Count Adolf von Gotzen

Supported schemes to establish Afrikaner refugees from the South African Boer War and poor Germans from Russia on the foothills of Mount Meru.

Gotzen refused to allow European settlers to buy their farms until the land had been cultivated. He is best remembered for his brutal supression of the Maji-Maji Rebellion. While fighting the rebels, Gotzen implemented a scorched-earth policy in southern GEA which caused the destruction of a region the size of Germany. During this campaign more than 100,000 men, women and children died as a result of famine and disease.

[Gotzen, Count Adolf von] GEA Governor

In 1905 Gotzen abolished labour in lieu of Tax and substituted paid work to earn the necessary sum, with compulsory labour for defaulters. He also fixed the maximum assessment at three rupees per hut. By this date, annual payment had become a normal feature of life on the coast and in the more closely administered areas elsewhere. But in many inland regions Tax was still virtually a tribute, 'i.e. the station commander must be satisfied with what he gets '.