Schöneberg Railway Troops

Since 1873, the Prussian Railway Troops, with their barracks and parades, were an integral part of Tempelhof and Schöneberg. As a special transport unit, they were particularly important for the military's transport and supply. They used the Tempelhof Field as a training ground and practised the construction and commissioning of railway lines there.

The railway troops were involved in various military conflicts in the colonies. In 1899, a unit of the railway regiments was dispatched from Schöneberg to China to confront the anti-colonial movement of the "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists", known as the 'Boxers'. Five years later, a railway troop set off for the colony of German South West Africa (now Namibia), where a war had recently begun. While still in Berlin, they put on the uniform of the so-called 'Schutztruppen' (protection troops), easily recognisable by the characteristic 'Südwester' hat folded to the side. The sea voyage to the war zone lasted about four weeks. On board, in addition to German soldiers, were young labourers from various African coastal cities. Even during the journey, the troops were prepared for their mission. This included being sworn in to a racist enemy image through songs and rumours.

The causes of the war in German South West Africa lay in the gradual dispossession and disenfranchisement of the indigenous population in favour of the settlement of German farms. However, the local people did not idly stand by their dispossession and disenfranchisement. By 1904, there had been seven military confrontations with the German colonisers. Among the resistance fighters was Hendrik Witbooi, political representative of the Nama. After intense and costly fighting, he signed a so-called "Protection and Peace Treaty" in 1894 on the orders of Governor Theodor Leutwein. In return for territorial assurances, the treaty obliged the Nama to recognise German colonial power.

The replacement of Leutwein by General Lothar von Trotha in June 1904 marked the transition from war to genocide. In a decree that became known as the "shooting order", von Trotha announced that any Herero found in German-controlled territory would be driven back into the Omaheke desert or shot. As a result of this order, tens of thousands of Herero died a torturous death in the desert. The Germans proceeded similarly against the Nama, who had joined the Herero's struggle. Even after von Trotha's order was revoked in December 1904, the dying continued for the Herero and Nama in concentration camps.

The excessive use of violence was characteristic of this and other military operations in colonial territories. On European soil, it would not have been possible without further ado, as the Hague Convention of 1899 outlawed such war strategies. The violent actions of the German soldiers culminated between 1904 and 1907 in the genocide of the Herero and Nama living in Namibia, which claimed an estimated over 70,000 lives. The German press reported on the use of violence, often without questioning it.

The railway troops from Schöneberg were also involved in the genocide. This included the use of Herero and Nama prisoners of war as forced labourers. Several thousand Herero and Nama were used for the construction of the railway line between Lüderitz Bay (now Lüderitz) and Keetmanshoop. Two-thirds of them died as a result of the catastrophic living and working conditions between 1906 and 1907 alone. During the genocide, skulls of dead Herero were also collected to be sent to scientific institutions in Germany. Felix Wagenführ, who was a lieutenant in the 2nd Railway Regiment in Schöneberg and later made a career in the German Air Force, was also involved in the procurement and transport of the skulls.

In 1910, a monument to the "fallen China and Africa fighters" was inaugurated in a barracks yard of the railway troops in Schöneberg. Like other colonial monuments, it cultivated the self-image of heroic soldiers who, as representatives of "civilisation", had fought against "barbarism" in the overseas territories. The memorial stone no longer exists today.

This text is the revised version of a chapter from the exhibition "Research Workshop: Colonial History in Tempelhof and Schöneberg", which the Schöneberg Museum showed from 19.5. to 29.10.2017.