On this day in 1904, German General Lothar von Trotha issued an extermination order against the Herero people in German South West Africa, present-day Namibia. He ordered German troops to shoot any Herero found within German territory, including those who were unarmed, while women and children were to be driven away. The order became a key part of Germany’s campaign to destroy the Herero and helped set the stage for what is now recognized as the first genocide of the 20th century.
German Colonial Rule in Namibia
Germany’s takeover of what became German South West Africa was part of the Scramble for Africa, when European powers competed to seize African territory in the late 19th century. In the 1880s, German merchants and officials began making deals with African leaders and claiming land along the coast.
Germany then used treaties, military expeditions and diplomatic agreements to expand its control. In 1884, the German government placed the territory under its protection, laying the foundation for a new German colony.
For the African communities already living there, German claims on paper did not mean that they accepted German rule. The Herero, Nama and other peoples had their own leaders, territories, cattle and political systems. As German settlers arrived in larger numbers, they took more land and livestock, while colonial authorities imposed laws that reduced African control over their own affairs.
The situation became even worse in the late 1890s when a rinderpest outbreak killed a huge share of the region’s cattle. Because cattle were central to the Herero economy, many families lost their main source of wealth and became increasingly dependent on the German colonial economy for work and survival.
Some accounts have suggested that the rinderpest was deliberately introduced as a form of biological warfare to destroy African cattle and weaken pastoralist societies. The outbreak devastated African cattle herds, further weakening the economic independence of communities already facing land seizures and growing German colonial control.
By the beginning of the 20th century, resentment toward German rule had grown deeply among the Herero. In January 1904, they rose up under the leadership of Samuel Maharero, attacking German military posts, settlers and other colonial targets. What began as a revolt soon became a much larger war over German control of the territory. Germany responded by sending thousands of additional troops and placing General Lothar von Trotha in command.
Trotha had already gained a reputation for his harsh approach to colonial warfare. He arrived in German South West Africa in June 1904 with orders to crush the Herero rebellion. Germany also sent thousands of additional troops to the colony, giving him a much larger force to fight the Herero.
The Herero, under Samuel Maharero, had gathered around the Waterberg area. Trotha moved his forces into position and prepared to surround them. He intended to crush the rebellion and drive the Herero out of German-controlled territory.
The Battle of Waterberg
The major battle came on August 11, 1904. German forces attacked the Herero positions at Waterberg, forcing them to retreat eastward toward the Omaheke Desert. Thousands of Herero, including women and children, fled with their cattle in an attempt to escape the German army.
The retreat soon became a disaster. German troops blocked routes leading out of the area and prevented the Herero from reaching important water sources. Many died from thirst, hunger and exhaustion as they crossed the desert. Others were killed or captured by German troops.
For the Herero, the defeat at Waterberg was only the beginning of an even more brutal phase of the war.
Von Trotha’s Extermination Order
On October 2, von Trotha issued his infamous Vernichtungsbefehl, or extermination order, at Osombo-Windimbe.
His proclamation stated that the Herero were no longer German subjects and ordered them to leave the territory. It then declared that any Herero found within German borders, whether armed or unarmed, would be shot.
The order transformed Germany’s military campaign into an explicit policy of annihilation and expulsion. Von Trotha later made his intentions even clearer in correspondence with German colonial authorities, stating that the Herero nation had to disappear from the land.
The order did not remain merely a written declaration. German forces continued pursuing Herero survivors, while those who surrendered were placed in detention and forced-labor camps.
The Nama Join the War
The German campaign against the Herero also helped produce another major uprising.
On October 3, 1904, shortly after von Trotha issued his extermination order, Hendrik Witbooi, a prominent Nama leader, declared war against Germany. The Nama resistance expanded the conflict into the south of the colony. Other Nama leaders, including Jakob Morenga and Simon Kooper, would continue the struggle against German forces.
The German response was again brutal. Fighting continued for years as German forces pursued Nama fighters and communities across the colony.
Concentration Camps and Forced Labor
Those who survived the military campaigns did not necessarily find safety by surrendering. The Germans established concentration camps, the most notorious being Shark Island, where captured Herero and Nama were imprisoned, subjected to forced labor, and used in medical experiments and racial research aimed at promoting ideas of racial hierarchy and supposed European superiority.
Prisoners endured hunger, disease, overcrowding and brutal working conditions. Many died in the camps, while others were forced to work on colonial projects and for German companies and settlers. German authorities also seized land and livestock belonging to survivors, further dismantling the economic foundations of the communities they had attacked.
By the time the German campaign finally subsided, the Herero and Nama had suffered catastrophic losses.
Historians estimate that around 80 percent of the Herero population and about half of the Nama population died between 1904 and 1908. Estimates vary, but the combined death toll has been put at roughly 80,000 people.
Germany would eventually lose control of the territory during the First World War, when South African forces invaded German South West Africa in 1915. But the consequences of the genocide did not disappear with German colonial rule.
The First Genocide of the 20th Century
For decades, the genocide of the Herero and Nama received far less international attention than later genocides of the 20th century. The word “genocide” did not even exist when the killings took place. It was coined decades later by Raphael Lemkin and became part of international law with the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Today, Germany officially recognizes the crimes committed against the Herero and Nama between 1904 and 1908 as genocide and acknowledges its historical and moral responsibility.
In 2021, Germany formally apologized to Namibia and the descendants of the victims. It also proposed a €1.1 billion programme for reconstruction and development in areas affected by the genocide.
Germany has not described the money as formal reparations. The question of land also remains unresolved. About 70 percent of Namibia’s commercial agricultural land is still owned by previously advantaged, predominantly white farmers, while German nationals remain significant foreign landowners.
For many Herero and Nama descendants, the legacy of the genocide is therefore not simply a matter of history. The struggle over land, reparations and recognition continues to this day.
Sources:
https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/wilhelmine-germany-and-the-first-world-war-1890-1918/lothar-von-trothas-extermination-order-october-2-1904
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-world-history-of-genocide/rivers-of-blood-and-rivers-of-money/FD80F4320201914194A68C6A59FA4593
https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/news/2463598-2463598
https://sahistory.org.za/dated-event/beginning-waterberg-battle-herero-revolt
