Eugen Mansfeld - The Autobiography of Eugen Mansfeld: A German settler’s life in colonial Namibia

I have set down the following notes containing an account of my life for my sons, so that after my death they know the story of their fathers gypsy life.

I will briefly go over my early youth; it was not all sunny, and my children have had a happier and more loving childhood than I did.

I was born on 1 April 1871 in Tetschen an der Elbe (Bohemia), which was then a proper German provincial town with a population of about 5,000; the second son of Carl Mansfeld, a businessman and Prussian citizen. I lived with my four brothers under the tender care of my parents until my tenth year. Following four years at school in Tetschen, I joined my elder brother Alfred in Dresden both at the Neustdter Gymnasium there; and at the austere boarding-house of retired Grenadier-Feldwebel Frster, which was run along strictly military lines. After completing a three-year course at the Dresden Higher Business School, on 1 April 1888 I became an apprentice in the office of the Cretuznach & Scheller textile spinning mill, subsequently completing a two-year apprenticeship, and about a year as a clerk. As part of getting to know the technical spinning operation, for a year I was active in the factory from six to nine in the morning, becoming a master spinner, and acquiring engineering knowledge that would prove useful in later years.

On 1 April 1891 I signed up for one year as a volunteer in the Schtzen-Fsilier-Regiment Nr. 108 ; I became a Gefreiter on 1 October 1891, and was promoted to Unteroffizier on 1 January 1892. Shortly after my discharge at the end of March 1892, I got a position at the wool merchants Wilkens & Co. in Antwerp; I used a two-month vacation in 1894 to undertake a one-week military exercise with my regiment, and, promoted to Vice-Feldwebel , returned to my firm for another year.

These three years in Antwerp counted as the happiest and most carefree of my life. I had a bunch of good friends in Antwerps German community, and by working hard during my spare time I learned to speak French perfectly; I also spent many happy hours with Walloon and Flemish families. To describe everything would fill a book by itself: looking back, it is probably better if the many stupid pranks we played stay unrecorded.

In March 1895 I returned to Germany to carry out my two eight-weekly Reserve exercises, back with the Schtzen-Fsilier-Regiment , travelling around in Germany and Austria and participating for a short while in my fathers business. But Germany did not attract me: Antwerp was my first taste of a foreign country, and now I felt compelled to travel further afield.

During these military exercises I already carried around references from my boss in Antwerp, Herr Wilkens; and I had applied for positions in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Sydney and South Africa. I had already had a job offer from Montevideo, which I declined because of the low salary, but I accepted an offer from the firm of Malcomess & Company, in East London in South Africa, as an assistant wool buyer, and I gave notice to Wilkens.

The choice was free passage and a three-year contract; or travel at my own expense, with no contract and one months mutual notice. Three years is a long time, I said to myself; you might prosper, but perhaps you can also find something better while youre in Africa so I declined a contract. My father opposed my travelling to Africa, calling me an adventurer, and refused to give or advance me the money for the journey. However, since childhood I had put money in a savings account, which by now also contained my grandfathers inheritance of 300 marks: it went straight towards my travel expenses, and I landed in East London with four pounds in my pocket.

In August 1895 I proceeded to London and introduced myself to the agents of Malcomess & Co.; two days later I was leaving Southampton on board the old Union Castle steamer Norham Castle . The journey was uneventful; I never became seasick, and I enjoyed my life and my freedom. I would just like to mention three good pieces of advice that one travelleran old Scot, with whom I became slightly drunkoffered. He told me that nobody makes a job for you; you must make it for yourself; and to watch out, because in South Africa there are more cheats than honest men.