Kord Waffenrock Project update

Almost three years ago, I posted here about my intention to research, source materials for, and construct a "museum quality" Southwest Africa Schutztruppe model 1896 kord waffenrock.  I learned a great deal in this process and found a premier tailor and 1850s-1900s colonial-era uniform specialist with whom to collaborate.  He is almost finished with the waffenrock (front view shown here) for an unteroffizier ohne portapee (in this case, a Sergeant), with original Prussian Guard silver metallic tresse at the cuffs and collar and original imperial sergeantenknopf on the collar (and not visible in this shot). There are also kord trousers and I'll have more construction details and pictures of both to share shortly.

I am building the entire impression, minus the rifle, and will post documentation and sources of the uniform parts and accouterments in subsequent posts.  I am down to the final missing piece (properly constructed tall brown riding boots that will fit my wide calf) and may have found a workable solution.

Kord Waffenrock M1896: Kaiserliche Schutztruppe Deutsch-Südwestafrika

From Die Deutschen Kolonial und Schutztruppen von 1889 bis 1918

One of the most distinctive uniforms used in German Southwest Africa during the period of the Herero and Nama wars and for some years before and after was the model 1896 corduroy waffenrock.
I've decided to try to recreate this uniform tunic, and possibly fashion a complete reenacting impression for a sergeant of the landsturm, which presents a number of challenges, the most significant of which is that I do not have an original uniform to examine in person.   There are, however, many contemporary images, as well as photographs of surviving examples, and by examining the differences between the Prussian M1895 waffenrock on which it is based, I believe a credible interpretation may be achieved.   I have also been able to source most of the trimmings needed to complete this coat as well, and have every expectation that I will be able to gather the materials I require.

Prussian Field Artillery M1895 waffenrock,
rear view

The imperial German waffenrock went through a number of iterations during the 19th century.  The model 1895 Prussian waffenrock was the basis both for the Schutztruppe gray Home Uniform and corduroy waffenrock tunic and trousers that were issued to soldiers in Southwest Africa as a suitable winter weight alternative to wool or tropical khaki.  The DSWA Schutztruppe variant differed in several respects from the basic Prussian design.  It featured a stand and fall collar, Swedish cuffs and piping in cornflower blue: the color prescribed for the troops of the Southwest Africa colony. Because the Schutztruppe were imperial troops, it had white metal buttons with the imperial crown.  It also featured a single white Litzen (silver metallic for senior NCOs and officers) with an internal red stripe on the 5cm collar and two on each cuff.  For my sergeant's impression, I will need to add 2cm wide silver lace on the front edge and bottom of the collar and the edge of the cuffs, along with a large white metal NCO's collar button.  There were eight buttons down the front of the uniform, and an internal cloth drawstring at the waist to adjust the fit.  There were also 2 buttons on the cuffs and s split vent with an internal, small white metal button attached with four holes as a closure.

I'm less certain about the top buttons on the rear flaps of the tunic, and whether these should be imperial crown belt hooks or not.  I have a pair just in case.  All the imperial buttons were pressed through the fabric and attached with what look like split brass rings.  The collar was closed by one or two long hooks that also attached to a brass ring.  Button holes were hand sewn but the rest of the tunic was machine stitched.

The issued waffenrock was lined.  I doubt that the skirts were in black cotton or silk like the Prussian waffenrock..  My interpretation will have white linen lining above the skirts (with an internal pocket at the left breast) and heavy khaki poplin to line the skirts.   The back of the tunic has a working vent which allows access to two skirt pockets.  The skirt flaps and the open edge of the tunic are piped in cornflower blue. There were reinforcement bars stitched at the top, rear of the cuff adjustment slits and above the rear vent of the tunic.

The enlisted Schutztruppe uniforms also had shoulder boards made from white mohair cord with imperial black and red chevrons backed with cornflower blue wool.  I was able to get some reproduction cord and will make the shoulder-boards myself.  Officers had silver bullion cord with imperial black and red chevrons.

Aside from these details, sourcing the uniform fabric has been challenging.  I am going with wool felt in cornflower blue for the collar, cuffs and shoulder board backing.  I've requested a swatch of the Hainsworth True Heritage brown khaki whipcord uniform fabric. Contemproary Germans called corduroy trousers Manchesterhosen after the famous English corduroy manufacturing center, and the color sandfarben specified for field service was variously colored sandy brown corduroy that lightened in the desert sun.  I have an original M1893 canteen cover made from brown corduroy and if the Hainsworth stuff is a close match, that is what I'll use.

As a junior NCO (Unteroffizier ohne Portapee), there is no difference between the insignia on my kord waffenrock and that of a vice-feldwebel.  These ranks are distinguished by bayonet knots.  Unteroffiziers and Sergeants wore a troddel knot in imperial colors, and I have one of those though I do not yet own an appropriate bayonet.  Senior NCOs and Officers were entitled to the more ornate Portapee, which was worn by the vice-feldwebel and feldwebel with a sword while on parade and on the bayonet when on campaign.  Those for DSWA were closed knots with white metallic lace with the lanyard threaded in imperial black and red colors.  I do not have one of these.  On very rare occassions, an historic image shows an unteroffizer wearing both the kord waffenrock and a detachable shoulder chevron such as were worn on the kord litewka and khaki feldrock uniforms, but this was not according to regulation.

I'm far too old to depict the young regular army volunteers who customarily served 3 year terms in the Schutztruppe in southwest Africa.   My impression, should I ever complete it, will be of a reservist from the Landsturm, an old retired member of the Protection Force who settled down int he colony and was called up during the Herero uprising.  I'll wear a mix of uniform types and Schutztruppe kit, which was quite common even for regular Schutztruppen while on campaign.

If anyone reading this post has firsthand knowledge or documentation for the lining of the kord waffenrock, whether it had belt hooks or not at the top of the vent flaps, and what specific fabric comprised the collar, cuffs shoulder-board backing, I would be deeply appreciative of your sharing you knowledge and source material.

Schutztruppe Feldwebel Shoulder Insignia

Reproduction DSWA Feldwebel Shoulder Insignia

Here is a modern recreation of the shoulder insignia of a senior NCO in the Deutsch Südwestafrika Schutztruppe.  The feldwebel was the highest level NCO in Imperial Germany and functioned as Company Sergeant Major.  The triangular chevron with four metallic silver stripes (with blue cloth backing for DSWA) was worn by the feldwebel on the left shoulder as a detachable shoulder patch with hooks at the corners.  However, such chevrons were only worn with the tropical uniforms (either white or khaki (feldrock) and also the kord litewka.  The home and kord waffenrock uniforms, on the other hand, featured collar and cuff rank insignia instead. 

The diligent painter, therefore, should indicate NCO rank based on the appropriate style for the uniform. Senior NCOs (feldwebel or vice-feldwebel) also wore the closed sword knot without fringe (Portapee), as seen on the feldwebel in the image, below.

"We Have Fought Three Times With The Machines, And I Won." - Armored Trains & Herero Rifles in 1904 (Part I)

Illustration by Carl Becker, in Deutsche Reiter in Südwest (1907)

The narrow gauge railway in German Southwest Africa connecting Swakopmund to Windhoek played a significant part  during the opening weeks of the German - Herero War in 1904. At least three times, Herero forces fought off and turned back relief forces trying to reconnect Okahandja and Windhoek by rail.  They tore up tracks and destroyed key bridges at Wilhelmstal and near Osona Station, further hampering German efforts to respond to the widening uprising.  They also attacked a separate rail line then under construction to Otavi.  Even after rail service was restored between the coast and the capital, a considerable number of troops was required to fortify the towns and stations along the railway , as well as several rapid firing artillery pieces that together with the additional manpower might otherwise have been available for combat operations in the field.

The need for a railroad in Southwest Africa had become a transportation necessity following the outbreak of the livestock disease Rinderpest in 1897 which killed at least half of the settlers' oxen and nearly destroyed the vast Herero cattle herds.  By mid June, 1902, the Germans had completed a feldbahn or narrow gauge railway between Swakopmund and Windhoek.  The line gained nearly a mile of elevation (1654 m)  as it traveled inland.  It was operated by the Imperial Railway Command and possessed a small number of passenger carriages (1st and 2nd class) along with more than three hundred (mostly open) goods wagons.

Zwillinge steam locomotives, water tender and loaded trucks on the Swakopmund - Windhoek line
(Photo from database maintained by Goethe Universität Frankfort am Main)

Zwillinge engines, nearly identical except for the overhanging cab of the engine at right
(Photo from database maintained by Goethe Universität Frankfort am Main)

The trains were very slow (8.6 mph /14km/hr) but much faster than ox wagons and could make the 237 mile (382 k)  journey in just 2-3 days.  Most were drawn by twin (zwillinge) locomotives with wheels in a 0-6-0 configuration, paired cab to cab so a single engine crew could simply step across overlapping plates to run them forward or in reverse.  There were more than fifty of these steam engines on the line, of which just a single specimen survives and is on display outside the train station in Namibia's capitol Windhoek. 

Wounded soldiers at Abbabis station
(Photo from database maintained by Goethe Universität Frankfort am Main)

The railway featured prominently in the events just prior to and following the Herero uprising. The first of these, centered around a disabled section of track where the line between Windhuk and Okahandja crossed the Swakop River, will be the topic of the next post in this series.

Material Culture: Corduroy Peaked DSWA Schutztruppe Officer's Cap

There has been an extremely rare offering on Ebay UK in the last few months, which thus far unsuccessful in attracting a bidder after two listings with an opening bid of $2,198 and change, for a DSWA Schutztruppe peaked officers cap.  In sand colored corduroy and dated 1912, this cap was likely used in the last years of German colonial rule, including the brief campaign and surrender to Louis Botha's Union of South Africa invasion force in 1915.  Similar hats were worn by officers and enlisted men in during the 1904 Herero war, though this is the only one I've seen photographed with the visor painted the same sand color.  I wish that there were more figures available in 28mm for wargaming wearing this style of headgear, though I have converted some Africans wearing fez using epoxy putty to create peaked hatted auxiliaries.

The Problem with Peter Moor

Evaluating and interpreting primary source material is essential to historical inquiry.   The perspectives of participants in a colonial war such as was fought in 1904 in German Southwest Africa (DSWA) can be profoundly revealing, but one should be wary of accepting them uncritically.  Personal narrative by its very nature is unique to the individual and reflects the time and circumstances in which it is written.  Military after-action reports are likewise drafted with personal and cultural biases, not to mention political considerations.  Even methodical official campaign histories - bloodless prose and all - still embody the values and attitudes of Imperial Germany.  Other accounts, such as testimony about German atrocities in Southwest Africa collected by the British authorities after WWI , were used to support the colony's assignment as a League of Nations mandated territory to the Union of South Africa. 

All can be valuable sources, but all need to be evaluated in context, and some are more reliable than others. As with any scientific method, it is vital to test and revisit one's own assumptions as well as those of the past.  Sometimes, as my Great Uncle Archie was known to observe; "Maybe it ain't so." 

My interest in the documentary evidence from the German-Herero War places particular emphasis on the material culture of the participants, as I am trying to represent them in miniature for the gaming table as accurately as scale, sculpting, and my painting skills allow.   I am not fluent in German, so my ability to access near-contemporary written evidence  is limited to what I can parse with a basic understanding of the language and what is available in translation.  Photographs can be very helpful, but there is nothing quite like a first-person account for revealing the small details that can add authenticity, and sometimes even provide evidence that is unavailable elsewhere.

Many with an interest in this period of history cite one account in particular that has the added virtue of being available in English translation.  This is "Peter Moor's journey to Southwest Africa; a narrative of the German Campaign."  The original "Peter Moors Fahrt nach Südwest" (1907) was written by Gustav Frenssen and translated into English by Margaret May Ward in 1908.  The English version is accessible in its entirety online, and the usually reliable website German Colonial Uniforms quotes Peter Moor as evidence for elements of the material culture of the Schutztruppe and Seebataillon in DSWA.  

The problem with Peter Moor is that he doesn't exist.  No one by that name is known to have served with either the Seebataillon or with the Protection Force in DSWA as Frenssen's tale alleges.  The Peter Moor of the story is a literary conceit, a composite character based on research, perhaps, but in the end still a work of historical fiction, as a contemporary review in the New York Times makes clear. While there are a number of small and tantalizing details offered in the "narrative" that lend it verisimilitude, the final paragraph of the book reveals that this is not a first person account, but at most an imaginative retelling by a non-participant. 

"When I was sauntering along the Jungfernstieg in my worn-out, dirty cord uniform, with dark, sunburned face, a middle-aged man came up and joined me, and asked me all sorts of questions as we went along.  In the course of the conversation it came out that I had heard of him in my father's house; for he had known my father from childhood.  I related to him all that I had seen and experienced, and what I had thought of it all.  And he has made this book out of it."

At least one other part of the Peter Moor story does not ring true as personal narrative.  That is the chapter entitled "A Dangerous Mission" that takes place during the Hamakari campaign as the various German  sections were converging on the Waterberg.   Moor is dispatched, together with a blonde Berliner, a young Alsatian soldier and a Mecklenberger riding a particularly bad horse, to bring a letter of instruction "to the westerly division, which, as it was the last to arrive from Germany, was still somewhat behind in the march."  Frenssen describes Moor's dramatic escape from ambush as the sole survivor of his four-man patrol, eventually finding his way to a heliograph station, and from there to the headquarters section beneath its identifying gas balloon.

All this is stirring stuff, to be sure, but quite unsubstantiated by the exacting records kept by the Germans of their casualties during the war.  There was indeed a patrol that was wiped out on August 6th, 1904, less than a week prior to Hamakari, but it was a nine-man patrol lead by a German nobleman - Leutnant Hans Bodo Freiherr von Bodenhausen. They were attacked and destroyed by Hereros under Hosea Komombumbi Kutako near Osondjache to the northwest of the Waterberg.  Peter Moor's adventure seems to have been based on this episode.  While Moor would not have been the first veteran to have exaggerated his service in the telling, the fact that Frenssen is the author of the Moor narrative and that it is was recognized in its time as a novel makes it clearly a work of fiction.

This is a shame, because Peter Moor's Journey is filled with the sort of detail that shows that Frenssen did considerable research to make it believable and may, in fact, have consulted actual participants or their writings.  One recognizes the Landungskorps sailor in his stained uniform guarding the railway, the hapless Eastern Section under "The Old Major" von Glasenapp at Owikokorero and Owiumbo, and the general chronology of the campaign.  If we are to evaluate the veracity of the historical details provided in the Peter Moor text, and whether it has any value as documentary evidence in the light of modernity, we need to know something first of the author.  What was his agenda?  Can he be trusted?

Frenssen lived between 1863-1945.   His fictional works were very popular in his day, both for his vivid descriptions of regional and rural life that made him a leading figure in the Heimatkunst  or "Homeland Art" movement,  and for his strong nationalism and support for German colonialism.  One sees evidence of these aspects of his writing in the Berliner, Alsatian and Mecklenberger of Peter Moor's "lost patrol".   A number of Frenssen's works beside Peter Moor were translated into English where they found a wider audience.  Frenssen was even nominated in 1914 for the Nobel prize in literature.

Frenssen (at left)  and his wife with members of the Nazi-dominated Eutiner poetry circle

He was also a disturbed and enigmatic figure: a Lutheran pastor who came to reject Christianity; a introvert who wrote engagingly about common people but was obsessed with racial hygiene; a Kulturpolitiker as well as a novelist who shifted firmly into Nazi propaganda; and one whose books were banned in occupied Germany after the war.  He was neurotic, insecure, and  according to an article by Frank X. Braun  published in 1947, came to see Adolf Hitler as "a second and greater Bismarck."

It is possible to respect the art and reject the artist - how else can one appreciate the music of Wagner?  A text like Peter Moor, regardless of how subsequent readers may interpret it, through whatever cultural or critical lens, cannot be so easily divorced from authorial intent.  It can be treated  as an artifact, as an example of colonial zeitgeist, but it is not a soldier's narrative and it is not a credible source of historical documentation for the material culture of the Germans and their adversaries during the 1904 war in Southwest Africa.   Other participant accounts, mostly in German, will have to serve.

[Dr. Talya Leodari, my fiancée, contributed to the development of this post.]


 

No White Feathers: Misreading a Key Element of the Material Culture of the Witbooi Nama in 1904

At the outset of the German -Herero War in January, 1904, the white soldiers of the Schutztruppe and its reserves were bolstered by several hundred African allies.  The largest group of these native soldiers was a contingent of about 120 men from a Nama sub-group known as the Witboois. 

They were an Oorlam or mixed race people and the last of five Oorlam clans that made the the trek north from the Cape in the early to mid-19th century to settle in what is now south central Namibia.  Since then, the Witbooi have assimilated more thoroughly with the Nama, referring themselves by the clan name ǀKhowesin in the Khoikhoigowab or Damara/Nama language, but during the German colonial period they more commonly used a variant of Afrikaans, and the name "Witbooi "means just what it sounds like in that language.

Hendrik Witbooi (d.1905) and others wearing the knotted white turban of their clan

Their leader during the critical period between 1885 and 1905 was Hendrik Witbooi, a remarkable person who fought against both the Germans and the Herero in the 1890s, then allied with the colonial power until October of 1904 when he lead his people in a guerrilla war of resistance.

Hendrick Witbooi and Nama Horsemen wearing Imperial armbands (likely late 1890s).

 The men riding with Hendrick Witbooi in the image, above, wear white turbans around the crown of their hats, and in one case, a pith helmet with a hatband in Imperial colors.  Many writers have concluded that the tail end of white cloth that extends above the knot on the top of the hat, clearly visible in this and other contemporary images as well as in versions of the Witbooi turban used today as ceremonial regalia,  is actually a white feather.  I believe this comes from a misreading of a section of Witbooi's  October 3, 1904 letter in which he announces his declaration of war ; 

"...I have now stopped walking submissively and will write a letter to the [German] Captain saying that I have put on the white feather and that the time is over when I will walk behind him ̧ The Savior himself will now act and He will free us through His grace and compassion...."
 
It is clear from the images provided here that this is not a correct interpretation of the meaning of Witbooi's (translated) words.  It is the turban itself to which he refers, worn during times of war. A metaphorical feather, perhaps, is formed by the topknot, but there is no evidence that a real feather was ever stuck in the turban, nor is one used in modern versions of the same turban (color photos below courtesy of the Gibeon Village Council website).

Reverend Hendrick Witbooi (1934-2009) wearing the traditional knotted white turban covering the crown of his hat.

Honor guard at Rev. Witbooi's funeral, including horsemen wearing the knotted white turban.

An image of Lt. Gen. Lothar v. Trotha inspecting Witbooi troopers at Okahandja in June 1904 (source Bayer)

Fate was not kind to the Witbooi troopers who served under the Germans during the Herero War of 1904.  19 of them deserted with their arms after Hamakari and returned to Hendrik Witbooi at their home place of Gibeon.  It is said that they were alarmed that their people might be crushed just as brutally by the Germans as the Herero and that their report was part of what motivated Witbooi to declare war in October, 1904.  

The remaining 90 or more Witbooi auxiliaries were disarmed when hostilities began with the Nama and were sent in a group of 118 prisoners to labor in German Togo where at least 63 of them died of disease. The survivors were transferred to German Cameroon in 1905 along with more Witbooi Nama prisoners, and there were more deaths in exile until they were  finally repatriated to Southwest Africa by Governor Lindquist after the fighting found down and the Nama had been broken and decimated.

Images of Herero Leaders: Tjetjo Kandji and Traugott Tjetjo

Tjetjo Kandji in dark coat, center, and his son Traugott Tjetjo on the white horse

This is one of my favorite images of Herero leaders from the German colonial period in Southwest Africa.  I cannot find an electronic version of it online without watermarks, and if you expand this one you will see a faint white grid superimposed across the photograph.  Originals are in the United Evangelical Mission Archives, Wuppertal. There is also second variant of this image, in which the man next to the chicken has moved slightly and the riders are oriented on a slightly different angle.

The man on the dark horse at the center of the image, wearing a dark coat and with a kerchief under his hat, is Tjetjo Kandji, a leader of an eastern group of Hereros.  His son Traugott Tjetjo is also in the image.  He rides a white horse and wears a sash over his uniform.  There is no way to be certain in this black and white photograph, but it could be the red sash worn as a badge of office by those service as police in German Southwest Africa.   The photograph itself may have been taken in the mid 1890s, during the boundary dispute over which areas would be reserved for African settlement and those that would be restricted for the colonists.

These two men were central, tragic figures in the dispossession of the Herero in Southwest Africa, but also skilled military leaders who dealt the Germans one of their greatest battlefield defeats of the 1904 war.  

Tjetjo unsuccessfully opposed Governor Leutwein's elevation of  Samuel Maharero as paramount chief, contrary to Herero dual descent inheritance and clan structures. He inherited most of the wealth of Maharero Tjamuaha through matrilineal (Eanda) descent, and supported the old chief's half brother and war leader, Riarua , over Samuel Mahareo as Herero chief at Okahandja.  The Germans backed Samuel, however, and Tjetjo was eventually compelled to surrender other inherited cattle to Samuel in 1895 and to recognize him as his paramount chief. 

Following the German war in 1896 with the Otjiherero-speaking Ovambanderu people and their Namaqua allies the Khauas-Khoi, one of Samuel's lieutenant's, Kajata, moved into Tjetjo's territory on the Black Nossob and raided the cattle of his followers.  Traugott Tjetjo retaliated and rode with the Germans on cattle raids of their own.  Several hundred Mbanderu were disarmed and placed under his control after one raid.  These cattle raids were instigated to offset the devastating lose of Herero herds to the Rinderpest outbreak and were necessitated to pay off debts to European traders, which was a factor contributing to the tension and resentment that lead to the German-Herero war of 1904.  In 1899, the Germans moved to disarm Tjetjo and Traugott's people because they refused to register their rifles.

 In early January, 1904, Tjetjo was in the Gobabis district. On January 6th, less than a week before the opening of hostilities, Tjetjo met with Kurt Streitwolf , a German official who reported afterward to his superiors that he believed that war was not imminent. 

Tjetjo's people represented a considerable force, estimated in February by Streitwolf to have at least 1,000 men (with 500 rifles) moving from Kehoro toward the Onjati Mountains.  Governor Leutwein sent the Ostabteilung under Seebataillon Major von Glasnapp to prevent them from escaping to Bechuanaland.  Instead, Tjetjo and his band stayed ahead of the Germans, moving north.  Tjetjo ultimately rounded on them at Owikokerero, where an advance party of the Germans, including a large number of officers, suffered heavy casualties.  A second battle between Tjetjo's people and von Glasnapp's force at Okaharui ended the campaign for the Ostabteilung.

After the battle of Hamakari,  Tjetjo and Traugott and another chief called Mambo retreated along the dry Eiseb River into the Omaheke desert.  They travelled seperately from the main Herero groups under Samuel and his other followers, and were vulnerable both to thirst and to the pursuing Germans.  Major von Estorff's column attacked Tjetjo's people at Owinuau Naua and forced them to flee further into the desert.  Tjetjo ultimately died of thirst near a waterhole called Oruaromunjo.  Mambo is reported to have died of exhaustion, and Traugott Tjetjo is also believed to have died along with so many others trying to reach Bechuanaland.

Images of Herero Leaders: Mbandjo/Bandju.

from an 1897 woodblock engraving

One of the less well known African leaders from the period of the German - Herero War of 1904 was Mbandjo (Banjo/ Bandju), the headman of the Herero who lived in the vicinity of Otjombonde, a few days travel to the north of Omaruru. 

Mbandjo was the leader of a  northern Herero community that followed traditional practices rather than Christianity. The woodcut at left shows him as he appeared in 1897, wearing the regalia of a Herero headman, including a necklace of large white seashells.

Mbandjo is mentioned in the Journal of Gustaf De Vylder, a naturalist and trader who made several excursions in Hereroland in the mid 1870s.  During a trek made by ox wagon between Omaruru and Otjozondjupa near the Waterberg, De Vylder notes that while stopped at Ondombo:  "The chief, Bandju, came and begged as usual for everything he saw.  He selected a rifle that he said he wished to buy."  The next day De Vylder "bought a 'kru' bird from Banju for a rifled musket." 

Aside from illustrating the complex mercantile system that influenced and affected the economy of traditional  Herero communities during this period, De Vylder's account also shows that he had met Mbanjo before and that as a European trader he viewed the Africa leader's interest in receiving a gift of valuable trade goods with disdain.

Mbandjo was still the headman of the Otjombonde Herero at the time of the Rinderpest

outbreak in 1897, and is described in German accounts as allowing his herds to be vaccinated and his sick cattle shot for their gall to be used for inoculation.  Around this same period, most likely at the same time that the portrait was made, above, another image was taken of Mbandjo and his family,  later reproduced as the fancifully tinted German colonial postcard, at right.

I have not yet determined Chief Mbandjo's and his followers movements  prior to the battle of Hamakari at the Waterberg.  Possibly he fought against Captain Franke's 2nd Feldcompanie at Omaruru in February or against Estorff's Westabteilung at Otjihaenamaperero in March, 1904.  Captured Herero leader Zacharias Zeraua reported under interrogation that during the flight through the Omaheke, Mbandjo was among the Herero leaders who were gathered at Osombo Onjatu on the Eiseb River in September.  Subsequent margin notes on his testimony thought by historian Jan-Bart Gewald to have been made by Major Ludwig von Estorff indicate that Mbanjo was dead, and one of his sons, Moses Mbandjo or M'Buanjo, was among the leaders of the Herero survivors who returned to Southwest Africa after the South African invasion in 1915 and later headman in Omaruru. 

Farbfotografie from Deutsch-Südwestafrika

Hereros from Farbenphotographien aus den Deutschen Kolonien

Color photography was in its infancy at the turn of the 20th century, yet it did exist and there were enthusiastic amateur photographers using this medium in the years leading up to World War I.  The Autochrome process developed by the Lumière brothers and brought to market in 1907 required a tripod and a longer exposure time, lending itself more readily to portraiture and landscape photography.  Although not in use during the German Herero War, there were color photographs taken in German Southwest Africa  as early as 1910. 
Many of these were published in 1913 in Farbenphotographien aus den Deutschen Kolonien by Dr. Willy Scheel, and some of these later appeared among the 126 color photographs included in the 2 volume Die Deutschen Kolonien written by former Schutztruppe Officer Kurd Schwabe.  Schwabe's books credit three photographers:  Dr. Robert Lohmeyer, Bruno Marquardt and Eduard Kiewning.  I am not certain whether any of these were responsible for taking the images in 1910 published in Scheel's book of Southwest Africa. 

These color photographs are an astonishing visual record of the land and some of its people in the years immediately following the Herero and Nama uprisings.  They are of particular interest to me both because of what they reveal (and perhaps betray) about the "colonizing lens" of the photographers, and also the material culture of the indigenous people they have captured in color.

Christian Herero Woman from Farbenphotographien aus den Deutschen Kolonien

These two color images of Herero people  were published by Scheel.  Given the overcast sky, the group image above was taken during the rainy season.  You can just make out two tin roofed, white walled houses beyond the trees.  The crease of the hat worn by the man at the front of the cart is worn and discolored from frequent removal and his coat may be corduroy.  The tall man's blue and white striped shirt is too small for his long arms.  The women in the cart wear orange and red print dresses.  None of them looks at the photographer, except, perhaps, for the man whose face is entirely in shadow.. 

In contrast,  the portrait of the Herero woman in white, above is hauntingly direct.  Identified by Scheel as a Christian Herero woman, her dress has what look like bone buttons.  She wears multiple strands of beads that are predominantly a reddish brown color but also include yellow, white, blue and black segments.  Her eyes, though, are unflinching, fathomless, and for the European viewer in the early 20th century, ultimately unknowable. 

In a time when few people smiled for the camera, viewers projected their own interpretations on the subjects of these portraits.  Did  German readers of Scheel or Schwabe see a "civilized" Africans,  defeated subjects brought back to their allegiance, evidence that the extermination of the Herero had been greatly exaggerated?  Do viewers today see the defiance of a survivor, or a thousand yard stare?

Simon Kooper (ǃGomxab), The Captain in the Striped Coat

Leuntant Weiss, flanked by Simon Kooper and Henrick Witbooi

 There are several images taken together of German and Nama leaders when they were still allies that include a man with a white mustache and a vertically striped coat.  He appears at left with a Leutnant Weiss and below with Karl Henning Conrad von. Burgsdorff, as well as in a third image previously posted here.  His name was Simon Kooper, and he was one of the greatest of the Nama leaders during their 1904-1908 war with the Germans in Southwest Africa.

Bezirksamtmann v. Burgsdorff with Hendrick Witbooi and Simon Kooper

Simon Koper or Kooper, whose Nama name is !Gomxab, was part of the Fransman or ǃKharakhoen Nama who emigrated to Southwest Africa in the mid-19th century from the Northern Cape region of South Africa.  Kooper assumed the leadership of this group in 1863.  The clan was closely allied at this time to the Oorlam at Windhoek under Jonker Afrikaner.  In 1889 Kooper's people formed their main settlement at Gochas t east of Mariental.

Longtime allies of Hendrick Witbooi, Simon Kooper's Nama fought against the Germans with the Witbooi in the 1890s, and joined with the Witboois once again in the war against the Germans in 1904-1908.  In the photographs,  Kooper wears the imperial armband of Germany's native auxiliaries, but was quick to side with the Witboois when they rose up in October, 1904.

Despite his advanced age, Simon Kooper proved a tenacious are resilient guerrilla leader.  Among his reported extraordinary accomplishments, he is said not only to have survived imprisonment on the notorious Shark Island, where there was a 90% death rate, but to have actually escaped from it and returned to the field.  Although this claim requires further substantiation, there is no doubt that he fought the Germans in numerous battles alongside both the Witboois and the forces of Jakob Morenga, and that he lead the very last Nama resistance group in the field well into 1908.  The Germans actually attached him in the Bechuanaland Protectorate where he had taken refuge, and he was ultimately given a pension by the British in 1909.  He died in 1913 and is buried near Kaartle pan in Botswana.  His grave is inscribed both in German and in Damara/Nama.

Sources

Detail from Kriegskarte von Deutsch-Südwestafrica, Blatt Otavi (Berlin, 1904)

Researching the German Colonial period in Southwest Africa (modern Nambia) presents linguistic, geographical and cultural challenges for tabletop wargamers.  Much of the primary documentation is in German and reflects a strong imperial bias.  Much of the material culture of the colonial Schutztruppe resides in museum collections in southern Africa or Europe.  As for the Herero, Nama, Damara and Khoisan people who resisted the Germans and were ultimately dispossessed and decimated in the wars of 1904-1907, their story is only partially glimpsed in the often gruesome photographs taken of starving prisoners and the oral traditions of the survivors.

I am able to partially overcome these disadvantages thanks to a collection of secondary source material I purchased while living in Namibian in 1991-1992 and again between 1996 and 1998.  This includes a full set of the German War Maps published by Dietrich Reimer in 1904, and reprinted by the National Archives of Namibia (Archeia 6) as Kriegskarte von Deutsch-Südwestafrica 1904, together with a supplemental index of names (Archeia 9).  These are wonderfully detailed and provide a wealth of local place names, waterhole locations, wagon tracks and topography that give an excellent feel for the setting of tabletop adventures in this period.

I also own several secondary source histories of the German colonial period in Namibia, including Helmut Bley's Namibia Under German Rule (reprinted in 1996), Gerhard Pool's Samuel Maharero (1991), Warriors Leaders Sages and Outcasts in the Namibian Past; Narratives Collected from Herero Sources for the MSORP project 1985-6 , Horst Drechler's Let Us Die Fighting (reprinted 1984); and N. Mossolow's Waterberg; On the History of the Mission Station Otjozondjupa, the Kambazembi Tribe and Hereroland (1993).  Many of these works are themselves translations and were written with specific research agendae and historical perspectives.  They contain some data that is helpful for tabletop wargaming, especially the events of the German campaigns in 1904.

For the material culture of the Schutztruppe, I know of no better online resource than the extraordinary UK website German Colonial Uniforms.  This is the gold standard, is often updated, and is especially helpful as a uniform guide for miniature selection and painting.For the material culture of the Herero people during the 1904 war and its aftermath, period photographs are the most helpful resource.  Many of those who fought the Germans did so in European clothing and with European firearms.  Many of the images of emaciated prisoners in chains show them in rags or skins (and in one case, sacks).  This is not a period where the African forces fought in traditional regalia, but there are elements of traditional Herero culture, including the dress of noncombatants, that would be appropriate to depict if only there were appropriate miniatures available for this purpose.

We will explore and evaluate the manufacturers whose offerings may be appropriate for a Colonial German Southwest Africa tabletop scenario based during the war with the Herero in a subsequent post.