An officer, yes but a gentleman . ? Eugen Brandeis, Military Adviser, Imperial Judge and Administrator in the German Colonial Service in the South Pacific CENTRE FOR SOUTH PACIFIC STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES Pacific Studies Monograph No. 21 An officer, yes; ? but a gentleman . • • • A Biographical sketch of Eugen Brandeis, Military Adviser, Imperial Judge and Administrator in the German Colonial Service in the South Pacific Dirk H.R. Spennemann SYDNEY 1998 © Centre for South Pacific Studies 1998 This work is copyright. Apart from those uses that may be permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 as amended, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission of the author. All or part of this work may be copied by members of educational institutions and libraries for the purpose of research, study or teaching provided the source is acknowledged. Printed by the University of New South Wales Printing Unit Sydney NSW 2052 Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Spennemann, Dirk H.R. 1958- An officer, yes; but a gentleman ?... Abiographical sketch of Eugen Brandeis, Military Adviser, Imperial Judge and Administrator in the German Colonial Service in the South Pacific. /by Dirk H.R. Spennemann- Sydney, NSW.: University of New South Wales, Centre for South Pacific Studies, 1998. 1 v. (Pacific Studies Monograph, no. 21) ISSN: 1035-6894 ISBN: 0 7334 0454 5 DDC 996.83 1.Colonial administrators-Marshall Islands. 2. Corporal punishment­ Marshall Islands. 3. Marshall Islands-History. 4. Legal system-Marshall Islands. 5. Samoan Islands-History. I. University of New South Wales, Centre for Pacific Island Studies. II. Title. III. Series. Contents Preface ..................................................................... v Introduction .............................................................. 1 Early years ................................................................ 2 Brandeis in Samoa ...................................................... 5 First posting to Jaluit ................................................ 14 Climbing the career ladder ........................................ 17 Second posting to Jaluit ............................................. 20 The typhoon of 1905 ................................................ 32 Brandeis as administrator .......................................... 37 Brandeis, the "flogger" ............................................. 40 Brandeis' backers ..................................................... 47 A summing up ......................................................... 51 Endnotes ................................................................. 54 Bibliography ........................................................... 77 iii Preface The colonial administration of Germany's possessions in Micronesia was only for of short duration. In the Marshalls it lasted from 1886 to the annexation of her possessions by Japan in 1914, and in the rest of Micronesia from its ac­ quisition from Spain 1898 to the outbreak of World War I. In its administra­ tion Germany did not have the luxury to draw on a pool of people experi­ enced in colonial affairs. Rather, the administration had to be entrusted to promising young candidates who possessed overseas experience of some sort of the other. During research into the German colonial administration's management of the aftermath of several typhoons which struck Micronesia in 1905 and 1907, the activity, or rather non-activity, displayed by Eugen Brandeis in his function as the Landeshauptmann (district administrator) of]aluit (Marshall Islands) stood out. In order to understand his actions and attitudes, it became necessary to re­ search his background and life history prior to arriving in the Marshalls. The following biographical sketch is the result of this work. Without doubt Eugen Brandeis was a very colourful character. His life spanning the entire period of the German Colonial Experiment, his marriage to a Zanzibar princess ,and his active role in the various theatres of colonial intrigue could provide the storyline for a fascinating historical novel-one where the dry truth, as it is portrayed in this biography, does not have to get in the way of a good story. I gratefully acknowledge the Adelhauser Museum for Natur- und Acknowledgments Volkerkunde Freiburg for the permission to reproduce the interior shot of the Brandeis' residence in Jaluit. I am indebted to John Lodewijks for accepting the work for publication in the Centre for Pacific Island Studies Monograph Series. Above all, however, I am indebted to my wife Jane Downing for bearing with me through the gestation period of what started off as 'a little bit of background research'. v vi Introduction The German Colonial Service in the Pacific Islands has recently come under scrutiny by German-speaking historians. Its officers in the Pacific have been compared favourably to those serving in Africa. Hermann Hiery in his treatise on the German South Seas Colonies states that: "... German Pacific colonies ... represented an ideal that allowed Germany to show off, enhancing the prestige of a country still striving to be acknowledged as an equal by the old, traditionally accepted world powers. If Germany had not been able to gain economically or strategically important territories in the South Pacific, it had at least "acquired" the "best" people, inspiring the envy of the other European powers .... [the] colonial administrations in the Pacific were given much more time and latitude to develop, pursue, and implement their policies than in Africa. As it was not a place where laurels could be gained, the Pacific was also spared the political careerists and military adventurers who had such a disastrous impact on Ger­ many's African colonies .... In German Africa public officials, especially those who filled the top positions, were largely drawn from the aristocracy, and many of them translated their idea of a class society into a race society. The Pacific, by contrast, was the domain of the German middle classes. They arrived on the scene usually with a univer­ sity degree and administrative training behind them."1 In the light of this background, then, the career of Eugen Brandeis, Lan­ deshauptmann (district administrator) ofJaluit (Marshall Islands), stands out as he represented an exception.2 As will be shown, Brandeis had a very dif­ ferent background and education than his predecessors in the office, Dr. Wil­ helm Knappe, Franz Sonnenschein, Max Biermann and Ernst Schmidt-Dargitz who had been lawyers, and Dr. Georg Irmer who had been a historian, all of whom had joined the Ministty of Foreign Affairs or other government service after their studies. Eugen Brandeis was the first chief administrator of the Marshall Islands who was not a career diplomat but came to the position via a different route. To what extent this influenced his administrative skills and his responses to an indigenous community in need will be the focus of this study. Eugen Brandeis The life of a German Colonial Administrator Sources The sources which have been published on Brandeis' life are fairly limited. The main sources are the brief entry in H.Schnee's Deutscbes Kolo­ niallexikon, an entry in Fabricius' history of Nauru during the German pe­ riod, a commentary in Stevenson's 'a footnote to bist01y' and the short entry in Huber's Deutsche Ve1fassungsgescbichte.3 Unfortunately the latter three sources are flawed.4 What follows is a curriculum vitae of this German colonial officer, who started his career in the military, tried his hand as a businessman and engi­ neer, became an adviser to a Samoan chief vying for supremacy, and rose to the rank of the Landeshauptmann of the Marshall Islands, administering an entire colony on behalf of the German Empire. Early years Eugen Brandeis was born on 23 September 1846 in Freiburg im Breisgau in the southern German state of Baden, as one of the sons of a Catholic family.5 During the heady days of the first German parliament in 1848 and the revo­ lutions of 1848/49 increased pressures for personal freedom and democracy were brought to bear on the various governments. A revolutionary uprising in Baden which took place in April 1848 was squashed by federal troops. In the years following the failed attempt to unify Germany, reactionary gov­ ernments prevailed. During this period many left Germany, mainly emigrat­ ing to the United States, but also Australia.6 As Eugen Brandeis parents stayed on, it would appear that they were not involved in the revolutionary or progressive movements of the times. Even though Baden earned a reputa­ tion as a liberal German state, there is no evidence that the Brandeis' were among them. It is of some interest to note that Brandeis is often described as a 'Bavarian', as for example in the 'Cyclopaedia of Samoa,' which draws on Stevenson's 'a footnote to histo1y', who described him as 'a Bavarian captain of artillery, of a romantic and adventurous character' .7 This is the ultimate irony as it is a great insult for a Badenser to be called a Bavarian, given the continued and deeply ingrained rivalry between the two southern German states.s · The army In 1863 or 1864 Brandeis began tertia1y education, studying mathematics for five semesters (2.5 years), first at the Technical University of Carlsruhe,9 the capital of the Grand Duchy of Baden, then at the considerably more presti­ gious Albert Ludwig's University of Freiburg.10 In 1866 he joined the 5th 2 Eugen Brandeis The life of a German Colonial Administrator Baden Infantry Regiment as a