Imperial Colonial Office
| Reichskolonialamt | |
 |
|
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | May 17, 1907 |
| Dissolved | February 20, 1919 |
| Superseding agency |
|
| Jurisdiction | Reich Chancellery |
| Headquarters |
Wilhelmstrasse 62 Berlin |
| Agency executive |
|
The Imperial Colonial Office (German: Reichskolonialamt) was a governmental agency of the German Empire tasked with managing Germany's overseas territories. Dissolved after World War I, on 20 February 1919 the Imperial Colonial Ministry (Reichskolonialministerium) of the German Weimar Republic replaced the Imperial Colonial Office, dealing with settlements and closing-out of affairs of the occupied and lost colonies.
From its inception in 1884, a colonial service organization performed administrative functions (policy and management) for the executive arm of the imperial government. By order of Reich Chancellor Leo von Caprivi on 1 April 1890, responsibility for the colonial service was with the Colonial Department (Kolonialabteilung), still as a subsection in the German Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt), but led by a head of section answerable to the Chancellor. By the law of 18 July 1896 the department further co-supervised the colonial military or protection force, the Schutztruppe, with its headquarters (Kommando der Schutztruppen) formerly billeted in the Imperial Naval Office (Reichsmarineamt). By the late 19th century the need evolved for a separate, higher ranking agency that shall report directly to the Reich Chancellor.
A decree by Emperor Wilhelm II of 17 May 1907 removed the Colonial Department together with the Schutztruppe command from the Foreign Office and elevated it to a central authority in its own right, the Reichskolonialamt, to be managed by a cabinet-level Secretary of State. The new office was then physically relocated to a building on Berlin’s Wilhelmstrasse No. 62 (demolished in 1938) near Wilhelmplatz, where the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office had resided since 1905. The Schutztruppe command structure was also reorganized and moved to Mauerstrasse No. 45/46, in close proximity of the Reichskolonialamt location. This legislation represented a complete reorganization and was a direct response to the nationwide so-called "Hottentot election", after allegations of colonial malfeasance, corruption and brutality (e.g. the Herero and Namaqua Genocide in German South-West Africa) surfaced in the German print media and culminated in the dissolution of the Reichstag parliament. The shake-up subsequently involved extensive and wide-ranging personnel changes in civil service positions in the colonies.
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