An indiscreet secret mission

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An indiscreet secret mission

In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Frobenius was the outstand-

ing expert on Africa in Germany. At the same time, he was a patriot 

and close friend of Emperor Wilhelm II. The two exchanged countless 

letters and Frobenius is known to have visited Wilhelm (Franzen 2006: 

21; Franzen, Kohl, Recker 2012). Frobenius got financial support for 

his expeditions from Wilhelm II and in exchange he gave lectures at the 

exiled emperor’s residence in Doorn. The charismatic Frobenius was 

the right person to captivate an audience of laymen (Franzen 2006: 23).

In November 1914 Frobenius’ patriotism prompted him to offer his 

services and know-how to his country (Braukämper 1994). He had just 

returned from a long-term research expedition to Algeria when he in-

dicated to the German military headquarters that he would be willing 

to reach Northeast Africa via Istanbul and Jeddah and try to trigger a 

revolt against the British in Sudan (Heine 1980: 1), since it was believed 

by the German leaders that the British in Egypt, especially at the Suez 

Canal, could be threatened from there. Frobenius knew the Sudan from 

a recent expedition in 1912, but he was unfamiliar with both Eritrea and 

Ethiopia, which he would have to cross first. Nor did he speak any local 

languages or have contacts in these countries. However, his proposal was 

accepted immediately. One reason was that Ethiopia was surrounded by 

Germany’s enemies and the German legation in the country had been cut 

off from any communication for some time. Frobenius could therefore 

not only play out his own plan in Sudan, but also be used as a messenger 

to the German legation in Ethiopia. Furthermore, he had asked for only 

Much has been written about Leo Frobenius, a German Africanist who, 

not so much because of his missing university education, but more be-

cause of his disputed theories and eccentric character, was controversial 

in his own time and remains so today.

1

 However, one of Frobenius’ in-

disputable merits was his devotion to work. As his long list of publica-

tions (see Niggemeyer 1950) shows, he published his first articles when 

he was just twenty years old and by the age of twenty-one had already 

written his first monograph on African secret societies. During the 

twelve research expeditions to Africa (Inner-Afrikanische Forschungsex-

peditionen) between 1904 and 1935 that took place under his leadership, 

Frobenius and members of his institute collected ethnographic data, oral 

traditions, visual material, ethnographic objects and documented rock art 

on a grand scale. A second fact that makes Frobenius outstanding is the 

value and equality that he assigned to African cultures that were at that 

time still looked down on as backward and as having no history of their 

own. In his publications he showed that culture exists everywhere where 

humans live (Haberland 1973: 3). While Frobenius is still widely known 

today in West Africa, where his aforementioned ideas inspired the Ne-

gritude (see Streck 2014), in Northeast Africa his name is hardly known. 

The following article will show that Frobenius nevertheless played a 

role in German Northeast African Studies and even in the history of bi-

lateral relations between Ethiopia and Germany. It explores two points 

of contact between Frobenius and Northeast Africa: a secret mission 

to the region that Frobenius undertook during World War I; and a re-

gional focus on Ethiopia that developed at his research institute during 

the last years of his life. 

Leo Frobenius and Northeast Africa 

An Indiscreet Secret Mission and the Foundation of Ethiopian Studies at the Frobenius Institute

Sophia T

hubauville

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a very moderate amount of money to conduct the mission, as he was able 

to use the equipment from his former research expedition, which made 

practical preparations quick and easy (Da Riva 2009: 56). 

The expedition was planned as a joint mission by Germany and Tur-

key. While Germany wanted to reduce the influence of the Entente 

powers in Northeast Africa, Turkey hoped to reclaim Egypt from the 

British. Both countries were convinced that encouraging solidarity be-

tween the Muslim populations of the region would help to achieve their 

aims (Andreas Eshete 1974: 12). In these plans, Ethiopia again played 

a major role as the then emperor, Lij Iyasu, was favourable to Islam, 

and the German legation in Ethiopia tried to facilitate a union between 

him and the ‘Mad Mullah’ (Mohammed Abdullah Hassan), Somalia’s 

religious and nationalist leader (Da Riva 2009: 46).

Frobenius had a craving for publicity and titles. Before he set out 

on his mission, he asked to be awarded several designations. He was 

therefore given the title ‘kaiserlicher geheimer Regierungsrat’ (Privy 

Councillor)

2

 and was entitled to call himself Pasha (Da Riva 2009: 50). 

With his newly gained titles and four European companions at hand he 

left for Istanbul. 

In Istanbul, Frobenius still had to arrange some practical matters 

as the mission had left Germany at very short notice (Heine 1980: 3). 

Finally, he and his comrades left the town on Christmas Eve 1914 and, 

travelling mainly by train, arrived at Damascus on 10 January 1915. In 

Damascus, further crew members joined the mission including Solo-

mon Hall, an Ethiopian son of a missionary (Da Riva 2009: 52).

3

 To-

gether they continued the trip by train to Al-Ula and from there by 

camel to Al-Wajh, a Red Sea port. They sailed along the Arabian coast 

for two weeks and then boarded a larger sailing ship to cross the Red 

Sea (Braukämper 1994: 558).

Crossing the Red Sea took them another four weeks. Frobenius and 

his mission tried to hide their foreign identity by dressing up in Arabic 

robes (see picture above). A close encounter would, however, have re-

vealed their foreign origin easily. Therefore, when the French cruiser 

Desaix inspected their Sambuk, the European mission hid in a corner of 

the hold (Da Riva 2009: 77). Finally, on 15 February 1915 they reached 

Fig. 1:  Drawing by Carl Arriens showing Frobenius during the Algeria expe-

dition

Sophia Thubauville

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174

175 

 

  

a very moderate amount of money to conduct the mission, as he was able 

to use the equipment from his former research expedition, which made 

practical preparations quick and easy (Da Riva 2009: 56). 

The expedition was planned as a joint mission by Germany and Tur-

key. While Germany wanted to reduce the influence of the Entente 

powers in Northeast Africa, Turkey hoped to reclaim Egypt from the 

British. Both countries were convinced that encouraging solidarity be-

tween the Muslim populations of the region would help to achieve their 

aims (Andreas Eshete 1974: 12). In these plans, Ethiopia again played 

a major role as the then emperor, Lij Iyasu, was favourable to Islam, 

and the German legation in Ethiopia tried to facilitate a union between 

him and the ‘Mad Mullah’ (Mohammed Abdullah Hassan), Somalia’s 

religious and nationalist leader (Da Riva 2009: 46).

Frobenius had a craving for publicity and titles. Before he set out 

on his mission, he asked to be awarded several designations. He was 

therefore  given  the  title  ‘kaiserlicher  geheimer  Regierungsrat’  (Privy 

Councillor)

2

 and was entitled to call himself Pasha (Da Riva 2009: 50). 

With his newly gained titles and four European companions at hand he 

left for Istanbul. 

In  Istanbul,  Frobenius  still  had  to  arrange  some  practical  matters 

as the mission had left Germany at very short notice (Heine 1980: 3). 

Finally, he and his comrades left the town on Christmas Eve 1914 and, 

travelling mainly by train, arrived at Damascus on 10 January 1915. In 

Damascus, further crew members joined the mission including Solo-

mon Hall, an Ethiopian son of a missionary (Da Riva 2009: 52).

3

 To-

gether they continued the trip by train to Al-Ula and from there by 

camel to Al-Wajh, a Red Sea port. They sailed along the Arabian coast 

for two weeks and then boarded a larger sailing ship to cross the Red 

Sea (Braukämper 1994: 558).

Crossing the Red Sea took them another four weeks. Frobenius and 

his mission tried to hide their foreign identity by dressing up in Arabic 

robes (see picture above). A close encounter would, however, have re-

vealed their foreign origin easily. Therefore, when the French cruiser 

Desaix inspected their Sambuk, the European mission hid in a corner of 

the hold (Da Riva 2009: 77). Finally, on 15 February 1915 they reached 

Fig. 1:  Drawing by Carl Arriens showing Frobenius during the Algeria expe-

dition

Sophia Thubauville

Figs. 2a–b: Maps showing the itinerary of the mission

Leo Frobenius and Northeast Africa: An Indiscreet Secret Mission and the Foundation of Ethiopian Studies at the Frobenius Institute

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176

 

Massawa. As Italy was neutral, the German mission, and especially 

Frobenius, incorrectly supposed that the Italians would let them pass 

through Eritrea and they would no longer have to hide their identity. 

Moreover, Frobenius, who could never get enough of titles, introduced 

himself as a military captain, thereby making the Italians suspicious (Da 

Riva 2009: 82) and revealing the military character of the mission. Even 

though the German consul in Italy tried to claim Frobenius was merely 

a messenger for the German legation in Ethiopia, the Italians did not 

let the mission pass through Eritrea and took care to ensure that every 

individual left the country. Frobenius and the European participants of 

the mission were put on a mail ship to Rome on 23 March 1915.

Back in Berlin Frobenius was – even though the failure of his mis-

sion was obviously his fault – awarded a German military decoration, 

the Ehrenkreuz II (Heine 1980: 4). Eloquent as ever, Frobenius man-

aged to present the mission as a success and neither his friendship with 

the emperor nor his scientific reputation seemed to have been harmed 

Fig. 4:  Market in Asmara; photograph taken by unknown expedition member

Fig. 3:  Crossing the Red Sea from Konfuda to Massawa. Frobenius (in white 

robe) and expedition members. To the rear on the left side is their 

Sambuk

Sophia Thubauville

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177 

  

by the unsuccessful undertaking. Moreover, Frobenius himself found 

– or at least described in front of others – his mission and especially the 

contacts he had made

4

 of the highest importance and directly proposed 

a second mission with the same aim. This time his proposal was reject-

ed. Instead he became the principal of a detention camp for African and 

Indian soldiers, where he tried to improve conditions for the prisoners 

and was able to record African myths (Kuba 2014).

The failure of this political mission can, of course, be partly blamed 

on Frobenius’ character; he lacked the most important quality of a se-

cret agent – discreetness. However, the mission also lacked the prepara-

tions on a political and military level that should have been made by the 

responsible office, the ‘Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient’.

5

Even though the mission had not affected Frobenius’ reputation and 

relations with the emperor, his political involvement resulted in certain 

difficulties for his future scientific work. His name was now known by 

Allied intelligence services, which continued to consider him a danger-

ous German agent (Da Riva 2009: 33). When Frobenius arrived in Cairo 

in 1926 with plans to proceed to Sudan, Britain had not forgotten his 

former mission and placed him on the blacklist (Da Riva 2009: 107). One 

year later he visited London with travelling plans for Rhodesia from 

whence he wanted to proceed to Tanganyika, but he received travel re-

strictions for Kenya and Uganda (Da Riva 2009: 108). Frobenius had al-

ways used publicity successfully to further his scientific work, however, 

his fame among the secret services now afflicted his research expeditions. 

Probably less the result of Frobenius’s mission, which did not even 

reach Ethiopia, and more the work of diplomats in Addis Ababa, was 

Lij Iyasu’s commitment to Germany. According to a letter written by 

the German legation in 1916, the Ethiopian emperor favoured Germa-

ny’s plans for Northeast Africa and even assisted in destroying Italy’s 

wireless stations. According to some sources, Germany’s plan to make 

Lij Iyasu cooperate with the Somali leader worked out and he married 

a daughter of the ‘Mad Mullah’ and converted to Islam (Scholler 1980: 

314). Lij Iyasu’s plan to reign over a large Ethiopian empire, including 

the Muslim regions of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, can be seen 

as inspired by Turkish and German agents (Andreas Eshete 1974: 15).

6

The foundations of Ethiopian Studies at the Frobenius Institute

Frobenius’ secret mission to Northeast Africa was obviously no scien-

tific expedition. During the five weeks that Frobenius spent in Eritrea, 

he was mainly involved in negotiations with the Italian authorities and 

only briefly visited Zazega in the Hamasén area. As Braukämper (1994: 

559) rightly states, the otherwise so plentifully filled photo catalogues 

at the archives of the Frobenius Institute list not even 100 photographs 

taken on Eritrean ground. Most of them show landscapes, buildings 

and people following daily activities. Even though they are small in 

number, they are valuable as they are some of the only photographs 

taken in the area at that time. Apart from photographs Frobenius him-

self made thirty-seven sketches of rock engravings (see the example 

below) at four sites in the region (Zazega, Maji Malehesh, Lamdrara 

and Dembe Wadi Mudui), which are also an important documentation 

(Cervicek 1976). However, Frobenius’ concept of the Eritrean culture 

Fig. 5:  Landscape near Asmara; photograph taken by unknown expedition 

member

Leo Frobenius and Northeast Africa: An Indiscreet Secret Mission and the Foundation of Ethiopian Studies at the Frobenius Institute

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178

 

Figs. 6a–c:  Sketches of rock engravings made by Frobenius himself at Dembe 

Wadi Mudui

Sophia Thubauville

circle is not based on his trip to the Hamasén region, but was generated 

by information he gathered during a later expedition to Zimbabwe. He 

used the term Erithräa not in relation to the country, but to refer to the 

Red Sea or, as it had been called by the ancient Greeks, the Eritrean Sea, 

(Braukämper 1994: 559; Frobenius 1931).

Frobenius used the information gained in the Hamasén area for only 

one short article (Frobenius 1916) in which he sketchily describes the 

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179 

  

architecture of houses in the Hamasén region and compares them with 

earlier observations from Sudan and Libya. He concludes this article 

by saying that the most important insight of this expedition from Ara-

bia via the Red Sea to Eritrea was to acknowledge the relevance of con-

ducting further research concentrating on the Red Sea area as a cultural 

junction between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean (Frobenius 

1916: 100).

However, about twenty years later, in 1934, when the first scientific 

expedition of the Frobenius Institute was about to depart for North-

east Africa, its destination was not determined by Frobenius’ previ-

ously formulated research interests. Instead, attention to that part of 

the world had been drawn by A.E. Jensen’s expedition, which had 

recorded rich findings of stone stela in southern Ethiopia (Azaïs and 

Chambard 1931). The 1934/35 expedition to Ethiopia was the last of 

the twelve major research expeditions by the Frobenius Institute (In-

ner-Afrikanische Forschungsexpeditionen) and the first one in which 

Frobenius himself did not take part. In 1925 his institute, then called 

‘Institut für Kulturmorphologie’, was transferred from Munich to 

Frankfurt and became affiliated to the university. In 1932 Frobenius 

was appointed honorary professor for ‘Völker- und Kulturkunde’ and 

in 1934 he was additionally engaged as director of the ‘Völkermuseum’. 

By then Frobenius was 61 years old and prepared for a generational 

transfer at his institute. Therefore he handed over the directorship of 

the last major expedition to his younger colleague A.E. Jensen, whom 

he named director of the Abyssinia department (Frobenius 1936).    

Jensen, a former student of Frobenius, who was similarly industrious 

but less eccentric than his teacher, fell in love with Southern Ethiopia, 

especially the Konso area, during the 1934/35 expedition. He promptly 

published the expedition findings in a major monograph (Jensen 1936). 

In 1938 Frobenius died and the Second World War was just months 

away. Jensen was conscripted as a soldier and returned to the institute 

only at the end of the war in 1945. In 1946 he was appointed as direc-

tor of the institute and changed its name to the Frobenius Institute. 

The years following the war were difficult. Frankfurt had been seri-

Fig. 7: Frobenius in the Hamasén area; photo by Mario Passarge, 1915

Leo Frobenius and Northeast Africa: An Indiscreet Secret Mission and the Foundation of Ethiopian Studies at the Frobenius Institute

Fig. 8: Small hamlet in the Hamasén area; photo by Mario Passarge, 1915

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180

 

ously bombed and though female researchers at the institute had tried 

to hide its collections in safe places, some parts had been destroyed. 

However, as early as 1950, Jensen had secured enough funds to con-

tinue with long-term research expeditions. The first was meant to leave 

for Ethiopia. This time Jensen took two freshly graduated PhD hold-

ers with him, Eike Haberland and Willy Schulz-Weidner. Haberland 

would not only become Jensen’s successor as director of the Frobenius 

Institute but would also continue the tradition of Ethiopian Studies 

there. Between 1950 and Haberland’s death in 1992, five major research 

expeditions to Ethiopia took place in which eleven researchers from 

the institute were involved. They focused above all on the ethnography 

of the south of the country (Haberland 1986: 37). For his devotion to 

Ethiopian Studies, Haberland was awarded the Haylé Sïllassé Prize in 

Sophia Thubauville

Fig. 9:  Church in the Hamasén area; photo by Mario Passarge, 1915

Fig. 10: Documentation of a typical house in Hamasén, Colonia Eritrea, photo 

from the Frobenius expedition 1915

Fig. 11: Inside the historical church of Tse’azzega, at the former seat of the Ad 

Deggiyat governors of Hamasén, photo from the Frobenius expedi-

tion 1915

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181 

  

1971. He was also interested in close academic cooperation between 

the two countries and attracted Ethiopian PhD students, amongst them 

Nagaaso Gidaada and Lij Asfa-Wossen Asserate, to study at the Frobe-

nius Institute. The regional focus was unfortunately not continued af-

ter 1974 because of the political turmoil under the socialist regime in 

Ethiopia. Haberland died in 1992 and did not live to see his former 

student, Nagaaso Gidaada, become president of Ethiopia.

Since 2010 Ethiopian Studies have been reactivated as one of the in-

stitute’s regional foci on a smaller scale. A current project within the 

collaborative research project Africa’s Asian Options (AFRASO) ana-

lyzes Ethiopia’s university boom and academic migration from India 

to Ethiopia. Furthermore, since 2013, the Frobenius Institute has again 

intensified academic cooperation with Ethiopia, especially through a 

Social Anthropology PhD exchange programme with Addis Ababa 

University. Finally, a digitizing project has begun to make the rich ar-

chival material that resulted from the earlier research activities of the 

Frobenius Institute in Ethiopia available in an online database to which 

the international community of Ethiopists will have access.

Conclusion

What can one conclude from the depictions above that show Leo 

Frobenius’ activities with regard to Northeast Africa?  Frobenius’ sci-

entific theories concerning Africa’s historicity and culture inspired the 

Negritude and therefore Africa’s independence movement. His politi-

cal activities in Northeast Africa during World War I, however, show 

him as a nationalist who voluntarily offered his services to Germany’s 

attempt to expand its colonial power. This, however, was quite usual 

for anthropologists of all nationalities at that time (see Kohl 2014). Be-

hind Frobenius’ mission to Northeast Africa seemed to lie an overesti-

mation of his own capabilities combined with an extraordinary naivety 

that made him believe that he – a European unfamiliar with the local 

conditions and languages – could not only successfully conduct the 

planned mission, but could do so without consequences. Even though 

his mission did not harm his scientific reputation, it endangered his fu-

ture research expeditions as he was blacklisted by secret services, which 

thenceforth followed his activities with great attention. 

As much as his role as a secret agent questions his neutrality as a re-

searcher from today’s perspective, one also has to acknowledge Frobe-

nius for his lifework: the foundation of Germany’s oldest research in-

stitute for social anthropology, which he and his successors were able 

to safeguard through two wars. A genius at fundraising, Frobenius also 

raised the money for twelve extended research expeditions to Africa, 

the last of which – even without him – found its way to Southern Ethi-

opia and returned with invaluable documents about the place at that 

time, which inspired, and continue to inspire, researchers’ interest in 

Ethiopian Studies at the Frobenius Institute.

References

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Photo credits

Fig. 1: 

Drawing by Carl Arriens showing Frobenius during the Algeria 

expedition, register no. KBA 11968 © Frobenius Institute

Figs. 2a–b: Maps showing the itinery of the mission, register no. FoA-07-

Kat007-00d © Frobenius Institute

Fig. 3: 

Crossing the Red Sea from Konfuda to Massawa, register no. FoA-

07-8088 © Frobenius Institute

Fig. 4: 

Market in Asmara, register no. FoA-07-8169 © Frobenius Institute

Fig. 5:  

Landscape near Asmara, register no. FoA-07-8167 © Frobenius In-

stitute

Figs. 6a–c:  Sketches of rock engravings made by Frobenius himself at Dembe 

Wadi Mudui, register no. FBA A 05-037, 020, 007 © Frobenius 

Institute

Fig. 7: 

Frobenius in the Hamasén area, register no. FoA-07-8176 © Frobe-

nius Institute

Fig. 8: 

Small hamlet in the Hamasén area, register no. FoA-07-8177 © 

Frobenius Institute

Fig.: 9 

Church in the Hamasén area, register no. FoA-07-8207 © Frobe-

nius Institute

Fig. 10: 

Documentation of a typical house in Hamasén, Colonia Eritrea, 

photo from the Frobenius expedition 1915, courtesy of the Frobe-

nius Institute (code: 7-8179)

Fig. 11: 

Inside the historical church of Tse’azzega, at the former seat of 

the Ad Deggiyat governors of Hamasén, photo from the Frobe-

nius expedition 1915, courtesy of the Frobenius Institute (code: 

7-8222)

Endnotes

1  Haberland described him as ‘Romantischer Schwärmer und zupackend-

er Realist, biederer Konservativer und rücksichtsloser Nonkonformist, 

Verehrer des Kaisers und Verachter von Autoritäten, asketischer Forscher 

und publizitätsfreudiger, von Eitelkeit beileibe nicht freier Propagandist 

seiner Pläne, Bücherwurm und Expeditionsleiter, als Gründer und Organi-

sator ebenso unbegabt wie erfolgreich’ (1973: 1).

2  Even though he was entitled to use this title only for the duration of his 

mission, it became his favourite title from then onwards. In scientific cor-

respondence and publications he added the title ‘Geheimrat’ to his name. 

Even after his death members of his institute addressed his wife in letters as 

‘Frau Geheimrat’ instead of the more usual ‘Frau Professor’.

3  Hall’s mission had actually been a separate mission and was merged with 

Frobenius’ into one in Damascus. After Frobenius’ mission failed, Hall 

was sent again to Ethiopia as a messenger in 1915. He was caught in Eritrea 

and imprisoned there for three years (Scholler 1980).

4  According to the German ambassador in Turkey, Frobenius himself was 

an annoyance to his German companions as well as to the members who 

joined the mission later. Contacts were only made because of the diplo-

macy of his companions Sami Bey and Solomon Hall, who translated for 

Frobenius (Heine 1980).

5  The Nachrichtenstelle für den Orient was responsible for several other 

failed missions (Heine 1980) with agents, ‘some as eccentric as Frobenius’ 

(Da Riva 2009: 41,42).

6  A recent publication on new insights of Lij Iyasu’s reign, however, does not 

provide any evidence for alliances between Ethiopia and Germany or the 

Ottoman Empire nor for a formal conversion of Lij Iyasu to Islam (Smidt 

2014: 107).

Leo Frobenius and Northeast Africa: An Indiscreet Secret Mission and the Foundation of Ethiopian Studies at the Frobenius Institute