German Colonial colonial service - a hard job

[Leutwein]

Hello,

nearly one year ago I acquired the correspondence-estate of Hptm. Eymael. This correspondence-estate of Hptm. Eymael was so important for me because I own a photo of him. So I wanted to know more about him and his service in Cameroon, Fernando Poo and Zaragoza/ Spain. In a letter I could find the following interesting entry. It tells shortly about the destiny of one of his lieutenants. Thereby you can imagine that the colonial service was a hard job.

Hptm. Eymael wrote:

"One of my lieutenants had a nervous breakdown and has to travel back to Germany after a service of 2 and a half month."

But who was this lieutenant?

In the rank list of 1913 I could find only one lieutenant. It was lieutenant Zobel. Seems to be him but I looked up also in DKB and found there the following entries.

-Lt. Zobel was transferred to the "Schutztruppe" on 6th April 1912.

-His departure was on 10th April 1912.

and the last entry was his retirement of the Schutztruppe!!

-On 31st october 1912 Lt. Zobel retired from the Schutztruppe in order to transfer into Württemberg Services.

Now I´m sure that it was Lt. Zobel, who had a nervous breakdown.

It´s interesting to see for what could be stand a short time of service.

In the rank list of 1913 (also 1914) we can find Lt. Zobel in the württemb. Inf.-Regt. No. 120. BUT.....

.....but what happened with Lt. Zobel? Did he survive the World War One??

Best wishes

Karsten

[Guest Rick Research]

Born in Tübingen 11 July 1886, poor Erno Zobel had no luck at ALL> he was killed in action near Serres on 25 August 1914 while serving in Brigade Ersatz Bataillon 54.

You are turning up as many tragic stories as we usually get researching swords!

Edited July 26, 2013 by Rick Research

[Leutwein]

Thanks a lot for the info. Sadly to see that he died in one of the first battles of WW1.

Best wishes

Karsten

[Guest Rick Research]

Yes, but for us it ties up the loose narrative threads, so we know The End Of The Story. Tragic, happy, short or long the satisfaction of researching the long dead and forgotten is being able to COMPLETE their biographies.