We had to rebuild. Commercial contact with the homeland was forbidden, under heavy penalty, so we could not get money, support or advice from Berlin. We did not have the emergency money created by the German government during the war, the so-called Seitzscheine. This was declared worthless and not recognized by the Union government; only the British pound sterling could be used for payment. We therefore had to borrow credit from the English banks that immediately came into the colony. They awarded credit at first only against mortgages on property. As the owner of the whole of the land of Swakopmund and Lüderitzbucht we fought a tough battle with the British authorities, who had taken over large tracts of our property because of our mineral rights and our mines.
Food and all other commodities, clothing and spirits were imported from Cape Town, and gradually a lively trade unfolded. There was no milk, so at my request Dr. Hartig of the Liebig Company in Heusis sent a cow and calf in order that we could supply milk to our two children (Heinz was only six months old). The cow was almost out of milk but we had a second cow, which calved, and through good feeding with lucerne, maize and mash from the brewery the milk yield finally increased so that we could give it to our neighbours.
In 1916, Werner fell ill with a severe pulmonary inflammation, and he was still getting malaria, which he had picked up during his stay in Windhoek. Once he was better, Emmy took him and Heinz to convalesce in Klein-Windhoek for six weeks.
In 1917 Emmy and I spent two weeks as guests of our friend Venuleth on his farm Okanjati near Otjiwarongo, we had a wonderful time there.
In 1918 influenza, a terrible lung disease, swept through a large number of white populations. The disease was very severe in Swakopmund, too. Emmy and Werner were very ill for a long time, Heinz and I were spared. All the natives caught it. They sickened and died like flies and were buried in mass graves at night; and of course that meant that there were no native staff at all in the house throughout that terrible time. Of all the Company staff there were only three healthy employees, apart from me, and all business activity came to a standstill.
On 20 June 1919, on the day of the peace,[90] our Herbert was born. Peace! But what a peace for us Germans and for our South-West Africa; because our beautiful country that we cherished and held dear, for which we had worked and fought, no longer belonged to us and became the mandate of the Union government. The German Schutztruppe, now interned in Aus, was transported to Germany, and all those who were not acceptable to the new government were expelled and repatriated by the civilian administration. They were expelled with unbelievable brutality, often with just an hour’s notice, and transported by ship in the harshest way possible. I know of hundreds of examples, enough to fill a book by themselves.
Despite the position I held, we were not expelled; for that I am indebted to a magistrate, as he told me that the government needed me and Dr. Reuning to manage the possessions of the Company.
In order to secure their possessions, all of the large and small diamond companies decided to unite into a single huge organisation. For this purpose, Dr. Lübbert,[91] a lawyer from Lüderitzbucht, travelled to Germany with a full power of attorney under English law. I will not explain why this German company did not come about, and what the view and mood was in the protected area;[92] but Dr. Lübbert sold the entire South-West African diamond industry to an English company, the Consolidated Diamond Company,[93] and earned enough commission to make his fortune. Possession of the diamond fields was thus under the control of the English government, but the land ownership and the mining rights of the DKG remained a thorn in their flesh; the English did not want to recognise our rights, and opposed them, although these rights had repeatedly been verified and confirmed by the German government.
The government therefore set up a so-called Concession Commission, consisting of three judges and a large staff of secretaries and stenographers, who argued during six weeks of preliminary preparation, and thereafter for six weeks, until the case was decided in our favour. Dr Reuning and I, with the support of three lawyers, spent twelve weeks working inhuman hours late into the night; dredging up witnesses, ancient court cases, and so on in order to overcome the most rarefied objections of the Commission. While this work was going on I had the bad luck to dislocate my right arm one Sunday morning while riding, when my horse fell while jumping a fence. It was strapped up tightly for three weeks, which caused me great discomfort.
The head office in Berlin was contacted by a Cape Town consortium in connection with the sale of our entire land and mine rights, in order to avoid more chicanery from the Mandate government—and potential expropriation. Finally, at the end of 1920, after four weeks’ negotiations in Cape Town, our Director Bredow from Berlin and I completed the sale to the South-West Finance Corporation. The company retained only its commercial center in Swakopmund, with its Tsumeb branch and its plots of land. Berlin had decided to maintain these business at my instigation, for I thought it a duty of honour that the Company—as the biggest and oldest in the country, and the successor of Lüderitz, the founder of South-West Africa—did not pull out of the country altogether.
In March 1921 I went with Emmy on a 3 weeks holiday to Cape Town. During this time our old friend Mrs Weitzenberg[94] looked after our house and the children so well that Herbert would not go back to his mother when we returned.
With his profits from Consolidated Diamond Mines, Dr. Lübbert had bought a large stock-holding in the DKG. In previous court cases he had made no secret of his dislike for the Company; things came to a head; someone in Berlin did not watch him carefully enough; and he outwitted them. They sold off the rest of the Company to him, and the fate of the DKG was sealed. In September 1921 I returned to Germany with my family. After 22½ years, my work at the DKG was over.
Germany
There was an influenza epidemic in Swakopmund at the time of our departure. Werner had caught it again; and although Dr. Brenner declared him to be unfit to travel, our travel arrangements could not be changed, and we could not of course leave him behind. Emmy and I took the great risk of bringing him on board tightly wrapped in blankets. His fever disappeared after three days and he completely recovered after a short while. Herbert, too, was sick, and lay apathetic in the cabin for several days. About three-quarters of the passengers suffered from influenza.
Arriving in Hamburg, first of all we had to find somewhere to live. Under the socialist government, all housing had to be allocated by the housing authority; and after many tough arguments with the office we were able to buy a furnished flat on Güntherstrasse in early 1922. Germany was in a terrible state. The post-war period had created conditions which we—expatriates, living overseas for a long time—had not imagined possible in our old homeland. This was no socialist republic: but rather communism in full bloom.
The incorruptible German official had disappeared, Jews had all the prime positions; corruption and the black market were everywhere and the phrases ‘honest merchant’ and ‘in good faith’ no longer existed. For us, who still believed in these concepts, it was a long way from our old home and not easy to adjust to life in the new, rotten environment. I openly admit that I was often ashamed to be German. German money had been totally devalued by a nonsensical inflation so that the British pound rose to be worth billions of marks. We had pounds and could live well, but of course values had also risen as a result; because what cost pennies before, now cost millions of marks. To mention only two examples: the house that we bought in the Güntherstrasse had a value of perhaps two thousand marks. And for this I had to pay sixty-five thousand marks. Emmy had to pay two million marks for some stem parsley—former value about tuppence.
Income-tax, employee insurance tax, tax on property and wealth all rose steadily; In addition to this, the state issued mandatory bonds which were declared as worthless after a short time. Life in Hamburg required a lot of money. I tried to do deals with export agencies, but they did not make much progress. I became involved in investing my capital with a number of larg
er traders, but every one of them—despite the immense caution I observed—turned out to be fraudulent enterprises, and I lost a large part of the savings I had earned in South-West Africa. It was pointless to try to take these criminals to court, because the state itself had become the greatest crook and swindler, and had made all its citizens’ property (bonds, savings deposits, life insurance, industrial shares and so on) worthless through inflation. The household also spent huge sums annually, so I decided to go back to South Africa with what remained of our property at the end of 1928 in order to start again.
I arrived in Cape Town on 9 January 1929 and joined the existing liquor wholesale company Hansa Ltd with the intention of taking over the business. After a protracted period spent poring over the books, I bought the company in April 1929. In November 1929, Emmy and the three boys followed me to Cape Town. I didn’t have enough available capital for Hansa Ltd, because I had to take over nonsensically large stocks of German beers in various ports, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban.
Customers paid very slowly, so that there was a constant outstanding credit of £2,000 owed to the company. Customs duty and transport always necessitated more cash-flow, so I sold the debt for £600.
At the end of 1931 I was in trouble. Schriewer, the previous owner of Hansa Ltd, had ceded my remaining debt to the local building contractor, Hoheisen,[95] a very wealthy man. I had enjoyed good and friendly relations until this noble gentleman refused a further deferment of the current debt for three months; demanded immediate payment, and threatened me to bankrupt me otherwise (for unknown reasons, as my balance sheet was perfectly healthy when the auditors, Hoheisen’s trustee and the Board of Executors checked it).
To avoid this and to maintain the reputation of our good name, I decided to sell Hansa Ltd. As always in such a situation, I made further losses on the capital I had invested.
The next few years were the most unpleasant of my life. Previously well-off, we had to scrimp and save everywhere. I earned a little through various minor jobs until in April 1933 I became the general representative for South-West Africa for the African Life Insurance Company of Johannesburg, and went to Windhoek. For eighteen months I drove across South-West Africa for the company, and got some excellent sales figures. However, I lost this position at the end of 1934 because the company wasn’t making enough profit, and I returned to Cape Town.
In February 1935 I went to work for E. Schiengemann (Pty) Ltd, where I stayed until July 1941. I was also secretary of the German Association of Cape Town Ltd, which brought me a further fifteen pounds per month, and our living conditions improved greatly.
In March 1939, our youngest son, Herbert, went to Germany to join the labour service and then to undertake his military service. After a ten-year absence Emmy travelled in June 1939 to see the old homeland once again for a few months.
Then, in September 1939, the war that nobody conceived of broke out. The war made it impossible for Emmy to return to Cape Town. It robbed us of our beloved Herbert; he died a heroic death for his fatherland on 27 May 1940, in a battle near Sedan.
Werner, who was married and held a good position in Windhoek; and Heinz (who had passed his architectural examinations in November 1939) were interned as Germans by the Union government, and I remained here on my own.
I choose to spare myself descriptions of this time since the outbreak of war. I cannot tell you about my monotonous existence, and Emmy and Werner and Heinz have had their own experiences.
I now have only one wish: that this dreadful war will soon come to an end, and our family may be reunited, so that my sons can be returned to me for the few remaining years of my life.
Emmy, the boys and I have had many beautiful years in our lives; but we have also had to endure awful times. It has truly been a ‘gypsy life’.
Eugen Mansfeld
Cape Town, March 1942
Postscript
Eugen Mansfeld never saw his wife Emmy again. She died in Wald near Zurich, Switzerland, on 1 September 1944. Her brother-in-law informed Eugen Mansfeld by telegram.
Herbert Mansfeld is buried in Noyers-Pont-Maugis in the Ardennes in northern France. He died on 27 May 1940, possibly as a result of wounds sustained during the German invasion of France. He was twenty years old.
Werner Mansfeld and his wife divorced following his release from internment in 1945.
Eugen Mansfeld died in Cape Town in 1954, aged 83.
The Republic of Namibia, formerly known as South-West Africa, gained independence from South Africa on 21 March 1990 following the country’s first free elections. Sam Nujoma was sworn in as the country’s first President.
In 2004 the German government offered its first formal apology for the colonial campaign of genocide against the Herero people between 1904 and 1907.
Glossary
Arandiskuppe
A rock formation near the settlement of Arandis
Bezirksamtmann
District officer
Deutsche Kolonial Gesellschaft für Süd West Afrika(DKG)
German Colonial South-West African Company
Distriktschef
District head
Etappenkommandant
Administrative commander
Generalstabshauptmann
Captain of the general staff
Kaiserlichen Schutztruppe für Südwest Afrika
The Imperial German Colonial Armed Force of Southwest Africa.
Landwehr
German reserve or territorial soldiers.
Schwarzen Klippen
‘Black cliffs’; a cliff formation near Walvis Bay
Schützen-Füsilier-Regiment Nr. 108
108 Fusilier Regiment of the army of the kingdom of Saxony
Seitzscheine
Emergency paper currency issued in Germany during the First World War
Sperrgebiet
The ‘prohibited area’ given up for diamond mining
Vetkoek
Fried doughballs
Zahlmeister
Paymaster
German military ranks
Generaloberst
General
Generalleutnant
Lieutenant general
Oberst
Colonel
Oberstleutnant
Lieutenant colonel
Major
Major
Hauptmann
Captain
Flieger-Oberleutnant
Flying officer
Oberleutnant
First lieutenant
Leutnant
Second lieutenant
Feldwebel
Company sergeant major
Vice-Feldwebel
Sergeant major/senior NCO
Sergeant
Sergeant
Unteroffizer
Corporal
Reiter
Trooper
Gefreiter
Private
Bibliography
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The Autobiography of Eugen Mansfeld Page 14