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**Rick Research** · 12-29-2001, 08:23 PM

That one above really got my heart pounding, because rare as they are, documents for the Iron Cross 2nd Class in one of the colonies are not extremely rare:

**Rick Research** · 12-29-2001, 08:26 PM

Though I had only seen ONE African WWI Iron Cross First Class document before, to an NCO.

This one, if it hadn't been for that "Elephant Order" document above, I would have taken for simply another dispossessed colonial farmer:

I leave Bernhard to tell the story of this extraordinary man, the like of whose group none of us are ever likely to see again!

**Doug See** · 12-30-2001, 12:09 AM

Really nice! Let's hear the history.

**bhholst** · 12-30-2001, 04:02 PM

Hello readers:
first off I must thank Rick twofold:
firstly for doing a very thorough biographical search on "our' man and coming up with data which I never would have expected even from him! More of his findings below;
secondly for taking the trouble to post the documents. I believe the colors of the original documents came out nicely.
As Rick stated the pictured docs are only a component of the group I was fortunate enough to acquire. In addition there are :
- membership card of the association of former Schutztruppen officers of German East Africa with a nice silver embossed Imperial Eagle. Schutztruppen formations were all Imperial troops and not associated with a particular German state making up the empire.
- document for the Hindenburg cross dated Oct. 1935 and issued in Berlin with the seal of the police president of Berlin.
- the retroactive promotion certificate to Oberleutnant and Hauptmann with the effective dates. Certificate is dated 15.November 1919.
- Certificate dated 31.Jan. 1935 issued by the Reichsarchiv Section Schutztruppen, giving a capsuled extract of his military service and distinctions/orders obtained . Here the Landwehr Dienst Auszeichnung II, both E.K.'s, Roter Adler Orden 4.Klasse appear.
Hptm. d.L.a.D Theodor Gunzert was born on 19.Jul. 1874 in Seckenheim/Baden . Apparently was accepted into colonial service after passing judicial exams.
First employed in the judicial colonial service at different locations in German East Africa he was as of 1905 an administrator . Beginning in 1906 and lasting until 1916 he was in charge of the Mwanza District which was bordered in the north against Lake Victoria (German portion, called Lake Tanganyika).
Based on the information provided by Rick incl. relevant pages from a book treating the German rulers of Africa in the colonial era which appeared in the USA in 1977 (what does Rick not have??)Bezirksamtmann ( called District Commisioner by the British) Gunzert was what one can safely be called a "progressive" administrator. Having the advantage of a somewhat remote location with the responsability of an area aprox. the size of Bavaria and a population of 600,000 he applied common sense rather than following the book in every instance. He was successful in many of his efforts to improve conditions in his district even though his staff was rather small when compared with the size of his district: one deputy, three secretaries, seven to eight assistants such as police corporals, one medical , one veterinary officer, , agricultural, postal and and customs officers and a public works foreman.
Gunzert was employed as " reinforcement " to the Schutztruppe when WW I started as stated in his service record and participated in the defense of the colony intil becoming a POW in Nov. 1916 until Nov. 1919.
Post WW I upon his repatriation he was a member of the Diplomatic Service and reached a relatively high rank which may well have been the equivalent to a Generalmajor. He has participated in at least one book about German colonial affairs and wrote his memoirs also.
Rick provided other tidbits of information which round off the picture one has now of this person and makes him a different civil servant than one we oftentimes picture
the German bureaucrats to have been and still to be.
A note for those who may want some clarification as to the political organization of the area where the above mentioned took place:
- German East Africa under official German colonial rule until the end of WW I, except of course those areas occupied by Allied forces during the course of the campaigns to
bring to bay Oberst (later Generalmajor) von Lettow-Vorbeck with his largely native troops.
- Post WW I under British administration and named Tanganyika.
- Following independence named Tanzania to this day.
Again my thanks go to Rick who truly gave this document group the extra component which he so freely and competently makes available to us again and again.
Bernhard H. Holst

**Rick Research** · 12-30-2001, 04:55 PM

Theodor Gunzert's Bavarian sized Province (he was one of 16 Provincial Governors in German East Africa) bordered Lake Victoria--all that "African Queen" stuff--picture HIM sniping at Humphrey Bogart the next time you seeb the movie.

Gunzert's isolation meshes well with his character, because he was a progressive and innovative--as well as independent!-- administrator. When the Colonial Governor ordered his Provincial deputies to switch cash crops before the war--leading to disaster--Gunzert did his own homework and at his own expense (!) introduced American cotton, which led his province to unheard of prosperity.

Unlike the "Young Indiana Jones" type caricature of thick, brutal German (as opposed to any of the other European colonial overlords?...) colonial master class, Gunzert--again disobeying central directives--governed THROUGH (not over) local tribal leaders, giving them a stake in the governing of their own affairs. There were no uprisings under his 10+ years of leadership--a unique record, and one someone should have noted.

Just before the outbreak of the war, Gunzert was awarded the Red Eagle Order for his initiative in establishing native hospitals and virtually eliminating most of the tropical diseases plaguing that area.

Even the British admired and respected this man. His reforms remain in place to this day, and while his name may be forgotten, his roads, hospitals and economic improvements coninue to benefit northern Tanzania to this day.

I can only imagine that he remained Director in the Colonial Affairs Department of the German Foreign Ministry for that anticipated day when he would have returned as Colonial, rather than Provincial, Governeor of a restored "German" East Africa.

Bernhard is extraordinarily lucky to have found and saved this remarkable man's papers.
"Only" an Oberleutnant of the Landwehr....

[ 30 December 2001: Message edited by: Rick Lundstrom ]

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