Karl Volland

Karl Albrecht Rutherford Volland (January 8th 1881 - November 22 1965) was a officer in the Imperial German Army and a commander of it's forces in East Africa, the Pacific, and China. Playing a major role in the German colonies during the first world war, he would go onto use his influence to politically resist the raise of Nazi Germany, leading to his eventual fleeing to the United States.

Early Life
Karl was born the eldest of three children to Peter and Emilia Volland at the family's residence in Braunfels, Hesse. His father. Peter, was Oberst of the 8th Hessisch Infaterie regiment of the Prussian army during the Franco-Prussian war, Peter had previously served in the Austro-Prussian war aswell. Karl's grandfather served as an under-aged infantryman in Blucher's army at Waterloo. His mother was from Switzerland and was of Swiss-Italian heritage, her own father fought for Garibaldi's red shirts.

His childhood was decent, with it being spent in Braunfels. He would later be sent to Wetzlar and then Darmstadt for schooling. Having come from such a long line of military men, it was decided early on that he would be sent to a military academy. The academy in mind was the imperial officer's school in Berlin, one of the highest military academies in the nation.

This was disrupted however, due to the fact that Karl, against the wishes of his father, enlisted into the Imperial German forces. Despite the initial struggle between Karl and his father on the issue of his enlistment, Karl eventually won out, if not by forcing his father's hand, then by persuasion.

Start of Military Career
At age 18, Karl enlisted into the Imperial German Army. Obtaining the rank of Schutze due to his early enlistment and lack of prior military experience. Karl ended up seeing action that year, as his regiment was seemingly one of the unlucky few to go to China. The Boxer Rebellion was waging there in the far east, and it was in the best interests of the governments of Europe to keep order, Germany included. It was upon the death of a German diplomat at the hands of the boxers that true action was called. Finally, the eight nation alliance, comprising of Britian, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Germany, Japan, the United States, Italy, and France sent military forces to deal with the boxer threat.

Amongst the small amount of German forces that activily marched against the Boxer's was a young Karl Volland. While the German Army in China acted more along the lines of a after-math police force, germans saw actual action throughout the rebellion itself. Karl would be one of those soldiers. Karl's regiment was sent with Allied forces to relieve Tientsin from Boxer seige. Upon arriving, the very few amount of German regiments present were ordered by the combined Allied command to aid the Russian's in assaulting the East Gate. Despite hard attempts by German and Russian forces, the defense of the Boxers was heavy and due to the entrance of the Qing army on the side of the Boxers, the Allied troops took heavy casualties. A sword was thrown from the ramparts and barely missed Volland when the Germans were ordered to attempt and scale the walls.

Finally, at the south gate a Japanese soldier sacraficed himself and lit a short fuse, blowing an opening into the Chinese defences. The German forces followed suite. Whilst the individual who was selected to light the fuse was running back, he tripped and fell to the ground. The only soldier to react to this was Karl, whom jumped up and rescued the man before the explosives could go off.

Once inside the city the Allied forces instantly went to pillaging. The German and Russian regiments were reported to act the most savagely, Karl however was not among this group. He initially helped American marines try and keep order amongst the allied troops, however when this failed he attempted to find his officers. Unable to find them amongst the chaos, he regrouped with the only organized force that could be found. The Japanese line was in order and well behaved and was the only body that Karl could join. Despite communication issues between him and the Japanese officers, he managed to get directed to the German officers. Angry and frustrated with the unorderly conduct of their troops, one of the officers attempted to charge Karl with deserting and disobeying orders. To his supreme luck, the American marines that Karl tried to keep order with explained the actions of Karl for the past hour, the Japanese officers Karl talked to would also later describe the happenings of Karl during the pillaging. These events, along with the noted quick action in saving the soldier who lit the fuse, would aid Karl in his future promotion to stabsfeldwebel.

As a result of being at Tientsin, Karl was included in the relief force of Peking. He was involved in the widling away of the besieging Boxer army, and would march into the city with the German forces. He described the look of the rescued troops and diplomats at Peking, as that of complete relief and jubalation. He took part in the rebuilding of the diplomatic compounds that had been damaged or destroyed during the seige.

The Peace Years
After the Boxer Rebellion Karl remained in China as part of the effort to keep European, specifically German, colonial interests in key. He resided at the German colonial center at Tsingtao, where he would be stationed until 1910. During this time, he studied Chinese history, and became somewhat of a historian on it. Already an avid lover of history, being stationed in China was a prime opportunity to study on the lesser known history of the far east. He also studied Chinese culture itself and thus the cultural bridge that every European soldier experienced in China was more or less crossed by Karl, making his overall posting easier.

He received several leave periods during his stay in China. The first few he spent back home in Germany, the later ones however he took trips to Japan. Whilst there he would be astonished by the country, finding a love of Japanese culture and history. He spent one of his longer trips, touring from Osaka to Kyoto, and then from there to Edo and finally to Sendai. He would be presented with an honorary katana from a Japanese officer corps for his service in the Boxer rebellion. He would revisit Japan on several occassions after the first world war.

In 1910, he was transfered to the colony of German East Africa. It was here that he would recieve a commission for officership and he would reach the rank of Hauptmann before returning to Germany. He spent most of his time in German East Africa aiding in the colonial reforms that were taking place. After the colonial mishaps of the German government and army in German West Africa, it was quite clear that the colonies would have to be reformed. A new host of officers, adminstrators, and educators were sent in floods to the African colonies to prop up things like education, welfare, and law and order to the lacking backwaters. It was here that Karl would help the colony militarily, building up both the German colonial military and keeping the colonies running smoothly and in order.

In 1913 Karl would return to Germany and accept the offered position of troop adjutant of the 5th Hussars, commonly known as the Totenkapf hussars due to the distinctive skull and crossbones on their caps. He would remain in the hussars, training the regiment to continue it's lifeguard and frontline horsemen duties, he would make several friends here. He was promoted to the rank of major while in the hussars service. However, shortly before the outbreak of the first world war, he was transfered back to German East Africa to aid colonial forces there.

The First World War
When the first world war came into affect Karl was stationed in German East Africa asa high ranking officer of the colonial forces built there.