Hans Hermann Eschke

Hans Hermann Eschke ( born November 10, 1856 in Berlin, † July 19, 1904 in Singapore) was the first German Consul-General in Singapore.

Background

Hans Hermann Eschke was the son of landscape and marine painter Prof. Hermann Eschke (1832-1900) from Berlin. The connection of his father to the environment of the emperor were probably not irrelevant to Eschkes career in the Foreign Service, which led to his position in Singapore.

Singapore

After entering the Prussian Ministry of Justice lawyer Hans Hermann Eschke was sent in 1889 as Consul and therefore the first full-time German diplomat to Singapore. The German Empire had interest in expanding its presence in the region, especially with regard to Qingdao (China). Here Eschke moved in the circles of the prestigious German merchants and learned at the beginning of his stay Sohst Olga, the daughter of the famous Singapore businessman and German Honorary Consul Theodor Sohst to know. Only three months after his arrival in Singapore, he married her. From Olga's dowry, the young couple a house (Mount Rosie ) could buy. With the good connections to the ancestral family Sohst succeeded Eschke and his wife Olga quick to act successfully within the meaning of the German local community.

End of 1898-1899 Eschke took the resident minister shops in Bangkok and was represented at the time by his father- Theodor Sohst, who had taken the position of a German Honorary Consul in Singapore before him. In January 1902 Eschke was also appointed consul for the preceding British rule of the island of Borneo, the colony of Labuan and the combined protective States of Malay Peninsula, based in Singapore. 1903 was the conversion of Konsularamts in Singapore in a Consulate General and Eschke received the appointment to the Imperial German Consul General. 1903, the office district in the Sultanate of Johore was extended. In addition, the Austria -Hungarian Eschke managed, as well as from December 1903, the Turkish Consulate General.

Obituary

The high regard in which Eschke has been found in the representation of Germany's interests in the Straits is in the local press ( Straits Times, 1904) in an obituary to his death expressed: " all Consulates and large business houses as well as the German ships in the harbor had flagged yesterday at half-mast to mark his death, the banks and some other businesses closed by the way a sign of mourning already by 1 clock their rooms. "

Tomb

The grave of Hans Hermann Eschke was originally located in the Old Cemetery and was moved to removal of the cemetery in the Park of Fort Canning (National Park) at Canning Rise. In a "19th Century Walk of History" is there reminiscent of the early European inhabitants of Singapore in the form of ten stelae. Two steles remind of German inhabitants, is one of Hans Hermann Eschke.

Swell

• Hans Hermann Eschke. The first German career diplomat in Singapore, in: Impulse, The Magazine for the German speaking community in Singapore, October 1989 163/7/1989, pp. 16-18
• Fort Canning Park. The National Parks Board ( NParks ), Singapore