A Boer war Legend in his own mind.....

[Chris Boonzaier]

I have a collection of Photo-Cards Of Commandant "Koos" Jooste....

For the full selection see here.... :-)

http://www.kaiserscross.com/40184/308401.html

[Bernhard H.Holst]

I have a collection of Photo-Cards Of Commandant "Koos" Jooste....

For the full selection see here.... :-)

http://www.kaiserscross.com/40184/308401.html

Hello Chris.

I noticed the distributor of the card. For those who may not read German: "German Center for ending the Boer War, Munich". I was aware that a sizable number of Germans were in sympathy with the Boers. As a youth we used to read lots of cheap booklets glamorizing the Boers' stand against the British. More serious reading I only began once I had easier access to such books.

Bernhard H. Holst

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello Chris.

I noticed the distributor of the card. For those who may not read German: "German Center for ending the Boer War, Munich". I was aware that a sizable number of Germans were in sympathy with the Boers. As a youth we used to read lots of cheap booklets glamorizing the Boers' stand against the British. More serious reading I only began once I had easier access to such books.

Bernhard H. Holst

Hello Bernhard,

One of the great things about discussions of events and politics from over 100 years ago is that one has a chance to cut through the propaganda and political double talk of the past. Many of the members know me as an Anglophile though I also have German ancestory. Having said that, I read from your comments that "now" you do not feel as though the Boers made a brave and righteous stand against empirical expansionism driven as much for financial gain as anything else. I trust that due to the age of this topic's events it is not fuel for a political tirade from anyone but rather the grounds for a discussion of historical accuracy. Also not to take away from the actual combatants, many of them who died fighting for what they believed to be a just cause, do you not feel that this was a case of the British public and military machine being mislead by those with monetary gain in mind? Perhaps I should open this question up in a more appropriate secion of the forum specific to this time period.

Any thoughts on this topic?

Regards

Brian

[Chris Boonzaier]

Having said that, I read from your comments that "now" you do not feel as though the Boers made a brave and righteous stand against empirical expansionism driven as much for financial gain as anything else.

Hi,

Being on the Boers side .. (of course!) ... I must never the less agree with B.H.H., the German coverage of the war was in the "real" German books on occasion objective, but there were masses and masses and masses of really over the top propaganda in the form of pamphlets an postcard...

Here is a mitxure of books... good and bad... all have rather dramatic covers.

http://www.kaiserscross.com/60401/157764.html

Then you had guys like Jooste in there with his speaking events...

Lets also not forget... the Germans were Huge Boer supporters... until after the war when Botha, De la Rey and De Wet did a fund raising tour to get money to help rebuild the country... then the Germans kinda forgot they were supporters...

[Bernhard H.Holst]

Hello Brian:

I should have pointed out that the time frame of my reading the sensational writings of the Boer War took place in Germany in the early 1940's when the anti-British propaganda ran at high revolutions. Of course propaganda regardless of its origins has an effect on young people's minds. Any objective writing about such matters were impossible prior to 1945. Only after the end of WW II were other writings available and more so after my arrival in the USA with well equipped public libraries and publishing sources galore.

I must admit that I have not yet arrived at conclusions about this complicated conflict, only that in IMHO

the subsequent events seemed to indicate a solution acceptable to all sides. The outbreak of WW I with the events around German South-West Africa showed only a feeble attempt by some Boer elements to reverse the earlier outcome.

Bernhard H. Holst

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello Chris and Bernhard,

Good points and not ones I am prepared to debate, due to lact of expertise, so I bow to yours.

It's much like current events, there is a lot of propaganda to sift through and still the anwswer may never be clear.

Regards

Brian

[Djedj]

Bonjour,

In the same vein, here is something unusual I recently found :

I must admit to have been MUCH puzzled by the uniform !

Especially seeing the photographer is from Frankfurt a/ Main.

Luckily, the Cabinet Card, though not signed, bears a dedication :

"m.l. Max Ortmann. Zu dankbarer Erinnerung "an die (schönen ?) Tage von Freiburg".

der (....) von "23 Jahre Sturn und Sonnenschein in Süd Africa""

"Max Ortmann" was the publisher of the Freiburger Zeitung.

As for the author of "23 Jahre ...", he was Adolf Schiel, former Commander the Duitse Kommando who fought along the Boers.

This puzzling uniform (it seems evolved from the Boer "Staatsartillerie" uniform) was actually discussed at length by the South African Military History Society here :

http://rapidttp.co.za/milhist/vol083jw.html

The history of the German Commando is also interestingly laid out there :

http://rapidttp.co.za/milhist/vol022ng.html

It seems after being released from British custody on St.-Helena, Schiel toured Germany to plead for support of the Boers, and promoting his book.

This is very likely his connection to Max Ortmann.

I have not got round to reading "23 Jahre.." yet, but it seems this gentleman had some interesting life !

Salutations,

Jérôme

[Brett Hendey]

Thank you for a very interesting post with useful links.

Regards

Brett