Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck.
Commander of the heroic defenders of German East Africa.
Original photographic print from 1917.
Based on an original photograph by court photographer Hermann Noack, Berlin.
Mounted on green cardboard.
With an embossed coat of arms of nobility at the bottom edge.
Size 190 x 280 mm.
With minimal signs of age and use, in very good condition.
Excellent image quality on art print paper – extremely rare!!!
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World War I, WWI, 1917, 20th century, nobility, noble family, Africa, aristocracy, army, corduroy uniform, Dar es Salaam, German history, German colonial policy, German colony, German colonies, German protectorates, German Empire, German Reich, Germany, German East Africa, DOA, noblemen, empire, England, photography, genealogy, Major General von Lettow-Vorbeck, Germany, Great Britain, army, military leader, military affairs, heroes, heroic struggle, heroism, heraldry, historical images, cabinet photo, Imperial Schutztruppe, Imperial era, combat, combat troops, colonial officials, colonial possessions, colonial territory, colonial history, colonialism, colonial struggles, colonial war, colonial warriors, colonial policy, colonial troops, colonial affairs, colonial era, colonies, war history, photograph, military, military history, militaria, monarchy, officer East Africa fighters, patriotism, personalities, photography, portrait, portrait photography, Imperial Colonial Office, protection and overseas troops, marksman's lanyard, protectorates, protection troops, soldier, armed forces, Tanzania, tradition, tropics, troop, uniform, uniform studies, jungle battles, jungle war, fatherland, coat of arms, Wilhelmine era, Wilhelmine Empire, Wilhelmine age, current events, contemporary history
Hermann Noack, German photographer of the Imperial era.
He was court photographer to Her Majesty the Queen of Prussia and ran a photo studio in Berlin (Unter den Linden 45) from 1870 to about 1907.
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (born March 20, 1870 in Saarlouis; died March 9, 1964 in Hamburg) was a German officer, ultimately a General of the Infantry and commander of the German East Africa protection force during the First World War, as well as a writer. He came from the Pomeranian noble family of Lettow-Vorbeck.
Life
Military career
Lettow-Vorbeck joined the 4th Foot Guards Regiment as a warrant officer on February 7, 1888, became a second lieutenant in 1889, a first lieutenant in 1895, and a captain in 1901. In 1900/01, he participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China. Between 1904 and 1906, he served in the colony of German South-West Africa as adjutant to Chief of the General Staff Martin Chales de Beaulieu and as a company commander in the suppression of the Herero uprising. However, he returned to Germany in the autumn of 1906 and was seconded to the General Staff. In 1907, he was promoted to supernumerary major and appointed adjutant to the General Command of the 11th Army Corps. In March 1909, he became commander of the II Naval Battalion in Wilhelmshaven. As a lieutenant colonel, he was appointed commander of the Imperial Protection Force for Cameroon on October 18, 1913. Before he could take up his command there, he was already seconded to represent the commander of the Protection Force for German East Africa, which he formally commanded from April 13, 1914.
Military deployment in German East Africa
During the First World War, he and the German East Africa Schutztruppe (colonial protection force) successfully defended the colony against the British until 1916, repelling a landing attempt by numerically superior Anglo-Indian forces at the Battle of Tanga. After both the British in Kenya and the Belgians in the Congo reinforced their forces and launched a major offensive in January 1916, the Schutztruppe was forced to gradually withdraw and was pushed back to the south of the colony by the end of 1916.
Lettow resorted to guerrilla tactics, repeatedly outmaneuvering the Allied forces through speed and tremendous marching efforts. In November 1917, the remnants of the German colonial troops withdrew from German East Africa to Mozambique (then Portuguese East Africa) and continued their bush war there. In doing so, they continued to tie down considerable British and, above all, South African troops, who never managed to decisively engage the German colonial troops. His main adversary for a long time was the South African General Jan Christiaan Smuts, later a lifelong friend. In mid-1918, faced with British reinforcements in Mozambique, Lettow-Vorbeck turned north again and marched unexpectedly back into German East Africa. He advanced through the south of the country to Northern Rhodesia. There, near Kasama, he learned of the armistice in Europe; a monument was later erected at this site.
He often provoked resentment among his white officers and non-commissioned officers, as well as within the German civil administration, through wartime orders that imposed restrictions on the colonial lifestyle. From the outset, he had significant differences with Governor Heinrich Schnee regarding war aims: while Schnee primarily valued preserving the protectorate and was prepared to make concessions to the British, Lettow-Vorbeck sought to tie down as many Allied troops as possible in Africa to relieve pressure on the European front. Despite being vastly outnumbered, he continued fighting with his troops, isolated from mainland Germany, and was the only German commander of the First World War to penetrate British territory.
The "human cost" (human losses) of his and the Allied war was borne primarily by the African population of the colony and the colonies he invaded, Mozambique and Northern Rhodesia. Both sides avoided direct combat and attempted to cut off each other's supplies. As a result, contested areas were devastated, able-bodied men and food supplies were confiscated, and many died of hunger and disease. The recruitment of porters for supplies and material transport in the sparsely populated country by all belligerent sides, according to expert estimates, cost the lives of at least 100,000 porters.
Lettow-Vorbeck's troops consisted mostly of local Askari. Only a few hundred Germans fought in his force, primarily forming the officer corps. In mid-1915, the survivors of the light cruiser Königsberg, along with its salvaged naval artillery, and the crew of the auxiliary ship Somali were also incorporated into his troops.
End of the First World War
On November 13, 1918, two days after the armistice in Europe, Lettow-Vorbeck, by then promoted to major general, learned from the papers of a captured British motorcyclist who was supposed to deliver the message to the British troops about the armistice and the ordered surrender of the protectorates within a month. Lettow-Vorbeck distrusted the report because, lacking communication means, he could not have the news confirmed by the German High Command.
Finally, confirmation of the armistice arrived from Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia, and there was no doubt about its validity. On November 18, 1918, the last fighting units of both sides learned of the ceasefire in Europe. They agreed with the British to march together to Abercorn, south of Lake Tanganyika, where Lettow-Vorbeck officially laid down his arms on November 25, 1918.
Upon his return to Germany, he and the 143 surviving German soldiers were given a triumphant welcome in Berlin on March 12, 1919.
In April 1919, he assumed command of the Marine Division subordinate to the Guard Cavalry Rifle Corps, which also included the 1st Protection Troops Regiment. On January 30, 1920, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of St. Henry. He had already received the highest Prussian military order, the Pour le Mérite, on November 4, 1916, and the Oak Leaves to it on October 10, 1917.
Freikorps and Kapp Putsch
In Hamburg, riots began on June 23, 1919, due to spoiled food (the so-called "head cheese riots"). Four days after the unrest ended, Lettow-Vorbeck marched into Hamburg with the "Lettow Corps" on July 1, 1919, even though order had already been restored. Lettow-Vorbeck and his corps joined the Ehrhardt Naval Brigade, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Hermann Ehrhardt, as a division commander. Contrary to false claims, Lettow-Vorbeck was not court-martialed in 1920 for his participation in the Kapp Putsch; he was merely placed on leave pending the investigation. He was finally discharged from the Reichswehr in August 1920 with a promotion to lieutenant general, retaining his pension entitlements and the honorable right to continue wearing his uniform.
No trial took place before the Supreme Court of the German Reich for alleged high treason; after a preliminary investigation by the Supreme Court regarding his alleged involvement in this event through the bona fide subordination of the Reichswehr Brigade 9, which he commanded, to General von Lüttwitz as his direct superior, the Supreme Court issued a dismissal order on September 20, 1920 (source: Federal Archives N 103/55).
Weimar Republic and the time of N.
Shortly after the end of the war, he published two books dealing with his time in East Africa (su), which are still the subject of controversial debate today. In them, he demanded the return of the colonies, arguing that the victorious powers had annexed them to expand their own colonial holdings; there could be no talk of "liberation." In 1923, he moved to Bremen, where he worked as a wholesale merchant for the company Konrad Keller & Cie.
Lettow-Vorbeck lived in Bremen, on Colmarer Straße, for more than 20 years from 1923 until 1945. He was a central figure in conservative circles and a member of the German National People's Party (DNVP).
In 1926 he was able to ensure that the former Askari of the German East African "protection force" received the wages that had been outstanding since 1917 and also a small pension, which was later continued to be paid by the Federal Republic of Germany.
From 1928 to 1930 he was a member of parliament for the right-wing conservative DNVP in the Reichstag; in July 1930 he switched to the moderate People's Conservative Association, an indication that he was not prepared to support the rightward shift of the party under its chairman Alfred Hugenberg, who had been in office since 1928.
He promoted the construction of the Reich Colonial Memorial (now the Anti-Colonial Memorial) in Bremen, which he also inaugurated in 1932. At the inauguration ceremony, he gave one of the speeches, which primarily focused on demanding the return of the German colonies.
In 1933, Lettow-Vorbeck was courted by Hindenburg and unsuccessfully urged to join the Nazi Party. He declined the offered position of head of the Reich Colonial Ministry. In April 1933, he unsuccessfully protested to Reich President Hindenburg against the Nazi Party's dismissal of Bremen Police Colonel Caspari. Nevertheless, on August 1, 1933, he was appointed State Councillor in Bremen, one of the city's highest positions.
In June 1934, a special police unit disrupted a lecture by Lettow-Vorbeck to former members of the Schutztruppe (colonial protection force), members of the SS, and friends, beating those present, including Lettow-Vorbeck. His protest to H. had no major consequences.
Minister G., J. noted in his diary on January 21, 1938, about Lettow-Vorbeck: "Another reactionary!" And shortly afterward: "Lettow-Vorbeck is railing against the state and the party. I'm having him banned from public speaking." For example, Lettow-Vorbeck's publicly expressed respect for the Askaris didn't fit into the Nazi worldview of the Nazis. After he was allowed to speak publicly again, Lettow-Vorbeck avoided verbal attacks on the state and the party and dealt exclusively with colonial issues and war reminiscences.
In 1938, the Leer barracks and in 1939 the Bremen Realgymnasium (today the Hermann-Böse-Gymnasium) were also named after him. Lettow-Vorbeck was granted the honorary rank of General of the Infantry on August 27, 1939, the so-called Tannenberg Day.
His son, Rüdiger von Lettow-Vorbeck, was killed on June 5, 1940, and his brother Arnd on October 19, 1941. In 1945, Lettow-Vorbeck's house in Bremen was destroyed in an air raid. He moved to the district of Eutin and then to Hamburg.
Lettow-Vorbeck's relationship with the N. appears contradictory. On the one hand, he welcomed Hs M. and even appeared as a speaker at events, particularly on the colonial question, until 1938; on the other hand, his regime-critical remarks met with disapproval from the N. For example, in 1933/34 he protested against the dismissal of the Bremen police commander Walter Caspari and against the integration of the "S." into the S.
The Nazis attempted to exploit Lettow-Vorbeck's popularity for their own purposes, but he remained true to his conservative-reactionary stance and advocated only for the return of the colonies. When, from 1943 onward, the Nazis definitively rejected colonial revisionism in favor of conquering "living space in the East," Lettow-Vorbeck became irrelevant to them.
Last years
Commissioned by a magazine, he revisited his former places of work in Africa in 1953. His book, "Africa, as I Saw It Again," published shortly thereafter, is a justification of colonial rule. While he conceded that "one day the natives should govern themselves entirely independently," he maintained that this could only be a long-term goal: "Until then, European leadership is necessary; even the more reasonable Black people understand this." He also welcomed the South African apartheid regime. In 1956, von Lettow-Vorbeck was made an honorary citizen of his birthplace, Saarlouis. His memoirs, "My Life," were published in 1957. Since the West German government did not provide him with a pension, his adversary from the First World War, Jan Christiaan Smuts, collected financial support for him among his officers. When von Lettow-Vorbeck died in Hamburg in 1964, the Federal Government, with the assistance of the Bundeswehr (German Federal Armed Forces), flew in two former "Askari" (members of the German Army's special forces) as state guests so that they could pay their last respects to "their" general. Several Bundeswehr officers were assigned to the honor guard, and Defense Minister Kai-Uwe von Hassel delivered the eulogy, emphasizing that the deceased had truly been undefeated in the field. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was buried in Pronstorf, Segeberg district, Schleswig-Holstein, in the cemetery of St. Vicelin's Church.
Remembrance
Several streets in German cities are named after Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Five Bundeswehr barracks in Leer, Hamburg-Jenfeld, Bremen, Bad Segeberg and Wentorf near Hamburg bear or bore the general's name.
In the spring of 2010, the Saarlouis city council renamed "Von-Lettow-Vorbeck-Straße" to "Walter-Bloch-Straße" and "Hubert-Schreiner-Straße," respectively. In Hanover, the renaming of "Lettow-Vorbeck-Allee" to "Namibia-Allee" was only provisionally halted after an administrative court dispute; however, the ruling is not yet legally binding, and an appeal can be filed with the Higher Administrative Court. Streets named after Lettow-Vorbeck still exist in Wuppertal, Cuxhaven, Mönchengladbach, Radolfzell, Bünde, and Halle (Westphalia).
The barracks in Leer, East Frisia, also bore the officer's name until it was renamed "Evenburg Barracks" in the autumn of 2010.
The Lettow-Vorbeck Barracks in Bad Segeberg closed its gates for good on December 31, 2008, and the site has been unused ever since. The former Lettow-Vorbeck Barracks in Hamburg-Jenfeld is no longer operated as a barracks. Smaller sections of the property are still used by the Federal Police and the Bundeswehr University Hamburg. It is being redeveloped into "New Jenfeld City." The Bundeswehr refers to the remaining buildings as the "Jenfeld Area." The historic buildings with facade motifs referencing the colonial troops are to be preserved.
A dinosaur named Dysalotosaurus lettow-vorbecki was discovered during excavations in what was then German East Africa, along with other dinosaurs, and is on display at the Berlin Museum of Natural History.
German East Africa is the name of a former German colony from 1885 to 1918. The territory comprised the present-day countries of Tanzania (excluding Zanzibar), Burundi, and Rwanda. It was the largest and most populous colony of the German Empire.
Possession of the land and development until 1904
In the 1880s, voices in Germany began calling for a more intensive colonial policy. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck initially rejected this, as his foreign policy focused primarily on Europe. However, mounting social and economic problems forced the German Empire to act. The economy supposedly lacked new markets, which were already generating considerable wealth for other European colonial powers. Dominant economic circles hoped to weaken the burgeoning labor movement through an emigration campaign aimed at establishing a "German India" overseas, where they believed there were brilliant opportunities for development. This idea resonated with nationalist-minded members of the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy.
The driving force behind the colonization of Africa was Carl Peters, the pastor's son, who, in the Society for German Colonization he founded, was tasked with acquiring territories in Africa. Peters arrived in Zanzibar on November 10, 1884. He traveled in disguise, as his plans were to remain undetected by the British.
Shortly thereafter, the first "protection treaties" were concluded on the mainland, reaffirming the colonizing company's claim to the land, though their true meaning was mostly misunderstood by the signing chiefs. On February 27, 1885, Kaiser Wilhelm I issued a letter of protection legitimizing the occupation of East African territories. The German East Africa Company, by then renamed and headed by Carl Peters, now also had the backing of the German Empire and could continue its annexations. In the same year, the Sultanate of Witu came under German control. Peters subsequently succeeded in acquiring large territories for Germany. For example, in 1887 he was able to purchase the coastal region between the Umba and Rovuma rivers.
In 1888, a large part of the predominantly Arab coastal population rose up under the leadership of slave trader Bushiri bin Salim, from Tanga in the north to Lindi in the south, against the German occupation and the ban on the slave trade imposed by the Germans (the so-called Arab Revolt). The Black African population largely sided with the Germans in this conflict, as they had suffered greatly under the Arab slave trade before the arrival of the Europeans. Hermann von Wissmann, appointed Imperial Commissioner on February 3, 1889, and leading a newly formed "protection force," succeeded in suppressing the revolt. This force, commanded by German officers, initially consisted mainly of foreign African mercenaries (Askari), mostly Sudanese. The rebel leader, Bushiri bin Salim, was executed on December 15, 1889. The Arab slave trade, centered in East Africa by the Sultanate of Zanzibar, came to an end.
On July 1, 1890, the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty was concluded between Germany and Great Britain. The treaty stipulated the transfer of the North Sea island of Heligoland and the Caprivi Strip (present-day Namibia) to the German Empire, while Witu Land (present-day Kenya) and claims to Zanzibar were ceded to Great Britain. In 1891, German East Africa was officially placed under the administration of the German Empire as a "protectorate," and Wissmann's soldiers were officially designated as the Schutztruppe (protection force). The first civil governor was Julius Freiherr von Soden, serving from 1891 to 1893. He was succeeded by Friedrich von Schele, who, following conflicts with the Maasai, led a punitive expedition against the Wahehe in 1894 and captured the fortress of Kuironga from Chief Mkwawa. Carl Peters was appointed Imperial Commissioner in 1891, but dismissed again in 1897 due to allegations of cruelty. Further uprisings against the colonial administration, headed by Governor Eduard von Liebert from 1897 to 1901, ensued. The rebellion of the powerful Wahehe people in the south of the protectorate was suppressed by 1898.
In the 20th century, agricultural development was intensified through the introduction of rubber and cotton cultivation. Many local workers were conscripted for forced labor and further burdened by high taxes.
Colonial societies
The following colonial societies chose German East Africa as their field of activity:
the German East Africa Society
the German East African Plantation Company
L. & O. Hansing, Mrima Land- und Plantagengesellschaft in Hamburg
the Usambara Coffee Growing Company in Berlin, founded in 1893
the Pangani company
the Rhenish Trade and Plantation Company in Cologne, founded in 1895
the West German Trading and Plantation Company Düsseldorf, founded in 1895
Sigi-Pflanzungsgesellschaft mbH in Essen on the Ruhr, founded in 1897
Montangesellschaft mbH in Berlin, founded in 1895
the Irangi Society
Usindja Gold Syndicate, later Victoria-Njansa Gold Syndicate, Berlin, founded 1896
Kilimandjarao Trading and Agricultural Company, formerly Kilimandjaro Ostrich Breeding Company in Berlin, founded in 1895
Sakarre AG coffee plantation in Berlin, founded in 1898
Lindi-Hinterland-Gesellschaft mbH in Koblenz, formerly Karl Perrot & Co., Deutsche Lindi-, Handels- und Plantagengesellschaft in Wiesbaden, founded in 1900
German Agave Society in Berlin, founded in 1902
Bergbaufeld Luisenfelde GmbH in Berlin, founded in 1902
The Maji Maji Rebellion
Due to increasingly repressive measures, tax increases, and especially the introduction of so-called village shambas (cotton fields where villagers were forced to work), the Maji Maji Rebellion broke out in 1905. The first disturbances occurred in the second half of July in the Matumbi Mountains, west of the coastal town of Kilwa. At that time, the German colonial administration in Dar es Salaam still hoped that it was a localized event. However, this assessment by Governor Gustav Adolf Count von Götzen proved to be completely wrong by August 15th at the latest, when insurgents stormed the military post at Liwale. The resistance against colonial rule had thus taken on a definitively threatening dimension for the Germans.
The particular danger for the colonial administration lay in the structure of the resistance, which spread rapidly across ethnic and political boundaries. Within a few weeks and months, various ethnic groups joined the uprising. This was made possible primarily by the Maji cult, which, drawing on traditional myths, resonated in different regions. The prophet Kinjikitile Ngwale preached resistance against the Germans and spread his message using "holy water" (water = Maji) as a kind of medicine. The Maji was supposed to protect the insurgents in battle by transforming enemy bullets into water droplets. The integrative power of the Maji cult reached its climax in the storming of the Mahenge boma (fortified station) on August 30, 1905, when nearly 4,000 Africans attacked the German outpost, which was defended by approximately 80 German troops and 200 loyal locals. However, the Maji proved ineffective against machine gun fire, and the attackers suffered devastating losses.
The setback at Mahenge did not, however, mark the end of the uprising's expansion. Further groups joined the movement, and by October the insurgents controlled roughly half the colony. Following the costly open field battles, the insurgents soon shifted to waging a guerrilla war against the Germans, which, albeit without the previous overarching cooperation, continued until 1907.
From 1906 onward, the Germans countered the insurgents' guerrilla tactics with a "scorched earth" strategy. Villages were destroyed, crops and supplies burned, wells filled in, and family members of the ringleaders were held collectively responsible for their actions, in order to deprive the insurgents of the means to wage war. However, this also resulted in a devastating famine that depopulated entire regions and permanently altered the social structures of African society. Insurgent losses are currently estimated at between 100,000 and 300,000 people. On the opposing side, 15 Europeans and 389 African soldiers lost their lives. The number of German soldiers in the colony (excluding African Askari) never exceeded 1,000 men during the entire uprising (in addition to the Schutztruppe, crew members of German warships were deployed as "land soldiers," as well as civilian volunteers, including a number of non-German whites, mostly British and South Africans). The Reichstag in Berlin refused to approve any additional funds to suppress the uprising, arguing that, unlike German South West Africa, which was intended as a "settlement colony," the colony had to be "self-sustaining."
For various reasons, the events in East Africa received little attention in the German Reich and remained, and to this day remain, overshadowed by the war in German Southwest Africa. To ensure the stability of the colony, the system of governance was softened after the war under the new governor, Rechenberg. However, these reforms largely failed due to resistance from the white settlers. Nevertheless, no significant resistance emerged in East Africa until the end of German rule.
World War I
At the beginning of the First World War, nearly 300 German soldiers and over 4,500 local Askaris were stationed in German East Africa. Unlike the other local populations, the Askaris were fiercely loyal to the German colonial troops and thus posed a formidable opponent for any enemy. As the war progressed, the army was increased to 3,500 German soldiers and 13,000 Askaris. The colonial troops were under the command of Lieutenant Colonel (later General) Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.
On August 2, 1914, Governor Dr. Heinrich Albert Schnee received news of the German mobilization in Europe. He did not declare a state of war until the morning of August 5, when Great Britain declared war on the German Empire, a fact relayed to the Dar es Salaam coastal radio station in Togo. The colony was almost entirely surrounded by overwhelming enemy forces; the British alone had mustered over 130,000 soldiers. The first attacks were launched by the British cruiser Pegasus, which shelled the Dar es Salaam radio station on August 8. On August 23, it succeeded in destroying the station. Shortly afterward, the British ship was sunk by the cruiser Königsberg. Subsequently, on August 15, 1914, German troops cut the telegraph lines running along Lake Tanganyika and shelled the surrounding towns. On August 22, a German ship opened fire on the port of Lukuga (Belgian Congo).
On November 2nd, the Battle of Tanga began with the landing of an 8,000-strong British corps under the command of General Arthur Aitken, who demanded the immediate surrender of the city. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck had concentrated his main force on Kilimanjaro and immediately marched towards Tanga. In the early morning hours of November 4th, Lettow-Vorbeck's force launched a relief attack on the port city, resulting in a significant British defeat. The following day, battered by incompetent leadership and German snipers, the British fled in sheer panic. They suffered over 1,000 casualties, while the Germans lost fewer than 100. The British ships steamed away with the survivors, leaving behind a considerable amount of war materiel and communications equipment, which was then used to equip the German colonial troops. Further attacks by the British and Belgians, including one on Kilimanjaro, were successfully repelled. The Belgians also suffered a heavy defeat at Lake Kiwa.
At the beginning of 1915, the British made a second attempt to capture Tanga, but this again failed due to the fierce resistance of the defenders. On April 10, the German supply ship Rubens arrived with a large number of supplies and soldiers. On July 11, the Königsberg was so badly damaged in a naval battle that it was decided to scuttle her.
All subsequent Allied attacks were repelled by the German colonial troops. The balance of power in the fighting around Lake Victoria remained even throughout the year.
In 1916, the situation in the colony changed dramatically when British General Smuts launched a major offensive with almost 100,000 men, forcing the Germans to withdraw from the Kilimanjaro region. Also in that year of the war, a second supply ship arrived, managing to break the Allied blockade undetected.
The city of Tabora held out until September 17th, when it was finally overrun by the Belgians under General Tombeur. Two days later, Portuguese troops invaded German East Africa. However, the Portuguese were less successful and were repulsed.
On November 21, 1917, the German airship LZ 104/L 59 took off from Bulgaria bound for East Africa. The airship's commander, Lieutenant Commander Bockholdt, had loaded ammunition and medical supplies. Due to a forged radio message from the British, the commander turned back shortly before reaching his destination, so that all that remained of this adventurous early aviation undertaking was a long-distance record (6,757 kilometers in 95 hours). The German colonial troops thus had to continue making do with captured supplies. The enemy's superior numbers were by then so overwhelming that they could no longer be countered by courage and strategy. Lettow-Vorbeck was forced to divert to the Portuguese part of East Africa.
In September 1918, the colonial troops marched back onto their own territory. They had covered a distance of over 2,500 km and were able to sustain themselves with Allied war materiel. In November, some final skirmishes took place. As early as October 1918, Lettow-Vorbeck attacked British Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), where on November 13 (four days after the armistice in Europe) he learned of the German Empire's capitulation. On November 25, 1918, two weeks after Kaiser Wilhelm's abdication, his last soldiers laid down their arms.
The remaining German officers were subsequently interned in Dar es Salaam. In 1919 they were allowed to return to Germany.
The Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany had to relinquish all its colonies. German East Africa was placed under the administration of the League of Nations on January 20, 1920. Mandates over the territory were granted to Belgium (control over Burundi and Rwanda) and Great Britain (Tanganyika). In the south, the Kionga Triangle was ceded to Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique).
List of governors of German East Africa
1885 - 1888 Carl Peters (Reich Commissioner)
1888 - 1891 Herrmann von Wissmann (Imperial Commissioner)
1891 - 1893 Julius Freiherr von Soden
1893 - 1895 Friedrich Radbod Baron von Scheele
1895 - 1896 Hermann von Wissmann
1896 - 1901 Eduard von Liebert
1901 - 1906 Gustav Adolf Count von Götzen
1906 - 1912 Georg Albrecht Freiherr von Rechenberg
1912 - 1918 Heinrich Albert Schnee
World War I in East Africa
Date: August 3, 1914 to November 25, 1918
Location: Burundi, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia, Tanzania
Outcome: German surrender
Consequences: End of German colonial rule
Peace treaty: Treaty of Versailles
Commander:
Jan Christiaan Smuts
Jacob van Deventer
Charles Tombeur Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck
The fighting in East Africa during the First World War continued throughout the entire duration of the war. This fighting took place mainly on the territory of the then colony of German East Africa, but also in British Kenya, Portuguese Mozambique, and other neighboring countries.
The conflict pitted the German colonial troops against allied forces of the British Empire, Portugal, and Belgium. The majority of those involved on both sides were Africans, fighting as colonial soldiers under the command of European officers or serving as supply porters. Numerous white South Africans and soldiers of the British Indian Army also saw temporary service.
Initial situation
At the start of the war, the armed forces in East Africa were weak on all sides. The agreements of the Congo Conference, as international law, stipulated the neutrality of the colonial territories in the event of war. The purpose of the colonial armies was to secure control over the subjugated population, not to wage war against other colonial armies.
At the start of the war, German East Africa had a colonial force (Schutztruppe) consisting of approximately 2,500 local Askaris and 200 white officers and non-commissioned officers, organized into 14 field companies spread across the country. There was also a police force with 2,100 Askaris and 45 white police officers. Their armament was light – three companies had modern K98 carbines, while the remaining 11 companies were equipped with outdated Mauser rifles. All companies were equipped with machine guns, and the artillery consisted of a few field guns.
The British essentially had at their disposal the battalions of the King's African Rifles, distributed across Kenya, Uganda, Zanzibar and Nyassland, comprising 2,300 Africans and 70 British officers.
Although the Force Publique in the Belgian Congo numbered around 16,000 Askaris, it was primarily stationed as a police force across the entire vast territory.
Portugal and its colony of Mozambique were neutral until 1916.
At the beginning of the war, naval forces also played an independent role. The British could rely on a cruiser group stationed in South Africa, which was transferred to East Africa before the outbreak of war. On the German side, there was the light cruiser SMS Königsberg, stationed in Dar es Salaam, as well as the lightly armed survey vessel SMS Möwe.
During the war, the European belligerents relied on local auxiliary troops (Rugaruga) as well as up to 1,000,000 African porters.
Course of the war
August 1914 to March 1916 – beginning of the war until the Allied offensive
On August 2, 1914, Governor Heinrich Schnee received news of German mobilization in Europe. The Congo Act, passed by the colonial powers in Berlin in 1884, obligated the warring parties to neutrality in Africa in the event of a European conflict. However, the War Office in London feared that German East African ports could be used by the Imperial Navy as bases to hunt British cargo and supply ships in the Indian Ocean. Schnee attempted to keep the colony out of the war and declared the coastal towns "open cities." The commander of the Schutztruppe (colonial protection force), Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, however, planned to use the Schutztruppe to contribute to the war effort and tie down as many British forces as possible in the East African theater by attacking the Uganda Railway. Initially, though, he followed the governor's orders and withdrew his troops from the city.
The hostilities themselves were ultimately initiated by the warships of both sides. In July, the cruiser Königsberg received orders to attack British merchant ships in the Indian Ocean in the event of war. The Königsberg left the port of Dar es Salaam on July 31, 1914, and managed to shake off the older and slower British cruisers that had already taken up positions there to guard her. After the British declaration of war (August 5), the Königsberg sank the British steamer City of Winchester off the coast of Oman on August 6. The following day, the British cruiser HMS Pegasus appeared off Dar es Salaam and shelled the radio mast, whereupon the governor raised a white flag and took a train to Morogoro. When Lettow-Vorbeck returned to Dar es Salaam with his soldiers on August 8 in the governor's absence, he saw only the British ships sailing out to sea.
In the following months, the fighting was limited to minor skirmishes, as troop strengths on all sides were small. Initial engagements took place against British units along the Kenyan border and against Belgian troops on the Congolese border. There were isolated raids by the German side into the areas of Northern Rhodesia initially held only by British police forces, but these did not result in any occupation. Patrols repeatedly targeted British Kenya to disrupt the Uganda Railway, which runs parallel to the border from the supply port of Mombasa to Nairobi.
In August, the German colonial troops deployed armed ships on Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika, initially crippling British and Belgian shipping. Their advance on the important railway station and port of Kisumu was repulsed by the British at Kisii. Boats quickly brought across the Indian Ocean were transported by rail to Kisumu and soon neutralized the German vessels on Lake Victoria. On Lake Tanganyika, however, the colonial troops, with the help of two cargo steamers and the marines from the SMS Möwe, created a small naval fleet that held supremacy on the lake until 1916. With the arrival of the speedboats Mimi and Toutou, transported overland from Cape Town, the tide turned in favor of the British and Belgians.
On August 15, the German colonial troops occupied the border town of Taveta in British East Africa against little resistance. In September, the Königsberg returned to the colony, sank the Pegasus, which was undergoing repairs in Zanzibar, on September 14, and then hid in the Rufiji River delta for engine repairs, as the British had no maps of the delta. The Royal Navy initiated the occupation of Mafia Island and a naval blockade of the delta.
On the British side, the occupation of Taveta led to the decision to bring 4,000 Indian soldiers to Mombasa, who arrived from September onwards. In October, another 8,000 men were embarked from India to combine forces and crush Lettow-Vorbeck's forces. The landing at Tanga on November 2, 1914, was a disaster for the British. Lettow-Vorbeck had learned of the landing through spies and, in the Battle of Tanga, succeeded in forcing the poorly led British-Indian troops to retreat to their ships. The following day, November 3, the other part of the British offensive was repulsed at Longido on the Kilimanjaro massif. A further British defeat followed with the surrender of Indian units in the Battle of Jassini, who had occupied the border town of Jassini, located directly on the coast, and were attacked by Lettow-Vorbeck with a strong force before they could receive reinforcements.
The British achieved minor successes with the capture of Bukoba on June 21, 1915. They also managed to gain supremacy on Lake Victoria after armed motorboats were transported by rail to Port Florence (now Kisumu).
The only aircraft on the German side was an Otto biplane from the Pfalz company with a pusher propeller. Pilot Bruno Büchner arrived in German East Africa with his aircraft on August 5, 1914. The plane was immediately requisitioned by the colonial troops. Büchner and his mechanic reported for duty. A temporary airfield was set up near the radio tower in Dar es Salaam. During a reconnaissance flight to Zanzibar, Büchner was fired upon and wounded by enemy gunboats. He managed to make an emergency landing on the beach near Dar es Salaam. After the aircraft was repaired, First Lieutenant Ernst Ludwig Henneberger was supposed to fly it to the combat zone at Kilimanjaro. However, he was killed in a crash during a test flight on November 15, 1914. The aircraft was then rebuilt in a forge near Dar es Salaam, this time as a floatplane. It completed further flights in the Rufiji Delta. Due to a lack of gasoline, the engine was removed shortly afterwards. It served briefly as the power source for a railcar on the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro line.
On July 11, 1915, the British Navy, after deploying approximately 20 ships, aircraft, and shallow-water monitors, severely damaged the Königsberg, which was besieged in the Rufiji Delta. Its crew scuttled the ship and joined the German colonial troops. They brought their 10.5 cm naval guns with them, which were mounted on gun carriages, giving the Germans their heaviest artillery of the East African campaign.
Further relief for the German side came from the blockade runners A (Rubens) and 15 (Marie), which brought urgently needed supplies, especially ammunition, to the beleaguered German colonial troops. The Rubens, a 6,000 GRT cargo ship, set sail from Wilhelmshaven on February 18, 1915. It was commanded by Lieutenant Carl F. Christiansen. The ship reached German East Africa in April 1915, but was so badly damaged near the coast by the British cruiser Hyacinth that it was grounded in Mansa Bay near Tanga and eventually burned. A large part of the cargo was salvaged, however, and the waterlogged ammunition was painstakingly dried and used by the colonial troops. A second attempt to reinforce the colonial troops by sea was made in March 1916 with the auxiliary ship Marie, commanded by Lieutenant Conrad Sörensen. The ship reached Sudi Bay in southern German East Africa undamaged. The cargo was unloaded and the ship set sail again for Southeast Asia.
Until 1916, the German colonial troops were able to largely hold German East Africa, as the British had decided to concentrate larger forces after the debacle at Tanga. The Belgians in the Congo also needed time to build military units from the scattered police forces of their Force Publique. Following Germany's declaration of war on March 9, 1916, Portugal increased its troops in Portuguese East Africa and agreed to participate in the impending Allied offensive.
March to September 1916 – Allied Offensive
The retreat of the German units then began with the intervention of a large force under South African leadership in January 1916.
The combined British-Indian-South African forces advanced from Kenya.
A column under General Edward Northey, consisting of 5,000 African, British and South African soldiers, invaded the southwest of the colony from Nyasaland.
The Belgian troops advanced from the Congo into Rwanda and Burundi and then along the railway towards Tabora.
The Portuguese initially successfully occupied the Kionga Triangle on the coast. Their further attack to the south was repulsed with heavy losses in 1916, and the occupation of the Makonde Plateau in 1917 also ended in defeat.
The Allied forces were vastly superior in numbers, fielding a total of around 100,000 soldiers, in addition to many more in non-combatant units. Lettow-Vorbeck had prepared well for this situation and engaged the numerically superior enemy in a mixture of mobile and guerrilla warfare (hit and run). The Allied advance could not be stopped, but the mobility of the German troops allowed them to inflict losses on the enemy and usually withdraw in time. The Allied troops suffered greater losses from tropical diseases than from combat, with thousands succumbing to them. The German side was much less affected by this, as the majority of their soldiers were Africans, accustomed to the climate and immune to many diseases. On the Allied side, they faced predominantly South African and Indian soldiers, who were neither accustomed to the climate nor to the diseases.
By August 1916, Allied forces had captured most of the colony's key locations, with the exception of Dar es Salaam. Moshi on Kilimanjaro had already fallen in March. The Central Railway, from Kigoma via Tabora and Dodoma to Morogoro, was under Allied control. Dar es Salaam was not occupied until September, as the British suspected that Lettow-Vorbeck had already moved on to other forces. The German colonial troops withdrew to the area south of the Dar es Salaam-Morogoro-Iringa line.
September 1916 to November 1917 – Bush War in the South
The Allied advance gradually pushed the Schutztruppe (colonial protection force) back into the rugged southeast of the colony. A decisive factor was a shift in British strategy. Initially, they had relied exclusively on Indian, British, and South African troops. Africans were held in low esteem and used only as porters, albeit in very large numbers, since European soldiers, and to a lesser extent Indian soldiers, were allowed substantial baggage allowances. From the outset, the Schutztruppe consisted largely of Africans, who were accustomed to the climate and did not require personal porters, although many of them brought wives and children with them. It was only in 1916 that the expansion of African units, such as the King's African Rifles from Kenya and Uganda, began; these units had previously been primarily assigned to protect the railway line in Kenya. By 1917, half of the British troops were Africans, who posed a more difficult opponent for Lettow-Vorbeck than the white and Indian units with their enormous baggage trains.
The losses of the German colonial troops mounted. A large contingent of 2,000 soldiers under Captain Tafel was forced to surrender in October 1917. A contingent under the command of Max Wintgens broke away from Lettow-Vorbeck's main force in February 1917 and began independent guerrilla operations in the west and north of the German colony. The remnants of this contingent capitulated on October 1, 1917, near Luitaberg, southeast of Kondoa. Lettow-Vorbeck's remaining forces were increasingly concentrated near the Mozambican border. The last radio of the colonial troops was destroyed, so that there was no further communication with Germany.
In November 1917, another attempt was made to supply the German colonial troops (Schutztruppe) from Bulgaria using the airship LZ 104/L 59. After British reports of the Schutztruppe's retreat from Germany were intercepted, the operation was abandoned, as there were no longer any safe landing sites in East Africa. LZ 104 turned back over Sudan, setting only a long-distance record (6,757 kilometers in 95 hours) for early aviation.
Crossing into Mozambique until the surrender
The breakthrough of the German East Africa colonial troops across the Rowuma River in mid-November 1917. Depiction by Carl Arriens
In November 1917, Lettow-Vorbeck decided to cross the Rovuma River, leaving behind the wounded and those unfit for combat, with 280 German and 1,600 African soldiers, as well as a baggage train of 5,000 porters and women, and head for Portuguese East Africa. On November 25, he defeated Portuguese troops at the Battle of Ngomano and secured the crossing of the border river.
His plan worked insofar as the British forces had difficulty locating him in the rugged terrain of northern Mozambique, and the Portuguese colonial troops were not a formidable opponent. In northern Mozambique, Lettow-Vorbeck's troops were able to capture several strongholds and depots from which they could replenish their supplies of provisions, weapons, and ammunition, though these remained scarce. Meanwhile, the British relocated their regional headquarters to Porto Amelia (now Pemba) and began searching for the German colonial troops.
Over the next few months, the Schutztruppe (colonial protection force) constantly moved about, searching for supplies and avoiding major battles. They reached the vicinity of Quelimane. Here, news reached them that strong British forces were massing in the area. Lettow-Vorbeck decided to move north again. Constantly pursued by British units, who were never able to capture them, the Schutztruppe crossed the Rovuma River again on September 28th and returned to the territory of German East Africa.
From here, they marched north along Lake Nyasa, passing through Songea and Mbozi. Here, Lettow-Vorbeck decided to continue the march to Northern Rhodesia, which, according to his information, was largely free of British troops, who suspected him to be in other parts of the colony. Here, on November 13, 1918, he received news of the armistice in Europe from British parliamentarians. On November 25, 1918, the surrender was signed in Abercorn (now Mbala), south of Lake Tanganyika, and the force, now only 1,300 strong, was officially disbanded.
The human cost of war
The Allies deployed 210,000–240,000 soldiers, half of them Africans. The British lost 3,443 killed and 6,558 from disease. Belgian losses amounted to 683 killed and 1,300 from disease. On the Portuguese side, 1,734 Europeans and an unknown number of Africans died. The losses of the German colonial troops were 734 Europeans and 1,798 Africans.
Within the context of the First World War, these military losses were relatively manageable, as the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 alone cost the lives of 20,000 British soldiers. Far more devastating were the consequences of the war for the African civilian population, who suffered much higher losses of life. With a population of only 7.6 million, the African population of German East Africa mourned hundreds of thousands of dead.
The porters, employed by all warring parties for supply and material transport in the country's poorly traversed roads, came from the villages. The British Colonial Office estimated that approximately 750,000 porters were in service on the Allied side, in addition to 100,000–200,000 on the German side. In 1917, the British Commander-in-Chief counted 125,000 porters, 80,000 of whom were from East Asia. The British Carrier Corps had over 400,000 "official" porters in service, roughly half from Kenya and half from East Asia (these figures are derived by adding up the porters enlisted during the course of the war). Large numbers of locally enlisted porters were also present. General Northey employed approximately 200,000 porters for supplies for his Nyasa-Rhodesia Field Force, operating from Nyasaland. The Belgian Force Publique had enlisted 260,000 porters. Together with the German porters (at its peak around 45,000, including auxiliaries), it is estimated that approximately one million porters were deployed during the war. At the beginning of the campaign, they were recruited and conscripted, but later forced into transport service under threat of violence. Hunger, disease, and the hardships of their forced labor cost the lives of 100,000 to 300,000 porters from all sides. These porters were also the younger men whose labor was then sorely missed in the fields. From 1916 onward, the trains of the fighting armies ravaged the countryside, requisitioning food and livestock. The German colonial troops often burned the fields behind them to prevent the advancing enemy from finding supplies.
When the colonial troops crossed the Rovuma River in November 1917, they left behind a widespread famine in the south of the colony. In 1918, the devastation, compounded by a period of drought, reached catastrophic proportions. There is no record of how many people starved to death in East Africa at that time. A population loss of 20% was reported for the Dodoma district in 1917/18. It is estimated that the war cost the colony around 650,000 lives, almost a tenth of its population at the time. From 1918 onward, the international Spanish flu epidemic spread among the weakened population, claiming a further 50,000–80,000 lives.
The costs of the Europeans' war ultimately had to be borne by the Africans.
Schutztruppe was the official name for the military units in the German colonies in Africa from 1891 to 1918.
In the so-called protectorates of German East Africa, Cameroon, and German Southwest Africa, there were protection troops whose task was to maintain public order and security internally. They were deployed, for example, to suppress uprisings, secure borders, or provide security for expeditions. They were not designed for national defense against external aggressors.
The Schutztruppe (protection troops) formed a part of the army of the German Empire, independent of the Reichswehr (Imperial Army) and the Imperial Navy, under the command of the German Emperor.
East Africa
The German East Africa Protection Force was established by the Imperial Law of March 22, 1891, and the German Southwest Africa Protection Forces by the Imperial Law of June 9, 1895. The founding day of the German East Africa Protection Force was set for February 8, 1889, to honor the memory of the Wissmann Force and to announce that the Protection Force had originated from it. The founding day for the German Southwest Africa Protection Force was set for April 16, 1889, by the General Cabinet Order of September 16, 1911.
The legal status of the colonial troops in the African colonies was comprehensively regulated by the Imperial Law of July 7/18, 1896 (Colonial Troops Law). In 1907, the administration of the colonial troops was integrated into the newly created Imperial Colonial Office. The Supreme Command of the colonial troops was located at Mauerstraße 45/46 (Berlin-Mitte), in the immediate vicinity of the Imperial Colonial Office.
The troops consisted of officers, medical and veterinary officers, non-commissioned officers, enlisted men, and officials, as well as recruited locals who served in the German army as a special unit (Askari). There were no Askari in German South West Africa; instead, native auxiliary troops were recruited.
Southwest Africa
The German South West Africa protection force consisted of soldiers from the army and navy (and also Austrians) who had volunteered from their regiments. Before being shipped to Africa, the volunteers were prepared for their specific tasks at German training bases. One such base was located in Karlsruhe. Due to the often hot and humid conditions of the Upper Rhine region, early acclimatization was ensured there.
Strength
In 1913, the protection troops in German East Africa consisted of 410 Germans and 2,682 Askari, in German South West Africa of 1,967 Germans, and in Cameroon of 185 Germans and 1,560 locals.
Criminal law
The German military laws and the German military disciplinary code applied to the colonial troops. Military criminal jurisdiction over them was administered, according to the decree of July 26, 1896, by the court of the Supreme Command of the Colonial Troops (the Reich Chancellor and a reporting councilor) and divisional courts (the division commander and an investigating officer). The procedure was that of the German Military Criminal Code of December 1, 1908.
Deployment of the protection troops
High Command of the Protection Forces (from 1897): Berlin - Imperial Colonial Office
German East Africa Command Dar es Salaam
1st Company: Arusha
2nd Company: Iringa and Unbena
3rd Company: Lindi
4th Company: Kilimatinde and Ssingidda
5th Company: Massoko
6th Company: Udjidiji and Kassulo
7th Company: Bukoba, Ussuwi and Kifumbiro
8th Company: Tabora
9th Company: Usumbura
10th Company: Dar es Salaam
11th Company: Kissenji and Mruhengeri
12th Company: Mahenge
13th Company: Kondoa-Irangi
14th Company: Muansa and Ikoma
Additionally in Dar es Salaam: a recruit depot, a signal department and quartermaster's office.
Strength: 68 officers, 42 doctors, 150 white officials, pyrotechnicians and non-commissioned officers, 2472 colored soldiers
German South West Africa Command Windhoek
Command Court, Quartermaster's Office, Medical Office and Surveying Troop
Northern District Command Windhoek
1st Company: Regenstein, Seeis
4th Company (MG): Okanjande
6th Company: Outjo and Otavi
2nd Battery: Johann-Albrechts-Höhe
Train 1: Karibib
Provisions Office: Karibib
Horse depot: Okawayo
Artillery and Train Depot: Windhoek
Field hospital: Windhoek
Main medical depot: Windhoek
Clothing depot: Windhoek
Local Command: Windhoek
Local Command and Provisions Office: Swakopmund
Southern District Command: Keetmanshoop
2nd Company: Ukamas
3rd Company: Canoes
5th Company (MG): Chamis and Churutabis
7th and 8th Companies: Gochas and Arahoab (camel riders and machine gun), field hospital.
1st Battery: Narubis
3rd Battery: Wreath Square near Gibeon
Train 2: Keetmanshoop
Artillery and Train Depot: Keetmanshoop
Hospital and medical depot: Keetmanshoop
Clothing Depot: Keetmanshoop
Provisions Office: Keetmanshoop
Garrison administration: Keetmanshoop
Horse depot: From
Camel stud farm: Kalkfontein
Local command and provisions office: Lüderitzbucht
Strength: 90 officers, 22 doctors, 9 veterinarians, 59 officials, pyrotechnicians, 342 non-commissioned officers, 1444 white soldiers
Cameroon (as of 1914) Soppo Command
1st Company (Core Company) and Artillery Detachment: Duala
2nd Company: Bamenda, Wum and Kentu
3rd Company: Mora and Kusseri
4th Company (Expedition Company): Soppo
5th Company: Buar and Karnot (Carnot)
6th Company: Mbaiki, Nola and Nguku
7th Company: Garua, Nassarau (Nassarao), Mubi, Marua, Lere
8th Company: Ngaundere
9th Company: Dume and Baturi
10th Company: Ojem and Mimwoul
11th Company: Akoasim (Akoafim), Ngarabinsam and Minkebe
12th Company: Bumo, Fianga, Gore and Schoa
Strength: 61 officers, 17 doctors, 23 officials, pyrotechnicians, 98 white non-commissioned officers, 1550 African soldiers
police forces
In Africa and the South Pacific, these forces were subordinate to the civilian authorities; in Kiautschou, they were under the government. However, they were in no case part of a military administration. (The figures given for police forces often refer to authorized strengths.)
German East Africa
4 officers, 61 white sergeants, 147 colored non-commissioned officers, 1,863 Askari (excluding so-called club-wielding Askaris)
Cameroon
4 officers, 37 other white personnel, 1,255 men (excluding customs)
German South West Africa
7 officers, 9 administrative staff, 68 police sergeants, 432 police inductees, 50 contract police officers, plus police officers of color
Togoland
2 officers, ? police chief, 530 Black soldiers
German New Guinea
19 white police officers, 670 colored police officers in New Guinea and the islands
1 Black police sergeant, 30 Fitafita - Fitafita, 20-25 state police officers in Samoa. The Fitafita consisted of chief's sons and were primarily intended for orderly duties, boat crew, auxiliary police, honor guard, and postman. The state police officers, on the other hand, were intended for regular police duties.
Kiautschou
so-called Chinese police (was part of the civil administration and consisted exclusively of Chinese people)
European staff and 60 Chinese
Unlike the mounted police forces of the other colonies, the mounted state police of German South West Africa consisted exclusively of Germans.
Modern protection forces
In modern usage, the term "protection force," originating from the colonial era, refers to (usually international) troops sent to other countries after a war or similar event to maintain public order and security, or to uphold the sovereignty of the major powers. An example of such a protection force is ISAF in Afghanistan.