Globale Akteure an den Randzonen von Souveränität und Legitimität

Ein patriotischer Söldner? Sir Julius von Hartmann: ein Hannoveranischer Offizier im Britischen Dienst, 1803–1816

Die Autoren lenken den Blick auf überraschende Kontinuitäten von Fremdenlegionen in einer Ära, die gemeinhin mit dem Aufkommen der Nationalheere und der wehrpflichtigen Bürgersoldaten assoziiert wird – die Napoleonischen Kriege. Eine dieser Fremdenlegionen war die King‘s German Legion (KGL). Nachdem das Kurfürstentum Hannover 1803 durch französische Truppen besetzt worden war, emigrierten zahlreiche hannoversche Veteranen nach Großbritannien, um dort in den Militärdienst der KGL überzutreten. Am Werdegang des Artillerieoffiziers Julius von Hartmann (1774–1856) zeigen Heinzen und Wishon die damit verbundenen rechtlichen, sozio-kulturellen und politischen Zustände des betwixt-and-between auf, insbesondere die Stellung zwischen professionellem opportunistischem Söldnertum und Patriotismus. Dadurch konnte sich Hartmann nicht nur zum Vermittler professioneller Expertise entwickeln, sondern auch zum Repräsentanten einer transnationalen europäischen Militärkultur.

Alan Pinkerton: Business and Intelligence in the American Civil War

Based on the example of private detective Alan Pinkerton (1819–1884) the author analyses the mixture of activities of state and private intelligence services during the American Civil War. While this task was a traditional duty of the state in Europe, the United States had developed during the continental expansion a specific anti-etatistic tradition on the frontier. Against this background it is not surprising that Pinkerton succeeded to sell his services to an administration that had so far not been dealing with issues of intelligence on contract basis. Nagler furthermore shows how conflicts of interest as well as of loyalty caused Pinkerton to revoke his services, a fact which in turn led to an institutionalisation of the intelligence services in the United States.

A Makeshift Solution. Hermann Wissmann and the First Military Intervention Overseas of Imperial Germany, 1889–1891 When the German government for the first time faced violent resistance in German East Africa in 888, it became evident that the Army and Navy did not have the necessary means or experience to cope with such a conflict. Therefore, the explorer Hermann Wissmann was given the mandate to build up and lead a force of mercenaries on contract basis. Although Wissmann was successful in supressing the uprising, the government refused to appoint him to a position in the East African protectorate. The government feared that he would not submit to the regulations of colonial rule that should be introduced. It, however, soon became obvious that due to local concepts of sovereignty and legitimacy it was not possible to transfer the European model of the state`s monopoly of power.

A Mercenary Leader between Postcolonial Orders. Bob Denard and the last Frontline in Congo­Kinshasa, 1960–1968

This contribution focuses on Bob Denard, a former police officer in the French colonies and typical man on the spot, who was active in the grey area of neo-imperialistic interests during the Cold War in Congo-Kinshasa. Even though Denard was strongly influenced by materialistic and opportunistic motivations, he nevertheless was guided by anti-communist maxims. He was an outsider and situated at the margins of French sovereignty and legitimacy, but he was in many ways representative for France’s post-colonial decision-making and resentments. According to Keese Denard can in particular be considered as a personification of the frustration of the former colonial power regarding the presumably ingratitude of their co-operation partners in Africa.

A Licence to Kill? Boris Savinkov and Russian Terrorism

By the example of the terrorist Boris Savinkov in late Czarist Russia the author is looking at the connections between political and revolutionary dispositions to violence on the one hand and individual-pathologic ones on the other. Baberowski’s protagonist was a transnational entrepreneur of violence, who met with his sponsors and other revolutionaries in hotel rooms all over Europe. The social space of big cities with its anonymity and an acquired non-observance of others functioned as an ideal operational base for clandestine actions, in which Savinkov created his personal state of emergency as well as his role as a social outcast that in turn led him to continue his murderous activity. Even though these terror attacks were way beyond state legitimacy, numerous liberal academics and lawyers tried to legitimize those acts of violence legally and morally.