"In the spa gardens of Bad Lauterberg, the not entirely uncontroversial Wissmann monument stands on a granite block by a pond not far from the spa house. It commemorates Hermann von Wissmann, a German African explorer, military officer and politician of the colonial era. During his stays in Germany, he often stayed in the spa town at the end of the Oder Valley because his mother lived there.
Hermann von Wissmann crossed the African continent several times for research and exploration purposes in the service of the Belgian King Leopold II and on behalf of the German East African Society. In 1888, he was appointed Reich Commissioner of the colony of German East Africa.
Soon afterwards, he led the bloody fight against the Arab plantation owners and slave traders active there. They resisted the Germans' efforts to take control of the country and put an end to slavery.
Three years and countless deaths later, this uprising of the Arab upper class ended with their defeat and the at least partial loss of their previous livelihood. Hermann von Wissmann, on the other hand, was promoted to major, ennobled and subsequently rose to become governor of the German colony.
In Bad Lauterberg, Hermann von Wissmann's work was viewed so positively that a monument was erected to him three years after his death. The bronze figure, more than three meters high and created by the sculptor Johannes Gottfried Götz, was inaugurated in 1908. The two inscriptions on the base, which were removed in 2020, provided a telling insight into the motivation for the construction of this memorial at the time.
The following texts could be read there:
"Germany's great African Hermann von Wissmann
Born September 4, 1853
Died June 15, 1905
The grateful fatherland"
and
"He fought successfully against the slave trade and for the freedom of the oppressed"
...