Gustav Adolf von Götzen

From 1885, Carl Peters had begun claiming areas of East Africa for Germany. The Tanganyikan coast proved relatively easy, but conquest of the inland areas of the colony - right up to the Belgian Congo - was more difficult as large parts were still unexplored. For this reason, Götzen led an expedition to claim these hinterlands. He took with him Georg von Prittwitz and Hermann Kersting.

The group set off from Pangani, on the Tanganyikan coast, on 21 December 1893. After travelling through Maasai areas, they eventually arrived, on 2 May 1894, at Rusumo Falls on the Kagera river. By crossing the river, the group entered in the Kingdom of Rwanda, at the time, it was one of the most organised and centralised kingdoms in the region. Götzen became the second European to set foot in Rwanda since Oscar Baumann's 1892 expedition. His group travelled right through Rwanda, meeting the mwami (king) Kigeli IV Rwabugili at his palace in Kageyo, and eventually reaching Lake Kivu, the western edge of the kingdom.

After encountering and climbing some of the Virunga Mountains, Götzen decided to continue west through the Congolese jungle. With great effort, they managed to reach the Congo river on 21 September, which they then followed downstream, eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean on 29 November. In January 1895, Götzen returned to Germany.

Between 1896 and 1898 Götzen worked as an attaché in Washington, D.C., and he served as an observer with Theodore Roosevelt during the Spanish–American War. While Götzen was there, he fell in love with the American widow of William Matthews Lay (1845-1893), May Loney (1857-1931), and married her. They had a daughter, Wanda Luise von Götzen, in 1898.[1][2] Afterwards, he joined the general staff of the army in Berlin, where he was promoted in 1900 to the rank of Captain.

Due to his knowledge of local conditions, Götzen was appointed governor of German East Africa in March 1901. There had already been rebellions by the native population in the 1880s and 1890s, and in 1905 Götzen was faced with outbreak of the Maji Maji Rebellion, which quickly took over about half of the colony. This was similar in severity to the Herero Wars taking place in German South-West Africa, but was noticed less by the German public. Götzen sent for reinforcements, and suppressed the rebellion by force. Götzen's troops lost 15 Europeans and 389 African soldiers, according to official data. Estimates of the numbers of Africans who died in the famine following the uprising range from 75,000, to 100-120,000, to 300,000, depending on the source consulted.[3]

On the 14th of June 1906, Götzen later returned to Germany after submitting a report to the Foreign Office outlining what he believed were the causes of the Maji Maji Rebellion. The Foreign Office keen to avoid a colonial scandal, accepted Götzen's report and he retired ostensibly on the grounds of ill health.[4] Following his retirement, the German government began to administer its overseas possessions under civilian control.