Colonial Scandal (1892—1897)

Abstract In late 1892 Peters returned to Berlin. He continued his work on the Kilimanjaro boundary negotiations with the British representatives which were concluded by the summer of 1893. Peters’s social activities indicate that he again drew closer to government circles. Along with other officials, Peters repeatedly dined in Kayser’s house, and the young Kaiser invited Peters as well.2 Obviously the government was keen to secure Peters’s loyalty, but this did not solve the issue of his future position. In fact, his career was on ice. In the summer of 1893 Peters took a four—month holiday in the United States, leaving Kayser with the same problem he had faced back in 1890: what should the government do with a difficult person like Peters? They considered sending him back to Africa again, but the new governor, Schele, refused to accept Peters as an subordinate officer. Schele, like his predecessor, believed that Peters would be a threat to his own position in the colony.