Accession Number: 2022.02.8.37

Stamp: Deutsches Reich Winterhilfswerk 6

Postmark: Feldpost 4.2.40

Historical background:

Carl Peters was a German colonial administrator. He was born in 1856 and died in 1918. He was the founder of the German East Africa Company and traveled on several expeditions to Tanzania and Uganda. His goal in these expeditions was to extend Germany’s colonial reach by drafting treaties with other colonial administrators. Peters was wildly unsuccessful in his attempts and was unpopular with other colonists for his ineptitude. He caused a great deal of damage to the communities he traveled through. He burned villages, stole food, enslaved people, and executed people. His ravaging was so extreme that the German government raised official accusations of excess in regard to his treatment of the African population. Peters had to flee to London to avoid criminal sentencing, where he continued his colonial career by starting a mining company in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. 

Typically, Peters is considered by Germans to be a national shame. He is colloquially known as Hänge-Peters (Hangman-Peters). However, the Nazi party embraced him as a national hero due to his social Darwinism and Völkish philosophy. He was popular among supporters of German colonialism, which is a movement that overlapped significantly with the Nazi base. There is a 1941 propagandistic biopic of Carl Peters produced to provoke renewed anger over the Treaty of Versailles (Selpin, 1941). 

Selpin, H. (1941). Carl Peters. Bavaria Film.