Otto Friedrich von der Groeben

Otto Friedrich von der Groeben (16 April 1657 – 30 June 1728) was a Prussian explorer, officer and general in Polish service.

Von der Groeben was born in Napratten (today Napraty, Poland) to the General Georg Heinrich von der Groeben. He started a journey through Italy, Malta, Egypt, Palestine and Cyprus in the age of 17 and returned in 1680.

After Philipp Pietersen Blonck, a sailor in Prussian service, had landed at the Cape Three Points (modern Ghana) and signed a treaty of friendship with the local Ahanta chiefs Pregate, Sophonie and Apany in 1680, the Brandenburgisch-Afrikanische Compagnie was founded in 1681 and a new expedition was organised. In 1682 Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg assigned von der Groeben the command of a colonial expedition of Brandenburg, which was supposed to acquire a colony on the coast of Guinea. The small fleet of the Brandenburg Navy consisted of the Morian (32 guns, 60-man crew) and the Churprinz von Brandenburg (12 guns, 40-man crew) and set sail on 16 May 1682.

They arrived near the village of Accada on 27 December 1682, hoisted the flag of Brandenburg on 1 January 1683 near the modern Princes Town and began to build a fortification, which they called Fort Groß Friedrichsburg. On 5 January 1683, the treaty with the Ahanta was renewed.

The garrison suffered from diseases and von der Groeben sickened of tropical fever. He passed the command of the fortress to Philipp Pietersen Blonck and returned to Prussia in the summer of 1683.

In honour of the foundation of the first colony of Brandenburg, he was awarded the prospective entitlement of the Amtshauptmann of Marienwerder und Riesenburg in succession to that of his father.

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