Theodor von Hassel
| Theodor von Hassel | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Theodor Berthold Paul Hassel 29 September 1868 Trier, Rhine Province, Prussia |
| Died | 29 November 1935 Mahenge, Tanganyika |
| Occupation | Army Officer (Germany & German East Africa) |
| Spouse(s) | Emma Jebsen (1885-1960) |
| Children | Gertrud von Hassel (1908–1999) Friedrich von Hassel (1910–) Kai-Uwe von Hassel (1913–1993) Michael von Hassel (1915–) |
| Parent(s) |
Friedrich von Hassel (1833–1890) Elise Helene Christiane Hassel (born Thormann) (1846–1896) |
Theodor von Hassel (29 September 1868 – 29 November 1935) was a German officer and a farmer in East Africa. He was also noted as an enthusiastic hunter of elephants.
His son, Kai-Uwe von Hassel, served as president of the West German Bundestag.
Theodor Berthold Paul Hassel was the second son of the Prussian officer Friedrich von Hassel (1833–1890) and Elise Helene Christiane Hassel (born Thormann) (1846–1896). His father's military career meant a childhood disrupted by frequent relocation. On 22 March 1887 Friedrich Hassel was ennobled by the emperor, in recognition of his long military service. One result was that his family name changed from "Hassel" to "von Hassel".
In 1878 Theodor was accepted into the in , just outside Berlin. In 1885 he switched to in Magdeburg, passing his School final exams (Abitur) in 1887. That same year he joined the Prussian army as an officer, serving in the , under the command of von Kusserow. The third battalion of the regiment was stationed in Sønderborg Castle in the area where two and a half decades earlier his father had served with distinction during the Franco-Prussian war. During this period Theodor won a medal for jumping into the water in the harbour at Copenhagen and rescuing a child who had fallen in. For a time he served as a with the Sonderburg Sea battalion before returning, in 1900, to his earlier duties.
In 1903 von Hassel enrolled as an Oberleutnant in the Protection Force for German East Africa, thereby resigning from the German Imperial Army. On reporting in Dar es Salaam in May 1903 he was promoted to the rank of "Hauptmann", a junior officer rank, though initially as a supernumerary officer without a posting. There followed a period of instruction covering the relevant legal framework applicable to the Protection Force and basic familiarisation with Swahili. At the end of August 1903 he became a commando with the Third Company based along the coast to the south in Lindi. In November 1904 he took over command of the Twelfth Company in Mahenge, an inland location in the southern part of the German East Africa colony. Mahenge was in the heart of the region affected by the Maji Maji Rebellion. At the end of August 1905 several thousand rebel warriors arrived at the garrison. The took the form of a siege in which von Hassel, his group of sixty native soldiers, a few hundred loyal tribesmen massively outnumbered, authorised the use of the defenders' two machine guns. The attackers were fought off only with difficulty: many were killed.
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