Hermann Philipp Detzner (16 October 1882 – 1 December 1970) was a German engineer and surveyor, who served as an officer in the German colonial security force (''

Schutztruppe (, Protection Force) was the official name of the colonial troops in the African territories of the German colonial empire from the late 19th century to 1918. Similar to other colonial armies, the consisted of volunteer European commissioned ...

'') in ''

Kamerun Kamerun was an African colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1916 in the region of today's Republic of Cameroon. Kamerun also included northern parts of Gabon and the Congo with western parts of the Central African Republic, southwestern ...

'' (Cameroon) and

German New Guinea German New Guinea (german: Deutsch-Neu-Guinea) consisted of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups and was the first part of the German colonial empire. The mainland part of the territory, called , ...

. He gained fame for evading capture after Australian troops invaded German New Guinea at the start of World War I. In early 1914, the German government sent Detzner to explore and chart central

Kaiser-Wilhelmsland Kaiser-Wilhelmsland ("Emperor William's Land") formed part of German New Guinea (german: Deutsch-Neuguinea), the South Pacific protectorate of the German Empire. Named in honour of Wilhelm I, who reigned as German Emperor () from 1871 to 1888, ...

, the imperial protectorate on the island of New Guinea. When World War I broke out in Europe, he was far from civilisation and without radio contact. He refused to surrender to Australian troops when they occupied German New Guinea, concealing himself in the jungle with a band of approximately 20 soldiers. For four years, Detzner and his troops provocatively marched through the bush, singing "

Watch on the Rhine A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by ...

" and flying the German Imperial flag. He led at least one expedition from the

Huon Peninsula Huon Peninsula is a large rugged peninsula on the island of New Guinea in Morobe Province, eastern Papua New Guinea. It is named after French explorer Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec. The peninsula is dominated by the steep Saruwaged and Finisterr ...

to the north coast, and a second by a mountain route, to attempt an escape to the neutral Dutch colony to the west. He explored areas of the New Guinea's hinterland formerly unseen by Europeans. After finding out that the war had ended, Detzner surrendered in full dress uniform, flying the Imperial flag, to Australian forces in January 1919. He received a hero's welcome when he returned to Germany. He wrote a book about his adventures – ''Four Years Among the Cannibals in the Interior of German New Guinea under the Imperial Flag, from 1914 until the Armistice'' – that sold well in Great Britain and Germany, entered three printings, and was translated into French, English, Finnish and Swedish. He received a position in the Imperial Colonial Archives, and appeared frequently on the

lecture circuit The "lecture circuit" is a euphemistic reference to a planned schedule of regular lectures and keynote speeches given by celebrities, often ex-politicians, for which they receive an appearance fee. In Western countries, the lecture circuit has bec ...

throughout the 1920s. In the late 1920s, scientific portions of his book were discredited. In 1932, he admitted that he had mixed fact and fiction and, after that time, eschewed public life.

Family

Detzner was the son of a dentist, Johann Philipp Detzner (1846–1907) and his wife, Wilhelmine Katharina Faber, in

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...

, in the

Bavarian Palatinate The Electoral Palatinate (german: Kurpfalz) or the Palatinate (), officially the Electorate of the Palatinate (), was a state that was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The electorate had its origins under the rulership of the Counts Palatine of ...

, a cultural, economic, and historical city on the

Rhine River ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , source ...

. His father received his degree from

Heidelberg University } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, B ...

and was licensed to practise by the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German ...

in 1867; Detzner's father pioneered innovations in dental

prosthetic In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

s. His large family included nine children. Hermann Detzner was trained as a topographer, surveyor, and an engineer, and received his promotion to '' Fahnrich'' in the 6 Infantry Regiment (Prussian), 2nd Pioneer Battalion, in February 1902. During World War I, military authorities transferred his commission to the 1st Bavarian Pioneer Battalion.

Early explorations

Hermann Detzner participated in a joint British-German scientific and surveying expedition to

in 1908 and 1909 and again in 1912–1913. He and one Captain Nugent,

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

, identified and marked the frontiers of Kamerun and explored the

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languages Navigators charted the coastline of the northern and eastern portions of New Guinea in the early 17th century and, later in the century, British Admiralty navigators named the visible mountain ranges. Most German surveying efforts had focused on coastal regions and river basins, where Germans had established plantations, leaving the hinterland unexplored. In late 1913, the Imperial Colonial office appointed Detzner to lead an expedition to survey the border between the British protectorate, called Papua, and the German territory, called

, and to survey and map unexplored inland regions. Detzner's mission was also to be the first serious attempt to explore the hinterland and to evaluate and describe its resources. The boundary between Papua and Kaiser Wilhelmsland had been broadly established by a joint British-German expedition in 1909, but the terrain had not been mapped and the German colonial administration maintained that the boundary was imprecise. From the German perspective, an accurately defined boundary was essential to monitor and control the activities of Papuan

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

prospectors near the border with German territory. Detzner had had experience in joint operations in Kamerun in 1907–08 and could be expected to understand the challenges faced by the previous commission; he had a reputation as a methodical and precise engineer. Although small, he was tough and wiry, extremely focused and determined, and seemed like the right man for the job.

Adventures in New Guinea

In January 1914, Detzner travelled to Rabaul on New Pomerania (now New Britain). In February, he began his expedition into

. His survey immediately revealed inaccuracies in the 1909 joint survey; by March, Detzner had concluded that the border corridor was already showing a discrepancy of more than from the 8°0'S parallel. The discrepancy increased the further west he travelled, revealing a widening wedge in the boundary as it was agreed upon, and as it was marked. The discrepancy favoured German interests. He had progressed well inland when, on 4 August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. As World War I spread to the Pacific, Australian troops invaded German New Guinea, taking the German barracks in Herbertshöhe (

Kokopo Kokopo is the capital of East New Britain Province in Papua New Guinea. It is administered under Kokopo-Vunamami Urban LLG. The capital was moved from Rabaul in 1994 when the volcanoes Tavurvur and Vulcan erupted. As a result, the population of ...

) and forcing the defending German colonial troops to capitulate on 21 September after their defeat at Bita Paka. At the beginning of October, he was still unaware of the state of war that now existed between his country and the Commonwealth. The several months following the outbreak of war found Detzner on border survey work with his sergeant, Konradt, 25 police and 45 carriers, two servants and an interpreter in the high country between Mt Chapman, the Ono River, and Mt Lawson, that is to say along the territorial boundary between Australian-governed Papua and

. Eventually he sighted people he named ''Rockpapua'' or "skirted Papuans' – these were Kamea people perhaps in the area south of Tekadu in the southernmost part of Morobe Province or the northern part of Gulf Province. On 11 November 1914, one of the carriers, left with several others to rest at a temporary camp, arrived bearing a note from Frederick Chisholm, an Australian Patrol Officer, informing him of the state of war between Germany and Great Britain and asking him to surrender at Nepa on the Lakekamu River, five days walk away.

Four years in the unexplored interior of New Guinea

Rather than comply, Detzner led his party on a forced march north to the Markham Valley. His route is uncertain, but his description of a valley with steep grassy ravines entering from east and west may place the latter part of his journey in the Langimar Valley, through which flows a tributary of the Watut River. A clash with local people that he describes, has been identified as having occurred at Rangama among with Middle Watut people. Once on the Watut itself, the party built rafts and floated downstream to the Markham. His final destination was Sattelberg on the Huon peninsula. His second in command, Sergeant Konradt, who suffered from frequent bouts of

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

, and a German officer, were captured by the Australians by spring 1915. Eventually, Detzner found his way to the vicinity of a Lutheran mission at the Sattelberg, at a foggy, cool area at , above Finschhafen. The Sattelberg mission was one of the Neuendettelsau Mission Society enterprises established by the Old Lutheran missionary,

Johann Flierl Johann Flierl (16 April 1858 – 30 September 1947) was a pioneer Lutheran missionary in New Guinea. He established mission schools and organised the construction of roads and communication between otherwise remote interior locations. Under his l ...

, in 1885. This station, and additional mission stations in Heldbach, Simbang,

Tami Islands The Tami Islands are a small island group located 13 km SSE of Finschhafen in the Huon Gulf (see also Solomon Sea). It is part of today's Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. Its people were known throughout the Solomon and South Sea islands ...

, and Simbu, were an important evangelical presence in the

Morobe Province Morobe Province is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital and largest city is Lae. The province covers 33,705 km2, with a population of 674,810 (2011 census), and since the division of Southern Highlands ...

. The missionaries had signed oaths of neutrality for the Australians, who allowed them to remain at their Stations and continue their work. Once Detzner reached the vicinity of the Sattelberg Mission, nearby villagers in the Borrum valley housed him and his remaining men, which had dwindled to about 20 soldiers, plus four European officers and, on his behalf, the villagers sought assistance from the Sattelberg director, Christian Keyser, and another missionary, Otto Thiele. They reluctantly agreed to keep Detzner's presence a secret. Among the villagers, Detzner established a base camp from which he could depart at short notice. The valley was relatively secure for him, and inaccessible for the Australians, but if they ventured too close to his base, Detzner and his men would retreat into the mountainous Saruwaged, or, if necessary, further into the Finisterre mountains. These were rugged and remote locations, accessible to Detzner, who had the help of native guides, but which the Australians, who usually travelled in larger patrols, could not penetrate. Detzner and his band stayed near the Sattelberg Mission for the remainder of the war. After the war, however, Detzner would claim he had roamed throughout the eastern jungles of the island, eluding Australian patrols and making little effort to hide. He said he flew the Imperial German flag (sewn from dyed loincloths) in villages throughout the bush, and marched his command through the jungle, loudly singing such patriotic German songs as "

" (''Die Wacht am Rhein'') and popular sentimental ballads like " The Linden Tree" (''Der Lindenbaum''). The Australian garrison was probably not aware of Detzner's activities.

Escape attempts

Detzner could have made attempts to reach

West New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, or Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the Melanesian island of New Guinea which is administered by Indonesia. Since the island is alternatively named as Papua, the region ...

, which was then neutral

Dutch New Guinea Dutch New Guinea or Netherlands New Guinea ( nl, Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea, id, Nugini Belanda) was the western half of the island of New Guinea that was a part of the Dutch East Indies until 1949, later an overseas territory of the Kingd ...

, but his claims to have been the first outsider to enter the Papua New Guinea highlands can be discounted. In 1915, and again in 1917, Detzner and some of his men tried to escape along the coast in two canoes. In 1917, they reached the vicinity of Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen, which today is

Madang Madang (old German name: ''Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen'') is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 (in 2005) on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was first settled by the Germans in the 19th century. Histo ...

. There lay anchored the Australian ship, , which earlier had been the German imperial yacht, the , designated for use by the German governor of the colony. The ship blocked any further travel, and ended any notions they had of a water escape to Dutch New Guinea. On this escape attempt, Detzner also learned the Australians had orders to shoot him on sight. He made one further attempt to escape overland to Dutch New Guinea, but had to be carried back suffering from an internal hemorrhage. He spent the remainder of the time investigating the island's inhabitants and its flora and fauna, particularly in the

and

Huon Gulf Huon Gulf is a large gulf in eastern Papua New Guinea. It is bordered by Huon Peninsula in the north. Both are named after French explorer Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec. Huon Gulf is a part of the Solomon Sea. Its northern boundary is marked by ...

Surrender

On 11 November 1918, Detzner received the news of the official end of the war with the German defeat from a worker at the Sattelberg Mission Station, he wrote a letter to the Australian commander in Morobe in which he offered his capitulation. On 5 January 1919, he surrendered at the Finschhafen District headquarters, marching with his remaining German troops in a column, and wearing his carefully preserved full-dress uniform. He was brought to Rabaul, the Australian headquarters, and on 8 February 1919, was transferred to Sydney aboard the ''Melusia''; after a brief internment in the prisoner of war camp at

Holsworthy Holsworthy is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Torridge District, Torridge district of Devon, England, some west of Exeter. The River Deer, a tributary of the River Tamar, forms the western boundary of the paris ...

, he was repatriated to Germany.

Book and honours

On his arrival home, Detzner received a hero's welcome. The press likened him to the successful commander of German East Africa, ''Major General''

Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (20 March 1870 – 9 March 1964), also called the Lion of Africa (german: Löwe von Afrika), was a general in the Imperial German Army and the commander of its forces in the German East Africa campaign. For four ye ...

, who tied down British forces in Africa for the duration of the war. Detzner had been promoted to the rank of captain during the war; upon his return, he was promoted to major. In that year, he wrote ''Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, nach dem Stande der Forschung im Jahre 1919'', (Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, According to the State of Research in the Year 1919), which was widely read in scientific circles. The Geographical Society of Berlin (''Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin'') honored him 1921 with the Nachtigal medal "in Eisen" (iron), named after the German explorer

Gustav Nachtigal Gustav Nachtigal (; born 23 February 1834 – 20 April 1885) was a German military surgeon and explorer of Central and West Africa. He is further known as the German Empire's consul-general for Tunisia and Commissioner for West Africa. His missio ...

, not in Gold, as sometimes purposed. The Geographic Society of Leipzig (''Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Leipzig'') awarded him their Eduard-Vogel-Medaille in gold (

Eduard Vogel Eduard Vogel (7 March 1829February 1856) was a German explorer in Central Africa. Early career Vogel was born in Krefeld. He studied mathematics, botany and astronomy at Leipzig and Berlin, studying with Encke at the latter institution. In ...

) in the same year. The University of Köln granted him an honorary degree (Dr. phil. h. c.) on 31 July 1921, and the military awarded him the

Iron Cross The Iron Cross (german: link=no, Eisernes Kreuz, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). King Frederick William III of Prussia es ...

(2nd and 1st Class) together on 31 August 1919. He received a position in the colonial administration (Reichskolonialamt) in Berlin and in the imperial archive (''Reichsarchiv'') in Potsdam. To satisfy the public curiosity about his adventures, Detzner wrote ''Four years among cannibals : New Guinea''. The book brought him fame in Germany and Britain, and he became a sought-after speaker on the lecture circuit. In the 1920s, in addition to several articles and two maps of New Guinea, Detzner published a memoir of his adventures in the Niger valley—''In the land of the Dju-Dju: travel experiences in the eastern watershed of the Niger''—in 1923, but it did not achieve the popularity of his previous work.

Book reception

Detzner's book was wildly popular among the general population for its incredible tales of stubborn patriotism and its narratives describing the exotic locales of the lost imperial colonies. His descriptions touched a chord in the German imagination: one of their own had explored the colony, walked its paths, seen its mountains and valleys, and met its people. His vivid descriptions brought to life the images Germans had seen on postcards (such as the one to right), newspapers, and in school books. Furthermore, he had defended Germany's "place in the sun" when others had failed to do so. His book was translated into English, Finnish, Swedish and eventually French. (See below.) In a speech at the Berlin Geographical Society in 1919, Detzner claimed that the natives of New Guinea had opposed Australian domination and resisted a military recruitment that amounted to slavery, that even the English plantation holders wished to remain independent of Australia, and that the natives were collecting money to build a war memorial for the Germans. The report on Detzner's speech, transmitted from a news agency in London, caused a small flutter in Australian government circles, but generally was dismissed; an earlier report by the Australian judiciary had absolved the Australian force of improper recruiting or treatment of the New Guineans. An angry letter to the editor from another Australian source, who claimed to have been in service in Morobe from 1914 to 1915, received little attention. In the scientific world, several of his descriptive passages generated excitement and curiosity. In early 1914, he had been surveying a portion of the international boundary in the Upper

Waria River The Waria River is a river in Oro Province and Morobe Province in south-eastern Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi ...

between the German and British protectorates. By late September, he had passed into a different portion of the highlands, where the clay-slate mountains changed into limestone highlands. In this geologic transition, he said, he also found a change in the ethnographic character of the population, whom he described as a "new" people. They were stocky, powerfully built, and long–limbed; they wore their hair in knots on the centre of their heads, which were otherwise shaven, and painted yellow and black lines across their chests. They also wore grass skirts, so he called them ''the skirted ones''. They used bows and arrows, slings and stone axes. As he pushed west to Mount Joseph, Detzner claimed, he had found the southern hills of the central watershed cut by numerous rivers flowing north to south. He had surmised that there were no insurmountable obstacles between him and the

Sepik The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Se ...

river. In 1917, he had travelled through the Ramu valley into the Bismarck range, northwest of the Kratke Mountains, and had continued on that route for . He also described the presence of an indigenous variation of German, called ''Unserdeutsch'' (our German), in several New Guinean dialects.

Controversy

In 1919, after an account of Detzner's speech in Berlin to the Geographical Society was published in Australia, an angry Australian wrote anonymously to the editor of '' The Argus'', a Melbourne newspaper, and described what he claimed were Detzner's lies. "There was no mystery about the disappearance of Captain Detzner and his party", he claimed. The writer attributed Detzner's success at staying ahead of the Australians to the perfidy of the German missionaries, who had agreed to remain neutral and in return for such agreement were allowed to continue their mission work. Detzner was a ''civilian'' mphasis in the originalsurveyor, the writer claimed, not a soldier and he survived on mission station rations supplied by public subscription from the German plantation owners. Furthermore, this writer asserted, Detzner's movements were so well known to the district officer at Morobe that he was prevented from escaping; they could have shot him several times, but did not. The writer dismissed Detzner's claims about Australian recruitment of the natives as "in keeping with his dozens of other lying statements in all cases endeavoring to belittle Englishmen or British officers, in every case pure fabrications and typical scurrilous Hun lies". While such criticism of Detzner's adventures might have been dismissed as post-bellum bellicosity, in 1929, Detzner's assertions came under more serious assault. Two of the German missionaries in the Finschhafen District, Christian Keyser (also spelled Kayser or Keysser) and Otto Thiele, claimed Detzner had not spent the war roaming the jungle, one step ahead of the Australians, but had been under the Mission's protection the entire time. Keyser's additional accusations were particularly specific: Detzner had appropriated his own scientific observations. Keyser's claims carried some weight. He had published a dictionary of the Kâte language, and was a reliable expert on New Guinean dialects, and the

German-based creole languages Unserdeutsch ('Our German'), or Rabaul Creole German, is a German-based creole language that originated in Papua New Guinea as a lingua franca. The substrate language is assumed to be Tok Pisin, while the majority of the lexicon is from German.

that had arisen in New Guinea; he was also a ''bona fide'' explorer and adventurer, having lived from 1899 to 1920 among the mountain peoples of the island. In 1913, Keyser climbed the Saruwaged Massif; over the course of his 21 years in New Guinea, he had identified hundreds of new plant and animal species, and had maintained a regular correspondence with the German Geographical Society in Berlin. Ernst Mayr, a rising star in ornithology, had heard about Detzner from Australians on a research trip to New Guinea. In Germany, during a meeting with Keyser, they discussed Detzner's claims, and Mayr lost no time in broadcasting the discrepancy to his scientific contacts in Europe and the United States. More problematically, Detzner had no documentation of his findings. As he explained in his many speeches, although he had kept notebooks with drawings of plants, animals, maps, and people, and journals recounting his day-to-day experiences, some of his notebooks and journals had been destroyed by the Australians as they over-ran his hiding places; others, which he had buried to keep them from being destroyed, had rotted beyond repair in the jungle humidity. He implied that what remained of his notes had been confiscated when he surrendered. Detzner's narrative also was rife with contradictions and omissions: Detzner named few villages or streams and stated that the valleys he discovered were thinly populated, whereas they actually contained large populations, at least by New Guinea standards. He also stated that the highest point in the range was , a miscalculation, which, for a mapmaker and a surveyor, needed to be explained. Detzner made attempts to explain away specific ambiguities, contradictions, and errors. In 1915, he said, he lost his surveying instruments while eluding an Australian patrol, which explained why many of his assertions were vague and inconclusive, and his calculations inaccurate. This was true, the Australians did find a box of Detzner's equipment in the location where the missionary Johann Flierl's oldest son, Wilhelm, had kept (or stored) his small canoe. Although Wilhelm denied helping Detzner and his men, the Australians arrested him. The event coincided with one of Detzner's narrow escapes from Australian patrols in 1915 and was inadvertently corroborated in 1919 by the angry letter to ''The Argus's'' editor. Some of Detzner's assertions could be sustained through observable physical evidence: he had reportedly wasted to a mere while roaming in the bush, which should not have happened, some supporters claimed, if he had indeed been under the protection of Keyser and Thiele. On the other hand, this weight loss could also have been due to his debilitating illness in 1917. Despite his explanations, the missionaries Thiele and Keyser, whose own autobiography appeared in 1929, and the widely respected Mayr, who by this time had become the leader of the

Whitney South Seas Expedition The Whitney South Sea Expedition (1920 - 1941) to collect bird specimens for the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), under the initial leadership of Rollo Beck, was instigated by Dr Leonard C. Sanford and financed by Harry Payne Whitney, a ...

s, continued to challenge the bulk of Detzner's scientific "discoveries". Detzner's position became increasingly untenable. In 1932, he admitted that he had mixed fact and fiction in his book, explaining that he had never intended it to be taken as ''science'', but rather at its face-value, as the story of his adventurous years in the jungles of New Guinea. The following year, Detzner resigned from the prestigious Geographical Society of Berlin.

I wish to state that my book, ''Vier Jahre unter Kannibalen'', contains a number of misrepresentations regarding my journeys in New Guinea. The book in question is a scientific report in part only; it is primarily a fictional account of my experiences in New Guinea and owes its origin to the unusual circumstances prevailing in Germany at the time of my return. Some of the journeys I had actually undertaken are not described at all; on the other hand it contains passages that do not correspond with the facts.

After this, he withdrew entirely from public life, although he retained his position in the colonial archive. He lived in Schmargendorf, Berlin, on ''Auguste-Viktoria-Straße'', and later became the director of the Carl-Pfeffer Verlag, a publishing house in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

. He died there in 1970, at the age of 88.

Wehrmacht

1935 to 1938 Major a. D. Detzner worked for the Abwehr, in July 1939 he was reactivated by the Wehrmacht as a major. On 1. April 1942 he became an

Oberstleutnant () is a senior field officer rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Lieutenant colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway. The Swedi ...

z. V. (lieutenant colonel) and on 1 April 1945 an

Oberst ''Oberst'' () is a senior field officer rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway. The Swedish ...

z. V. (colonel). In May 1945 he evaded capture by the Soviets by travelling from

Kleinmachnow Kleinmachnow is a municipality of about 20,000 inhabitants in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated South-West of the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf and East of Potsdam. First mentioned in the Landbuch of Karl ...

, which was in the American sector.

Legacy

The ambiguous wording of Detzner's resignation from the Geographical Society of Berlin—the use of such phrases as ''contains misrepresentations'', ''scientific report in part only'', ''primarily fictional'', ''unusual circumstances in Germany'', and so on—misled later scholars, many of whom remained unaware of the controversy surrounding his book. Consequently, his work continued to inform the geographical, linguistic, and anthropological investigations of New Guinean culture and geography well into the 1950s and 1960s, much to the dismay of Ernst Mayr, who had been instrumental in discrediting Detzner in the 1920s. Since the mid-1970s, references to ''Four Years Among the Cannibals'' have continued to appear in studies on New Guinea. In the 1990s, Detzner's work received some rehabilitation from ethnographer Terence Hays, who placed Detzner's work in its contemporary context: ''Four Years Among the Cannibals'', he wrote, "paved the way for me o become an ethnographerby creating romanticized images that served as a backdrop for more serious readings". Since then, geographer Robert Linke has raised some important questions: "Why did Detzner resort to lies to embellish his wonderful story? The unadorned truth would have been enough to establish him as one of the great figures in New Guinea history." Detzner had remained at large for four years, as a fugitive in enemy-held territory: surely, Linke concluded, this was an exceptional feat. No doubt the Australians could have made a more broadly organized attempt to capture him, and probably would have succeeded, but they did not make the effort; they preferred instead the more convenient "shoot-at-sight" method. "It is impossible", Linke wrote, "not to admire his sheer ''elan'', his courage and tenacity." In 2008, Detzner's book was retranslated, reprinted, and marketed as a modern translation of a rare and valuable book about the exploration of the New Guinean interior during World War I.Hermann Detzner (auth.), Gisela Batt, (Trans.), ''Four Years Among the Cannibals'', Pacific Press, Gold Coast, Australia, 2008.

Detzner's works

* "Kamerun-Boundary: Die nigerische Grenze von Kamerun zwischen Yola und dem Cross-Fluss". ''Mitteilungen aus den Deutschen Schutzgebieten''. 26:13, pp. 317–338. * "Der Saruwaged und seine östlichen und südöstlichen Anschlussgebiete". ''Kolonial Rundschau''. Number 25 (1919) (Booklets, 8, 9, 10) pp. 209–221. * "Kreuz- und Querzüge in Kaiser-Wilhelmsland während des Weltkrieges: Februar 1914 bis November 1918". ''Mitteilungen aus den Deutschen Schutzgebieten''. Volume 32 (1919), pp. 4–19. * ''Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, nach dem Stande der Forschung im Jahre 1919'', with Max Moisel, Map. Berlin ittler 1919. * ''Vier Jahre unter Kannibalen. Von 1914 bis zum Waffenstillstand unter deutscher Flagge im unerforschten Innern von Neuguinea'', Scherl, Berlin, 1920, 1921. :* ''Four Years among the Cannibals, from 1914 to the Armistice under the German Flag in unexplored interior of New Guinea''. Berlin, August Scherl, 921 :* ''Neljä vuotta ihmissyöjien parissa: Saksan lipun suojassa Uuden-Guinean tutkimattomissa sisäosissa 1914–1918''. Porvoo, WSOY, 1925. :* ''Mœurs et coutumes des Papous: quatre ans chez les cannibales de Nouvelle-Guinée (1914–1918) Avec une carte. ''Paris, Payot, 1923, 1935. :* ''Fyra år bland kannibaler''. Ani Mari Nordman, trans. Helsingfors, Schildt, 1925. :* ''Four Years Among the Cannibals ...'' Gisela Batt, (Trans.), Pacific Press, Gold Coast, Australia, 2008. (Retranslation and reprint). * "Medizinische und hygienische Streiflichter aus dem Innern von Neuguinea". ''Archiv für Schiffs- und Tropen-Hygiene, Pathologie und Therapie exotischer Krankheiten''. 1921, 25(3): pp. 67–79. * ''Im Lande der Dju-Dju. Reiseerlebnisse im östlichen Stromgebiet des Niger'', Scherl, Berlin 1923. * "Stammesgemeinschaften im Zentralgebiet von Deutsch-Neuguinea". ''Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten'', Volume 36 (1928), pp. 112–130. * "Unter Unbekannten Kannibalen", ''Die Woche'', 24. 1. 1925, Nr. 4. * ''Die Kolonien unter Mandatsherrschaft''. Berlin, Deutscher Wille, 1927. * ''Das "Zentralgebirge" Neuguineas im Gebiet der Wasserscheide zwischen Hüon- und Papua-Golf''. Map. Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten, Kt. 3 im 2. Heft, Bd. XXXVI, 1928.

Notes

References

* * * Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, ''Abteilung IV Kriegsarchiv. Kriegstammrollen, 1914–1918''. Volume: 16356. Kriegsrangliste: Bd. 1. * Bahnemann, Gunther, ''New Guinea crocodile poacher'', London, Jarrolds, 1964. * ''Biographisches Handbuch des Deutschen Auswärtigen Dienstes'', 1871–1945: 1–F, 2000. * Biskup, P. "Herman Detzner: New Guinea's First Coast Watcher", ''Inl Papua and New Guinea Soc. (Port Moresby)'', 2(1). 1968, pp. 5–21. * Bridge, Carl
''Review of: Heroes before Gallipoli: Bita Paka and that One Day in September by Kevin Meade''
Wiley, . * Detzner, Hermann (auth.), Gisela Batt, (trans.), ''Four Years Among the Cannibals'', Pacific Press, Gold Coast, Australia, 2008. (Retranslation and Reprint) * Drechsel, Edwin, ''Norddeutscher Lloyd, Bremen, 1857–1970: History, Fleet, Ship Mails'', Cordillera Pub. Co., 1995, * Fischer, Hans 1963. Watut: Notizen zur Kultur eines Melanesierstammes in Nordost-Neuguinea. Braunschweig: Albert Limbag Verlag * Geographische Gesellschaft in Hamburg, ''Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft in Hamburg'', Volumes 36–37, p. 266. * Grüntzig, Johannes W. and Heinz Mehldorn: ''Expedition ins Reich der Seuchen, Medizinische Himmelfahrtskommandos der deutschen Kaiser- und Kolonialzeit''. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, München 2005, * Haffer, Jürgen, ''Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy: The Life and Science of Ernst Mayr 1904–2005'', Springer, 2008, . * Hays, Terence E., ''Ethnographic presents: pioneering anthropologists in Papua New Guinea'', 1992. * Hiery, Hermann Joseph (Hrsg.), ''Die Deutsche Südsee 1884–1914, Ein Handbuch''. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2001, * ''Korrespondenz-Blatt für Zahnarzte'', v. 14, 1885. * Küttelwesch, Ralf

''Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung'', 10 June 2006. * Linke, Robert, "The influence of German surveying on the development of New Guinea", ''Shaping the Change'': XXIII FIG Congress, Munich, Germany, 8–13 October 2006. * "Lost Peoples" of New Guinea were first Seen by German: Before the War and the Turning over of the Territory to Australia, Dr. Hermann Detzner Found 'Semites'. ''Science News Letter'', 11 August 1934, pp. 83–84. * Klein, Willem Carel, ''Nieuw Guinea: de ontwikkeling op economisch, sociaal en cultureel gebied'', Maastricht, Van der Vieter, 1953. * Meade, Kevin, ''Heroes before Gallipoli: Bita Paka and that One Day in September''. Milton, Queensland: John Wiley & Sons Australia, 2005, . * "Monthly Record", ''The Geographical Journal'', 42:3, September 1913, pp. 294–301, p. 296. * Mumm, Hans-Martin, "Hermann Detzner", "Carl-Pfeffer Verlag", ''Heidelberger Geschichtsverein e.V'', 2003–. * Nelson, Hank. ''Black, white and gold. Goldmining in Papua New Guinea 1878–1930.'' Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1976. * Sankt Georgium Evangelisch, Speyer, Pfalz, Bavaria, ''Germany, Births and Baptisms, 1558–1898.'' Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. * State Records Authority of New South Wales, New South Wales Government. ''Reports of vessels arrived (or Shipping reports)''. Series 1291, Reels 1263–1285, 2851. Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia. * Ritter, Jürgen

''Spiegel online''. * Romaine, Suzanne, "Grammaticalization of the Proximative in Tok Pisin". ''Language'', vol. 75 , No. 2. (June 1999), pp. 322–346. * Schnee, Heinrich, (ed.), "Hermann Detzner", ''Deutsches Kolonial-Lexikon''. Band 1, p. 752, Leipzig 1920. * Snow, Philip and Stefanie Waine, ''The People from the Horizon'', Phaidon-Dutton, 1979. * Souter, Gavin, ''New Guinea: The Last Unknown'', Angus and Robertson, 1963. * Spinks, K. L. "The Wahgi River Valley of Central New Guinea", ''The Geographical Journal'', 87:3, March 1936, 222–228. * * * ''Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde in Berlin'', 1932, pp. 307–308.

External links

Detzner's publications at the city library of Berlin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Detzner, Hermann 1882 births 1970 deaths People from Speyer People from the Palatinate (region) German colonial people in Kamerun Colonial people of German New Guinea Bismarck Archipelago German explorers of Africa Explorers of Papua New Guinea German explorers German military writers German male non-fiction writers Schutztruppe personnel Heidelberg University alumni Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 1st class