Oberst Dr. Wilhelm Winterer (1879 - 1969)

Colonel (ret.) Dr Wilhelm Winterer was born on 21 September 1879 in Constance. After completing his A-levels he joined the 113th (5th Baden) Infantry Regiment and transferred as a Lieutenant to the Imperial Protection Force for German East Africa. Initially he was stationed in Lindi, Tansania (formerly German East Africa, GEA). Here however, he was hardly involved in the fighting related to the Maji-Maji war, as this had nearly finished by the time of his arrival. Later, Winterer was stationed at Lake VIctoria in Kifumbiro, Tanzania (formerly GEA) where innumerable commercial enterprises trading in coffee, as well as ranchers had established a settlement. In 1910, Winterer visited Freiburg and brought a large number of natural history and ethnographic objects with him: antlers, crocodile and ostrich eggs, snakes preserved in alcohol, a collection of beetles as well as weapons and everyday items as used by the local populations in the region of Kifumbiro. It is not known how these objects came into his possession. On behalf of his son, The Lord Mayor at the time, Otto Winterer (1856–1915), entrusted this collection on bahlaf of his son to the Museum für Natur- und Völkerkunde. In recognition, his son’s name was added to the donors’ plaque, which is now situated in the foyer of the Museum Natur and Mensch.

After his retirement from the army, Winterer was among the most ardent advocates of colonial revisionism. He ran a publishing house that released revisionist publications, held pro-colonial lectures and was significantly involved in organising the Colonial Conference in 1935. Wilhelm Winterer died on 29 June 1969 in Freiburg.