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The Disgrace and Fall of Carl Peters: Morality, Politics, and Staatsräson in the Time of Wilhelm II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Martin Reuss
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As the founder of German East Africa, Carl Peters exercised a continuing hold on the German imagination in the 1890s despite the growth of a general “colonial-weariness” (Kolonialmüdigkeit) in the population. Among a group of colonial adventurers which had failed to produce any man of truly heroic proportions, he still seemed to many a man of unusual mettle, and the entire colonial effort was closely associated with his name. Knowing this, the Colonial Division for four years kept hidden from the public the story of Peters' misbehavior on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1891 and 1892. The Division did not simply refuse to pursue the case expeditiously but refused to admit the facts at all. It was a dangerous game, but one which the government felt it had to play in order to preserve the integrity of the colonial movement. The unfortunate result was that when the story did break in 1896 as a consequence of Social Democratic revelations, the Colonial Division found itself as much on the defense as Peters himself. Not only had a person of Peters's stature violated basic human rights, but the government had put itself in the position of implicitly condoning the brutal suppression of a colonial people. The “civilizing mission,” no one could deny, had been misused for private gain and pleasure, and the Social Democratic attacks on colonialism gained a new moral credibility which could be used to strengthen the party's popularity, much to the chagrin of government officials.

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Articles
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Central European History , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , June 1981 , pp. 110 - 141
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Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1981

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References

I wish to express my appreciation to the American Philosophical Society, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the history department of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for financial assistance in support of research for this article.

1. The two best accounts of Peters's initial journey to East Africa are found in Wehler, Hans-Ulrich, Bismarck und der Imperialismus (Köln, 1969), pp. 336–42Google Scholar; and Müller, Fritz Ferdinand, Deutschland—Zanzibar—Ostafrika: Geschichte einer deutschen Kolonialeroberung, 1884–1890 (Berlin, 1959), pp. 115–33.Google Scholar

2. The Nazi historian Walter Frank had planned a lengthy biography of Peters, but he died before he could complete the project. For information on Frank, see Heiber, Helmut, Walter Frank und sein Reichsinstitut für Geschichte des neuen Deutschlands (Stuttgart, 1966), pp. 1190–95.Google Scholar Frank did edit three volumes of Peters's writings, published as Peters's, Gesammelte Schriften (München and Berlin, 1943–1944).Google Scholar Until fairly recently, it had been difficult to answer some of the questions regarding Peters's activities in the 1890s. Most frustrating was the inability to develop fully the story of Peters's trial. The reasons for these biographical gaps was that all the records of the Potsdam Disciplinary Chamber for Colonial Officials, as well as many Colonial Office files dealing with German East Africa, had been completely destroyed during an air raid in Berlin in April 1945. See Schmid, Gerhard, “Die Verluste in den Beständen des ehemaligen Reichsarchivs im zweiten Weltkrieg,” Archivar und Historiker: Studien zur Archiv- und Geschichtswissenschaft, number 7 of the Schriftenreihe der Staatlichen Archiverwaltung (Berlin, 1956), pp. 176–207.Google Scholar However, during the last decade various records have been made available to scholars which, taken together, allow us to supply much of the heretofore missing details. By far the most illuminating collection of papers is contained in Walter Frank's Nachlass at the Bundesarchiv in Koblenz. This collection, available to scholars since 1974, contains copies, mostly typewritten, of many of the colonial files which were destroyed during World War II. Two volumes contain copies of Peters's letters to his family (the originals of these are still available in Potsdam), two other volumes contain copies of Colonial Office correspondence, four others hold copies of hundreds of letters from colonial administrators and supporters. Many of these relate to Peters. A separate volume includes the correspondence between the Colonial Division and the German East Africa Company and the German Colonial Society. Papers from the Nachlässe of Rudolf von Benningsen and Paul Kayser are to be found in still other volumes. These volumes, when combined with the Peters's Nachlass, the files of the German East Africa Company, and the minutes of the Kolonialrat (Colonial Council), all of which are available in microfilm at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, provide an enormous amount of material with which to trace Peters's activities.

3. Both Wehler and Müller call Peters a psychopath. Wehler labels him a “criminal psychopath,” whereas Müller settles for describing him as a psychopath with “sadistic inclinations.” See Wehler, Bismarck und der Imperialismus, p. 338; and Müller, Deutschland—Zanzibar—Ostafrika, p. 97. Another severe critic of Peters is the Soviet historian Jerussalimski, A. S., Die Aussenpolitik und die Diplomatie des Deutschen Imperialismus Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1954), pp. 257–64.Google Scholar Peters's apotheosis during the Nazi era is represented in any one of a number of biographies. Typical are Wichterich, Richard, Dr. Carl Peters: Der Weg eines Patrioten (Berlin, 1934)Google Scholar and Böhme, Hermann, Carl Peters: Der Begründer von Deutsch-Ostafrika (Leipzig, 1939).Google Scholar

4. Emin Pasha (Eduard Schnitzer) was a German employed by the Egyptian government as Governor of Equatoria Province, a strategic area embracing the Nile headwaters. Since 1886 Emin and his men had been threatened by hostile Mahdi. Their supplies had run short and they had no reliable lines of communication with the outside world. However, unknown to Peters, a full ten months before he left for Africa Emin had already been relieved by H. M. Stanley and a party sponsored by British interests. For more on the adventures of Emin Pasha, see Sanderson, George Neville, England, Europe and the Upper Nile, 1882–1899 (Edinburgh, 1965), pp. 27–46Google Scholar; and Smith, Iain R., The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, 1886–1890 (Oxford, 1972).Google Scholar

5. Krätschell, Hermann, Carl Peters, 1856–1918: Ein Beitrag zur Publizistik des imperialistischen Nationalismus in Deutschland (Diss., Freie Universität Berlins, 1959), p. 52Google Scholar; Hale, Oron James, Publicity and Diplomacy: With Special Reference to England and Germany, 1890–1914 (Charlottesville, 1940), pp. 86–87Google Scholar; Sell, Manfred, Das deutsch-englische Abkommen von 1890 über Helgoland und die afrikanischen Kolonien im Lichte der deutschen Presse (Berlin and Bonn, 1926), p. 39.Google Scholar The “Carl Peters Foundation” was first announced in the Aug. 23, 1890 edition of the Deutsche Kolonialzeitung 3 (Aug. 23, 1890): 219–20.

6. Coupland, Reginald, The Exploitation of East Africa, 1856–1890: The Slave Trade and the Scramble (1939; reprint ed., Chicago, 1967), pp. 483–84Google Scholar; Freeman-Grenville, G. S. P., “The German Sphere, 1884–98,” History of East Africa, ed. Oliver, Roland and Mathew, Gervase, vol. 1 (Oxford, 1963), p. 444.Google Scholar

7. The Colonial Division was established at the beginning of April 1890, with Dr. Friedrich Krauel as its head. Kayser, who had come to Wilhelm II's attention during the Chancellor crisis earlier in the year, replaced Krauel at the beginning of July. For more on Kayser's background, see Frank, Walter, “Der Geheime Rat Paul Kayser: Neues Material aus seinem Nachlass,” Historische Zeitschrift 168 (1943): 302–35, 541–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Reuss, Martin, “Bismarck's Dismissal and the Holstein Circle,” European Studies Review 5 (1975): 31–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. Kayser to Marschall, Tölz, Aug. 20, 1890, Walter Frank Papers (hereafter cited as FP.), vol. 21, Bundesarchiv Koblenz (hereafter cited as BA).

9. Report of the Wolf Telegraph Office, Aug. 23, 1890, and Frank's note concerning Peters's decoration, FP, vol. 21, BA.

10. Privy Councillor Rettich to Kayser, Berlin, Aug. 28, 1890, Paul Kayser Papers (hereafter cited as KP), No. 42.2734, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg (hereafter cited as SUH).

11. Privy Councillor Rettich to Kayser, Berlin, Aug. 31, 1890, KP, No. 42.2735, SUH.

12. Karl von der Heydt to Kayser, July 28, 1890, FP, vol. 24, BA.

13. Kayser to Chancellor Leo von Caprivi, Berlin, Aug. 7, 1890, FP, vol. 21, BA.

14. Schmidt, Rochus, Aus kolonialer Frühzeit (Berlin, 1922), pp. 184–85Google Scholar; Henderson, W. O., “German East Africa, 1884–1918,” History of East Africa, ed. Harlow, Vincent and Chilver, E. M., assisted by Smith, Alison, vol. 2 (Oxford, 1965), p. 132Google Scholar; Becker, A. et al. , Hermann von Wissmann: Deutschlands grösster Afrikaner. Sein Leben und Wirken unter Benutzung des Nachlasses (Berlin, 1914), pp. 375–77Google Scholar; Friedrich von Holstein, senior counselor in the Political Division of the German Foreign Ministry, to Soden, Berlin, Aug. 7, 1890, FP, vol. 21, BA; Deutsches Kolonialblatt 1 (Oct. 1, 1890): 240; and ibid. 1 (Dec. 15, 1890): 237.

15. Emin was apparently indifferent, if not outrightly contemptuous, of the arrangement. Still in East Africa, he disobeyed orders and pushed into British territory, evidently hoping to disengage part of it for Germany. In late 1892 he was murdered in the Congo. No successor was appointed. On Emin's last adventures, see Stuhlmann, Franz, Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika (Berlin, 1894)Google Scholar, and Gray, John, “Anglo-German Relations in Uganda, 1890–1892,” Journal of African History 1 (1960): 281–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16. Karstedt, Oskar, Hermann v. Wissmann: Der Mann des zwölffachen Verstandes, 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1938), p. 216.Google Scholar

17. Peters, “Der ‘Fall Peters,’” Gesammelte Schriften, 1: 80.

18. Carl Peters to his brother Hermann, Berlin, Apr. 4, 1891, Carl Peters Papers (hereafter cited as PP), vol. 93, Deutsches Zentralarchiv Potsdam (hereafter cited as DZAP). I wish to thank Mr. Henry Bair for permission to read his transcripts of the Peters Papers. These transcripts are to be found on microfilm at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, California.

19. Soden to Caprivi, Dar es Salaam, June 5, 1891, FP, vol. 21, BA. According to a letter Peters sent his brother in early March, Caprivi had promised Peters an “independent administration of the northern area [of East Africa]; independent budget, etc., under the supervision of von Soden; 20,000 mark annual salary; granting of civil service privileges, including pension rights reckoned from 1884 on; granting of a senior officer's rank, etc.” Peters to Hermann, Berlin, Mar. 3, 1891, PP, vol. 93, DZAP.

20. Soden to Caprivi, Dar es Salaam, June 5, 1891, FP, vol. 21, BA; Peters, “Der ‘Fall Peters,’” Gesammelte Schriften, 1: 81.

21. Peters, “Der ‘Fall Peters,’” Gesammelte Schriften, 1: 81.

22. Ibid.; Karl von der Heydt to Kayser, Berlin, Feb. 19, 1892, KP, No. 42.2665, SUH.

23. Redmayne, Alison, “Mkwawa and the Hehe Wars,” Journal of African History 10 (1968): 419–20.Google Scholar

24. Berliner Tageblatt, Apr. 1, 1891, as inserted in Foreign Office 84/2128, f. 297, Public Record Office London; see also Wright, Marcia, “Local Roots of Policy in German East Africa,” Journal of African History 9 (1968): 624–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25. This was the way Foreign Minister Marschall described Soden's policy in a conversation with the British Ambassador to Germany, Sir Edward Malet. Malet to the British Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, Berlin, Jan. 31, 1892, Foreign Office 84/2214, ff. 47–48, Public Record Office London.

26. Peters to Kayser, Kilimanjaro Station, Oct. 27, 1891, Kleine Erwerbungen, vol. 16, BA.

27. Testimony of Pechmann, Berlin, July 8, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA.

28. Stahl, Kathleen M., History of the Chagga People of Kilimanjaro (The Hague, 1964), p. 261.Google Scholar

29. Deutsches Kolonialblatt 3 (01 1, 1892): 20–21.

30. Peters to Soden, June 9, 1892 (forwarded to Caprivi on June 16), FP, vol. 21, BA.

31. Peters to Baxter, Marangu, Jan. 26, 1892, enclosure in Bishop Alfred Tucker to A. Lang, Frere Town, June 9, 1892, file G3A5 (Kenya Mission)/08, Church Missionary Society papers, London. All the papers and correspondence of the Society for the period up to 1914 were filmed. The master film is at The Center for Research Libraries, Chicago.

32. Soden to Caprivi, Mar. 19, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA.

33. Peters to Elli, Iassingi bei Wanga, Mar. 5, 1892, PP, vol. 87, DZAP.

34. Wissmann to Caprivi, Oct. 12, 1891, FP, vol. 21, BA.

35. Wissmann to the Foreign Ministry (telegram), Sept. 17, 1891, and Wissmann to Soden, Sept. 28, 1891, both in FP, vol. 21, BA.

36. Soden to Caprivi, Dar es Salaam, Nov. 18, 1891, and Caprivi to Soden, Berlin, Dec. 10, 1891, both in FP, vol. 21, BA.

37. Soden to Caprivi, Dar es Salaam, Apr. 19, 1892 and May 6, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA; Kayser's diary of his trip to East Africa, June 4, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA.

38. Kayser's diary, June 5, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA.

39. Berliner Tageblatt, June 23, 1892. The attacks continued in the Germania, June 26, 1892, and the Weserzeitung, July 10, 1892. Copies of these articles are in FP, vol. 21, BA.

40. Peters to Count Hermann von Arnim-Muskau, Buiti, July 30,1892, FP, vol. 7, BA.

41. Charles Stewart Smith to the British Foreign Office, Berlin, July 18,1893, Foreign Office 403/183, no. 101, Public Record Office London.

42. Peters to Caprivi, Dec. 1, 1893, and Peters to Kayser, Jan. 21, 1895, FP, vol. 21, BA. The book's title is Das Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Schutzgebiet (Munich and Leipzig, 1895).

43. Smythies to Peters, Magila, Apr. 2, 1892; Peters to Smythies, Apr. 3, 1892; and Smythies to Peters, Magila, Apr. 3, 1892, all in FP, vol. 21, BA.

44. Soden to Caprivi, report of a conversation with Peters on board the German ship Admiral, Apr. 18, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA.

45. Soden to Caprivi, Dar es Salaam, Apr. 19, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA.

46. Ibid.

47. Soden to Caprivi, Dar es Salaam, May 6, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA.

48. Ibid.

49. Wiest's testimony, Kilimanjaro station, May 23, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA.

50. Bülow to Soden, June 9, 1892, and Soden to Caprivi, July 6, 1892, both in FP, vol. 21, BA.

51. Soden to Caprivi, Dar es Salaam, July 4, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA.

52. Pechmann's testimony, Berlin (Foreign Ministry), July 7–8, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA.

53. Peters to Kayser, Zanzibar—Tanga, July 7, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA.

54. Soden to Colonial Division, July 31, 1892, FP, vol. 21, BA.

55. Soden to Caprivi, Sept. 16, 1892, and Marealle's testimony, Kilimanjaro station, Aug. 18, 1892, both in FP, vol. 21, BA.

56. Peters to Elli, Kilimanjaro station, Oct. 29, 1892, PP, vol. 87, DZAP.

57. Schuckmann's Aktenbericht to Kayser, Berlin, Feb. 14, 1894, FP, vol. 14, BA.

58. Kayser's note, Berlin, Feb. 24, 1894, FP, vol. 14, BA.

59. Kayser's written opinion, Berlin, Apr. 10, 1894, FP, vol. 14, BA.

60. Peters, , “Der ‘Fall Peters,’” Gesammelte Schriften, 1: 85.Google Scholar

61. Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung 33 (May 23, 1894): 1.

62. Kayser in the Kolonialrat (Colonial Council), III Sitzungsperiode 1895/96, No. 10, Berlin, Oct. 19, 1896 (Anlage 1), Reichskolonialamt 6968, DZAP. I wish to thank Mr. Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann for permission to read his transcripts on microfilm of the Kolonialrat records. These transcripts are located at the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, California.

63. Ibid.

64. Verhandlungen des Reichstages, 9 Leg. Per., 3 Sess., Mar. 18, 1895, 63 Sitzung, 139: 1571–73.

65. Kuhnert to Colonial Division, Mar. 26, 1895, and Kuhnert's testimony, Berlin (Foreign Ministry), Mar. 27, 1895, both in FP, vol. 21, BA.

66. Bronsart von Schellendorf's testimony, Berlin (Foreign Ministry), Mar. 27, 1895, FP, vol. 21, BA.

67. Peters's testimony, Berlin (Foreign Ministry), Apr. 9–10, 1895, FP, vol. 21, BA.

68. Hohenlohe to Wilhelm II, Berlin, Nov. 6, 1895, FP, vol. 21, BA.

69. Peters to Arendt, enclosed in Kayser to Hohenlohe, Berlin, May 17, 1895, FP, vol. 21, BA. Just to make sure his position was clear, Peters passed on an additional note in which he stipulated that he would require a totally independent position in East Africa since he could not agree with all of Wissmann's policies. He also suggested that San Francisco, “with its connections to the South Sea area,” would suit him as well as Capetown for a consular position. Peters to Arendt, May 18, 1895, FP, vol. 21, BA.

70. Handwritten observations of Hohenlohe, Berlin, May 25, 1895, FP, vol. 21, BA.

71. Aktennotiz of Kayser, May 28, 1895; Hohenlohe to Peters, May 31, 1895, Peters to Hohenlohe, June 10, 1895; Hohenlohe to Peters, June 14, 1895, all in FP, vol. 21, BA.

72. Deutsche Tageszeitung 2 (July 20, 1895): 2.

73. Peters to Hohenlohe, July 2, 1895; Peters to Hohenlohe, Oct. 11, 1895; Arendt to Kayser, Oct. 26, 1895; Kayser to Arendt, Berlin, Nov. 1, 1895; Hohenlohe to Peters, Berlin, Nov. 5, 1895; Peters to Hohenlohe, Nov. 6, 1895, all in FP, vol. 21, BA.

74. Peters, “Der ‘Fall Peters,’” Gesammelte Schriften, 1: 86.

75. Hohenlohe to Wilhelm II, Berlin, Nov. 6, 1895, written in Kayser's hand and with a marginal note by Wilhelm, FP, vol. 21, BA.

76. Orders signed by Wilhelm II, Berlin, Nov. 18, 1895, FP, vol. 21, BA.

77. Verhandlungen des Reichstages, 9 Leg. Per., 4 Sess., Mar. 13, 1896, 59 Sitzung, 144: 1430–34.

78. Ibid., pp. 1434–35.

79. Ibid., p. 1440.

80. Ludwig Raschdau, Mar. 25, 1896, ***********In Weimar als preussischer Gesandter (Berlin, 1939), pp. 66–67.

81. Verhandlungen des Reichstages, 9 Leg. Per., 4 Sess., Mar. 13, 1896, 59 Sitzung, 144: 1441–42.

82. Ibid., 3 Sess., Mar. 18, 1895, 63 Sitzung, 139: 1573.

83. Ibid., 4 Sess., Mar. 13, 1896, 59 Sitzung, 144: 1443.

84. Ibid., Mar. 14, 1896, 60 Sitzung, 144: 1447–48.

85. Ibid., p. 1448.

86. Ibid., pp. 1449–50. Arnim-Muskau did not bother to convey to the Reichstag Peters's suspicion that Mabruk had broken into the officers’ mess room in order to get into an adjacent store room where two African girls slept. Peters to Arnim-Muskau, Berlin, Mar. 14, 1896, FP, vol. 7, BA. The month in which the girl was hanged is in doubt. Sometimes Peters claimed it was in January, and other times he thought it was February.

87. Verhandlungen des Reichstages, 9 Leg. Per., 4 Sess., Mar. 14, 1896, 60 Sitzung, 144: 1453.

88. Ibid., Mar. 16, 1896, 61 Sitzung, 144: 1479.

89. Deutsche Tageszeitung 3 (Aug. 1, 1896): 1. Emphasis in original.

90. Hohenlohe to Peters, Berlin, Mar. 18, 1896, FP, vol. 21, BA.

91. Notes by Frank on an article by Peters in the Kleinen Journal, Mar. 17, 1896, FP, vol. 21, BA.

92. Krätschell, Carl Peters, p. 59.

93. Hohenlohe to Wilhelm II, Berlin, Mar. 22, 1896, and the Kaiser's marginal comment, Palermo, Apr. 2, 1896, FP, vol. 21, BA.

94. Schwartzkoppen's notation, Mar. 23, 1896, FP, vol. 21, BA.

95. Marschall to Hatzfeldt, Berlin, Mar. 24, 1896, AO (Ostafrika) 132/2, AA/284, National Archives, Washington, D.C., microcopy t-149/reel 270/frames 165–66. Identification numbers will hereafter be separated only by a slash. All of the documents from the German Foreign Ministry so identified in this article are classified in the “Botschaft London” series (pp. 1197–1203) in the American Historical Association Catalogue of Files and Microfilms of the German Foreign Ministry Archives 1867–1920 (Washington, D.C., 1959).Google Scholar

96. Marschall to Hatzfeldt, Berlin, Mar. 24, 1896, AO 132/2, AA/287, t-149/270/167.

97. Fox, H. E., Secretary of the CMS, to Rücker Jenisch, Secretary in the German Embassy, London, 03 26, 1896, AO 132/2, AA/412, t-149/270/170.Google Scholar

98. Unfortunately, neither the originals nor copies of these letters were located in the archives of the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, which include the archives of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa. It must be assumed that the letters, if still extant, are in the Potsdam archives. I thank Mrs. Brenda Hough of the United Society for her search on my behalf.

99. Hatzfeldt to Hohenlohe, London, Apr. 9, 1896, AO 132/2, AA/347, t-149/270/ 184–86.

100. Hatzfeldt to Hohenlohe, London, June 25, 1896, AO 133/1, AA/527, t-149/270/ 294–95.

101. Carl Peters to “Tucker” (but see additional information below), Magila (not Lewa), Apr. 3, 1896 (copy), AO 133/1, AA/1358 (KA 15534/96), t-149/270/460–61. Style and grammar is as in the original. On discrepancy in the date of the second hanging, see note 86 above.

102. Peters's testimony, interview conducted by Schwartzkoppen and Anton Hellwig of the Colonial Division, Berlin (Foreign Ministry), Nov. 20, 1896, FP, vol. 21, BA.

103. Peters, “Der ‘Fall Peters,’” Gesammelte Schriften, 1: 88.

104. Note by Frank of a Foreign Ministry memorandum, Feb. 13, 1901, which mentions a letter received from Tucker on Oct. 9, 1896, in which the missionary makes the denial, FP, vol. 21, BA.

105. Schwartzkoppen to Hohenlohe, Berlin, Jan. 29, 1897, FP, vol. 21, BA.

106. Peters, “Der ‘Fall Peters,’” Gesammelte Schriften, 1: 88, n. 1.

107. Frank has summarized these interviews in FP, vol. 21, BA.

108. Pechmann's testimony, Nov. 11, 1896; Wiest's testimony, July 25, 1896; and Jancke's testimony, Aug. 7, 1896, all taken at the Foreign Ministry in Berlin; also, Bronsart von Schellendorf's testimony, Moshi (German East Africa), Sept. 16, 1896, FP, vol. 21, BA.

109. Hohenlohe to Schwartzkoppen, Berlin, Sept. 21, 1896, FP, vol. 21, BA.

110. Deutsche Kolonialzeitung 9 (Mar. 28, 1896): 97.

111. Peters, “Der ‘Fall Peters,’” Gesammelte Schriften, 1: 90.

112. Ibid., 1: 90–91, n. 1.

113. Deutsche Kolonialzeitung 10 (May 1, 1897): 17. The article paraphrases the court's written opinion. I have not been able to identify the statements Peters made to Baumann.

114. Ibid.

115. Ibid.; also see Smith, Woodruff D., The German Colonial Empire (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1978), pp. 95–97.Google Scholar

116. Quoted in Bair, Henry Martin Jr., “Carl Peters and German Colonialism: A Study in the Ideas and Actions of Imperialism,” (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1968) p. 208.Google Scholar

117. Quoted in ibid.; for more on Peters's fight to save his reputation, see his lawyer's defense summary, Feb. 20, 1896, FP, vol. 21, BA; Hellwig, who represented the Colonial Division, wrote to Kayser about the case, Berlin, Apr. 25, 1897, KP, No. 42.2653, SUH; Frank, “Paul Kayser,” p. 553; Pierard, Richard V., “The German Colonial Society, 1882–1914,” (Ph.D. diss., Iowa State University, 1964) pp. 174–75.Google Scholar

118. Bair, “Carl Peters,” pp. 208–09; Pierard, “German Colonial Society,” p. 175; Peters, “Der ‘Fall Peters,’” Gesammelte Schriften, 1: 91–92; Krätschell, Carl Peters, pp. 60–61; von Kardorff, Siegfried, Wilhelm von Kardorff: Ein nationaler Parlamentarier im Zeitalter Bismarcks und Wilhelms II, 1828–1907 (Berlin, 1936), pp. 362–63.Google Scholar

119. Quoted in Bair, “Carl Peters,” p. 181.

120. Müller, Deutschland—Zanzibar—Ostafrika, p. 97.

121. Within the Foreign Ministry, Kayser had lost the support of the powerful Friedrich von Holstein because he supported the large naval increase which Wilhelm II was promoting. Also, German commercial companies complained that Kayser had not done enough to stimulate economic development in the colonies. Under increasing pressures, Kayser's health, never good, began to decline. Consequently, when the position of the Chief Judge of the German Supreme Court at Leipzig became vacant at the beginning of October 1896, Kayser quickly made known his desire to fill it. His request was granted by Wilhelm on Oct. 15. On Feb. 13, 1898, Kayser died at the age of fifty-two, a man exhausted and frustrated by his years at the Foreign Ministry. See Haller, Johannes, Philip Eulenburg: The Kaiser's Friend, tran. Mayne, Ethel Colburn, 2 vols. (New York, 1930), 1: 333Google Scholar; Deutsche Tageszeitung 3 (July 14, 1896): 2; and Kayser to his uncle, Julius Baron, Berlin, Oct. 11, 1896, Bestand Reichsinstitut für Geschichte des neuen Deutschlands, r1/3/II, BA.