfer of the Metropolitan formed through common regional origins, of higher-ranking commanders ideas that encouraged a loose definition Imperial Army constant group interaction, and social was usually sufficient evidence. If of military necessity. Again, experiences maintenance.19 Continuity in leadership performed correctly, the system allowed during the Wars of Unification, particularly istinct from other imperial and experience was severely hindered by adaptability to changing battlefield the French popular uprising and use Dpowers, Germany did not have short terms of service; half of the officers conditions, and resulted in greater of unconventional troops in the form a specifically designed colonial army, served only one year in the colonies and speed and maneuverability compared of franc-tireurs during the Franco- making it possible to frame some only 12 per cent served more than three to armies that required lengthy, vertical Prussian War of 1870–1871, instigated aspects of colonial military practice years.20 Therefore, the standardized hierarchical communication. The need a belief in harsh measures based on within the metropolitan-based military military training received in Germany for mission-based tactics was clear in “military necessity.”27 Victory against an institution.14 Initially, the German colonial was a particularly important influence the African colonial context. Germany enemy military was not a guarantee of army (Schutztruppe) was organized under on collective behavior, as it was the controlled an area roughly five times peace, as was shown by continuing anti- Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume the German Imperial Naval Office, but was strongest source of group identity. the size of its European territory, along occupation operations after the French 1 5, Issue Volume 38 in reality a kind of “third branch” of the Shared knowledge of doctrine and with an indigenous population of over field army was defeated in 1870.28 39 German military.15 The army conducted standard operating procedures strongly 11 million.24 With a German colonial Though commanders initially, but all infantry training within Germany, informed group behavior. Auftragstaktik, population of 22,000, of which only questionably from a legal standpoint, and indoctrinated troops received the already a hallmark of the German 6,500 were military troops, a wide ordered reprisals against spies and dominant military ideologies and belief army, became a recurrent and enlarged Past Tense Past degree of authority was necessary guerilla fighters under the authority Tense Past systems prevalent in the homeland. This capacity for individual action at all within any given field of operations.25 of Auftragstaktik, Chief of the General primarily meant an emphasis on the levels of the military hierarchy within This produced a much greater sphere Staff Helmuth von Moltke eventually “skillful, independent understanding the colonies. Large numbers of troops Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

sanctioned the practice legally.29 Though method efficient enough to deal with he had attempted to work within this Wilhelm Deist have characterized as German casualty figures by irregular irregular warfare, and the need to framework. “Byzantinism.”38 Consequently, offices French fighters was relatively low, a quickly and effectively combat it so That these principles transferred worked in relative seclusion, causing quarter of the field army was arrayed paramount, the army fought any limits from the metropole to the African a lack of coordination in policy. The against the franc-tireurs due to their for responding to civilian fighters. colonies is clear. Training that took place result for the military was an almost seeming ability to be anywhere at any This permeated down to the lower in Germany ensured the indoctrination complete insulation from non-executive time.30 Such an imbalance to combat levels, and recruits were generally of this mindset. The primary difference oversight. Though the Kaiser was the small numbers of enemy fighters unaware of specific legal requirements was that, due to the expanse of territory Commander-in-Chief of each branch raised harsh responses to the level of on the treatment of civilians or and the miniscule amount of troops of the military, his authority over the military necessity in the eyes of field prisoners of war.33 Retired General with which to control it, even low- Schutztruppe was even more marked. commanders. Horne and Kramer Julius von Hartmann, a prominent ranking commanders held authority to Unlike the army, in which some states’ have shown extensively that the fear of writer on military affairs, expounded impose large, broad fines or summarily contingents, such as Bavaria and Saxony, guerilla tactics became mythologized in in Clausewitzian terms both the overall execute those defined as rebels.35 In maintained a “special bond” with their the psyche of the German military and purpose of war, as well as the variables the midst of the Herero uprising, the kings in peacetime, the navy was an played a crucial role in military decision that would influence individual soldiers German General Staff, in its historical exclusively imperial institution from making and doctrinal development to act in the name of military necessity: analysis, asserted that “[w]homever the very beginning.39 Organizationally 31 in the subsequent decades. In the [T]he one, great, final goal of war is wished to colonize here [Africa], must located under the navy, the Schutztruppe colonies, where the pervasiveness of the subjugation of the enemy power, first grasp the sword and wage war, not was under the absolute authority of the need for dominance was even more the overcoming of the enemy energy, with petty and delicate means, but rather the Kaiser during both times of peace widespread, it was far easier to consider the mastery of the enemy will. This with great, awe-inspiring power until and war. Due to precedent and the groups as rebel fighters. Whereas in one goal commands absolutely and the utter defeat of the natives.”36 This Kommandogewalt, his position and Europe there were at least hazy limits it dictates law and regulation. The assessment did not differ from German influence was circumscribed only as to what constituted rebellious or concrete figuration of this law appears precolonial theory, but the experience marginally with its transfer to the partisan behavior, the maintenance of in the form of military necessity…. The of colonization had seemingly validated Colonial Department in 1896 and then course of war appears as a stringing the perceived power differential required extremely coercive methods, further the Reichskolonialamt in 1907. together of actions, in which military a much lower tolerance for supposedly personnel, as carriers of the military enshrining them in standard colonial These kinds of constitutional and “threatening” behavior. Coupled with strength of the state and under the military practice. Additionally, Kaiser legal disconnects were widespread, the belief that natives were inhuman full exploitation… of the striving Wilhelm’s Kommandogewalt, or broad effecting a seclusion of military and could only be subjugated through toward a common goal, are subject to constitutional rights to command development, both in the metropole fear, this perceived power differential particular targets of military necessity the armed forces, ensured that, when and overseas, from virtually any civilian intensified the idea of reprisals as that they must execute .34 colonial troubles arose, he could oversight. Clausewitz’s assertion of the military necessity. Some, in fact, did appoint an officer closely aligned military as a tool of policy was reversed.40 There was, therefore, not an 37 directly compare reprisals against insistence on mission-based tactics with his way of thinking. This would As one of the many repercussions of natives with the execution of civilians in in the name of military necessity in have serious repercussions during the administrative Byzantinism, the military the Franco-Prussian War.32 Herero uprising with the appointment narrowed its view to the tactical and

Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume the German military; there was an 1 5, Issue Volume Disregarding the dissenting opinions understood compulsion. The pursuit of Lothar von Trotha, as will be shown operational levels, forgoing much 40 and diverging widely from emerging of military necessity was defined as a later, but it was also vitally important consideration of the political-strategic 41 international law, the German military basic right of the army and, with the for the colonial military context as a aspects of war-making. This produced was primed for excessively violent means use of Auftragstaktik, encompassed whole. The combined framework of a much greater emphasis on the actions of coercion in the colonies. The German virtually anything that could lead to any Immediatsystem, in which subordinates of individual commanders in the military, as a whole, viewed laws reported solely to the Kaiser, and the field, allowing them to direct policy Past Tense Past vaguely defined goal of a superior. If the Tense Past regulating warfare as an infringement result were unsuccessful, latitude was Kommandogewalt accentuated the image “on the ground.” The Kaiser set the on the basic right to conduct combat. given if the commander showed that of the Kaiser’s authority, yet it also tone of military governance through Considering Auftragstaktik the only created what Annika Mombauer and his customarily boisterous martial Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

declarations. An ingrained adherence personnel. Africa was a battlefield in in the field of physiology. Growing the ideal transformed from head-of- to Auftragstaktik and a disdain for which industrialized warfare on a mass industry prompted labor unrest and family to “master over a domain.”54 This international laws of war ensured that scale could not take place; this “allowed socialist ideologies.50 Along with rising power was easily circumscribed by the the Kaiser’s policies were transmitted masculine heroism, determination and nationalism, these pervasive ideologies colonial administration or, in the case down the chain of command. Ministers nobility to shine through.”43 Colonists attempted to subsume the individual of soldiers, the military. Nevertheless, such as Chancellor von Bülow claimed perceived Africa as a wide open space into society in the pursuit of higher colonists found outlets for exercising that “colonial politics was still a policy where a man could become his true ideals. Advances in technology seemed mastery in a variety of places, whether of conquering, and that nowhere in the and whole self without the artificial to “speed up time itself.”51 Medical in labor relations with natives, sexual world did one succeed at appropriating constraints imposed by industrialized doctors promoted ideas of degeneracy, aggression, or military violence. Among land from a foreign people without society.44 This “true self” harkened back both physical and mental.52 While military personnel, mastery was battles…. Colonial wars will therefore to a pre-industrial masculinity that the ideologies co-opted masculinity most obviously demonstrated by the invariably be a necessary consequence arose during the Wars of Liberation.45 with some success, science was mainly summary judgment of supposed rebels of a colonial politics.”41 Nevertheless, A working reconciliation between the a man’s preserve, and degeneracy through the wide breadth of command this military culture and legal individual and the collective defined prompted the most concern for the and emphasis on mission-based tactics, sanctioning only provided the ability to the “militarization of masculinity.”46 future of masculinity. This particularly especially during Strafexpeditionen. use violent coercion. It does not explain The collective was not necessarily informed the debates on race in Colonial men were also expected to the motivation for such coercion, which German society as a whole, but rather conceiving of the colonized as either be fearless, work hard, show dedication requires an investigation of individual the pursuit of a higher ideal that often inferior or child-like in development, and self-confidence, and be creative.55 beliefs and actions. involved some aspect of Deutschtum. but also in the potential degeneracy of These were not new attributes of Willpower was an integral component the “white race” arising from biological masculinity. They were, however, The Transfer and Distortion of of manliness.47 It allowed a dogged or cultural admixture. To a large degree, magnified by the environment and German Metropolitan Masculinity determination for “heroism, death, and the enforced racial hierarchy propagated interactions with strange, new peoples. sacrifice” in the name of this higher by German colonists was based on these Diseases, weather, and animals were he military provided an insular, ideal.48 Yet the valuation of a man along new developments in science. Africa constant dangers, as well as African Tmasculinized world whether it this ideal was based on his individual functioned as one of several pressure warriors with non-European customs was stationed within the metropole and particular attributes: valves for those wishing to escape and methods. The colonies initially or beyond its borders. Nevertheless, The great community of the state will the masculinity crisis in Germany. lacked economic infrastructure, the form that this masculinity took not be served by an internally changed Many believed that the “untainted” terminology that was still synonymous was also dependent upon its location. person. Rather, he will lovingly naturalness, and therefore beauty, of the with “railroad network.”56 Many believed Thus, the “standardized” masculinity serve in the manner that he wishes environment, along with harsh living that “economic salvation… lay in the inculcated in troops in Germany and is capable of, with an unbroken conditions would help alleviate mental construction of railways.”57 Military during training was subject to change peculiarity and his entire soul.49 and physical degeneracy. commentators of the era believed that when it entered the African environs. Ideal masculinity was not envisioned Rather than simply a return to Strafexpeditionen could prompt economic The military environment allowed, as a composition of mechanically traditional, pre-industrial conceptions growth by increasing German prestige promoted, and created a space for the functioning men, but of those that of masculinity, colonial maleness became in an era, something that Hermann Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume 1 5, Issue Volume expression of masculinity, but it was pursued a collective ideal with the a grandiose distortion of the old ideals. von Wissmann supposedly benefited 42 not the sole definer of male gender individual talents he possessed. Manhood had once meant embodying from in East Africa at the expense of the 43 58 ideals. Manliness itself did not conform German men saw Africa as a way the physical representation of the Hehe people. Nevertheless, until this to such a narrow spectrum, and it was to return to these values, and as an family unit as a whole in dealings with infrastructural dream could become a fundamental basis for the colonial escape from the crisis that now befell the state; in essence, the husband solely reality, agricultural work was widespread power framework more broadly.42 represented the interests of his household among the colonial population and Past Tense Past masculinity in the metropole. This crisis Tense Past 53 This was true among and between the arose primarily from industrialization, and was, therefore, a citizen. In the necessary for subsistence in each varied classes of colonizers, but even technological increase, and advances colonies, due to a lack of family units locality. Although there was certainly more specifically in the case of military and the attendant rise in land holding, exploitation of native labor, hard Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

physical labor remained necessary for limits: masturbation was a contributor male desire for natives, and citizenship colonial affairs. At least in the beginning, settlers. Dedication was required both to internal weakness; marital sexual through jus sanguinis, or descent by German women had little impact on the on the individual level and in working relations should be moderate; and blood. In the later stages of colonization, formation of colonial masculinity. toward the “colonial experiment.” Self- laws should prohibit homosexuality.61 the colonial administration’s position Colonial authorities considered the confidence contributed to an individual’s Homosexuals found little respite in stated that German men could only passage of citizenship to offspring as the life, but was also vitally important for the colonies as authorities considered succeed as true men through marital clearer and more present danger. First, 66 interactions with native peoples and it dangerous to the imperial cause union with “racial equals.” They opposition to mixed marriages usually the maintenance of white hegemony. from the beginning.62 They did not reasoned that only German women, as ignited specifically when soldiers were Creativity was predicated on initiative, consider sexual relations, violent or the harbingers of future generations, involved, regardless of the fact that this 67 risk-taking, and the ability to flexibly consenting, with indigenous women were the guardians of culture and race. was a much less likely scenario than Many nationalists in the metropole were civilian mixed marriages.72 Soldiers, of the same opinion. Unlike countries as the upholders of German honor Colonists perceived Africa as a such as France, German law considered and supposed models of German only biological descent as a qualifier for masculinity, were the most recognized wide open space where a man could citizenship: the children of a married symbol of Germany and its power in the couple acquired the citizenship of the colonies. Not only would other colonial father, but if the father could not be powers recognize this, but also the become his true and whole self determined, the child received the native subjects, thus endangering the mother’s citizenship.68 Furthermore, at perceived power differential. Second, without the artificial constraints the time of marriage, the wife received German citizenship entailed potential the husband’s citizenship.69 This latter duties such as military service, voting imposed by industrialized society point, when applied to German-male/ rights, and the ability to hold public native-female marriages, offendedoffice. 73 The cultural level of the entire accomplish tasks.59 As the civilian governor to be extraordinary, but rather quite German women in particular. The family unit was, therefore, governed by Friedrich von Lindequist stated, it was an normal, and it did not become a concern increasing opposition of German that of the wife, and marriage to a native 74 official goal to “awaken and promote until there was a spike in interracial women to mixed marriages and the defiled masculinity. Furthermore, the the independence and spontaneity of marriages. Colonizers were attracted to greater support by women in general children of such unions were supposedly the settlers as much as possible.”60 As the “naturalness,” ease of availability, and for colonization resulted in an influx “by rule, morally and physically weak, noted above, the lack of a specialized perceived promiscuity of the natives.63 of female settlers. In the harsh colonial [and] combined the worst characteristics 75 colonial army engendered a need for These encounters allegedly cured environment, the gender divide had of both parents.” a generalized skill set. Auftragstaktik boredom and loneliness, and authorities already begun to blur, as women were It must be noted that these differing was the German military’s answer to considered them to be expected given expected “to be able to do everything views necessarily meant that conceptions 70 the question of initiative and risky the dearth of German women in the their husbands did.” This included of masculinity were contested, though pursuits. Though Lindequist referred colonies.64 More than this, it was a way many of the traditional colonial the settler-soldier model remained the to colonial settlers rather than the army of further conquering Africa beyond masculine qualities such as work ethic hegemonic model. Settlers held to the Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume 71 1 5, Issue Volume explicitly, military experience in mission- the land or on the battlefield. Indeed, and willpower. Only in the area of exaggerated traditionalist form while 44 based tactics was considered excellent both consensual relationships and sexuality did the entrance of German colonial authority, now firmly in the 45 preparation for future life as a colonist; cases of rape became more frequent as women attempt to alter conceptions hands of middle class administrators after soldier-turned-colonist was an outcome the German military’s control over the of masculinity. In effect, these women news of the genocide provoked outrage that was by no means rare. colonies grew.65 expected reciprocation of the sexual in Germany, attempted to rein them in modesty that men imposed on them. toward the rapidly racializing form of Past Tense Past Masculinity also contained an explicit Challenges to this sexuality did arise Tense Past sexual component. Bourgeois values in after a turn toward racial components Yet for much of the era of colonization, bourgeois values of propriety. After the metropolitan Germany acknowledged of masculinity. This came from two German women were absent and colonial administration’s attempts to ban sexual desire as natural, but within directions: German women’s concern over played few significant roles in internal mixed marriages on racial grounds, Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

the Reichstag decision in 1912 to allow intermarriage was low, resulting in only and adventure of Africa, military men it is often difficult to divide action and them to continue further heightened 24 mixed marriages prior to 1905.78 were in a position to exercise their reaction. Nevertheless, it is possible the crisis afflicting masculinity in the This number rose marginally following version of masculinity to a far greater to find primary motivations, whether metropole.76 In contrast, the settlers’ the arrival of German troops during the extent than would have been possible through inference from events or legal argument rested on the traditional Herero Wars.79 That these marriages in the metropole. The geographic occasionally even clearly stated goals. masculine legal right to pass on occurred, offspring produced, and distance and perception of residing The main task of colonial governance citizenship. Although the legal basis neither later repudiated by the German outside the bounds of industrialized was the maintenance of alterity, or the of citizenship was “by blood,” this was soldiers is evidence that imperial soldiers and “degenerate” metropolitan sexuality “otherness” of the natives, and is generally never meant as racial categorization, subscribed to the “settler version” of fostered the growth of colonial hyper- referred to as “native policy.”82 This but was firmly rooted in gender. As the sexual and citizenship aspects of masculinity. did not necessarily mean that colonial far as strict legal jurisprudence was masculinity. The same can be said for authorities attempted to force natives concerned, laws that attempted to insert other types of sexual encounters, though Conception of the Other and its into a static mode of life or culture, racial categories were an infringement rape and prostitution were perhaps more Influences on Military Masculinity though this was the case in certain on patriarchal rights, and therefore available and permissible expedients for circumstances. The policy for alterity invalid.77 The formalized citizenship soldiers than long-term concubinage, ombined, the military structure was predicated on an “assumption of laws of 1870 and 1913 were based on which was the most common scenario Cand hyper-masculinity were unlikely an unbridgeable difference between German men’s rights and interests in for established settlers. In other aspects, to result in the level of violence that themselves and their subjects and contrast to women, not in contrast to military conceptions of masculinity eventually occurred in Africa. Certainly, of the ineradicable inferiority of the “racial non-Germans.” Marriage was were in line with those standardized in it could have resulted in scattered colonized.”83 Therefore, the focus on the an exceptional situation, however, the German army, but with a heightened acts of violence, but a more universal maintenance of otherness emphasized a and most sexual encounters remained emphasis on honor, adventure, and explanation or motivation is needed need to maintain the recognition of this in the form of rape, concubinage, or individual heroism. Volunteer officers to account for widespread aggression. “unbridgeable difference,” rather than prostitution. Colonial and metropole were detached from the regular army A crucial component has thus far an attempt to ensure that this difference authorities focused on marriage and were more often of the eccentric been absent: colonized men, both existed. This distinction is significant because it appeared an existential threat variety, preferring the greater military their masculinity and its effect on for understanding military and settler to the perceived power differential, a action available in the colonies, and German masculinity. Although it is clear behavior; the colonizers believed that this situation that always made settler-native would perhaps have had less success that military culture contributed to difference was inherent and could not be relations more tense and violence more in their careers domestically.80 The violence in Africa, the contribution of changed, either through intermarriage likely. Threats to sexual freedom with colonies were also a field in which masculinity remains incomplete if one or by any amount of cultural change. natives were met with legal challenges formerly disgraced officers could begin considers only the transformation of Intermarriage would only produce and refusals to testify against alleged anew.81 German military masculinity metropolitan manliness in the colonies. children of a lower level, and cultural rapists. German authorities never found in the colonies aligned closely with the Yet, in many ways, distinguishing the change or assimilation were viewed a satisfactory solution for the frequent settler colonial mentality, though in impact of native sexuality on German as insidious mimicry, and not true rapes during military campaigns or militarized form. Settlers often called masculinity is a more complicated improvement. The source of colonial large scale containments, such as those for harsher punishments to perceived or task. It involves preconceived notions power, and therefore the focus of Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume that occurred after the establishment of real threats from natives than even the of natives, how actual contact altered imperial native policy, resided in the 1 5, Issue Volume 46 concentration camps during the Herero heads of the military administrations; these pre-conceived notions, responses mutual recognition and perception of 47 uprising. individual soldiers and units, through and changes in natives engendered by alterity and its immutability. Military personnel, though not either Auftragstaktik or their own the arrival of the German military and The belief of inherent inferiority was in the same societal class as settlers volition, were often more willing to settlers, and the subsequent German initially based on precolonial discourse. in general, aligned closely with this oblige. This was a combination of hyper- responses to these changes in native Early discourse was not uniform, and often Past Tense Past Past Tense Past general form of colonial hegemonic masculinity and the army’s willingness behavior. These complicated sets of contained contradictory representations masculinity. Although settlers clung to create a space for its expression. interaction formed much of the basis of natives. Writers described the Khoikhoi to traditional masculine legal rights, Coupled with the perceived dangers of settler-native relationships, though both as practitioners of grotesque sexual Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

acts, but also as the “Hottentot Venus” Public perception and the ensuing of reasoning. To the metropolitan the characteristics the military attributed in the case of women.84 They placed scorn of Thameyer’s loss of masculinity government, it seemed reasonable to to the natives; but, as infantry Captain special emphasis on sexual aspects, drove him to suicide. He portrayed continue military administration until Schwabe expressed, greater conviction ranging from alleged bestiality with the African as a grotesque distortion pacification was complete. Typical and coercive command remained the apes to the commonly repeated of male sexuality, physically large with military policy consisted of “coercive best options: astonishment at the size of various body corresponding facial hair, and eyes that command” to enforce the recognition of One gets to know this people after 85 parts. In other cases, the Khoikhoi burned with sexual desire for the white difference and compliance with colonial one has lived among them for were described either as noble savages, woman. That something like this could authority. Quick initial victories years… Mistrustful, conceited, proud, or with the more ubiquitous “ignoble happen on German soil, rather than reinforced the idea of German military and in turn beggarly and servile, savage” trope.86 Although the specifics of thousands of miles away in the colonies, supremacy. Although soldiers viewed mendacious and faithless, thieving— precolonial discourse differed by African concerned contemporary readers. The worst the native peoples as inferior, they whenever they are in the majority— ethnic group, all discourses were in infraction on Thameyer’s masculinity, also believed them excessively cruel, violent and cruel…. The one thing agreement that Africans were on a lower however, is that if somehow this betrayal a stereotype that allegedly legitimized that cannot be denied is bravery in battle, but only when the situation civilizational level developmentally. occurred, his wife was impregnated massacres or atrocities.93 Captured is at its direst. My judgment may be More generally, however, depictions from a single encounter. His German enemy soldiers were often executed severe, but fair in every case, and the emphasized the “compulsive nature of masculine honor could be salvaged only en masse, because they were labeled treatment [of this people] must be, the [African] colonial soldier, his sexual through his suicide. as rebels. This labeling was possible and remain, severe and fair. The Kaffir energy, and the necessity to control Varying discourses led to competing because of the unique German view on [common pejorative for Africans] these passions.”87 This supposed energy visions of ethnographic acuity.90 Different what constituted “occupied territory,” a must be given this treatment, or became a concern regarding relationships colonial social groups adhered to significant distinction in determining else they will play dirty tricks on us, between German women and native different views of the natives, and whether a prisoner was a legitimate because the Herero always considers men.88 The fear found its ultimate each attempted to construct policy combatant or a rebel behind enemy mellowness and leniency as weakness 96 expression in Arthur Schnitzler’s short accordingly, though always with the lines. The German view held that and cowardliness. story “Andreas Thameyer’s Last Letter.” goal of stabilizing the perceived power “occupation began immediately behind The description appears in many Thameyer’s wife had an illicit affair differential between colonist and the front lines, regardless of whether the ways to be the opposite of the “whole with an African on display at a zoo in native. While educated officials were ‘occupier’ actually controlled the area.”94 man” concept; even bravery is only Europe, but he refused to accept it, even concerned with cultural and linguistic This presented an interesting, though possible under extenuating circumstances. after the illegitimate son was born. His communication, and landowners with unfortunate, scenario in the colonies; These sentiments were ubiquitous sense of masculinity and honor led him monetary incentives, the military as inferior peoples were allegedly among the military community, and to despair and disbelief: viewed the older ethnographic discourse incapable of waging civilized warfare, this led to conflicts with the natives in I can in no way continue living. as proof that coercive command was the front lines were virtually non-existent, which commanders did not consider Because as long as I live, the people most suitable method for interacting resulting in the military administration negotiation an option.97 To a degree, will mock, and nobody would see with natives.91 During the early period of often labeling the entire territory as this was becoming the German view the truth. The truth is that my wife colonization, the military held primacy occupied. Unsurprisingly, 54 “punitive on war generally. Nevertheless, in the was true to me—I swear on all that in policymaking, and sometimes held expeditions” occurred in East Africa colonial context, the notion was taken Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume I find holy, and I seal it through my civil authority as well.92 This is more alone in the short span between 1891 to to an extreme. Harshness continued 1 5, Issue Volume 48 death…. My Anna was alone—alone obvious during the initial military 1894.95 to serve “native policy,” because 49 just once…. Who wouldn’t conceive campaigns, but it extended afterward With circular logic, the occurrence punishments such as large fines, public that under these circumstances she during “pacification.” Violent means of and frequent recurrence of coercion humiliation, and executions would “keep must have felt a monstrous horror for pacification often led to dismay and small- reinforced the perception that it was their subjection permanently awake in this giant man with fervent eyes and a scale revolts. The military establishment needed. Furthermore, it augmented the 98 Past Tense Past

the native’s memory.” Of particular Tense Past great, black beard.89 cemented its importance in the colonial military’s preferred precolonial discourse. importance was the idea, as expressed Readers perceived a manifold of experiment by emphasizing its centrality There were only minor changes from by Captain Schwabe, that leniency insecurities in the young Thameyer. in pacification, invoking a circularity precolonial to colonial era discourse in Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

would only lead to further revolts or, European contact, natives became more conceptions were derided as unnatural, natives were unable to use natural in other words, the breakdown of the knowledgeable about the colonizers than beastly, and unrefined—the whole man resources as “real men,” the military perceived power differential. the reverse; some natives were bilingual, was a balance. This derision allowed a administration believed it necessary German soldiers’ justifications for received non-native names, or converted freer hand when implementing military to transfer such resources to settlers. violence were not limited to pure religions.103 A “talent for mimicry” was coercion. The military occupation allowed Finally, in January 1904 the Herero rose military reasoning, but were more often not complimentary. Rather, it seemed to a space for the expression of hyper- up against the German administration. intimately tied to ideas propagated in upset the recognition of difference, and masculinity; the addition of comparing A local colonial association called for precolonial discourse as well as the therefore the entire colonial order.104 natives to this ideal, and then finding them an “energetic military action” because implicit goals of the colonial project. Permitted mimicry, such as black wanting, perpetuated a willingness for, and “only through the absolute perpetuation Although, as shown above, the natives’ colonial troops in German uniforms, conduct of, violence. of the supremacy of [the white] race battlefield characteristics were held became a source of discomfort when can its rule be enforced.”111 In effect, in low regard, German soldiers also these same soldiers became “rebels,” A Case Study: From the Leutwein only extreme violence maintained considered them lazy regarding work yet continued to wear the uniforms.105 System to the Genocide of the Herero the perceived power differential. more generally.99 This was anathema to Authorities and colonists did not view Unsurprisingly, Leutwein attempted to “true German manliness,” but especially mimicry as cultural change, or the lthough colonial violence in subdue the native peoples through force. to the prevailing colonial view. Gustav advancement of native culture. Instead, Ageneral, rather than genocide in He claimed to critics in Germany that Frenssen, in his 1906 fictional book Peter they perceived it as a tool of the natives particular, is the focus of this article, it there were no orders to kill women and Moors Fahrt nach Südwest, portrayed to upset the power differential. is useful to analyze the progression and children or refuse prisoners. This would the German soldier’s reasoning for the Disparity in knowledge was a escalation of violence in a case-study have been in contradiction to military massacre of natives: particular area of contention because format. Colonial violence and cruelty and metropole masculine values. Still, These blacks have earned death from natives had access to the more intimate were not rare, but one native reaction he admitted that the troops had been 112 God and man. Not because they parts of the colonizers’ lives. In effect, the invariably resulted in the escalation of acting in excess. There had been a murdered 200 farmers and revolted colonizers were always on display, and coercion: rebellion. Few uprisings were flood of reports, though erroneous, against us, but because they have therefore it was necessary to perpetually very large, but the Herero rebellion of that the Herero had butchered German built no houses or dug wells…. God show mastery and power.106 In the 1903 was a major response to sustained women and children and burned houses, has allowed us victory because we are earlier days of military penetration, this maltreatment, fines, land disputes, and further proof of unmanly and savage noble and strive for progress.100 was of little concern for the soldiers, as sexual violence. In 1894, army officer behavior. Masculine honor demanded German correspondents deplored power or mastery was shown through Theodor Leutwein was appointed as a the protection of all three signifiers of the lack of adventurous spirit of natives, battlefield victories, sexual violence, high-ranking colonial administrator, the household domain. Nevertheless, 107 110 that “the house, the village, or at most or the purchase of prostitutes. When and then governor in 1898. His Leutwein’s goal had always been to the countryside was the world of his these relationships transformed into native policy has become known as use enough violent coercion to open 113 field of vision.”101 This was certainly household servitude, domestic unions, the Leutwein System, and consisted of negotiations. His final mistake, in not the cosmopolitanism of the “whole or marriage, the prominent scandals diplomacy, divide and rule tactics, and the eyes of military authorities, was man.” Military atrocities, therefore, of the era clearly displayed the limits military coercion. A typical example his personally-ordered retreat of his revolved more around a worldview than of privacy. Sexual honor became a of this model was the requisitioning of unbeaten troops at Oviumbo on April 13, Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume 1 5, Issue Volume the military acts or abilities of the natives. concern through the legal crime of cattle from natives: first, bribery was implemented both for military as well as 114 50 Masculinity required hard physical labor sodomy; it was legally impossible for a attempted, then official favoring of administrative concerns. Within the 51 108 and progress, and the precolonial and man to be raped. Fears of “unnatural certain chieftains, and finally outright context of the German military culture contemporary discourse emphasized seductions” arose through propaganda violent coercion. When this ultimately of offense, which contemporary military that the natives were incapable of of the “amplified affinity of the African failed to satisfy the needs of colonists, theorists often defined in stereotypic 102 for homosexuality.”109 There was, he repeated the cycle for native-land nineteenth century masculine terms Past Tense Past this sustained test of manliness. An Tense Past even more pernicious native response therefore, an effort to portray the male acquisition. Again, the colonists were such as energetic and inexorable, this was mimicry. Through the course of African Other as unmanly. Attributes not satisfied and reservation land was retreat was a defeat. that were “more manly” than German parceled out to native groups. If the Owing both to the ineffectiveness of Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

Leutwein to quell the rebellion and his power differential between colonists the shooting of civilians continued. circular logic regarding this violence, shameful retreat, the German military and natives, and future German By September 30, supply levels were mentioned above, was applicable in sent General Lothar von Trotha to restore administrative policy would forever be perilous and Trotha ordered the pursuit this situation. The Herero, thought the order. Trotha was the quintessential met by armed rebellion if the Herero to end. Two days later he issued the military administration, were rebelling example of the new, heightened colonial succeeded in this instance. Vernichtungsbefehl, thus ending any idea because they believed the Germans were military masculinity. Although he had This line of reasoning was used in of future negotiations, and rejecting weak, and only an even greater display gained experience during the Wars of the aftermath of the battle of Waterberg, even the complete submission of the of force could stabilize the mutual Unification, his career was particularly which had taken place on August 11. Herero.122 recognition of racial and civilizational successful outside of Germany, owing The Herero were soundly defeated Aside from the escalation of the idea difference. Ironically, native policy to merciless, but successful, campaigns in an attempted concentric battle of of Vernichtung, Trotha still operated conducted along military lines would in East Africa and China.115 Trotha’s annihilation, a Vernichtungskrieg in the within the framework of the colonial theoretically eventually lead to colonies brutality was well known, and Kaiser military sense. Owing to difficulties German military. In Southwest Africa, without natives. Wilhelm either directly appointed or in the conduct of the battle, however, frontlines did not exist, and it was The genocide could not have personally approved his appointment many of the Herero escaped and Trotha customary to execute rebels. As the occurred without Trotha’s order, but the to the Southwest African command on did not consider it a “total military Vernichtungsbefehl made clear, a large Vernichtungsbefehl and its results were May 3.116 The Kaiser, identifying the v i c t or y.” 119 When the Herero attempted scale revolt of this nature expanded made possible only through the already rebellion as a serious matter of national multiple times to open negotiations, as security and using his constitutional had normally happened after previous prerogative of Kommandogewalt, placed military defeats, Trotha refused on the Standard military practice the conduct of operations under military grounds that it would show “weakness control, instead of civilian leadership.117 and embarrassment,” thus impugning Trained in Germany and long part of the both military and manly honor.120 emphasized relentless system, Trotha understood the German Meanwhile, some German troops had military concept of Vernichtungskrieg, the begun to openly massacre the Herero, complete and comprehensive military regardless of age or gender. Trotha pursuit to defeat enemies defeat of the enemy. Nevertheless, in attempted to limit such actions to armed the colonial context, he linked the same men classified as rebels.121 Thus, courts the definition of “rebel” to include violent colonial context. Contrary to verbiage (vernichten) with methods martial were no longer necessary. This “every Herero, with or without rifle… Trotha’s own dealings in Southwest contrary to normal European warfare. was a clear departure from the Leutwein [and] no more women or children Africa, the violence against the Herero Rather than the destruction of military System and ensured an escalation of accommodated.”123 The attribution of escalated gradually, as shown through forces, Trotha, in a letter to Leutwein, sanctioned military violence. That many “rebel” was tied to the familiar trope of the development of the Leutwein stated that “the use of [v]iolence with of the troops were recently arrived and the “cruel Herero,” by citing crimes such System.125 Though this earlier policy and stark terrorism and cruelty was and is inexperienced reinforcements from as murder, theft, and the mutilation of its violence had always been extreme my policy. I destroy the African tribes Germany increased the likelihood that wounded German soldiers.124 Trotha’s compared to European contexts, the with streams of blood and streams of the infliction of violence would be less call for annihilation was not a mistaken move to genocide was an evolution Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume money.”118 The “whole man” concept of restrained. Standard military practice usage of the word, but rather a of German military native policy and 1 5, Issue Volume 52 balanced rationality and emotionality emphasized relentless pursuit to defeat conscious escalation of military values administration. Furthermore, it was the 53 is present in this statement, the enemies that had escaped destruction exported from Germany, heightened result of progressive dehumanization rationality of an industrialized nation’s by concentric attack, as had occurred at by prevailing notions of colonial and the “fear of a possible loss of war-making system and the emotional Waterberg. A refusal to negotiate inspired masculinity. A European-style defeat prestige.”126 It was not, however, systematic vision of “justified” blood-letting, continual and escalating violence and the had not been inflicted and masculine murder. This does not mean that there Past Tense Past Past Tense Past violence, and terrorism. Trotha believed lack of logistical support promoted small honor could not allow negotiation. was not intended genocide. Instead, it is that negotiation, as Leutwein now groupings of German soldiers; especially Violent coercion had been successful acknowledgment that German soldiers advocated, would destroy the perceived at this low level of the military hierarchy, against smaller uprisings thus far. The were not expected to systematically Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

execute thousands, rather they were amount of violence that individual units Germany; the distorted transfer of employ themselves for real, tangible to not prevent deaths resulting from performed. Nevertheless, the guidelines masculinity from the metropole to benefits on a large plot of land. This starvation and dehydration.127 Still, set forth by the highest commander, the colony; and conceptions of the produced a work ethic that colonists German soldiers had already escalated the Vernichtungsbefehl, became the colonized Other. No single aspect is perceived was higher than that in the violence beyond the limits prescribed minimum acceptable level of violence sufficient to account for the use of metropole because the work was more by the Vernichtungsbefehl. This was for soldiers through the combination violence, though each was necessary. fulfilling to a man. As shown above, carried on at the lowest tactical levels. of an institutional culture of obedience Furthermore, though the colonies were many soldiers opted to remain in the The order gave official direction to and a gender-enforced commitment to generally a cruel and violent place, colonies rather than return to Germany. more effectively pursue what was duty. military coercion escalated progressively A man was the head of his household already being done through personal Although the war with the Herero for the supposed furtherance of native in Germany, but still a mere citizen of expressions of violence. For those who was construed as a racial war in the policy. Once administrators felt that the state. In Africa, settlers perceived had not been inclined to such gratuitous mind of Trotha, it was not considered the “lesson” was understood, the themselves as kings of their estates. violence, an institutional culture of a life-or-death struggle between two environment would return to its normal Men could exert more dominance over obedience ensured compliance. This peoples. The goal was not the survival of level of violence. However, with circular women with relative impunity. Native was the case for Major Ludwig von the “German race,” but instead a means logic, subsequent lessons were harsher women were plentiful, and seemingly Estorff as he pursued the Herero under of restoring the perceived colonial power so as to quell supposed native beliefs of servile within the binary hierarchy Trotha’s orders to drive them into the differential, predicated on colonial hyper- German weakness. of native and German. For soldiers, desert: masculinity and normativity, even if this The standardized military training Africa was filled with adventure and I followed their tracks and arrived at meant the destruction of one side of the that soldiers received in Germany danger that was more natural than the several wells behind them and found equation. The standard practices of the was the fundamental component of rapidly industrializing and impersonal a dreadful sight. Cattle that had died German military were certainly at play the colonial army’s ability to function battlefields of Europe. Opportunity of thirst were lying in heaps around during these events, but masculine ideals coercively. It provided both the means for advancement for those willing to them…. Now the Herero flew further played a key role in their initiation and and the authority to do so. Auftragstaktik work hard was possible in the colonies, from us…. The dreadful scene was perpetuation. This is true both for those sanctioned individual actions of a perception that few had of the always repeated. With frantic speed ideals that were inherent in the German violence and punitive expeditions. homeland. This was especially true for the [Herero] men attempted to tap metropolitan military and those that Legal theories developed in Germany those in the military, as Germany was the wells, but the water always became arose during the course of colonization allowed a wider range of treatment not engaged in a traditional, European sparser, the waterholes more infrequent. They flew from one to another and lost and occupation. Nevertheless, genocide under the guise of suppressing rebels, war until the First World War. almost all of their animals and a great was a unique outcome of native policy even if most other countries agreed that Yet the ideology for dominance on many people. They dwindled away to as a whole. Though it can be seen as a international law ended at the borders a larger scale was impossible without scarce remnants and were gradually logical conclusion of the progression of of Europe. The German military’s two further components: a belief in at our mercy. Some escaped now and military native policy, this was only one disregard for international law within the inferiority of the colonized and the some later…. It was a policy that was colonial group’s method, and cannot Europe was a precursor for what could mutual recognition of this judgment as foolish as it was cruel, to shatter be generalized. It occurred through an be expected in the colonies. Everything by both Germans and native peoples. those people. Many of the people and exclusive combination of attributes, seemed proportionally larger in the For the German military, approaching Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume livestock could still be saved, if they abilities, and beliefs that only the colonies: land; freedom; opportunity. It hegemony on the Continent after its 1 5, Issue Volume were now spared and readmitted, they military possessed. The backlash in the is not surprising that the same applied victory against France, a hubris-filled 54 were punished enough. I suggested this 55 to General von Trotha, but he wanted metropole ensured that the military to military violence. interpretation of precolonial discourse their complete destruction.128 would rarely again have such unfettered The scope and scale of masculinity seemed natural. Rapid victories during administrative power. was also enlarged. Manliness achieved initial colonization efforts reinforced Though Major Estorff disagreed new levels of domination. Owning these interpretations. A coercive Past Tense Past Past Tense Past with the policy and found its olonial military violence land in Germany was unlikely and the command mentality circularly bolstered implementation egregious, he complied. Carose from three primary areas: alternative was an unpleasant existence many of these conceptions and seemed There was certainly variance in the standardized military training in in a factory. In the colonies, men could to validate them. With rare exceptions, Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

Endnotes

For the German military... after its 1 Anon., “Major Hans Dominik,” Kolonie und Heimat 4, no. 16 (1910/11): 7. “Seit 1894… hat sich dieser unermüdliche, schneidige, militärisch und wissenschaftlich hervorragende victory against France, a hubris- Offizier… einen Namen gemacht.... Von seiner farbigen Truppe vergöttert, war er der Schrecken aller Unruhestifter; sein Name… die farbigen Herzen zittern machte. Eiserne Energie und die grösste Rücksichtslosigkeit gegen sich selbst verband er mit einem filled interpretation of precolonial glücklichen Temperament und mit nie versagendem Wohlwollen für seine Untergegeben.” All translations are those of the author, unless specifically noted. discourse seemed natural 2 Peter Giersche, “Von Gravenreuth and Buea as a Site of History: Early Colonial Violence on Mount Cameroon,” in Encounter, Transformation, and Identity: Peoples of the Western violence prevented the formation of colonies. These ideas were transferred Cameroon Borderlands, 1891–2000, Ian Fowler and Verkijika G. Fanso, eds. (New York: large-scale rebellions. Small bands of from the metropole and shaped by the Berghahn Books, 2009), 92n71. Hans Dominik’s earlier exploits were captured in his indigenous rebels were defeated, and unique characteristics of the African autobiographical work: Hans Dominik, Kamerun: Sechs Kriegs- und Friedensjahre in this was submitted as further proof of environment and the colonial state. deutschen Tropen, 2nd ed. (Berlin: Georg Stilke, 1911). 3 native inferiority. Furthermore, these Yet, to dominate requires those who The most recent general history of German colonization can be found in Sebastian Conrad, German Colonialism: A Short History, Sorcha O’Hagan, trans. (Cambridge: rebellious acts lent credence to the are dominated. Precolonial discourse Cambridge University Press, 2012). The current state of the historiography is represented alleged inherent cruelty of the natives. and new discourse that arose during in Eric Ames, Marcia Klotz, and Lora Wildenthal, eds. Germany’s Colonial Pasts (Lincoln: That the intolerable conditions of colonization implanted firm beliefs in University of Nebraska Press, 2005). For various, other perspectives on the debate, see coercion may have led to such rebellion the military that the natives deserved Henning Melber, “How to Come to Terms with the Past: Re-Visiting the German Colonial held little stock, and the military used to be dominated by coercive force. Genocide in Namibia,” Africa Spectrum 40, no. 1 (2005): 139–48; Janntje Böhlke-Itzen, this as evidence that more, not less, This domination required a native Kolonialschuld und Entschädigung. Der deutsche Völkermord an den Herero (1904–1907), coercion was needed. Authorities, the policy that maintained the perceived Perspektiven Südliches Afrika 2 (Frankfurt am Main: Brandes and Apsel, 2004); Jürgen military, and settlers thought little power differential; only the military Zimmerer, “Holocaust und Kolonialismus. Beitrag zu einer Archäologie des genozidalen of the sexual attack of indigenous apparatus initially seemed suitable for Gedankens,” Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 51 (2003): 1098–119; Volker Langbehn women, who were already considered the forced subjugation of an indigenous and Mohammad Salama, eds., German Colonialism: Race, the Holocaust, and Postwar promiscuous and wanton. German men population that was 500 times larger Germany (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011); Birthe Kundrus, “Grenzen der in Africa considered the dominance of than the German presence.129 The Gleichsetzung. Kolonialverbrechen und Vernichtungspolitik,” Blätter des iz3w 275 (March men an established fact, and they saw military had the training, legal authority, 2004), 30–33; Birthe Kundrus, “From the Herero to the Holocaust? Some Remarks on the imposition of the perceived power hyper-masculine identity, and racial the Current Debate,” Africa Spectrum 40, no. 2 (2005): 299–308; Jürgen Zimmerer, Von differential as proof, rather than the ideology to pursue and execute coercive Windhuk nach Auschwitz? Beiträge zum Verhältnis von Kolonialismus und Holocaust (Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2011). cause of this dominance. command in the colonies. It took only 4 Birthe Kundrus, “Blind Spots: Empire, Colonies, and Ethnic Identities in Modern German The convergence of military training, circular logic for this combination to History,” in Gendering Modern German History: Rewriting Historiography, Karen Hagemann masculinity, and negative racial perpetuate itself into ever greater levels and Jean H. Quataert, eds. (New York: Berghahn Books, 2007), 87. conceptualization found its ultimate of violence. 5 Ibid., 87–88. expressions of dominance in the 6 Martina Kessel, “’The Whole Man’: The Longing for a Masculine World in Nineteenth- Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume 1 5, Issue Volume Century Germany,” Gender and History 15, no. 1 (2003): 2. The linking of rationalism and 56 emotionalism began much earlier, but became most prevalent during the Napoleonic Wars 57 of Liberation. For background, see Karen Hagemann, “Mannlicher Muth und Teutsche Ehre”: Nation, Militär und Geschlecht zur Zeit der Antinapoleonischen Kriege Preußens (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2002); Karen Hagemann, “Of ‘Manly Valor’ and ‘German Honor’: Nation, War, and Masculinity in the Age of the Prussian Uprising Against Napoleon,” Past Tense Past Central European History 30, no. 2 (1997): 187–220; and Karen Hagemann, Revisiting Tense Past Prussia’s Wars Against Napoleon: History, Culture and Memory, Pamela Selwyn, trans. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015). Furthermore, Nancy Reagin has pointed out that, Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

in the colonial context, “[w]hat was bourgeois in Germany, however, was simply ‘German’ 1908), 104. abroad.” See Nancy R. Reagin, “German Brigadoon? Domesticity and Metropolitan 19 Hull, Absolute Destruction, 133. See, for instance, Theodor Leutwein, Elf Jahre Gouverneur Perceptions of Auslandsdeutschen in Southwest Africa and Eastern Europe,” in The Heimat in Deutsch-Südwestafrika (Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, 1908), 211. Leutwein Abroad: The Boundaries of Germanness, Krista O’Donnell, Renate Bridenthal, and Nancy cites expansive territory and a shortage of soldiers as reasons for the ad-hoc assembly of Reagin, eds. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005), 250. units. 7 Ibid., 23. 20 Bührer, Die kaiserliche Schutztruppe, 115. 8 George L. Mosse, “Nationalism and Respectability: Normal and Abnormal Sexuality in 21 Daniel J. Hughes, “Schlichting, Schlieffen, and the Prussian Theory of War in 1914,” the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Contemporary History 17, no. 2 (1982): 224. See also, Journal of Military History 59, no. 2 (1995): 270. George L. Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality: Respectability and Abnormal Sexuality in 22 German War Ministry, Exerzir-Reglement für die Infanterie (Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Modern Europe (New York: Howard Fertig, 1985). For further information concerning Mittler und Sohn, 1888), 129–30. subjective identity in the context of masculinity, see Christopher E. Forth, Masculinity in 23 Hull, Absolute Destruction, 117. See also Robert Citino, The German Way of War: From the Modern West: Gender, Civilization and the Body (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005). Citino 2008). shows that this latitude was present at least as far back as the armies of Frederick the Great. 9 Ibid., 227. The key difference was that Auftragstaktikwas more likely to exonerate an officer even if his 10 Daniel J. Walther, “Sex, Race and Empire: White Male Sexuality and the ‘Other’ in battlefield decisions had ultimately resulted in failure. Germany’s Colonies, 1894–1914,” German Studies Review 33, no. 1 (2010): 50. 24 Carol Aisha Blackshire-Belay, “German Imperialism in Africa: The Distorted Images of 11 R. W. Connell, “Hegemonic Masculinity: Rethinking the Concept,” Gender and Society 19, Cameroon, Namibia, Tanzania, and Togo,” Journal of Black Studies 23, no. 2 (1992): 239. no. 6 (2005): 846. For further explication on the subject, see Raewyn Connell, Der gemachte These numbers were calculated from Table 1 without including the figures for the Asian and Mann: Konstruktion und Krise von Männlichkeiten (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2015). Pacific colonies. These figures are from 1916 population statistics. 12 This discourse included images, portrayals in travel journals, public debate, and all other 25 Woodruff D. Smith, German Colonial Empire (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North forms of native representations created by the major colonial powers. For a detailed analysis, Carolina Press, 1978), 138. The number of troops is based on a 1914 statistic. It is interesting see George Steinmetz, The Devil’s Handwriting: Precoloniality and the German Colonial State to note that the total number of soldiers was a mere three thousand in 1900. in Qingdao, Samoa, and Southwest Africa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007); For 26 Ibid., 139. a focus on the precolonial period, see Susanne Zantop, Colonial Fantasies: Conquest, Family, 27 Hull, Absolute Destruction, 117. and Nation in Precolonial German, 1770–1870 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997). 28 John Horne and Alan Kramer, German Atrocities, 1914: A History of Denial (New Haven, 13 Cornelia Essner, “Zwischen Vernunft und Gefühl: Die Reichstagsdebatten von 1912 um CT: Yale University Press, 2001), 141. koloniale ‘Rassenmischehe’ und ‘Sexualität,’” Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 45, no. 6 29 Michael Howard, The Franco-Prussian War: The German Invasion of France, 1870–1871, (1997): 505. ThisKulturmission should not be confused with the idea of spreading German 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 2001), 378. culture to the natives. Rather, it was the pseudo–social Darwinian belief that advanced 30 Horne and Kramer, German Atrocities, 142. cultures would survive by physically spreading their culture, which was contained only 31 Ibid. Though the authors carry this thesis out to the First World War, they are also explicit within the body of the colonist. that it was a grave concern in the intervening years. See Raffael Scheck, Hitler’s African 14 Isabel V. Hull, Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Victims: The German Army Massacres of Black French Soldiers in 1940 (Cambridge, UK: Germany (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005), 132. Cambridge University Press, 2006), 85–88. As late as the Second World War, German 15 Tanja Bührer, Die kaiserliche Schutztruppe für Deutsch-Ostafrika: Koloniale Sicherheitspolitik troops compared European partisans to Hottentots and had a tendency to label black und transkulturelle Kriegführung, 1885 bis 1918 (Munich: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, French troops franc-tireurs. 2011), 87. 32 Robert von Friedeburg, “Konservativismus und Reichskolonialrecht—Konservatives 16 “Literatur,” Neue militärische Blätter, vol. 48 (1896), 276–77. This was an editorial that Weltbild und kolonialer Gedanke in England und Deutschland vom späten 19. Jahrhundert commented on the Field Manual of 1894. “… geschickte selbständige Auffassung eines bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg,” Historische Zeitschrift 263, no. 2 (1996): 382. 33

Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume Auftrages, umsichtige Erwägung, schnelle treffende Entschließung und hervorragende Hull, Absolute Destruction, 120. 1 5, Issue Volume Thatkraft und Tapferkeit.” 34 Julius von Hartmann, “Militärische Nothwendigkeit und Humanität,” Deutsche Rundschau 58 17 German General Staff, Kriegsbrauch im Landkriege (Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Mittler 13 (1877): 453–54. “[D]as eine große Endziel des Krieges: die Bezwingung der feindlichen 59 und Sohn, 1902), 3. “… wird den Offizier vor übertrieben humanitären Anschauungen Kraft, die Überwindung der feindlichen Energie, die Bewältigung des feindlichen Willens. bewahren… daß der Krieg gewisser Härten nicht entbehren kann, daß vielmehr in ihrer Dieses eine Ziel gebietet absolut, es dictirt Gesetz und Vorschrift. Die concrete Gestaltung rücksichtslosen Anwendung häufig die einzig wahre Humanität liegt.” My translation. For dieses Gesetzes erscheint in der Form der militärischen Nothwendigkeit… Der Verlauf officer education specifically, the best source remains Steven E. Clemente, For King and des Krieges stellt sich dar als eine Aneinanderreihung von Kriegshandlungen, welche Past Tense Past Past Tense Past Kaiser! The Making of the Prussian Army Officer, 1860–1914 (New York: Greenwood Press, das Kriegspersonal, als Träger der Wehrkraft des Staates, unter voller Ausbeutung… der 1992). Erstrebung des allgemeinen Kriegszieles und der ihm eingeschlossenen Einzelnziele nach 18 German War Ministry, Felddienst-Ordnung (Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, Maßgabe der militärischen Nothwendigkeit zu vollführen hat.” Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

35 Hull, Absolute Destruction, 133. 54 Walther, “Gender Construction,” 4. 36 War History Department I of the Great General Staff, Die Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen 55 Ibid. in Südwestafrika (Berlin: Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn Königliche Hofbuchhandlung, 56 See Dirk van Laak, Imperiale Infrastruktur: Deutsche Planung für eine Erschließung 1906), 4. “Wer hier kolonisieren wollte, mußte zuerst zum Schwert greifen und Krieg Afrikas, 1880 bis 1960 (Paderborn, Germany: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2004). Particularly führen—aber nicht mit kleinlichen und schwachlichen Mitteln, sondern mit starker, important is van Laak’s discussion of “railway imperialism” as a means of empire-building Achtung gebietender Macht bis zur völligen Niederwerfung der Eingeborenen.” My through the extension of economic, but also political, capital associated with long-distance translation. power projection. 37 Annika Mombauer and Wilhelm Deist, introduction to The Kaiser: New Research on 57 “Intensive Kulturpolitik,” Koliniale Zeitschrift, May 9, 1901. “… die wirtschaftliche Wilhelm II’s Role in Imperial Germany (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, Rettung… im Eisenbahnbau liege.” My translation. Although this quote refers specifically 2004), 2. This power was explicitly spelled out in §11 (Reichskriegswesen), Article 63 of the to East Africa, due to its unique geography, the case was similar in other German colonies. Constitution of the German Reich of 1871. 58 C. v. Perbandt, G. Richelmann, and Rochus Schmidt, Hermann von Wissmann: 38 Ibid. Deutschlands gröster Afrikaner: Sein Leben und Wirken unter Benutzung des Nachlasses 39 Thomas Nipperdey, Deutsche Geschichte: 1866–1918, vol. 2, Machtstaat vor der Demokratie (Berlin: Alfred Schall, 1906), 433. (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2013), 202. Also, Annika Mombauer, Helmuth von Moltke and the 59 Walther, “Gender Construction,” 5. Origins of the First World War (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 16–17. 60 Ibid., 6. It should be noted, however, that this was not the usual policy of colonial governors, 40 For an in-depth discussion of Clausewitz and later German interpretations, see Hew who more often believed that colonial governance was an extension of metropolitan control. Strachan, European Armies and the Conduct of War (London: Routledge, 1983), 89–105. 61 Mosse, Image of Man, 62. 41 Fürst von Bülow, “Denkschrift über die Ursachen des Aufstands in Deutsch-Ostafrika 62 Daniel J. Walther, “Racializing Sex: Same-Sex Relations, German Colonial Authority, and 1905,” in Stenographische Berichte über die Verhandlungen des Reichstages, vol. 222 (Berlin: Deutschtum,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 17, no. 1 (2008): 11. Julius Sittenfeld, 1906), 3080. “… denn Kolonialpolitik ist noch immer Eroberungspolitik 63 Steinmetz, Devil’s Handwriting, 95. gewesen und nirgends in der Welt erfolgt die Besitzergreifung eines Landes durch ein 64 Walther, “Sex, Race and Empire,” 55. fremdes Volk ohne Kämpfe. Kolonialkriege werden daher stets zu den notwendigen Folgen 65 Ibid., 49–53. einer Kolonialpolitik gehören.” 66 Walther, “Gender Construction,” 11. 42 Heike I. Schmidt, “Who is Master in the Colony? Propriety, Honor, and Manliness in 67 Ibid., 12. German East Africa,” in German Colonialism in a Global Age, Bradley Naranch and Geoff 68 Lora Wildenthal, “Race, Gender, and Citizenship in the German Colonial Empire,” in Eley, eds. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014), 110. Tensions of Empire: Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World, eds. Frederick Cooper and Ann 43 David Ciarlo, “Globalizing German Colonialism,” German History 26, no. 2 (2008): 289. Laura Stoler (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997), 264. 44 Daniel J. Walther, “Gender Construction and Settler Colonialism in German Southwest 69 Ibid., 265. It should be noted that a woman received the citizenship of her husband Africa, 1894–1914,” Historian 66, no. 1 (2004): 4. whether he was German, another European nationality, or native. In the case of acquiring 45 Ibid., 17. native citizenship, this was often left unacknowledged, as it was an even more emotionally 46 George L. Mosse, The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity (New York: volatile issue than the German male/native female citizenship controversy. Oxford Universtiy Press, 1996), 44. See also, Emilio Willems, A Way of Life and Death: 70 Walther, “Gender Construction,” 15. Three Centuries of Prussian-German Militarism, an Anthropological Approach (Nashville, 71 Ibid. TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 1986). 72 Lora Wildenthal, German Women for Empire, 1884–1945 (Durham, NC: Duke University 47 Ibid., 47. Press, 2001), 94. After one thousand German soldiers decided to officially settle in the 48 Ibid., 57. colony, only two applied for a mixed marriage license. 49 Hans Kohn, “Romanticism and the Rise of German Nationalism,” Review of Politics 12, 73 Tina M. Campt, “Converging Spectres of an Other Within: Race and Gender in Prewar no. 4 (1950): 465n35. Originally in Eichendorff, Sämmtliche Werke, vol. 10, 341. “So wird Afro-German History,” Callaloo 26, no. 2 (2003): 329. 74

Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume auch der grossen Genossenschaft des Staates mit innerlich ausgewechselten Gesellen nicht Walther, “Gender Construction,” 10. 1 5, Issue Volume gedient, sondern der der liebste sein, der ihr, weil mit ungebrochener Eigenthümlichkeit, 75 Essner, “Vernunft und Gefühl,” 503. “Die Abkömmlinge sind in der Regel sittlich und 60 aus ganzer Seele dient, wie er eben kann und mag.” Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff körperlich schwach, vereinigen in sich die schlechten Eigenschaften beider Eltern.” My 61 expounded upon this valuation during the initial conceptions of Romantic Nationalism translation. during the Napoleonic Era. 76 Ibid., 518. 50 Mosse, Image of Man, 79. 77 Wildenthal, “Race, Gender, and Citizenship,” 268. 51 Ibid. 78 Nils Ole Oermann, “The Law and the Colonial State,” in Wilhelmism and its Legacies: Past Tense Past Past Tense Past 52 Ibid. German Modernities, Imperialism, and the Meanings of Reform, 1890–1930, eds. Geoff Eley 53 Eve Rosenhaft, “Gender,” in Germany, 1800–1870, ed. Jonathan Sperber (Oxford: Oxford and James Retallack (Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2003), 176. University Press, 2004), 225. 79 Ibid. Framing Military Violence in German Africa Christopher Goodwin

80 Smith, German Colonial Empire, 139. uns aufgestanden sind, sonder weil sie keine Häuser gebaut und keine Brunnen gegraben 81 Hull, Absolute Destruction, 132–33. haben.’…. ‘Gott hat uns hier siegen lassen, weil wir die Edleren und Vorwärtsstrebenden 82 George Steinmetz, “’The Devil’s Handwriting’: Precolonial Discourse, Ethnographic sind.’” My translation. Acuity, and Cross-Identification in German Colonialism,” Comparative Studies in Society 101 Julius Smend, “Wie der Neger in Togo wohnt,” Kolonie und Heimat 3, no. 2 (1909/10): 6. and History 45, no. 1 (2003): 44. 102 Steinmetz, Devil’s Handwriting, 183. 83 Steinmetz, Devil’s Handwriting, 36. 103 Ibid, 103. 84 Ibid., 79. 104 Ibid., 102. 85 Ibid., 83. These body parts included the buttocks as well as the sexual organs of both men 105 Kenosian, “Colonial Body Politic,” 188. and women. 106 Heike I. Schmidt, “Colonial Intimacy: The Rechenberg Scandal and Homosexuality in 86 Ibid., 90. German East Africa,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 17, no. 1 (2008): 53. 87 Ibid. 107 Ibid. 88 Ulrike Lindner, “German Colonialism and the British Neighbor in Africa before 1914: 108 Ibid., 31–32. Self-Definitions, Lines of Demarcation, and Cooperation,” in German Colonialism: Race, 109 Sandra Maß, “Das Trauma des weißen Mannes: Afrikanische Kolonialsoldaten in the Holocaust, and Postwar Germany, eds. Volker Max Langbehn and Mohammad Salama Propagandistischen Texten, 1914–1923,” L’ Ho m m e 12, no. 1 (2001): 26. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), 260. 110 Smith, German Colonial Empire, 61. 89 Arthur Schnitzler, “Andreas Thameyers letzter Brief,” in Gesammelte Werke von Arthur 111 “Zu den Unruhen in Deutsch-Südwestafrika,” Flugblatt des Deutschen Kolonial-Bundes, Schnitzler: Erste Abteilung, vol. 1, Die erzählenden Schriften (Berlin: S. Fischer Verlag, 1912), January 14, 1904. Source located at BArch R 1001/2111. “… eine energische militärische 220. See also ibid., 227. “Keineswegs kann ich weiterleben. Denn solange ich lebe, würden Aktion… nur durch unbedingtes Aufrechterhalten der Suprematie seiner Rasse seiner die Leute höhnen, und niemand sähe die Wahrheit ein. Die Wahrheit aber ist, daß mir Herrschaft Geltung verschaffen kann.” meine Frau treu war—ich schwöre es bei allem, war mir heilig ist, und ich besiegle es durch 112 Hull, Absolute Destruction, 14. 113 meinen Tod… [M]eine Anna war allein—mit einem Male allein… wer begreift nicht, daß Ibid., 22. 114 sie unter diesen Umständen ein ungeheures Grauen vor diesen Risenmenschen mit den Ibid. 115 glühenden Augen und den großen schwarzen Bärten empfinden mußte?” My translation. Smith, German Colonial Empire, 64. 116 90 Steinmetz, Devil’s Handwriting, 48. Jeremy Sarkin, Germany’s Genocide of the Herero: Kaiser Wilhelm II, His General, His 91 Ibid., 50. These distinctions, as with any characterization of large swathes of society, Settlers, His Soldiers (Cape Town, South Africa: University of Cape Town Press, 2011), 190– are generalizations. Nevertheless, although individual behavior and beliefs may have 1. There remain questions as to the nature of the Kaiser’s selection of Trotha. The Kaiser varied from group norms, policies actually implemented by each group align closely with knew of Trotha’s exploits; whether it was direct appointment or merely approval, Kaiser Steinmetz’s model. Wilhelm and Trotha were aligned closely in the methods deemed necessary to effectively 92 Smith, German Colonial Empire, 139. administer colonization. 117 93 Hull, Absolute Destruction, 134. Hull, Absolute Destruction, 12. 118 94 Ibid., 124. “Gewalt mit krassem Terrorismus und selbst mit Grausamkeit auszuüben, war und 95 Ibid., 132. ist meine Politik. Ich vernichte die afrikanischen Stämme mit Strömen von Blut und 96 K. Schwabe, Der Krieg in Deutsch-Südwestafrika, 1904–1906 (Berlin: C. A. Weller Verlag, Strömen von Geld.” My translation. Cited in Horst Drechsler, Südwestafrika unter deutscher 1907), 69–70. “Man lernt dieses Volk erst kennen, nachdem man jahrelang unter ihm gelebt Kolonialherrschaft: Der Kampf der Herero und Nama gegen den deutschen Imperialismus, hat… Mißtrauisch, dünkelhaft, stolz und wiederum bettelhaft und hündisch, lügnerisch 1884–1915, 2nd ed. (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1984), 156. 119 und treulos, diebisch und—wenn sie in der Überzahl sind—gewalttätig und grausam…. Hull, Absolute Destruction, 45. 120 Das Einzige, was man der Mehrzahl nicht absprechen kann, ist Tapferkeit in Kriege, aber Ibid. 121 auch nur, wenn es zum Äußersten kommt. Hart mag mein Urteil sein, gerecht aber ist es General Staff, Kämpfe der deutschen Truppen, 190. 122 Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume jedenfalls, und hart und gerecht muß auch die Behandlung sein und bleiben, die wir den Hull, Absolute Destruction, 60. 1 5, Issue Volume 123 Kaffern angedeihen lassen, sonst warden sie uns noch oft übel mitspielen, den her Herero Barch R 1001/2089. “[J]eder Herero mit und ohne Gewehr… nehme keine Weiber 62 halt Milde und Nachsicht stets für Schwäche und Feigheit!” My translation. und Kinder mehr auf.” My translation. This document has been customarily named the 63 97 Hull, Absolute Destruction, 176. “Vernichtungsbefehl,” but was more commonly known at the time as the “Aufruf an das Volk 98 Ibid., 177. der Herero,” or “Proclamation to the Herero people.” 124 99 David Kenosian, “The Colonial Body Politic: Desire and Violence in the Works of Gustav Ibid. “Sie haben gemordet und gestohlen, haben verwundeten Soldaten Ohren und Nasen und andere Körperteile abgeschnitten.” Past Tense Past Frenssen and Hans Grimm,” Monatsheft 89, no. 2 (1997): 186. Tense Past 125 100 Gustav Frenssen, Peter Moors Fahrt nach Südwest: Ein Feldzugsbericht (Berlin: G. Kundrus, “Herero to the Holocaust,” 304. 126 Grote’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1906), 200. “’Diese Schwarzen haben vor Gott und Ibid. 127 Menschen den Tod verdient, nicht weil sie zweihundert Farmer ermordet haben und gegen Ibid. Framing Military Violence in German Africa David Purificato

128 Ludwig von Estorff, Wanderungen und Kämpfe in Südwestafrika, Ostafrika und Südafrika, 1894–1910 (Windhoek, Namibia: Christoph-Friedrich Kutscher, 1979), 117. “Ich folgte ihren Spuren und erreichte hinter ihnen mehrere Brunnen, die einen schrecklichen Anblick boten. Haufenweise lagen die verdursteten Rinder um sie herum…. Die Herero flohen nun weiter vor uns…. Immer wiederholte sich das schreckliche Schauspiel. Mit fieberhafter Eile Critical Commentary hatten die Männer daran gearbeitet, Brunnen zu erschließen, aber das Wasser ward immer spärlicher, die Wasserstellen seltener. Sie flohen von einer zur anderen und verloren fast alles Vieh und sehr viele Menschen. Das Volk schrumpfte auf spärliche Reste zusammen, die allmählich in unsere Gewalt kamen, Teile entkamen jetzt und später… Es war eine A Well-Worn and Far-Travelled Tome: ebenso törichte wie grausame Politik, das Volk so zu zertrümmern, man hätte noch viel von ihm und ihrem Herdenreichtum retten können, wenn man sie jetzt schonte und wieder The Life and Times of a 1652 Edition aufnahm, bestraft waren sie genug. Ich schlug dies dem General von Trotha vor, aber er wollte ihre gänzliche Vernichtung.” My translation. of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s Don 129 Blackshire-Belay, “German Imperialism in Africa,” 239. Quixote

Christopher Goodwin received his undergraduate degrees in economics and history at the University of Missouri. He holds a master’s degree in military history from Norwich David Purificato University, where he researched changes in Prussian masculinity engendered by the Stony Brook University Napoleonic wars. His publications include the chapter “Patriotic Nationalism and Hegemonic Valorous Masculinity: The National Monument for the Prussian Wars of Liberation,” Translated into dozens of languages produced this seminal work and several published in Remember the Dead, Remind the Survivors, Warn the Descendants. He has and published thousands of times in of the notable individuals who have presented at numerous conferences on German nationalism, militarism, and gender history. numerous countries around the world owned it through time. This leather- His current studies focus on the history of psychological subjective identity formation and in its 411 years of existence, Miguel de bound tome about a fictional member its relationship to group affiliation. Cervantes Saavedra’s (1547–1616) The of Spain’s petty nobility has passed from Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La one minor British aristocrat to another, Mancha has attained recognition as only to mysteriously rest in Stony Brook one of the most read books in western University’s Rare Book Collection in culture. Various reproductions of Don Stony Brook, Long Island.1 Quixote over the last four centuries The cross-hatched leather binding include parodies, plays, paintings and of Cervantes’ tale about an aging and illustrations, cartoons, comic books, eccentric member of the Spanish movies, and music. Of the many text nobility endears itself to musings on editions in existence today, this short how the character Don Quixote may study will address a particular copy of have appeared to the reader. In addition Volume 5, Issue 1 5, Issue Volume Cervantes’ Don Quixote: The History to the fading varnish and stains 1 5, Issue Volume 64 of the valorous and witty-knight-errant collected over centuries of use, this well- 65 Don Quixote of La Mancha, Translated worn mottled-brown leather re-binding out of the Spanish [by T. Shelton] now bears the scars of many readings. There newly corrected and amended (1652), is still evidence of a long lost elegance along with a few of the people who in the faintly discernable gold piping Past Tense Past Past Tense Past