Heinrich Ernst Göring

Heinrich Ernst Göring (31 October 1839 – 7 December 1913) was a German jurist and diplomat who served as colonial governor of German South West Africa. He was the father of five children including Hermann Göring, the Nazi leader and commander of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force).

This article is about the German diplomat. For other people bearing this surname, see Göring (disambiguation).
Heinrich Ernst Göring
Reichskommissar for
German South West Africa
In office
May 1885 – August 1890
Preceded byGustav Nachtigal
Succeeded byLouis Nels
German Resident Minister for Haiti and the Dominican Republic
In office
1892–1895[1]
Preceded byDemesvar Delorme
Succeeded byHeinrich von Luxburg (*1855)
Personal details
Born(1839-10-31)31 October 1839
Emmerich, Kingdom of Prussia
Died7 December 1913(1913-12-07) (aged 74)
Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
SpouseFranziska Tiefenbrunn
Children5, including Hermann and Albert
RelativesEdda Göring (granddaughter)

Personal life

Göring was born in Emmerich am Rhein. He was the son of Wilhelm Göring (1791–1874), and his wife, Caroline Maria de Nerée (1815–1886). Göring married, secondly, to Franziska Tiefenbrunn: the marriage produced five recorded children:

Career

After a career as a provincial judge, the Dutch-speaking Göring was appointed as the first Imperial Commissioner of German South West Africa in 1885. (German commercial interests had forced the Imperial Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, into creating a state-financed colonial administration to support his country's fledgling Protectorate of South West Africa.[2])

Göring started by signing a "protection treaty" with the leading Herero chief, Maharero.[3] The treaty of protection was not worth the paper on which it was written, as Göring was in no position to offer assistance. Repeated armed attacks by Witbooi's Nama clan proved the point. The treaty was violated a few years later anyway by Maharero, who also expelled Göring from Hereroland. The Germans' behaviour had become too much, and, worst of all, Göring had (perhaps unwittingly) extended his house on top of a Herero ancestral graveyard. An alleged discovery of gold c. 1887 was a hoax: the purported gold deposits were nothing apart from the remains of gold pieces fired at a rock face. The identity of the hoaxer remains a mystery, but suspicion falls on Göring making a last-ditch desperate attempt to bring investment to the protectorate and thus to save his failing mission.[4]

Göring left South West Africa in August 1890 without having been able to settle the constant friction between the Herero and the Oorlam people.[5] The expected vast gold deposits started a gold rush of German settlers and investors, whose behaviour further alienated the Herero. This eventually led to the Herero and Namaqua genocide (1904–1908). Herero skulls were eventually used by the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, which pursued a policy of eugenics.

From 1892 to 1895, Göring resided in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, as the German resident minister for Haiti and the Dominican Republic.[1]

References
  1. Bringmann, Tobias C. (2001). Handbuch der Diplomatie 1815–1963: Auswärtige Missionschefs in Deutschland und deutsche Missionschefs im Ausland von Metternich bis Adenauer, p. 137, at Google Books (in German). Munich: K. G. Saur. ISBN 3-598-11431-1.
  2. Olusoga, David; Erichsen, Casper W. (5 August 2010). "The Iron Chancellor and the Guano King". The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism (reprint ed.). London: Faber & Faber. p. 42 - 43. ISBN 9780571269488. Retrieved 5 October 2023. To keep the British out of Germany's newly won colony, the Chancellor quickly conjured into existence a German company ready to take over Lüderitz's remaining assets. [...] The German South-West Africa Colonial Company was a fragile concern from its inception. [...] Short of capital and bereft of ideas, the company turned to the state for help. In order to keep hold of German South-West Africa and prevent the encroachment of British interests, Bismarck was forced to create the entity he had always sought to avoid: a state-financed colonial administration. With deep reluctance he appointed an Imperial Commissioner.
  3. Olusoga & Erichsen 2011, p. 53.
  4. Olusoga & Erichsen 2011, p. 52
  5. Bruwer, J. P. van S. (1966). South West Africa: The Disputed Land. Cape Town: Nasionale Boekhandel Beperk. p. 72.

Bibliography
  • Gewald, Jan-Bart (1999), Herero Heroes: A Socio-political History of the Herero of Namibia 1890-1923, Oxford: James Currey, ISBN 0-85255-749-3
  • Olusoga, David; Erichsen, Casper W (2011) [2010], The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide, London: Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-23142-3
  • Wellington, John H. (1967), South West Africa and Its Human Issues, London: Oxford University Press

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