pro-patria-mori: A painting showing WW1 Imperial German Askari charging forward. The German empire

pro-patria-mori:

A painting showing WW1 Imperial German Askari charging forward.

The German empire recruited natives from German East Africa (now Tanzania) to serve in the Askari units.

They were commanded by European officers, and fought a highly effective campaign against the Allied forces in Africa, fighting against a much larger British force until the end of the war in 1918.

Askari units were all given a army pension, but due to the turmoil at the end of the war this was never carried through. In 1964, the Federal German government attempted to make good on these promises and pay the entire back-log of payments to any surviving Askari who could be found.

A payment station was set up for the men to travel to, seeing as postage to the many unnamed villages was unfeasible. 350 men turned up, but many had lost the papers issued to them at the end of the great war. The banker who had brought the money came up with a simple way to sort the real soldiers from fakes. As each man stepped forward he was handed a broom handle and asked (in German) to perform rifle drill movements with it. Not one man failed the test.