Benjamin Raule and Brandenburg Colonialism

A palace in East Berlin

Between 1682 and 1689, the Dutchman Benjamin Raule (1634–1707) had a larger country estate built on his newly acquired land in the village of Rosenfelde, east of Berlin. This was the original building of today's Friedrichsfelde Palace in the Berlin Zoo in the Lichtenberg district. Today, the building is a central architectural monument of the district. Reason enough to look at the colonial traces of its origins.

German-speaking merchants became active as producers and middlemen of goods used in the transatlantic slave trade, or profited from European colonialism as officials and settlers in the colonies of other colonial states. They participated financially in trading companies that exploited colonies and used slave labor or traded exclusively with them. [1] So far, there has been little discussion of the early colonial project of Electoral Brandenburg, which lasted about 30 years, in which Benjamin Raule, a 'Lichtenberger', was also significantly involved.

Seafaring and Dutch example

After the end of the Thirty Years' War, the Electorate of Brandenburg also strove to be involved in 'trade' [2] with overseas countries – i.e. to exploit colonised territories. The model was the trading companies of the later colonial powers, especially the Dutch West India Company. Elector Frederick William (1620–1688), who was later given the nickname 'Great Elector', established an Electoral Brandenburg-East India Company as early as the middle of the 17th century – even if this attempt initially failed. [3]

Benjamin Raule in Brandenburg service

The actual entry of Electoral Brandenburg into the general maritime history and the history of colonial exploitation took place with a significant share of Raule. The merchant and major shipowner, who came from Zeeland, had been in Brandenburg's service as a shipowner and privateer since 1675. At that time, Brandenburg was at war with the Kingdom of Sweden. Benjamin Raule moved to Brandenburg territory [4] and was generously endowed there by his grateful new sovereign. From 1678 onwards, the Elector gave him land and houses in Berlin and the surrounding area, including the first plot of land in Rosenfelde in 1682. Raule expanded his property with electoral permission and in 1694 owned virtually the entire village. [5] Around 1685 his country estate was completed, the very original building of Friedrichsfeld Castle. In 1681, Raule became General-Directeur de Marine, who was responsible for 'overseas trade' and the entire shipping industry. [6]

Benjamin Raule initiates the beginning of Brandenburg colonialism

As early as 1676, Raule unsuccessfully proposed to the electoral court that they engage in direct 'trade' on the Guinean coast and set up armed bases to protect them by force. [7] In 1679, he renewed his offer to send ships to the West African coast at his own expense. He also tried to persuade his employer to found a trading company based on the Dutch model and with a monopoly on the trade in ivory, grain, gold and "blacks". [8] Initially, two ships were to sail to Guinea and Angola on the west coast for exploration purposes. Raule wanted to provide the vehicles and crew himself, and the Electorate was to provide the armament and soldiers. [9] The Elector agreed. The ships were to 'buy' gold, ivory and enslaved people on the West African coasts, but only where the local governors of other colonies would allow this. [10] For himself, the Elector demanded rare animals and half a dozen young slaves aged fourteen to sixteen. In addition, the captains were to look for a suitable place for a 'trading base'. [11] The ships set sail in the autumn of 1680. In fact, the captain of the frigate 'Morian' not only brought back gold and ivory in exchange for the goods he was carrying: on 16 May 1681, he concluded a 'contract' with three local rulers, called 'Apany', 'Pregate' and 'Sophonie', from the area between Axim and the Cape of Three Points in present-day Ghana. These rulers were to order the towns in their sphere of influence to trade only with ships under the Brandenburg flag. They also designated a place to build a fortress. The sailors promised them that they would return in eight to ten months and bring the fortress material with them. [12] It is no longer possible to trace the conditions under which this 'treaty' was concluded. For the first time, a German-speaking territorial state tried to build a military fortification in areas to be conquered overseas. [13]

Foundation of the Brandenburg-African Company

In 1682, Benjamin Raule proposed to the Elector the founding of his own Brandenburg trading company. [14] Participation in the slave trade, euphemistically later called the 'transatlantic triangular trade', was the explicit goal of the company to be founded. Raule's draft of a company patent was issued by the Elector on 17 March 1682 as an 'edict for the imposition of the trading company to be established on the coasts of Guinea'. [15] In November 1682, the Brandenburg-African Company (BAC) was founded. As long as English, Danish or Dutch 'claims' were not affected, the Elector promised the company a 'trade monopoly' for the Brandenburg territories, its protection and troops for 30 years. [16] The Elector also undertook to build a fortress and provide a garrison for four years to protect the interests of the company. Afterwards, the company was to take over the remuneration and maintenance of the garrison itself. [17] Since Raule had difficulty finding enough subscribers for the company, he and the Elector himself invested large sums of money from their own assets. [18] This reflects the great interest of the two in consolidating Brandenburg's presence on the west coast of Africa.

The frigates 'Churprinz von Brandenburg' and 'Morian' were to fulfil the 'contract' with the local rulers and secure a base. The 'expedition' was under the supreme command of Otto Friedrich von der Gröben (1657–1728). [19] However, both captains received their own instructions for the voyage, the 'acquisition' of slaves and their 'sale' in the Caribbean – including the electoral price expectations. [20] The 'Churprinz' was to concentrate entirely on the 'trade' of people and to carry out the deportation of 500 people to the Caribbean. The 'Morian', on the other hand, was to take in 100 enslaved people, 60 of whom were to be 'sold' on the return journey and the other 40 were to be brought to Hamburg. The Elector himself wished for young and well-grown slaves. [21] It is no longer possible to determine whether enslaved people came to the Brandenburg court as a result. However, the financial gain from this 'expedition' was small and the frigate 'Churprinz' even brought back most of her goods, altogether too little to finance another voyage. [22]

This revealed the fundamental problem that was to accompany the Brandenburg-African Company: lack of financial resources. The demands of the investors were hardly offset by any profits. Benjamin Raule finally used funds from the Brandenburg Navy under his command for the company. He even planned to use naval ships to transport enslaved people, as this promised the most profit. In 1686, the Elector finally took over the ownership of the trading company himself, thus preventing the bankruptcy of the company. [23] His naval director was now directly responsible for all African trade and the war fleet. [24]

Human trafficking

In 1685, the Brandenburgers took over a fortification on the island of Arguin, which belonged to today's Mauritania, which had previously been ruled by the French. This was suitable as a station between the European metropolises and the colonial territories on the Ivory Coast as well as a transshipment point and source of fresh water. [25]

While Arguin served primarily as a stopover for traffic from West Africa to Europe, Raule planned a network of trading posts spanning the Atlantic for the company's central purpose of earning a living, the 'sale' of enslaved people. [26] One of the prerequisites for this was its own bases in the Caribbean. On November 24, 1685, the King of Denmark and the Elector of Brandenburg concluded a treaty for a settlement of the Brandenburg-African Company on the island of St. Thomas. The Danes had occupied the island in 1666 and established sugar cane plantations, which were cultivated exclusively through the exploitation of slaves. [27] The company established a transshipment point for its own slave ships. [28] Until about 1715, Brandenburg/Prussian ships transported enslaved people to the Caribbean. ^[29] The vast majority of them were not 'bought' in the vicinity of Großfriedrichsburg, but in Whydah by African intermediaries. [30] The goods that the slave traders received in barter came from the Netherlands or from the Münsterland and Silesia. Here, the local textile industry profited from the trade in enslaved people. [31] For thousands, Brandenburg's participation in the slave trade meant inhuman suffering. According to the current state of research, between 1682 and 1714 – the de facto end of the Brandenburg-African Company – at least 23,000 enslaved people were transported by their ships to America, mainly to St. Thomas, to be 'sold' there. These figures result solely from the information collected by Malte Stamm and represent a minimum number. Stamm lists 124 Atlantic crossings with 23,583 'bought' and 19,240 'sold' slaves and a mortality rate on this so-called middle passage of about 20 percent. [32]

With reference to Anne Kuhlmann-Smirnov's research, Rebekka von Malinckrodt comes to the conclusion that "(v)of the approximately 20,000 African slaves traded by the Brandenburg-African Company between 1682/83 and 1715, [...] according to the current state of knowledge, only 24 came to the Prussian court". [33]

The end of the Brandenburg-African Company

For a short time in the first half of the 1690s, the business of the Brandenburg-African Company seems to have been financially 'successful', also thanks to the slave trade for the shareholders. However, this success was unsteady and from the beginning a lack of money accompanied the 'business'. [34] It seems as if the creditors and depositors were at times not only lied to about the real value of the deposits, but also as if there had been an inextricable mixing of material assets, ships and personnel between the company and the Brandenburg navy. The basis for this lay in the person of Benjamin Raule, who, protected by the trust of the Elector, instrumentalized his post as naval director and managing director for this purpose. After the death of the Great Elector, the balance of power changed and Raule's colonial plans no longer found supporters. In the eyes of the court, the bases and the necessary preservation of a naval power were too expensive. Raule himself was subjected to an investigation of his administration of maritime and commercial matters immediately after the reign of Elector Frederick III (1657–1713) took office. [35] On December 12, 1698, Frederick III had him arrested and taken to the citadel in Spandau. [36] Although the investigations did not reveal any fraud, Raule remained in custody. After Frederick III renamed "Rosenfelde" to "Friedrichsfelde" in 1699 and crowned king of Prussia in 1701, Raule was pardoned in the spring of 1702. [37] At the end of the electoral arbitrary act, Raule had been robbed of all his estates and died impoverished. [38] Frederick William I of Prussia finally sold all overseas bases in 1718. The fortress of Großfriedrichsburg had no longer received sufficient supplies from Brandenburg-Prussia anyway and had fallen into disrepair. The Dutch West India Company bought the property for a low price and the Danes confiscated the land on St. Thomas. [39]

Driving force

In the period after the Thirty Years' War, the Electorate of Brandenburg, along with other colonial powers, also participated in the exploitation of supposedly empty or, according to the European interpretation, 'newly discovered' territories. The establishment of armed bases on the west coasts of Africa and in the Caribbean was part of the strategies of a colonial occupation of Africa, Asia and North and South America by European colonialism. Through these and the 'trade' with enslaved people, the Electorate of Brandenburg and later Prussia were already integrated into the system of European colonialism and slave trade before the emergence of the German Empire. The fortress of Großfriedrichsburg was built, even though there was never a colonial penetration of the hinterland, as part of the "European infrastructure for the transatlantic slave trade". ^[40]

It can be assumed that the Iberian model of colonial exploitation and the Dutch model of the private-sector trading company played a major role in the motivation of the rather insignificant Brandenburg ruling house. Certainly, a large number of officials, courtiers or princes adhered to the same concepts of racist feelings of superiority, mercantilist economic policy and colonial appetites. In the case of the Electorate of Brandenburg, surviving documents show Raule's great commitment to persuading his employer Frederick William to set up a fleet and 'expeditions' to Africa. [41] Raule's own financial commitment was decisive in turning ideas and plans into reality. Raule's investments made the first 'trading voyage' to the Guinean/Ghanaian coast under the Brandenburg flag possible in the first place.