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Photo
© Anonymous Private Owner
This is a posed studio
photograph taken
in Munster, Germany in 1904. It shows Leutnant Carl Klewitz shortly
before his departure for South West Africa.
His headdress is the South
West African Schutztruppe Südwester
hat in grey felt with a hatband and edging in blue for South West
Africa, pinned up on the right hand side with a large imperial
cockade.
His tunic is the South
West African Schutztruppe officers "Kord Interimsrock". It was
made of grey brown corduroy piped in blue around the collar, front and
Swedish cuffs. Unlike the
Kord Waffenrock, the Interimsrock did not have blue collars and
cuffs, nor Litzen. It had eight white metal buttons down the front,
two on each cuff and smaller ones attaching the shoulder straps. Each
button bore an imperial crown. The shoulder straps are plain white
metallic cord with black and reds threads for a Leutnant (see
Officers Rank Insignia Page).
Under the collar of his uniform he wears a privately purchased white
collar stock.
His trousers are matching
corduroy. He wears a Schutztruppe officers belt consisting of white
metallic cord with black and reds threads and a white metal belt
buckle bearing the imperial monogram (see
Belt Buckles Page). His
sword is again standard for Schutztruppe officers with a sword knot in the
imperial colours. He wears privately purchased leather gloves.
Carl Albert
Gustav Klewitz
(1881-1945) first joined the 25th Württemberg
Dragoons (Dragonerregiment "Königin Olga" (1. Württ.) Nr. 25) as
a brevet Fähnrich in 1898 and had been promoted to Leutnant by 1900. He
transferred to the South West African Schutztruppe in 1904 where he saw
action during the Herero Rebellion. In 1905 he was awarded both the
Prussian Order of the Crown, 4th Class with Swords and the Württemberg
Military Service Order (along with the title "von") for service in South
West Africa. In 1906 he returned to the
25th Württemberg
Dragoons, back to the South West African Schutztruppe in 1907 and back
again to the Dragoons in 1912 having been promoted to Oberleutnant in
1910. In 1913 he was seconded to the Colonial Office and in January 1914 sent
to command the German New Guinea Polizeitruppe, again being promoted- this
time to
Rittmeister. He arrived in March and began training local troops. Within
months of his arrival, the First World War broke out and von Klewitz
organised the brief German resistance at Bita-Paka in September 1914. In
the days following the skirmish with Australian naval troops he negotiated
a surrender for his troops along with Governor Hahl.
Von Klewitz spent the rest of the war Berrima
and Liverpool
Prisoner of War Camps in Australia, returning to Germany in on board the 'Kursk'
in 1919 and
marrying Ilse Schmidt the following year. Between the wars he held the brevet rank of Major in the army
reserve and worked in financial offices in Dresden.
As a reserve officer
during the Second World War he served on the army staff in Poland and
France, retiring as an
Oberstleutnant
in 1941.
Please respect the
generosity of
the
Anonymous Private Owner in sharing this photograph
and information with us by not reproducing it
without prior permission. |
