Eduard von Liebert

Eduard von Liebert joined the 58th (3rd Posen) Infantry Regiment of the Prussian Army as an ensign at a very early age. He saw action in the Battle of Nachod in 1866 and was promoted to lieutenant on August 6. Four years later, in 1870, he took part in the Franco-Prussian War, and was lightly wounded near Wörth, but was able to rejoin the fighting around Paris. For this, he received the Iron Cross. He attended the Prussian Staff College (German: Preußische Kriegsakademie) afterwards, graduating from there when 26 years old, in 1872. Afterwards, he was an instructor at the Military School in Hanover. While there, in 1878, he was one of he twelve citizens who formed the "Provisional Committee for the Foundation of a Geographical Society in Hanover.[1] He was promoted to captain in 1880 and joined the general staff in the military college at Metz where he taught military strategy. He became a major in 1886.

During these years he travelled several times to Russia, and published Der polnische Kriegsschauplatz[2] under the pseudonym of Sarmaticus, which was indicative of his interest in military tactics.

Early on he came into contact with well-known colonial pioneers and leading colonial politicians. In the heroes of the military and political achievements of Frederick William, "the Great Elector", and seeking comparison with the colonialist movements of his own time, he delivered a lecture entitled "The colonial politics of the Great Elector"[3] in 1888.

In 1889–90 Liebert was sent to East Africa, on behalf of Bismarck to report on Captain Hermann von Wissmann's expedition. He returned to Germany in 1890[4] and was present when the Kaiser, Wilhelm II received the Zanzibari embassy at Potsdam, along with the then German consul-general of Zanzibar, Michahelles, Count Eulenberg and Otto von Bismarck.[5]

About this time he got to know Wissmann well. The latter had been appointed Reich Commissioner for German East Africa, in the face of indigenous uprisings encountered there, and had the task of quelling the rebellions. Wissmann had quickly mustered up a sizeable force, helped by a change of policy by Bismarck. In his campaigns there, Liebert kept him supplied with officers and men. From his journey there Liebert gained valuable first-hand knowledge of the country.

Upon his return to Germany, Liebert was transferred to the General Staff of the X Army Corps in Hanover in 1891, and eventually rose to become Chief of the General Staff, and further elevated to the rank of a colonel. At age 44, he was at the same time commander of the 12th Grenadier Regiment in Frankfurt. During that time Liebert served as companion to the Chinese viceroy, Li Hung-Chang who was visiting Germany in 1896, and drove with him to Frankfurt to have the 12th Grenadiers presented to him there. The Chinese Order of the Double Dragon, 1st Class was awarded to Liebert in part due to his service for the viceroy.[6] Due to his enthusiasm for colonialism, he fell out of favour in Berlin, and Leo von Caprivi, who had succeeded Bismarck as Chancellor of Germany in 1890, even threatened to ban him from speaking. In a speech during this time given at the Association of German Students in Berlin, he passionately quoted a verse from Felix Dahn's Walhall:[7]

"Seitdem ist’s freudig Germanenrecht,[8]

Mit dem Hammer Land zu erwerben;

Wir sind von des Hammergottes Geschlecht

Und wollen sein Weltreich erben."

("Since that time it is the defiant right of the German

To acquire land with the hammer.

We are from the race of the hammer-god

And resolve to inherit his empire.")[9]

On 3 December 1896 he was appointed Governor of German East Africa, After arriving in East Africa at the beginning of 1907, he first travelled to the southern part of the colony, neglected until then, and was impressed by the rich forests around the Rufiji Delta which had been found by the forest assessor, August von Bruchhausen, who had arrived in 1896.[10]

Group portrait of Tom von Prince, Magdalene von Prince, August von Bruchhausen, Eduard von Liebert, Fugger von Glött, Ottwig, Alfons (Pater)

He continued relentlessly to try to pacify the tribes which had proved threatening prior to his arrival, and which had been severely suppressed by Wissmann. Liebert sent troops against the Nguni and the Wayao in the south of the country. He despatched Tom von Prince to Uhehe, although the Wahehe had been weakened by the assaults of von Schele. He also sent troops to contain land near Lake Victoria, to the north west of the country. In addition, he sought to achieve greater settlement of the highlands by German immigrants.

He tried to increase government revenues by the commercial exploitation of plants. Tobacco cultivation had proved to be a failure, and coffee planting had also encountered major difficulties, but an important crop was available, the agave, sisal. In 1892, Dr. Richard Hindorf, then working on an estate near Amani, had been attracted by a paper on the sisal plant, a native plant of the Yucatan, which he later introduced into the colony. Its success led to plantation construction on a large scale at that time in the lowlands of Tanga region.[11]

Amid great controversy, his single-minded attempt to enforce the 'hut tax' in order to raise revenue, was not well received. This 'hut tax' (German: Hüttensteuergesetz), introduced in 1897, was the first practical step to make the land and its inhabitants usable to further colonization plans of the German administration. The task of collection, however, was almost impossible, not least because of the prevalent use of barter, lack of a national currency and a dearth of usable roads or other means of communication. Liebert's attempts to build that necessary infrastructure was frustrated by a lack of funds from the colonial department at home. In Berlin, Liebert's ardour, especially his incessant pressure to build paths and railways, was treated with great reluctance. His conviction of the unavoidable necessity of the central railway (Dar es Salaam - Lake Tanganyika), along with the as yet incomplete Usambara railway, and the fact that he tried in vain to obtain any support for it, was considered later to have led to the termination of his position as governor. He was recalled in 1900 for differences of opinion with the colonial department over this matter.

On 1 January 1900 Liebert was rewarded with hereditary nobility by Wilhelm II. After holding the command of the 6th Division in Brandenburg for two years (Generalleutnant, April 1901 to April 1903), he submitted his resignation. He gave himself entirely to national political activities after this with the German Colonial Society (German: Deutschen Kolonialgesellschaft) and the Alldeutschen Verband. In 1904, he was also a co-initiator and first chairman of the "Reichsverband gegen die Sozialdemokratie", a political party promoting militarism. In the Reichstag, to which he belonged as a member of the Free Conservative Party from 1907 to 1914, he advocated forced labour, a German national settlement policy and an expansion of German colonial possessions, in opposition to liberal reform policy. Even before the outbreak of World War I, he was inspired by militarism. He publicly censured racial 'corruption' in "Die Zukunftsentwicklung unserer Kolonien"and condemned miscegeny in the colonies. During the First World War, until prevented by his age in 1917, Liebert held various commands at the front, and was awarded the Pour le mérite in 1917.