"Everything Depends on Our Creation of a German Hong Kong:" the Making of a German China Lobby and the Rise of Germany's Presence in China, 1880-1897

My paper examines the pre-history of the German colony of Tsingtau, China, looking at the role Germans in China played in convincing the German government to seize this territory. The capture of Tsingtau was motivated not just by high politics and diplomacy, but rather a coalition of interests from below that took advantage of German domestic politics to advance their own interests. My paper explores the creation of this China lobby, discussing its early story to show how it coalesced and gained its outsized influence, securing, as a result, its unique vision of a liberal commercial empire: creating a “German Hong Kong.”

This study is a fascinating example of the powerful effect colonial peripheries could have on the metropole and the relationship between the military and society. This paper shows how a group of religious, academic, naval, and commercial interests, seeking to develop their global networks, was able to exploit domestic politics in the 1890s and turn its desires into state policy. In 1897, Germany forced China to surrender part of Shantung and the village of Tsingtau, creating the Kiaochow Leasehold. As a result, the German China lobby secured the opportunity to build the liberal commercial colony it envisioned: a preeminent naval base in Asia that would also serve as a cultural and commercial center that would rival British Hong Kong and be the model of colonial rule.