Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck - Military Career

Military Career

In 1900, von Lettow-Vorbeck was posted to China as a member of the international alliance forces to quell the Boxer Rebellion. He did not like fighting against guerrillas and considered the war a detriment to the discipline of the German Army. He returned from China in 1901 and served as a member of the German General Staff.

Beginning in 1904, he was assigned to German South-West Africa (now Namibia), during the Namaqua and Herero insurrection. He did not participate in the subsequent genocide: having suffered injuries to his left eye and chest, he was evacuated to South Africa for treatment and recovery.

In 1907, he was promoted to major and assigned to the staff of 11th Army Corps. From March, 1909, to January, 1913, von Lettow-Vorbeck was commander of the marines of II. Seebataillon ("2nd Sea Battalion") at Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony, Germany. In October, 1913, the German army promoted him to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed to command the German colonial forces known as the Schutztruppe (protectorate force) in German Kamerun (today's Cameroon plus a portion of Nigeria). Before he could assume this command, however, his orders were changed and he was posted — effective 13 April 1914 — to German East Africa, the mainland of present Tanzania.

While travelling to his new assignment, von Lettow-Vorbeck formed what would prove to be a lifelong friendship with Danish author Karen Blixen, who was travelling aboard the same liner. Decades later, she recalled, "He belonged to the olden days, and I have never met another German who has given me so strong an impression of what Imperial Germany was and stood for."