Hermann Philipp Detzner (16 October 1882 – 1 December 1970) was a German engineer and surveyor, who served as an officer in the German colonial security force (Schutztruppe) in Kamerun (Cameroon) and German New Guinea. He gained fame for evading capture after Australian troops invaded German New Guinea at the start of World War I.
In early 1914, the German government sent Detzner to explore and chart central Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, the imperial protectorate on the island of New Guinea. When World War I broke out in Europe, he was far from civilisation and without radio contact. He refused to surrender to Australian troops when they occupied German New Guinea, concealing himself in the jungle with a band of approximately 20 soldiers. For four years, Detzner and his troops provocatively marched through the bush, singing "Watch on the Rhine" and flying the German Imperial flag. He led at least one expedition from the Huon Peninsula to the north coast, and a second by a mountain route, to attempt an escape to the neutral Dutch colony to the west. He explored areas of the New Guinea's hinterland formerly unseen by Europeans.
After finding out that the war had ended, Detzner surrendered in full dress uniform, flying the Imperial flag, to Australian forces in January 1919. He received a hero's welcome when he returned to Germany. He wrote a book about his adventures – Four Years Among the Cannibals in the Interior of German New Guinea under the Imperial Flag, from 1914 until the Armistice – that sold well in Great Britain and Germany, entered three printings, and was translated into French, English, Finnish and Swedish. He received a position in the Imperial Colonial Archives, and appeared frequently on the lecture circuit throughout the 1920s. In the late 1920s, scientific portions of his book were discredited. In 1932, he admitted that he had mixed fact and fiction and, after that time, eschewed public life.
Family Detzner was the son of a dentist, Johann Philipp Detzner and his wife, Wilhelmine Katharina Faber, in Speyer, in the Bavarian Palatinate, a cultural, economic, and historical city on the Rhine River. His father received his degree from Heidelberg University and was licensed to practise by the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1867; Detzner's father pioneered innovations in dental prosthetics.His most important book was Praktische Darstellung der Zahnersatzkunde (A practical treatise on Mechanical Dentistry), which was republished in 1899; Adolf Petermann, Zahnärztlicher Almanach: Ein alphabetisch geordnetes Namensverzeichniss. sv. Frankfurt, 1877, p. 8; Korrespondenz-Blatt für Zahnärzte, v. 14, 1885, p. 368; Biographisches Handbuch des Deutschen Auswärtigen Dienstes, 1871–1945: 1–F, 2000. p. 415; British Dental Association, Journal of the British Dental Association, vol. 6, 1885, p. 60: the full name is Praktische Darstellung der Zahnersatzkunde. Eine Abhandlung über alle Zweige dieser Disciplin. His large family included nine children. Sankt Georgium Evangelisch, Speyer, Pfalz, Bavaria, Germany, Births and Baptisms, 1558–1898. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2013. Hermann Detzner was trained as a topographer, surveyor, and an engineer, and received his promotion to Fahnrich in the 6 Infantry Regiment (Prussian), 2nd Pioneer Battalion, in February 1902.Kriegsministerium, Verordnungsblatt des Königlich Bayerischen Kriegsministeriums, Munich, 1902. p. 34. During World War I, military authorities transferred his commission to the 1st Bavarian Pioneer Battalion. Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Abteilung IV Kriegsarchiv. Kriegstammrollen, 1914–1918. Volume: 16356. Kriegsrangliste: Bd. 1.
Early explorations
Hermann Detzner participated in a joint British-German scientific and surveying expedition to Kamerun in 1908 and 1909 9 August 1908, destination Duala, from Hamburg to the West coast of Africa. Leutnant Hermann Detzner, ship name: Lucie Wörmann, Captain Ihrcke, the Wörmann Linie KG, where he occupied first cabin. Hamburg Passagierlisten, 1850–1934, Volume: 373 7 I, VIII A 1 Band 202, p. 1018. Microfilm Roll Number: K 1805. and again in 1912–1913. 24 July 1912, Hermann Detzner, Oberleutnant, destination Lagos, age 30. Ship Name Eleonore Wörmann, Ship's Captain Pankow. Wörmann Linie KG. Hamburger Passagierlisten, 1850–1934 Hamburg to Westküste Afrika, volume 373 7.I, VIII A 1 Band 248. He and one Captain Nugent, Royal Artillery, identified and marked the frontiers of Kamerun and explored the Niger valley."Monthly Record", The Geographical Journal, 42:3, September 1913, pp. 294–301, p. 296. Detzner later published a paper on the marking of the boundary. Detzner, Hermann, (Oberleut.) "Kamerun Boundary: Die nigerische Grenze von Kamerun zwischen Yola und dem Cross-fluss." M. Teuts. Schutzgeb. 26(1913), pp. 317–338.
Navigators charted the coastline of the northern and eastern portions of New Guinea in the early 17th century and, later in the century, British Admiralty navigators named the visible mountain ranges. Most German surveying efforts had focused on coastal regions and river basins, where Germans had established plantations, leaving the hinterland unexplored. In late 1913, the Imperial Colonial office appointed Detzner to lead an expedition to survey the border between the British protectorate, called Papua, and the German territory, called Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, and to survey and map unexplored inland regions.
Detzner's mission was also to be the first serious attempt to explore the hinterland and to evaluate and describe its resources. The boundary between Papua and Kaiser Wilhelmsland had been broadly established by a joint British-German expedition in 1909, but the terrain had not been mapped and the German colonial administration maintained that the boundary was imprecise. From the German perspective, an accurately defined boundary was essential to monitor and control the activities of Papuan gold prospectors near the border with German territory.Linke, p. 3; K. L. Spinks, "The Wahgi River Valley of Central New Guinea", The Geographical Journal, 87:3, March 1936, pp. 222–228, p. 222. Detzner had had experience in joint operations in Kamerun in 1907–08 and could be expected to understand the challenges faced by the previous commission; he had a reputation as a methodical and precise engineer. Although small, he was tough and wiry, extremely focused and determined, and seemed like the right man for the job.Robert Linke, The influence of German surveying on the development of New Guinea, Shaping the Change: XXIII FIG Congress, Munich, Germany, 8–13 October 2006, pp. 1–17, p. 10.
Adventures in New Guinea
In January 1914, Detzner travelled to Rabaul on New Pomerania (now New Britain). In February, he began his expedition into Kaiser-Wilhelmsland. His survey immediately revealed inaccuracies in the 1909 joint survey; by March, Detzner had concluded that the border corridor was already showing a discrepancy of more than from the 8°0'S parallel. The discrepancy increased the further west he travelled, revealing a widening wedge in the boundary as it was agreed upon, and as it was marked. The discrepancy favoured German interests.Linke, pp. 8–9.
He had progressed well inland when, on 4 August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. As World War I spread to the Pacific, Australian troops invaded German New Guinea, taking the German barracks in Herbertshöhe (Kokopo) and forcing the defending German colonial troops to capitulate on 21 September after their defeat at Bita Paka. At the beginning of October, he was still unaware of the state of war that now existed between his country and the Commonwealth.
The several months following the outbreak of war found Detzner on border survey work with his sergeant, Konradt,Souter, pp. 119–120 25 police and 45 carriers, two servants and an interpreter in the high country between Mt Chapman, the Ono River, and Mt Lawson, that is to say along the territorial boundary between Australian-governed Papua and German New Guinea. Eventually he sighted people he named Rockpapua or "skirted Papuans' – these were Kamea people perhaps in the area south of Tekadu in the southernmost part of Morobe Province or the northern part of Gulf Province.Biskup 1968, p.8, fn 16 On 11 November 1914, one of the carriers, left with several others to rest at a temporary camp, arrived bearing a note from Frederick Chisholm, an Australian Patrol Officer, informing him of the state of war between Germany and Great Britain and asking him to surrender at Nepa on the Lakekamu River, five days walk away.Detzner 1921, p. 58.Linke, p. 11.Souter, p. 119.Nelson 1976, pp. 225–227
Four years in the unexplored interior of New Guinea Rather than comply, Detzner led his party on a forced march north to the Markham Valley. His route is uncertain, but his description of a valley with steep grassy ravines entering from east and westDetzner 1921, p. 64 may place the latter part of his journey in the Langimar Valley, through which flows a tributary of the Watut River. A clash with local people that he describes, has been identified as having occurred at Rangama among with Middle Watut people.Fischer, pp. 14–15 Once on the Watut itself, the party built rafts and floated downstream to the Markham.
His final destination was Sattelberg on the Huon peninsula.Souter, p. 120; "Who is Detzner" Argus (Victoria) Letters to the Editor. Melbourne, Australia. 15 November 1919. His second in command, Sergeant Konradt, who suffered from frequent bouts of malaria, and a German officer, were captured by the Australians by spring 1915.Linke, pp. 10–11. Eventually, Detzner found his way to the vicinity of a Lutheran mission at the Sattelberg, at a foggy, cool area at , above Finschhafen. The Sattelberg mission was one of the Neuendettelsau Mission Society enterprises established by the Old Lutheran missionary, Johann Flierl, in 1885. This station, and additional mission stations in Heldbach, Simbang, Tami Islands, and Simbu, were an important evangelical presence in the Morobe Province. The missionaries had signed oaths of neutrality for the Australians, who allowed them to remain at their Stations and continue their work. Johannes W. Grüntzig, and Heinz Mehldorn, "Expedition ins Reich der Seuchen, Medizinische Himmelfahrtskommandos der deutschen Kaiser- und Kolonialzeit." Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, München 2005.
Once Detzner reached the vicinity of the Sattelberg Mission, nearby villagers in the Borrum valley housed him and his remaining men, which had dwindled to about 20 soldiers, plus four European officers and, on his behalf, the villagers sought assistance from the Sattelberg director, Christian Keyser, and another missionary, Otto Thiele.Biskup, P. "Herman Detzner: New Guinea's First Coast Watcher", Inl Papua and New Guinea Soc. (Port Moresby), 2(1). 1968, pp. 5–21, cited p. 18;. They reluctantly agreed to keep Detzner's presence a secret.Linke, p. 11; Argus (Vic), 15 November 1919. Among the villagers, Detzner established a base camp from which he could depart at short notice. The valley was relatively secure for him, and inaccessible for the Australians, but if they ventured too close to his base, Detzner and his men would retreat into the mountainous Saruwaged, or, if necessary, further into the Finisterre mountains. These were rugged and remote locations, accessible to Detzner, who had the help of native guides, but which the Australians, who usually travelled in larger patrols, could not penetrate.Biskup, pp. 6–8; Linke, pp. 10–11.