Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck - Post-war Career

Post-war Career

After hostilities ended, the British transferred the German soldiers and POWs to Dar es Salaam for eventual repatriation. Von Lettow-Vorbeck tried to ensure decent treatment and the briefest time the German Askaris would be caged at Tabora.

Von Lettow-Vorbeck returned home in early March 1919 to a hero's welcome. On a black charger he led 120 officers of the Schutztruppe in their tattered tropical uniforms on a victory parade through the Brandenburg Gate which was decorated in their honor. Though he ultimately surrendered as ordered; he frequently won against great odds and was the only German commander to invade British territory successfully during World War I.

Von Lettow-Vorbeck was a daring yet prudent commander who showed uncanny ability to fight a guerrilla war in unfamiliar terrain. He was respected as a brilliant soldier and a first rate leader by his white officers, non-commissioned officers and Askaris—and beyond that, by his foes. In the field when rations had to be reduced and supplies dwindled,

it was a measure of the Askaris' loyalty to their commander that they accepted the cuts and did not desert en masse. Some did desert, of course ... . But the German Askaris were by far the most loyal as well as the most effective, and it all went back to von Lettow-Vorbeck's brand of discipline, which bound him and his German officers as much as his black soldiers.

One of von Lettow-Vorbeck's junior officers, Theodor von Hippel, used his experience in Africa to be instrumental in forming the Brandenburgers, the commando unit of the German Abwehr intelligence agency in World War II.

After his return from Africa, von Lettow-Vorbeck married Martha Wallroth (1884–1953) in 1919; they had two sons – Rüdiger (1921–1940) and Arnd (1922–1941) – and two daughters – Heloise (1923) and Ursula (1927). Many people tried to get him involved in the chaotic politics of the Weimar Republic. He remained in the Army. Only fourteen months after his return to Germany, von Lettow-Vorbeck commanded the troops that ended (without any use of force) the Spartacist uprising in Hamburg. In the confusion following the Kapp Putsch at about the same time, von Lettow-Vorbeck lost his position in the army in the summer of 1920. He then worked at Bremen as an import-export manager.

In June 1926, von Lettow-Vorbeck met Sir Richard Meinertzhagen at Bremen, the British Intelligence officer whom he had fought a battle of wits with until Meinertzhagen was invalided to England in December 1916 (he was later posted to Palestine). Three years later, von Lettow-Vorbeck accepted an invitation to London where he met for the first time face-to-face J. C. Smuts; Von Lettow-Vorbeck and Smuts formed a lasting friendship. When Smuts died in 1950, von Lettow-Vorbeck sent his widow a moving letter of sympathy.

(A similar oft-quoted claim states that von Lettow-Vorbeck also apologized for the "ungentlemanly death" of British hunter Frederick Selous at the hands of one of his snipers, however this claim is not supported by contemporary evidence.)

Between May 1928 and July 1930, the former General served as a Reichstag deputy for the monarchist German National People's Party. He intensely "distrusted Hitler and his movement," even though Hitler offered him the ambassadorship to the Court of St. James's in 1935, he "declined with frigid hauteur." During the 1960s, Charles Miller asked the nephew of a Schutztruppe officer, "I understand that von Lettow told Hitler to go fuck himself." The nephew responded, "That's right, except that I don't think he put it that politely."

After his blunt refusal, he "was kept under continual surveillance" and his home office was searched. The only rehabilitation due to his legendary standing among the populace came in 1938, when at age 68, he was named a General for Special Purposes, but was never recalled into active service.

By the end of World War II, von Lettow-Vorbeck was destitute. His two sons, Rüdiger and Arnd had both been killed in action serving in the Wehrmacht. His house in Bremen had been destroyed by Allied bombs, and he depended for a time on food packages from Meinertzhagen and Smuts. With the German economic miracle, he began to enjoy comfortable circumstances again. In 1953 he visited his other home, East Africa, where he was heartily welcomed by surviving Askaris who greeted him with their old marching song Heia Safari! and was received with full military honours by British colonial officials.

In 1964, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck died in Hamburg. The West German government and the Bundeswehr flew in two former Askaris as state guests, so that they could attend the funeral of "their" general. Several officers of the Bundeswehr were assigned as an honor guard, and West Germany's Minister of Defense, Kai-Uwe von Hassel, gave the eulogy, saying that the deceased, "was truly undefeated in the field." Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was buried in Pronstorf, Schleswig-Holstein in the cemetery of Vicelin Church.