Theodor von Hassel (29 September 1868 – 29 November 1935) was a German

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...

and a farmer in

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

. He was also noted as an enthusiastic hunter of elephants. His son,

Kai-Uwe von Hassel Kai-Uwe von Hassel (21 April 1913 – 8 May 1997) was a German politician from Schleswig-Holstein associated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein from 1954 to 1963, as Federal Minister ...

, served as president of the

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Life

Family provenance and early years

Theodor Berthold Paul Hassel was the second son of

Prussian Army The Royal Prussian Army (1701–1919, german: Königlich Preußische Armee) served as the army of the Kingdom of Prussia. It became vital to the development of Brandenburg-Prussia as a European power. The Prussian Army had its roots in the co ...

officer Friedrich von Hassel (1833–1890) and Elise Helene Christiane Hassel (born Thormann) (1846–1896). His father's military career meant a childhood disrupted by frequent relocation. On 22 March 1887 Friedrich Hassel was ennobled by the emperor, in recognition of his long military service. One result was that his family name changed from "Hassel" to "von Hassel". In 1878 Theodor was accepted into the Prussian Academy for Officers' sons in

Groß-Lichterfelde Lichterfelde () is a locality in the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf in Berlin, Germany. Until 2001 it was part of the former borough of Steglitz, along with Steglitz and Lankwitz. Lichterfelde is home to institutions like the Berlin Botanical G ...

, just outside Berlin. In 1885 he switched to

Cathedral School Cathedral schools began in the Early Middle Ages as centers of advanced education, some of them ultimately evolving into medieval universities. Throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, they were complemented by the monastic schools. Some of these ...

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

, passing his School final exams (''Abitur'') in 1887. That same year he joined the Prussian army as an officer, serving in the Queen's Fusilier Regiment (Schleswig-Holstein) No.86, under the command of von Kusserow. The third battalion of the regiment was stationed in

Sønderborg Castle (; german: Sonderburg ) is a Danish town in the Region of Southern Denmark. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Sønderborg Municipality (Kommune). The town has a population of 27,766 (1 January 2022),Franco-Prussian war. During this period Theodor won a medal for jumping into the water in the harbour at

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

and rescuing a child who had fallen in. For a time he served as a sailing instructor with the Sonderburg Sea battalion before returning, in 1900, to his earlier duties.

Africa

In 1903 von Hassel enrolled as an Oberleutnant in the Protection Force for

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; german: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Mozam ...

, thereby resigning from the

German Imperial Army The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (german: Deutsches Heer), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the ...

. On reporting in

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

in May 1903 he was promoted to the rank of "Hauptmann", a junior officer rank, though initially as a supernumerary officer without a posting. There followed a period of instruction covering the relevant legal framework applicable to the Protection Force and basic familiarisation with Swahili. At the end of August 1903 he became a commando with the Third Company based along the coast to the south in

Lindi Lindi is a historic southern Tanzanian coastal small city and regional capital of the Lindi Region located at the far end of Lindi Bay, on the Indian Ocean in southeastern Tanzania. The town is south of Dar es Salaam and north of Mtwara, ...

. In November 1904 he took over command of the Twelfth Company in

Mahenge Mahenge is a town in the Mahenge Mountains of Tanzania. It is the headquarters of Ulanga District in Morogoro Region. There is a hospital, a market, and primary schools. A Catholic Capuchin mission was established around 1897, and there is n ...

, an inland location in the southern part of the German East Africa colony. Mahenge was in the heart of the region affected by the

Maji Maji Rebellion The Maji Maji Rebellion (german: Maji-Maji-Aufstand, sw, Vita vya Maji Maji), was an armed rebellion of Islamic and animist Africans against German colonial rule in German East Africa (modern-day Tanzania). The war was triggered by German Colon ...

. At the end of August 1905 several thousand rebel warriors arrived at the garrison. The ensuing battle took the form of a siege in which von Hassel, his group of sixty native soldiers, a few hundred loyal tribesmen massively outnumbered, authorised the use of the defenders' two machine guns. The attackers were fought off only with difficulty: many were killed. During a lengthy period of home leave back in Germany, von Hassel met Emma Jebsen at a ball in Apenrade and married her in October 1906. His bride was the youngest daughter of the

shipowner A ship-owner is the owner of a merchant vessel (commercial ship) and is involved in the shipping industry. In the commercial sense of the term, a shipowner is someone who equips and exploits a ship, usually for delivering cargo at a certain frei ...

-politician Michael Jebsen. (At that time, and indeed until 1920, Apenrade was in Germany.) On 10 January 1907 they arrived together back in

. , appointed commander of the East African Protection Force in May 1907, awarded von Hassel with the prestigious

Order of the Red Eagle The Order of the Red Eagle (german: Roter Adlerorden) was an order of chivalry of the Kingdom of Prussia. It was awarded to both military personnel and civilians, to recognize valor in combat, excellence in military leadership, long and faithful se ...

in recognition of his contribution to the suppression of the

. Von Hassel was now given command of the Fifth Company, based in Masoko near Neu-Langenburg, still in the inland southwestern part of the German colony. The couples' first child, Gertrud, was born in

on 10 May 1908. Gertrud later became an artist. It was partly in order to avoid

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 ...

that Emma von Hassel spent most of her second pregnancy staying with her parents in Apenrade, where their first son, Friedrich, was born on 16 April 1910. By this time von Hassel had already left the Protection Force in 1909, setting himself up as a farmer in

. He set up what he called the "New Apenrade Farm" (''"Farm Neu-Apenrade"'') in the Wilhelmstal (valley) in the

Usambara Mountains The Usambara Mountains of northeastern Tanzania in tropical East Africa, comprise the easternmost ranges of the Eastern Arc Mountains. The ranges of approximately long and about half that wide, are situated in the Lushoto District of the Tang ...

, close to the frontier with what later became

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and a couple of hundred miles to the north of

. Coffee was the main crop. It was near the coffee farm, at the missionary station at Gare, that their second son Kai-Uwe was born on 21 April 1913. In August 1914 the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

heralded von Hassel's return to the Protection Force, now facing a large hostile British army. Communications with Germany were broken and the small force of German settlers was ultimately overwhelmed. Theodor von Hassel was taken prisoner by the British in November 1917, and the end of the war a year later found his wife and children abandoned in a colony which was being expropriated by the British. At the start of 1919 the British ordered the remaining German colonists to leave and the family was split up. At least one of the children, Kai-Uwe, was deposited by a merchant ship at

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

in February 1919, and then looked after by relatives, but the children's mother was not able to return to Germany till 1920. Theodor von Hassel was removed first to Egypt and then to

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. In 1919 he was released into Germany. Apenrade was transferred to

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in 1920 following a plebiscite in which the wish of the urban majority to remain in Germany was outweighed by votes from the surrounding countryside. Theodore and his wife attempted to start a new life together in nearby

Glücksburg Glücksburg (; da, Lyksborg) is a small town northeast of Flensburg in the district Schleswig-Flensburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany and is the northernmost town in Germany. It is situated on the south side of the Flensborg Fjord, an inlet ...

, which had now become the most northerly town in Germany, while the children lived for at least some of this period with relatives. In 1926, the marriage having failed, Theodore returned without his family to East Africa. The region where they had previously lived had been handed over to the British and renamed

Tanganyika Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...

. Von Hasel sought to create a new coffee plantation not on the site of his former farm in the north of the country, which had been expropriated, but near

where he had served during the early years of the century. During the final months of his life he was joined in the enterprise by his son,

, who had trained for a career as an Agribusiness merchant during the preceding two years. However, on 29 November 1935 Theodor von Hassel died, from

cerebral malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, fatigue (medical), tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In se ...

. His body was buried at Mahenge's military cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hassel, Theodor von 1868 births 1935 deaths Colonial people of German East Africa Prussian Army personnel German prisoners of war in World War I Schutztruppe personnel