Between 1904 and 1908 German colonial troops committed genocide against the Herero and Nama people in South West Africa. Now, for the first time, historians have access to the diaries of the person primarily responsible for this genocide: Lothar von Trotta, the supreme commander of the “protection troops” at the time. The five notebooks and a photo album give an insight into the thinking and everyday life of the perpetrator and will soon be published in one edition for the first time.
There are only five inconspicuous notebooks from the beginning of the 20th century. But they have explosive potential. Because the author of these diaries is none other than Lothar von Trotha – supreme commander of the so-called protection troops in German South West Africa and thus primarily responsible for one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. Tens of thousands of members of the OvaHerero and the Nama were killed between 1904 and 1908 – they were driven into the desert, interned in concentration camps or killed at gunpoint.
“That was the inglorious high point of German colonial history,” says historian Andreas Eckl from the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB). “Today there is a great political need to deal with this chapter.” However, sources on this genocide are rare because the files of the colonial protection troops have not been preserved. The originals were destroyed in World War I, the copies in World War II. However, there is a very special source from this period that can give a unique perspective on what happened: Lothar von Trotha’s diaries.
800 pages of notes from the main perpetrator
After much effort, Eckl and his colleague Matthias Häussler have now succeeded in getting this diary for an edition. “It has been known for many decades that the diaries of the supreme commander Lothar von Trotha existed,” says Häussler. “Everyone wanted to know what was in it. But they were not readily accessible.” The books were privately owned and were only accessible to a limited extent, even for research. “It took some patience to get permission to edit the books,” reports the historian.
The RUB researchers have been working on the edition of the approximately 800 handwritten pages since 2021. Not an easy task, because Trotha wrote his notes not only at fixed places, but also on the march or on horseback – his handwriting is correspondingly difficult to read. But the effort is worth it: “For historians, the diaries are a treasure whose importance cannot be overestimated,” says Häussler. Even without them, it is undisputed that genocide was committed in German Southwest Africa. “There’s no doubt about that anyway – and the books don’t contradict that either,” emphasizes Eckl.
Self-censorship for the public
However, the daily notes give new insights into the world of ideas and everyday life of Lothar von Trotha, who was obviously very full of himself and enjoyed his privileges. What is interesting, however, is that there is no evidence of extreme racism in the diary, although Trotha is commonly regarded as a race warrior par excellence. “It’s actually strange,” says Eckl. “In other sources, racist attitudes are expressed, for example, by portraying Africans as sneaky, cruel or lazy.” However, this is not reflected in the diary.
However: “That doesn’t mean that he didn’t think racistly,” emphasize the historians. Instead, they suspect that Trotha was very careful about what he recorded in his notes. Because the diary and a photo album that he also made were not just personal memorabilia for the then supreme commander of the colonial protection troops, but were also intended for the public. “In it, Lothar von Trotha tells his own story of the war,” says Eckl. Because Trotha’s deeds were not without controversy in Germany at the time, he could have deliberately designed his writings in such a way that they presented him in a good light. This could also have included a kind of self-censorship with regard to extremely racist statements, the historians suspect.
Together with the photo album from Trotha’s time in Africa, Eckl and Häussler are expected to publish the diaries in early 2023. “Lothar von Trotha was the supreme commander of the German troops. He wasn’t just any war veteran and it’s not just any diary, but an excellent source for the history of the German Reich. Nothing compares to it,” says Häussler.
Source: Ruhr University Bochum