Hermann Detzner

Hermann Philipp Detzner
Hermann Detzner, portrayed on the jacket of the 1921 edition of his book, Four Years Among the Cannibals.
Born	16 October 1882 Speyer, Bavarian Palatinate, German Empire
Died	1 December 1970(1970-12-01) (aged 88) Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany
Allegiance	German Empire
Service/branch	Schutztruppe (Kamerun and German New Guinea) 6 Infantry Regiment (Prussia), 2 Pioneer Battalion
Years of service	c. 1901–1919
Rank	Major
Battles/wars	World War I: Australian Occupation of German New Guinea
Awards	Iron Cross (1st Class), 1919 Honorary degree, University of Bonn (circa 1920)
Other work	Engineer, topographer, explorer, government official, writer
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Hermann Philipp Detzner (16 October 1882 – 1 December 1970) was an officer in the German colonial security force (Schutztruppe) in Kamerun (Cameroon) and German New Guinea, as well as a surveyor, an engineer, an adventurer, and a writer.

In early 1914, the German government sent Detzner to explore and chart the interior of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, the imperial protectorate on the island of New Guinea. When World War I broke out in Europe, he was well into the interior and without radio contact. He refused to surrender to Australian troops when they occupied German New Guinea, concealing himself in the jungle with a band of approximately 20 soldiers. For four years, Detzner and his troops provocatively marched through the bush, singing "Watch on the Rhine" and flying the German Imperial flag. He led at least one expedition from the Huon Peninsula to the north coast, and a second by a mountain route, to attempt an escape to the neutral Dutch colony to the west. He explored areas of the New Guinean interior formerly unseen by Europeans and surrendered in full dress uniform, flying the Imperial flag, to Australian forces in January 1919.

Detzner received a hero's welcome when he returned to Germany. He wrote a book about his adventures—Four Years Among the Cannibals in the Interior of German New Guinea under the Imperial Flag, from 1914 until the Armistice—that achieved notoriety in Great Britain and Germany, entered three printings, and was translated into French, English, Finnish and Swedish. He received a position in the Imperial Colonial Archives, and appeared frequently on the lecture circuit throughout the 1920s. In the late 1920s, scientific portions of his book were discredited. In 1932, he admitted that he had mixed fact and fiction and, after that time, eschewed public life.

Detzner was the son of a dentist, Johann Philipp Detzner (12 July 1846 – 1907) and his wife, Wilhelmine Katharina Faber, in the city of Speyer, in the Bavarian Palatinate, a cultural, economic, and historical center on the Rhine River. His father received his degree from Heidelberg University and was licensed to practice by the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1867; Detzner's father pioneered innovations in dental prosthetics. His large family included nine children. Hermann Detzner was trained as a topographer, surveyor, and an engineer, and received his promotion to Fahnrich in the 6 Infantry Regiment (Prussian), 2nd Pioneer Battalion, in February 1902. During World War I, military authorities transferred his commission to the 1st Bavarian Pioneer Battalion.