Gouverneur Heinrich Schnee

[Utgardloki]

Has anyone more pictures and information about this uniform?

Thank You and kind regards!

[1812 Overture]

Your picture is very good, just a pity. . Next second. . (evil smile)

[Bayern]

Dr Heinrich Schnee wears the uniform of Governor of German East Africa . dark blue tunic with white collar and cuffs .the cuffs were of same model of those of the used by Generals. both collar and cuffs were embroidered in a pattern for civilian servants .the headress was a peaked cap in dark blue with white band and piping with the imperial cockade on the band .white trousers and black shoes . 

[Utgardloki]

Thank You for answering, so it is a form of a uniform worn by civilian servants?

would be fantastic if anyone has a picture of such a piece

[Bayern]

Utgardloki . I think that in some Museum or Auction House may exists uniforms for Civil Servants of the German Empire

[Utgardloki]

I finally found an reference book where this uniform is mentioned:

"Die zivile Uniform als symbolische Kommunikation" ("Civilian Uniforms as Symbolic Communictation")

You can find it on Google books

There are a lot of informations, i am going to roughly translate (not word by word) here what I think is most interesting (sorry for the bad english!):

.........These clearly military shaped uniforms of civil colonial governors were took under revision by Wilhelm II in the year 1910. On the 23rd of September that year the monarch issued an order with which the uniforms of the governors of the three African colonies and Neuguinea and Samoa were unified. The dark blue gala uniform retained the shape of the infantry tunic, but now not only the cuffs were embroidered but also the collar in gold in the shape of the civil uniform of the Räte 1.Klasse. The Schulterstücke (sholder boards) and Fangschnüre stayed in the shape of its military role models, but the Fangschnüre were not in the shape of the ones of generals anymore but like the ones of the uniforms of the Schutztruppe, so they went from the right side to the left side. The biggest "new thing" was the colored underlay of the collars, cuffs and sholder boards. White for East Africa, Kornblumen-Blue for Southwestafrica, ponceau -red for Kamerun, yellow for Togo, green for Neuguinea and bright pink for Samoa. (.......)

(....)

A portrait of the last governor of East Africa Dr. Heinrich Schnee, allows to view guess the most important change, the white underlay of the collar . In another photograph with (...) Lettow-Vorbeck the cuffs can be seen better. In his memoirs Gov. Schnee wrote down something about this new not absolutely necessary uniforms. He mentions they were a spontaneous idea of Wilhelm II. Schnees colleague Freiherr von Schmuckmann, gov. of Southwestafrica, told him that a short time after his appointment he introduced himself to the Kaiser in his new 1880ies style gov. uniform. The Kaiser looked at him from all sides and said: "Absolutly awful". Than he discussed in detail, how the gov. uniform should be changed. Only after this they started talking about Southwestafrica. Later the Kaiser viewed the drafts of the new gov. uniform and corrected them with his own hand. Because of this changes the new uniforms of the imperial governors were finally determined.

(more interesting stuff, if someone is interested I can further translate it)

 

Old uniform:

 

New one:

 

 

German text:

 

Edited July 30, 2019 by Utgardloki

[Bayern]

Utgardloki .Thanks! ,vielen danke ! for share your finds. A question ,Is in the book any reference to the Grey uniform for Governors ?  Ihad see a pic of the surrender of the South west Africa in 1915 and on it appears Governor Seitz in grey uniform 

[Utgardloki]

I am going to look it up as soon as I have time. There is something about grey uniforms for civilians I think, but I am not sure about special ones for the governors...

[Bayern]

Thanks , I will await .

[922F]

Excellent development of this obscure but highly fascinating topic!  Thanks to all participants!