I have a peculiar photo taken in Africa for Bandow’s Best this week. This is from a grouping of images that belonged to a sailor of the SMS Strassburg.
Look to the left of the image and you will note two African men wearing Prussian Officer’s Pickelhauben. A few other men in the group can be seen wearing Germanic headgear, one displaying the eagle of the East African Schutztruppe Askaris.
Here is a segment of the Wikipedia entry on the SMS Strassburg that explains why it was in Africa:
“SMS Strassburg spent the first year of service overseas, from 1913 to 1914. She was selected to participate in a long-distance cruise to test the reliability of the new turbine propulsion system in the battleships Kaiser and König Albert. The three ships were organized in a special “Detached Division”. The trio departed Germany on 9 December 1913 and proceeded to the German colonies in western Africa. The ships visited Lomé in Togoland, Duala, and Victoria in Kamerun, and Swakopmund in German South-West Africa. From Africa, the ships sailed to St. Helena and then on to Rio de Janeiro, arriving on 15 February 1914. Strassburg was detached to visit Buenos Aires, Argentina before returning to meet the two battleships in Montevideo, Uruguay. The three ships sailed south around Cape Horn and then north to Valparaiso, Chile, arriving on 2 April and remaining for over a week.
On 11 April, the ships departed Valparaiso for the long journey back to Germany. On the return trip, the ships visited several more ports, including Bahía Blanca, Argentina, before returning to Rio de Janeiro. On 16 May the ships left Rio de Janeiro for the Atlantic leg of the journey; they stopped in Cape Verde, Madeira, and Vigo, Spain while en route to Germany. Strassburg, Kaiser, and König Albert arrived in Kiel on 17 June 1914. In the course of the voyage, the ships traveled some 20,000 nautical miles (37,000 km; 23,000 mi). A week later, on 24 June, the Detached Division was dissolved. After returning to Germany, Strassburg spent the majority of her career in the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet.”