Trotha, Lothar von

GENERAL (GERMANY)
BORN 3 Jul 1848, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt - DIED 31 Mar 1920, Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen
CAUSE OF DEATH typhoid fever
GRAVE LOCATION Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen: Poppelsdorfer Friedhof, Poppelsdorf (Ehrengrab)

Lothar von Trotha came from a noble family. He joined the Prussian Army in 1865 and fought in the Austrian-Prussian as well as the Franco-Prussian war. On 15 October 1872 he married Bertha Neumann.

In 1894 he was appointed commander of the forces in German East Africa and he suppressed several uprisings. In 1904 he went to South West Africa where he fought the Herero rebellion by poisoning water holes. His methods resulted in a public outcry and he was relieved of his command and returned to Germany in 1905. He was appointed infantry general in 1910.

His wife had died in 1905 and in 1912 he married Lucy Goldstein-Brinckmann (1881-1958), a converted Jewess. He died in Bonn in 1920. In 1933 the nazis named a street after him in Munich but it was renamed to Hererostrasse in 2006. In 2004 the German government officially apologized for his actions that were now classified as genocides.

Images

The grave of Lothar von Trotha at the Poppelsdorfer Friedhof, Bonn.
Picture by Androom (17 Jun 2012)

 

Sources
Lothar von Trotha – Wikipedia


Troubetskoy, Catharina Petrovna, princess

Published: 21 May 2018
Last update: 10 Mar 2022