Adolf Schiel’s 23 Jahre Sturm und Sonnenschein in Südafrika
("23 Years of Storm and Sunshine in South Africa") 1902
Published by the prestigious F. A. Brockhaus firm in Leipzig
The Author: A German Officer in the Service of the ZAR
The text below Schiel's name identifies him as Oberstleutnant a.D. der Artillerie, Oberst-Kommandant des Deutschen Freikorps (Südafrikanische Republik)—Lieutenant Colonel of Artillery and Chief Commander of the German Volunteer Corps of the South African Republic (Transvaal).
Schiel wasn't just a passive observer; he was a key military figure in Paul Kruger’s republic. He helped fortify Johannesburg, served as the military commander of the strategic fort at Johannesburg (the Old Fort), and was tasked with organizing the German immigrants and volunteers who chose to fight alongside the Boers against the British Empire.
Written in Captivity on St. Helena
While the book was published in Germany in 1902, the narrative itself was largely forged in a British prisoner-of-war camp.
Early in the war, at the Battle of Elandslaagte (October 21, 1899), Schiel’s German Corps was routed by British cavalry. Schiel was wounded and captured. Because of his high profile and influence, the British authorities viewed him as an exceptionally dangerous prisoner. Instead of keeping him in South Africa, they exiled him to the remote island of St. Helena, placing him aboard the prison ship HMS Penelope before transferring him to Broadbottom Camp. He spent much of the war there, utilizing his forced leisure to pen these very memoirs.
Leipzig, Brockhaus, and the Propaganda War
The publication of this book in 1902 by F.A. Brockhaus in Leipzig is a testament to the massive wave of pro-Boer sentiment that swept through Germany and continental Europe at the turn of the century.
While the British public read accounts of the war framed by imperial triumph, continental Europe was hungry for first hand accounts from the Republican side. Brockhaus, one of the world's leading publishers of geography and exploration, recognized the immense market for Schiel's perspective. The book, complete with its 39 illustrations, map, and battle plan (Schlachtplan), served as an important piece of eyewitness testimony that fuelled European critique of British imperialism.
The Complex Legacy of a "Foreign Volunteer"
Schiel's 23 years in South Africa (spanning roughly 1878 to 1901) covered an incredibly volatile era, including the Zulu War, the Sekhukhune wars, and the gold rush on the Witwatersrand. His memoirs provide a rare, highly opinionated, non-British, non-Boer European perspective on the complex friction between the indigenous kingdoms, the Boer republics, and British expansionism.
167mm x 240mm x 45mm
Adhesive tape on the spine.
R800
