"Betet für mich, daß die Kraft des Herrn in mir Schwachem mächtig werde": evangelische Diakone als Krankenpfleger an Bord der Gera ; der chinesische "Boxeraufstand" (1900-1901)

Abstract

The GERA, an ocean steamer owned by Norddeutscher Lloyd, left the naval base of Wilhelmshaven on July 19, 1900 on course for a distant destination on the other side of the globe. After a voyage along the coasts of France and Portugal and several intermediate stops in Gibraltar and Malta, the GERA sailed down the Suez Canal and across the Red Sea. On September 6, 1900 it arrived at the harbour city of Colombo on the coast of the British colony of Ceylon. Its actual destination, however, was the coast of China. On October 13, 1900 the GERA ended its voyage in the Roads of Taku, at the mouth of the Peiho River in Northeastern China. Beforehand the ship had been converted by order of the "Central Committee of the German Red Cross Associations" to serve a special purpose: It was to be used as a hospital for the units of the German expeditionary corps that had crushed the rebellion by the militant secret society known as the I Ho Chuan (Righteous and Harmonious Fists). On board, apart from the ship’s crew, were several navy doctors and medical orderlies and also some thirty "freelance nurses," who had signed a six-month contract with the Red Cross in Berlin before their departure. They included seven members of the Westphalian “Nazareth” social and welfare work centre in Bielefeld-Bethel, founded in 1877. Since the 1890s China had been divided into foreign "zones of influence": the Russian tsar, the British Empire, France, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Austria and the German Empire all had colonial interests in it. In 1897 Tsingtao, in the Bay of Kiaochow, was occupied by German troops, and the region was leased to the German Reich for 99 years as a "protective region." In 1900, events escalated: In Peking the German envoy was murdered by "Boxer" rebels. The German Reich mobilised around thirty thousand marines and other landing-party troops as part of an international expeditionary corps under the supreme command of the German field-marshal Count Waldersee. The steamer GERA was employed as a hospital ship for these units. A diary account survives of the ship's voyage to China. The person who wrote it gives a very detailed account of his experiences on board the ship and his visits ashore. While it is true that his portrayal of foreign cultures, customs and living standards and of the natives, especially the dark-skinned ones, frequently reflects a sense of superiority rife with prejudices; this diary remains an extraordinary document of the history of early twentieth-century seafaring.