John Gilinsky Posted 24 April , 2009 Share Posted 24 April , 2009 The following German East Africa newspaper has been digitized and is available for free, viz.: “Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung” 1914 – 1916 issues (many including extra war related supplements) at: http://digital-b.staatsbibliothek-berlin.d...?gruppe=zeitung John Toronto Canada Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShirlD Posted 24 April , 2009 Share Posted 24 April , 2009 now all we need are some very friendly translators Cheers Shirley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rory Reynolds Posted 24 April , 2009 Share Posted 24 April , 2009 My Germans not too shabby but what is frustrating is the old Germanic script used. Thanks for bringing it to our attention - it is of interest to collectors of SA medals and memorabilia Regards Rory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilinsky Posted 24 April , 2009 Author Share Posted 24 April , 2009 Rory and Shirley: You are welcome. Better to globally make available an incomplete (and you will note that it appears that this newspaper appears to be COMPLETE at least for the war years including extra blatt or special supplements covering the war itself) and perhaps difficult to decipher primary critical source right? Danke fuer ihre thoughts! Hans (aka John) Toronto Canada Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiegeGunner Posted 24 April , 2009 Share Posted 24 April , 2009 Another great find, John. Many thanks again. And there a number of other interesting titles on that list. I've just started reading a biography of Denys Finch Hatton, the big game hunter and safari guide ('Out of Africa') who served during the GEA campaign, so it will be fascinating to be able to look at it from the German perspective as well. Shame the series only runs to August 1916, so doesn't cover the whole war. Regarding reading and translation, I'm afraid there simply are not enough translators or hours in the day to make more than a tiny dent in the vast wealth of digitised material now becoming available online. Those who have the necessary skills are already busy with reading and translating for their own purposes and/or working for paying customers. It comes as a surprise to some people that translation is hard and often painfully slow work, and that translators have to eat and pay their bills while they're doing it. There are software programmes to read Fraktur and transpose it into modern Latin script, and there are machine-translation programs that achieve half-way reasonable results with specialist German material of historical interest, but using these will always be a minority activity, and in areas of any controversy it is likely to generate more heat than light. Essentially, if you're interested in German material from this era, unless you have deep pockets or advanced IT skills, your only recourse is to learn to read and understand/translate it yourself. There will of course be a lot more material around that has been translated by or for someone else, but not necessarily on the particular subject you're interested in. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushfighter Posted 24 April , 2009 Share Posted 24 April , 2009 John Thank you for pointing us to this source. Probably after the allied occupation of Dar Es Salaam in 1916 no further copies were produced in this format as the GEA administration was tramping through the bush. Perhaps Governor Dr Schnee's book Deutsch-Ostafrika im Weltkrieg mentions this, if anybody can refer to a copy. Harry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveE Posted 24 April , 2009 Share Posted 24 April , 2009 Probably after the allied occupation of Dar Es Salaam in 1916 no further copies were produced in this format as the GEA administration was tramping through the bush. Harry It appears that the paper was published in Dar es Salaam up to the end of July 1915 when it was moved to Morogoro. The last issue printed in Morogoro was dated 18th August 1916, a week before Morogoro was occupied by the allies so makes sense that the GEA administration was indeed "tramping through the bush". Regards Steve John Thanks for pointing out the source, as Shirley has said all we need now are some friendly translators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KONDOA Posted 24 April , 2009 Share Posted 24 April , 2009 My German for most part is that learned from the Victor comic! Great resource though if it could be translated. Roop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilinsky Posted 24 April , 2009 Author Share Posted 24 April , 2009 To all your welcome. I love helping people out wherever they are and whatever their interests. Learning another language, translating the old German to the newer German, etc...are all part of the historian's interest and problem solving. This in part is what makes history interesting: the multicultural aspect. This is a great paper (as are the others) for understanding how the "enemy" thought and felt about things and how they treated diverse issues: casualty reporting, fundraising for the war, etc.... John Toronto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holger Kotthaus Posted 2 May , 2009 Share Posted 2 May , 2009 Offer from a friendly "enemy", from August 1914 to August 1916 I wrote the "War news from our Colony" (Vom Kriegsschauplatz in der Kolonie) digital. Important things i can translate. My English is really not the best, - but for facts it's enough and a translation program can help. The best way is, to give me dates and/or places, between 8/1914 and 8/1916, then I will find the news/message. Cheers Holger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilinsky Posted 2 May , 2009 Author Share Posted 2 May , 2009 Thanks Steve / Holger. Are you in Africa itself? I believe that there are still some historical archaeological remnants of the fighting there such as shipwrecks, old artillery pieces and possibly some encampent locations (this last not sure of though). This is NOT my area of interest nor expertise I just thought it is a great piece of internet archiving making an otherwise very scarce primary source available to those in Africa, (eg. South African military historians) who can now "easily" access such a good source. John Toronto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holger Kotthaus Posted 2 May , 2009 Share Posted 2 May , 2009 John, I work in Libya and stay in Germany and Tanzania. Perhaps i produced a misunderstanding with the "War news from our Colony" - it was a part of the DOAZ. For example some lines in the following article: Amtliche Nachrichten vom Kriegsschauplatz in der Kolonie (scroll down; then you find a typical notice from the DOAZ which I mean and can translate) http://www.traditionsverband.de/forum/view...p?f=4&t=120 Cheers Holger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilinsky Posted 3 May , 2009 Author Share Posted 3 May , 2009 Considering the destruction and dispersal of German archives due to WW2 especially and the political fallout from that (GDR and Soviet Union) and the climate havoc in Africa as well as the political instability, disinterest perhaps to a fair degree and lack of money for proper arhcival preservation this digitized version which appears complete for the war years at least the first half must surely be of inestimable value for anyone researching WWI in Africa generally and in particular in Eastern Africa. John Toronto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmcguirk Posted 3 May , 2009 Share Posted 3 May , 2009 John, I’d like to add my thanks to that of the others – a brilliant discovery! My German’s not great either, but I would like to mention that the old Gothic script should not be a big problem if you have some school German. There are plenty of websites that can help you get used to it, and you can even download Fraktur font at no cost. Some of us who studied a bit of German in the ‘60s or earlier have the advantage that our texts – Emil und die Detektive! – were in Gothic. Russell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thesamsonsed@gmail.com Posted 3 May , 2009 Share Posted 3 May , 2009 Many thanks, John! This is a great find. Hopefully more newspaper archives start doing this as my experience has shown that even newspapers from the time kept at the British Library, Colindale are in a poor state - especially those from South Africa which aren't consulted often. On-line translators are a good place to start - I've not used them for German translations as my knowledge of Afrikaans helps but I have used them for WW1 Portuguese publications and then filled in with an English-Portuguese dictionary. It also helps if you attempt a translation and then ask a friend or associate to check it - I've found this to work as they can do it relatively quickly. Best wishes, Anne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gilinsky Posted 3 May , 2009 Author Share Posted 3 May , 2009 Anne and Russell: Your are most welcome. African Queen is a favourite movie of mine but I doubt that I will ever travel to Africa sadly. John Toronto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theo Posted 25 July , 2009 Share Posted 25 July , 2009 The following German East Africa newspaper has been digitized and is available for free, viz.: “Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Zeitung” 1914 – 1916 issues (many including extra war related supplements) at: http://digital-b.staatsbibliothek-berlin.d...?gruppe=zeitung John Toronto Canada John thanks for posting this. I've just been having a look at it. Interesting to see what kind of news reached the colonies from europe and to read death notices of men who had died of Black Water Fever. Rather different to the Western Front! Cheers, mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob lembke Posted 26 July , 2009 Share Posted 26 July , 2009 Regarding reading and translation, I'm afraid there simply are not enough translators or hours in the day to make more than a tiny dent in the vast wealth of digitised material now becoming available online. Those who have the necessary skills are already busy with reading and translating for their own purposes and/or working for paying customers. It comes as a surprise to some people that translation is hard and often painfully slow work, and that translators have to eat and pay their bills while they're doing it. Mick Hi, Mick; My German is hardly 100%, as I taught myself to read and write it after finding my family letters in 2001, but I read it perhaps two hours a day. Not one day of formal study, and therefore my grammar is poor. I am probably better at transliterating the old German scripts into modern German than I am at translating modern German into English. I am just finishing the transliteration of a 76 page manuscript diary in a mixture of three scripts into modern German. But these skills, especially the translation into English, remains weak. A few years ago I was active on another forum, and one day I got an e-mail from a moderator from that forum, who asked me to translate two books for him, 500 pages total, two volumes of official history, as he said that "he wanted to read a bit about the Somme from the German perspective." Rather cheeky, I thought. Not a mention of any sort of consideration, although I would not have been interested, anyway. I had no particular relationship or exchange with him, at all. Coincidentally, I had just read one of the volumes for my own purposes, and it was a bit of work. Bob Lembke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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