Anglo-German Relations in German Samoa as Reflected in German Reports from the Early Stages of World War I

Abstract

Contemporary reports by German residents of Samoa to the German Colonial Office indicate that the opening stages of World War I in German Samoa played out in an atmosphere of Anglo-German camaraderie, highlighted by four developments: the petition presented by British residents of Samoa to Colonel Logan requesting that the Germans be treated with the same respect as had been accorded the British in Samoa; Logan’s invitation to all German civil servants to continue their governmental duties; the deployment of a division of New Zealand Engineers to put down the Chinese rebellion against the German plantation managers at Tapatapao; and Admiral Graf Spee’s decision on his arrival in Samoa not to pursue any hostilities against the British occupying forces.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Hermann J. Hiery, Fa’a Siamani: Germany in Micronesia, New Guinea and Samoa 1884–1914 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2020), 6.

2 Matthew P. Fitzpatrick, ‘The Samoan Women’s Revolt: Race, Intermarriage and Imperial Hierarchy in German Samoa’, German History 35, no. 2 (1 June 2017): 206–28.

3 Peter Hempenstall, Pacific Islanders under German Rule (Canberra: ANU Press, 1978; reprint 2016), 24. More recently, see Peter Hempenstall, ‘Deutschlands Perle im Pazifik’, in From Samoa with Love?, ed. Hilke Thode-Arora (Munich: Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, 2014), 27–45.

4 Malama Meleisea, The Making of Modern Samoa: Traditional Authority and Colonial Administration in the History of Western Samoa (Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific, 1987).

5 George Steinmetz, The Devil’s Handwriting: Precoloniality and the German Colonial State in Qingdao, Samoa, and Southwest Africa (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), 268, 307, 337, 346; Stefan Johag, Verwaltung von Deutsch-Samoa: eine vergleichende verwaltungswissenschaftliche Analyse (Berlin: Galda Verlag, 2011), 231, 265; Livia Loosen, Deutsche Frauen in den Südsee-Kolonien des Kaiserreichs: Alltag und Beziehungen zur indigenen Bevölkerung, 1884–1919 (Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2014), 203; Holger Droessler, Coconut Colonialism: Workers and the Globalization of Samoa (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022), 58–90.

6 Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, August 1914–May 1915: A German Perspective on New Zealand’s Military Occupation of German Samoa, ed. James N. Bade with the assistance of James Braund, Alexandra Jespersen, and Nicola Pienaar (Germanica Pacifica, vol. 8; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2011); Karl Hanssen’s Memoirs of His Wartime Experiences in Samoa and New Zealand 1915–1916, ed. James N. Bade (Germanica Pacifica, vol. 15; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2016); Frida Peemüller’s Memoirs of German Samoa 1910–1920, ed. James N. Bade (Germanica Pacifica, vol. 17; Berlin: Peter Lang, 2022); Paula David, Zehn Jahre auf den Inseln der Südsee 1887–1897: Aus dem Tagebuch der Paula David/Ten Years in the Islands of the South Seas 1887–1897: From the Diary of Paula David, eds Schlossmuseum Sondershausen and James N. Bade, with the assistance of James Braund (Dresden: Sandstein, 2011).

7 Evelyn Wareham, Race and Realpolitik: The Politics of Colonisation in German Samoa (Germanica Pacifica, vol. 1; Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2002), 28, 142; cf. Hermann J. Hiery, ‘Die deutsche Verwaltung Samoas 1900–1914’, in Die deutsche Südsee 1884–1914: ein Handbuch, ed. Hermann J. Hiery (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2001), 651f.

8 See Frida Peemüller’s Memoirs, 66, 107, 179; Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 51, 151, 252; and Das deutsche Schutzgebiet Samoa: Allgemeine Auskunft und Adressbuch (Apia, 1911), 27, which lists the government members as the Governor, Dr Schultz, chief magistrate Schlettwein, and land surveyor Lammert; the non-government members are listed as the storekeeper Dean, the engineer Haaben, the trading firm manager Hanssen, the plantation owners Harman and Peemüller, the trader Schmidt, the cocoa plantation owner Wetzell, and the rubber plantation manager Zwingenberger.

9 Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 39, 259. Williams was involved in helping to manage the Oloa resistance of 1904. See Holger Droessler, ‘Islands of Labor: Community, Conflict, and Resistance in Colonial Samoa, 1889–1919’ (PhD thesis, Harvard University, 2015), 68–72.

10 Frida Peemüller’s Memoirs, 73, 75.

11 Michael McBryde, ‘German Possessions in the Tropical South Pacific’, in The German Connection: New Zealand and German-Speaking Europe in the Nineteenth Century, ed. James N. Bade (Auckland: Oxford University Press, 1993), 5–14, here 10; see Kasia Renae Cook, Germans in Samoa: 1860–1914 ([Apia]: Samoa Historical and Cultural Trust, 2023), 217f.

12 Frida Peemüller’s Memoirs, 179; Wareham, 25.

13 Note that, particularly at this time, Germans tended to avoid the terms ‘British’ or ‘Great Britain’ (‘britisch’, ‘Großbritannien’). The expressions ‘English’ and ‘England’ (‘englisch', ‘England’) were often used by Germans in cases when Australians or New Zealanders would be more likely to use the words ‘British’ and ‘Great Britain’. In Frida Peemüller’s memoirs, for example, the words for ‘British’, ‘Britain’ or ‘Great Britain’ never appear at all. Instead of that she refers exclusively to ‘English’ and ‘Englishmen’.

14 ‘Protocol (Report of Proceedings) held on the 5th August, 1914, at Samoa, re the Political Situation’, translated by Lieutenant H.F.A. Wollerman, EX 2/10, National Archives, Wellington, 1–4, quotations from 1f. Original German quotation from ‘Protokoll Sitzung Schultz 5. Aug. 1914’, in BArch, R 1001/2629 fol. 163, 2, Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives, hereafter referred to as BArch), Berlin. My thanks to archivists Jan Waldes, Jonas Nordheim and Karolin Kayser of the German Federal Archives for their help with my archival enquiries from 22 October to 18 December 2023.

15 Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 5 August 1914, 38f., 45.

16 ‘Proclamation’ of 29 August 1914 by Robert Logan, ‘Colonel, Commanding the Occupying Force’, in ‘Correspondence relating to the Occupation of German Samoa by the Expeditionary Force from New Zealand. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty, September 1915’ (hereafter referred to as ‘Correspondence relating to the Occupation of German Samoa by the Expeditionary Force from New Zealand’), Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1915 Session I, H-19c, 8.

17 Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 29 August 1914, 42.

18 Ernst Demandt, ‘Aus Samoas schweren Tagen während des Europäischen Krieges 1914/15. Angefangen 1. August 1914. Beendet 16. Okt. 1914’, BArch, KlErw. 812 (Ernst Demandt)/1–6 (Altsignatur) (hereafter referred to as Demandt), entry for 29 August 1914. Ernst Heinrich Demandt, originally from Holzwickede, near Dortmund, owned a cocoa plantation in Saoluafata. He was an expert in plantation cultivation, pest eradication, and tropical meteorology. See Cook, 62.

19 Erich Scheurmann, Erinnerungen aus der Besetzungszeit Samoas (Korbach: Wilhelm Bing, 1935), 11.

20 Governor Schultz’s Report to the Colonial Office in Berlin, received 4 May 1916, BArch, R 1001/2627, fols 43–8 (hereafter referred to as Governor Schultz’s Report to the Colonial Office in Berlin), 1–6, here 2. Cf. Bronwyn Chapman, ‘The Historical and Political Background to Karl Hanssen’s Memoirs’, in Bade, Karl Hanssen’s Memoirs of his Wartime Experiences in Samoa and New Zealand, 9–94, here 13.

21 ‘Correspondence relating to the Occupation of German Samoa by the Expeditionary Force from New Zealand’, 8.

22 Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 8f., cf. 11f., 39 and 51.

23 Scheurmann, 14; Demandt, entry for 1 September 1914.

24 See ‘Royal Commission on Samoa’, Samoanische Zeitung 27, no. 41 (14 October 1927): 2.

25 Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 63, 169f.; Karl Hanssen’s Memoirs of his Wartime Experiences in Samoa and New Zealand, 99, 162.

26 See Chapman, 19.

27 Ibid., 12.

28 Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 21. Karl Hanssen expresses his ‘great relief’ at the departure of 500 young New Zealand troops on the Talune on 10 March 1915. More depart on the Talune on 3 April 1915 after 350 troops disembark, and these new arrivals make a much more favourable impression on Samoans and settlers alike. Hanssen describes the newly arrived troops as being ‘over 40 years of age’, some ‘new officers’ and some looking ‘quite respectable’ and ‘wearing decorations on their chests’. Sadly, many of the young New Zealand troops who left Samoa at that point were killed in action when they arrived at Gallipoli just a few months later. See Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 25, 121, 132.

29 See Johag, 216.

30 Ludovica Schultze, ‘Schulbericht über die Besatzung des deutschen Schutzgebietes Samoa’, [20 March 1916], BArch R 1001/2627, fols 5–9 (hereafter referred to as Ludovica Schultze, ‘Schulbericht’).

31 Arendt, report to German Colonial Office, 8 October 1915 (my translation): ‘The paramount chief Tamasese is said to have put it to Logan that amongst the German women were many of Samoan descent. The Samoans regard these and the white women born in Samoa as belonging to Samoa and imprisoning them would create bad blood among the Samoans’.

32 Ludovica Schultze, ‘Schulbericht’.

33 Scheurmann, 25.

34 See Chapman, 19: ‘By early 1918 there is evidence that local chiefs were unanimous in support for the New Zealand administration over the German one’.

35 Erich Schultz-Ewerth, Erinnerungen an Samoa (Berlin: Scherl, 1926), 158; see also Frida Peemüller’s Memoirs, 24–6.

36 Because of Governor John Poyer’s insistence on quarantine, American Samoa had not had one single death from the influenza epidemic. See Frida Peemüller’s Memoirs, 26.

37 John A. Moses, ‘The Solf Régime in Western Samoa: “Ideal and Reality”’, New Zealand Journal of History 6, no. 1 (April 1972): 42–56, here 42; McBryde, 10.

38 ‘Correspondence relating to the Occupation of German Samoa by the Expeditionary Force from New Zealand’, 5 and 7.

39 Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 16f., 42, 149; Frida Peemüller’s Memoirs, 16f.; Scheurmann, 11.

40 Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 45, 151, entry for 31 August 1914.

41 Demandt, entry for 29 August 1914.

42 Governor Schultz’s Report to the Colonial Office in Berlin, 2.

43 ‘Correspondence relating to the Occupation of German Samoa by the Expeditionary Force from New Zealand’, 8. According to Peter Swain, in Fono: The Contest for the Governance of Samoa (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2022), 81, referencing J. Davidson, Samoa Mo Samoa: The Emergence of the Independent State of Western Samoa (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1967), Logan declared to an assembly of Samoans at Mulinu’u on 31 August that government ‘would be carried on by him on the lines established by the Germans’.

44 Paul Arendt, Report to German Colonial Office, 8 October 1915: ‘Bericht vom 8. Oktober 1915. Bericht des Vermessungs-Assistenten Arendt über die Zustände in Samoa’, 8. Oktober 1915 (hereafter referred to as Arendt, report to German Colonial Office, 8 October 1915), BArch, R1001/2626, fol. 26–58.

45 ‘Correspondence relating to the Occupation of German Samoa by the Expeditionary Force from New Zealand’, 7, 8f.; Arendt, report to German Colonial Office, 8 October 1915.

46 Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 45, 152.

47 Arendt, report to German Colonial Office, 8 October 1915.

48 Ibid.

49 Demandt, entry for 7 September 1914; Scheurmann, 12.

50 Arendt, report to German Colonial Office, 8 October 1915.

51 Demandt, entry for 30 September 1914.

52 Arendt, report to German Colonial Office, 8 October 1915; Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 84 and 252.

53 Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 256.

54 Ibid., 254; Cyclopedia of Samoa, Tonga, Tahiti, and the Cook Islands (Sydney: McCarron, Stewart & Co., 1907), 56.

55 Arendt, report to German Colonial Office, 8 October 1915.

56 Marggraff’s report to the Deutsche Samoa-Gesellschaft, Berlin (hereafter referred to as Marggraff’s report to the Deutsche Samoa-Gesellschaft), of 10 October 1914, ‘Kriegszustand u. spezielle Dispositionen: Richard Marggraffs Bericht vom 10. Oktober 1914 an die Deutsche Samoa-Gesellschaft, Berlin’, BArch R 1001/2624, fol. 125–30, here 126–8.

57 Droessler, Coconut Colonialism, 58f., 79.

58 Scheurmann (14) says that when the German fleet first arrived, some thought it was the Japanese wanting to ‘capture for themselves a place in the sun’. Cf. Georg Irmer, Völkerdämmerung im Stillen Ozean (Leipzig: Hirzel, 1915), who describes the Americans and the Japanese as ‘the new world powers’, who in just a few years had established superiority over the eastern hemisphere (133).

59 Marggraff’s report to the Deutsche Samoa-Gesellschaft of 10 October 1914, fol. 128.

60 Marggraff’s report to the Deutsche Samoa-Gesellschaft of 27 October 1914, BArch, R 1001/2624, fols 140–6, here 140.

61 ‘Correspondence relating to the Occupation of German Samoa by the Expeditionary Force from New Zealand’, 7.

62 Droessler, Coconut Colonialism, 85.

63 Scheurmann’s account of the incident reads in full as follows (my translation): ‘Two bold men rowed across the lagoon in native boats. They passed on to the Admiral the German residents’ best wishes and told him in some detail about what had been going on. Of course they wanted to get on board and stay there. Graf Spee took no notice of their pleas, but he did ask them to do something for him. He instructed them to pass on his best wishes to Colonel Logan and to say that he was sorry that this visit did not have priority at the moment, but that he needed to be patient, as they had no shortage of coal and there are enough English ships sailing around out there in international waters’.

64 Karl Hanssen’s Samoan War Diaries, 50.

65 ‘Extracts from War Diary of General Staff, Samoan Expeditionary Force, Period 12th August to 30th September 1914’, AWM 33 62/3, Australian War Memorial, 5.

66 Scheurmann, 24.

67 Arendt, report to German Colonial Office, 24 November 1915, BArch, R 1001/2626, fols 144–50. The original German word used in Arendt’s report is ‘belästigt’, meaning ‘molested’ or ‘harassed’.

68 Arendt, report to German Colonial Office, 24 November 1915.

69 Frida Peemüller’s Memoirs, 107, 179.

70 Ibid., 11, 66, 107, 119f., 188f.