Wilhelm Solf

Wilhelm Heinrich Solf (5 October, 1862 - 6 February, 1936) was a German scholar, diplomat, jurist and statesman.

Early life

Wilhelm Solf was born into a wealthy and liberal family in Berlin. He attended grammar and secondary schools in Anklam in western Pomerania and in Mannheim. He took up the study of Oriental languages, in particular Sanskrit at universities in Berlin, Göttingen and Halle, earning a doctorate in philology in the winter of 1885. Under the supervision of the well-known Indologist Richard Pischel, he wrote an elementary grammar of Sanskrit.

He then found a position at the library of the University of Kiel. While residing there he was drafted into the Imperial Navy to serve his military obligation, however, he was deemed medically unfit for military service and discharged.

Early Diplomatic Career

Solf joined the German Foreign Office (Consular Service) on 12 December, 1888 and was assigned to the Imperial German Consulate General in Calcutta on 1 January 1889. However, he resigned from the consular service after three years to study law at the University of Jena where he obtained his doctorate in law ("Doktor juris") in September 1896. His advanced degrees qualified Solf for higher positions in the diplomatic service. He joined the Colonial Department of the Foreign Office ("Kolonialabteilung des Auswärtigen Amtes") and in 1898 was assigned as district judge in Dar es Salaam in German East Africa for a short period. In 1899 he was posted to the Samoan Islands, where he served as council chairman in the provisional government of the municipality of Apia, Samoa. [Gray, "Amerika Samoa", p. 101]

Governor of Samoa

The division of the Samoan Islands as a result of the Treaty of Berlin assigned the western islands to Germany (independent Samoa today) and Eastern Samoa to the United States (American Samoa today). [Great Britain vacated all claims to Samoa and accepted as "quid pro quo" termination of German rights in Tonga and certain areas in the Solomon Islands and in West Africa] Wilhelm Solf, at age 38, became the first Governor of German Samoa on 1 March 1900. "Solf was a man of quite unusual talent, clear-thinking, sensitive to the nuances of Samoan attitudes and opinion." [Davidson, "Samoa mo Samoa", p. 76] He was known as a liberal, painstaking and competent administrator. [McKay, "Samoana", p. 18] Solf included Samoan traditions in his government programs, but never hesitated to step in assertively, including banishment from Samoa in severe cases, when his position as the "Kaiser's" deputy was challenged. Under Solf's direction, plantation agriculture was further encouraged; in his judgment it provided the soundest basis for the colony's economic development. [Davidson, p. 77] In turn, tax revenues were enhanced, making the establishment of a public school system, the construction and staffing of a hospital (including the training of Samoan nurses) major successes. Road and harbor facilities construction was accelerated. In all, the Samoan colony was well on its way to self-sufficiency and actually reached that achievement just before Solf was called to Berlin and was succeeded by Erich Schultz as Governor of German Samoa.

Later career

After his return from Samoa, Solf became Secretary ("Staatssekretär") of the German Colonial Office ("Reichskolonialamt") to 1918, travelling extensively to the German protectorates in West and East Africa in 1912 and 1913. The outbreak of World War I caused Germany's colonial possessions to be invaded by Britain (including Dominions), Belgium, France and Japan. [the Treaty of Versailles assigned the German protectorates to the victorious powers as League of Nations mandates and after World War II as United Nations Trust Territories (less Japan)]

Solf lobbied for a negotiated peace settlement in 1917 and 1918. He was opposed to the implementation of unrestricted submarine warfare, a policy which eventually contributed to the entry of the United States into the war in 1917.

With the defeat of Germany imminent and the likelihood of revolution growing he was appointed what turned out to be the last of the Imperial Foreign Ministers in October 1918. In this capacity he undertook negotiations for the armistice that took effect on 11 November 1918.

He resigned his post as Foreign Minister on 13 December 1918 with the onset of the German revolution. Between then and 1920 he was Vice President of the "Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft". From 1920 to 1928 he served as the German ambassador to Japan; his tenure proved to be fruitful, as he was instrumental in restoring good relations between the two wartime enemies, culminating in the signing of the German-Japanese treaty of 1927. On Solf's return to Germany and retirement from government service he became the Chairman of the Board of the "Deutsches Auslands-Institut" based in Stuttgart.

Solf's political position was centrist; he joined the German Democratic Party ("Deutsche Demokratische Partei"), however, with its dissolution in 1933 he had planned with others to form a new moderate party. With the National Socialist (Nazi) reality of that time it was unsuccessful, if not impossible. He supported the election of retired Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg as German President.

Wilhelm Solf was married to the former Johanna Dotti, who later formed the anti-Nazi "Solf Circle" or Frau Solf Tea Party get-togethers with their daughter So'oa'emalelagi (known as 'Lagi'), who was born in Samoa.

Footnotes

Bibliography

Davidson, J. W. "Samoa mo Samoa" [Samoa for the Samoans] , "The Emergence of the Independent State of Western Samoa". Melbourne: Oxford University Press. 1967.

Gray, J.A.C. "Amerika Samoa, A History of American Samoa and Its United States Naval Administration". Annapolis: United States Naval Institute. 1960.

McKay, C.G.R. "Samoana, A Personal Story of the Samoan Islands". Wellington and Auckland: A.H. & A.W. Reed. 1968.

ee also

*German Samoa
*Frau Solf Tea Party