History of tradition <br /><br />Engekommen am 08.5.2017 von Prof. Dr. Heinrich Dauber, Hohe Str. 32, 34376 Immenhausen<br /><br /><br /><br />>1. To the persons Rudolph Gansser sen. and Rudolph Gansser jun.: Wilhelm Friedrich Rudolf von Gansser was born on 16.10.1829 as son of the schoolmaster Johann Wilhelm Gansser and his wife Katharina, née Schaeffer in Lauffen. He first became a camera assistant. His military career began in 1850 with the allocation of the 4th cavalry regiment, in which he became a master of the gang in 1851 and a Fourier in 1852. In 1859 he was promoted to lieutenant of this regiment. After studying the subjects prescribed for higher military administrative service at the University of Tübingen 1861-1862, he passed the higher military administrative service examination in October 1863. 1864 he was commanded on the revision of the war ministry and transferred in the following year as battalion quartermaster to the 3rd hunter battalion. Gansser participated in the Prussian-Austrian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71. In 1866 he was promoted to regimental quartermaster in the 3rd cavalry regiment, but later went back to his old battalion. At his request, he was awarded the Captain's Grade in 1870 and transferred to the 4th Infantry Regiment as regiment quartermaster. In the same year he became war commissioner for the field division, in 1872 directorate secretary and in 1874 member of the directorate of the XIII royal Württemberg army corps. In 1886 he was promoted to the Upper War Council and in 1888 he became an officer in the War Ministry. In 1900 he retired and was awarded the title of Ministerial Director. Rudolf Gansser received numerous honours for his military services: 1867 the War Memorial Coins, 1871 the Knight's Cross II Class, 1888 the Honorary Knight's Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown and 1889 the Silver Medal of Remembrance, 1898 the Commentary's Cross II Class of the Order of Frederick, 1897 the Medal of Remembrance of Captured Cannon Bronze and 1899 the Red Eagle Order Third Class. Since 1865 Gansser was married to Josefine Therese Leipprand, daughter of the city doctor in Lauffen. The couple had 8 children: the sons Rudolf, Hans and Konrad as well as the daughters Josefine, Klara, Hedwig, Gertrud and Louise. Two more sons died early. A brother of Gansser, Karl (1840-1890), was captain in the Württemberg army and also took part in the Franco-Prussian War 1870/71 (personal file M 430/1 785a). Two of Gansser's three sons, Rudolf and Konrad (b. 1882, personal file M 430/2 580) started a military career like their father, which was sponsored by their father. Wilhelm Friedrich Rudolf Gansser jun. was the oldest child of Gansser and was born on 26.04.1866 in Wiblingen. He attended the Eberhard-Ludwig-Gymnasium in Stuttgart, then a Prussian officer school and passed the military examination before a Prussian commission. In December 1885 he entered Württemberg service, first as a lieutenant in the infantry regiment of Kaiser Friedrich König von Preußen (7. Württembergisches) No. 125, from 1893 as a prime lieutenant. In 1896 Gansser was transferred to the Imperial Protection Force for D e u t s c h - O s t a f r i k a , where he carried out trigonometric surveying in West Usambara between November 1896 and November 1899. From 31.01.1900 to 2.08.1902 he was a second time in D e u t s c h - O s t a f r i k a , now as company commander and district commander of Tabora (inland). He was promoted to captain in 1902. After this, he undertook a six-month world tour. It began in Dar es Salaam, led him by sea to India and Ceylon, continued via Malaysia, Singapore and Java and roamed through China and Japan, from where Gansser translated to America and crossed the North American continent. From New York he went by ship to Hamburg. He then resumed his military service in Württemberg, until in 1904 he was detached to the Imperial Protection Force in Southwest Africa to take part in the campaign against the rebellious Hereros. Already on August 11th he fell in the first important battle at Waterberg. Rudolf Gansser jun. also received numerous honours for his merits: in 1891 the civilian service medal, in 1899 the Knight's Cross of the Grand Ducal Order of the Griffins by Johann Albrecht Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, and the Knight's Cross of the Order of Frederick, in 1900 the Knight's Order of the Second Department of the House Order of Vigilance by Grand Duke Karl Alexander von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach as well as the commemorative medal from renewed cannon bronze.<br /><br />2. About the collection and its treatment: The present collection includes the estates of father and son. Since the father survived the son and his documents had fallen to him, one can also speak of an estate. Although the Gansser family is mentioned in many places, but mostly only marginally, it is not a family archive. The military is in the first place with both estates, with the son still supplemented by documents about his world journey and from the colonial administration. The letter series are of particular value. Due to the separation as a result of the campaigns of 1866 and 1870/71 at the father's, respectively due to the stays in Africa and the world trip at the son's, there is a comparatively dense correspondence with the family. The father's letter series are not neatly separated and also hold unproven and misplaced letter pieces. However, after the documents had been stapled, it was not possible to clean up the archival processing. Instead, in the Contained note, special reference was made to such disordered material in order to make it locatable. In some cases, the letters are numbered before they are sent. They always serve to maintain contact with the family, and often business matters that have to be done at home are also addressed and settled. The letters sent home are by no means exclusively for information about the course of the war or the situation in D e u t s c h - O s t a f r i k a . Often, despite the unusual and dangerous situation, the insurance of well-being is also carried out to reassure the relatives. The son left some diaries from his time in D e u t s c h - O s t a f r i k a and from his trip around the world, which are a good supplement to the information entrusted to his parents in the letters. They are more detailed and chronologically denser in the diaries. The photographs of Rudolf Gansser Jr., which he took himself in Africa and which supplement his descriptions in the diaries and letters, have a high documentary value. The documents were handed over for archiving in May 2017 by a grandson of Luise Pfleiderer, née Gansser, to a sister of Rudolf Gansser jun. The order and distortion by the undersigned followed immediately, but was delayed by the digitalization of the photo glass plates belonging to the inventory. Because of their special significance, the series of letters and diaries have been indexed particularly deeply and keywords and special subjects have been given in detail in the notes on contents. The glass plate lettering was very helpful for the development of the pictures. This is partly on the glass plates themselves or on the individual boxes. The inscription does not come from Rudolf Gansser himself, but probably from a closely related person, since Rudolf Gansser is addressed as "Rudolf", i.e. in the third person singular. A reference to the author could be contained in box no. X[II] with the inscription "Diapositives von Schwager Rudolf". This should also apply to other boxes, because the font also appears on other labels. Accordingly, a brother-in-law or sister-in-law should have arranged and inscribed the glass plates after Gansser's death. This inscription was literally taken over as a quotation during the distortion. Additions or own labels are placed in square brackets [ ]. The holdings Q 2/48 "Estate of Rudolf von Gansser sen. and Rudolf Gansser jun. has a running time of 1825-1914 and comprises 70 archive units in approx. 2 linear metres. Stuttgart in May 2018 Dr. Peter Schiffer<br /><br />3. Literature: Personnel files Rudolf von Gansser sen.: HStAS M 420/5 Bü 683 and M 430/5 Bü 685 Q 2/48_Bü 6, Personalia Rudolf Gansser, Oberkriegsrat in Stuttgart Personnel files on Rudolf Gansser jun.HStAS M 430/1 Bü 786 Q 2/48_Bü 30 Personal files for Rudolf Gansser (1866-1904) "Nicht als Abentheurer bin ich hierhergekommen ...": 100 years of development "aid"; diaries and letters from Deutsch-Ostafrika 1896-1902, edited by Heinrich Dauber, Frankfurt/M.: Verl. für Intererkulturelle Kommunikation, 1991