I camped at Mbosi Mission, and the local missionary, Bachmann, who had known the country and the people intimately for many years past, told me that a striking change was taking place in the views of the natives. Foreign Arabs and Swahili were appearing in the country, and were telling the people that the Germans would soon be going, and that the English would take possession of the land; that was in June, 1914.
The continuation of my journey to Iringa brought me to the places where the great chief Kwawa had defied the Germans in the early days, and at Rugeno some of the many assembled natives were able to relate to me what they had witnessed of the annihilation of Zelewski’s expedition on the spot.
In the short period of peace-work that was vouchsafed to me, my endeavours to obtain a thorough grip of all my duties in East Africa could not produce results sufficient to secure me great personal authority among Africans of long standing. I was still considered a raw hand. All the same, my career in the service had prepared me to some extent for the work that Fate had in store for me.
It was probably about the time when, as a cadet who had been transplanted at an early age from my home in Pomerania, I was studying Cæsar’s Gallic War, that the German Fatherland was presented by Bismarck with its first colonies. In the year 1899-1900, when employed on the General Staff, I studied our own colonies as well as many foreign ones. During the troubles in China (1900-1901) I made the acquaintance, both officially and socially, of all the contingents engaged with us in East Asia, particularly the English. The Herero and Hottentot Rebellion in South-West Africa (1904-1906) introduced me to the peculiarities of bush warfare. At that time I gained abundant personal experience, not only of natives, but also of Boers, both on the Staff of General von Botha and as an independent Company and Detachment Commander. The excellent qualities of this Low German race, that had for generations made its home on the African veld, commanded my respect. That the Boers would later take a decisive—and in a sense tragic—part in anglicizing the German part of Africa I never dreamt.
In 1906, in South-West Africa, I was wounded. This brought me to Cape Town, so that I also acquired a superficial knowledge of Cape Colony. On my return journey I also touched at the future scene of my work, German East Africa, for the first time.
Later, my position as Commander of the Marine Battalion at Wilhelmshaven afforded me an insight into the inner life of our thriving and growing navy, which was so closely connected with German work overseas. I took part in exercises and cruises on large and small ships, in naval manœuvres, and in a visit by the Fleet to Norway, during which new views of general and military life continually presented themselves.
Even after my return to the Army the alternation between regimental and staff employment afforded me much inducement and opportunity for comparison. In this manner my development had rendered me capable of rapidly accommodating myself to new conditions. Grateful as I was for every expansion of my horizon, I owe the best of all to the Army at home, in which I had the privilege, under the guidance of admirable commanders, of learning to know the spirit of military life and true discipline, a spirit which was then properly understood.