Richard Thurnwald, Der Wert von Neu-Guinea als Deutsche Kolonie (1918)

Richard Thurnwald’s journal article argues that recovering German New Guinea is essential to Germany’s postwar economic security and colonial claims. Its four sections move from the national necessity of colonies through the Pacific political situation and an inventory of prewar production to proposals for intensified exploitation. Drawing authority from his travels through the protectorate, Thurnwald joins economic assessment to a wartime demand for restitution. “New Guinea” encompasses the mainland territory and associated island possessions; comparisons and investment estimates also extend to German Samoa.

The opening presents the blockade as a revelation of Germany’s structural dependence. Germany resembles an overcrowded city, exchanging industrial labour for overseas food and materials without controlling their sources. Thurnwald attributes international hostility partly to this economic position, while blaming British propaganda for aggravating it. His proposed remedy is to obtain necessities “at home,” but he expands that home to include colonial territory. Acquiring European land would not suffice, because temperate agriculture cannot supply the tropical products required by German consumption and industry.

Unsere ganze Kultur kann ohne die tropischen Rohstoffe nicht bestehen.

English translation: Our entire civilization cannot exist without tropical raw materials.

This assertion makes colonial possession a condition of national survival rather than an optional commercial advantage. Wartime substitutes are merely expedients; access through an “open door” leaves Germany dependent on others. Thurnwald consequently demands both the return of existing colonies and sufficient territorial expansion. His argument converts interdependence into a vulnerability that sovereign control supposedly resolves, treating overseas extraction as an extension of the domestic economy.

The political section assesses the prospects for recovering the occupied Pacific possessions. Thurnwald distinguishes Japanese occupation north of the equator, Australian occupation of New Guinea and neighbouring islands, and New Zealand’s seizure of Samoa. He portrays Japan as the decisive regional power but expects its principal ambitions to remain in Asia and the northern Pacific. Australian disenchantment with wartime losses and conscription, Dutch commercial interests, and America’s supposedly limited interest in the southern Pacific furnish further grounds for optimism. These are interested forecasts rather than established guarantees: the assessment assumes that regional rivalries and economic priorities can leave room for Germany’s return.

The economic inventory supplies the material foundation for that demand. Thurnwald depicts prewar German plantation development as vigorous, contrasting it with neighbouring Australian and Dutch territories. Coconut cultivation, encouraged by Governor Hahl, provides the colony’s economic backbone: established Indigenous familiarity with the palm, rising demand for vegetable fats, and investment spread over several years make it attractive. Cacao yields sooner but requires greater skill and entails more failures; rubber depends on suitable soils, tapping practices, product quality, and markets. Export quantities and monetary values anchor these comparisons, while experimental crops and livestock indicate unrealized possibilities.

Thurnwald also distinguishes plantation production from extracting existing mineral, forest, and marine resources. Phosphates could meet Germany’s fertilizer needs; ores and petroleum require further investigation. Timber offers substantial prospects, whereas ornamental birds, shellfish, and turtles demonstrate the damage caused by excessive hunting and harvesting. His calls for protection qualify the developmental optimism: resources cannot simply be treated as inexhaustible. Nevertheless, conservation remains embedded in a programme of economically productive exploitation.

The final section turns this inventory into a development strategy. Thurnwald envisages expanded coconut plantations, selective cultivation of cacao and rubber, and experiments with spices, medicinal plants, and other crops. Distance from Germany favours products distinguished by tropical specificity, quality, rarity, or yield. Local food production should also reduce dependence on imported rice and preserved provisions, sustaining plantation workers and European residents. Navigable rivers would facilitate access to inland cultivation, timber, and other resources. The decisive constraint, however, is labour rather than land.

Das Arbeiterproblem hat zwei Seiten, es muß nach der Quantität und nach der Qualität erwogen werden.

English translation: The labour problem has two sides; it must be considered in terms of both quantity and quality.

Under quantity, Thurnwald discusses extending recruitment to additional communities, improving workers’ food and remuneration, and limiting village recruitment so that population growth and welfare are not undermined. He presents German administration as more humane than British arrangements, criticizing wages reclaimed through overpriced goods. Under quality, he briefly challenges Europeans’ interpretations of unfamiliar behaviour:

Vielfach wird als Dummheit ausgelegt, was nur Ungeschicklichkeit, Fremdheit, Ungewohnheit, Verschüchterung ist.

English translation: What is merely awkwardness, unfamiliarity, lack of practice, or intimidation is frequently interpreted as stupidity.

This recognition supports his preference for managers capable of understanding workers rather than merely commanding them harshly. It does not displace his racial hierarchy. He subsequently attributes deficient attention, precision, and endurance to Indigenous workers and assigns more demanding tasks to Chinese or Malay labourers. His proposed solution combines immediate labour importation with Malay settlement and intermarriage, making demographic intervention part of colonial economic planning.

Ich zweifle nicht, daß wir dann imstande wären, aus Neu-Guinea mit der Zeit ein zweites Java zu schaffen, die natürlichen Voraussetzungen dazu wären gegeben.

English translation: I do not doubt that we would then be able, over time, to make New Guinea into a second Java; the natural prerequisites for this would be present.

The comparison crystallizes his vision of an intensively cultivated colony transformed through labour recruitment. Concluding investment estimates, including much higher valuations attributed to Paul Preuß, reinforce the claim that Germany’s Pacific possessions have been underestimated. Thurnwald finally converts German investment, exploration, labour, and pioneer deaths into grounds of territorial entitlement. The article’s significance lies in this conjunction: economic self-sufficiency, paternalistic labour reform, racialized workforce planning, and commemorated colonial sacrifice together support the demand for restitution. Indigenous ownership and political wishes receive no comparable place in determining the territory’s future.