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German territory in central Tianjin, China From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The German concession of Tianjin (Chinese: 天津德租界) was a territory (concession) in central Tianjin existing from 1895 to 1917.[1]
German concession of Tianjin 天津德租界 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1895–1917 | |||||||||
.svg) Flag | |||||||||
| Status | Concession of the German Empire | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Tianjin Treaty Port Concession Agreement | 1895 | ||||||||
• Repossession into the Republic of China | 1917 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
On May 21, 1895, the German diplomat to China Alfred Pelldram submitted a demand to the Qing Dynasty that as Germany had "forced Japan to return the Liaodong peninsula" during the First Sino-Japanese War, Germany was to be given the same special treatment as Britain, France, etc. Thus, on October 30, the Qing government delimited a swath of land of 1034 mu (about 380 acres) below the British concession of Tianjin.[1]
Pelldram's drafted plans for the German concession included a small section under the British concession, present-day Xiaobailou Subdistrict.[2] The US consul in Tianjin at the time, Charles Denby Jr., protested, claiming that the district was under American jurisdiction, granted to the US for its role as mediator during the Convention of Peking in 1860. A few days after Denby submitted this letter to the US State Department, the Germans began constructing two roads connecting it to the British concession, which would pass through the American concession.[3] Ultimately, with Denby re-establishing a US presence through a newly formed patrol, the Germans staved off of the land.
As a pretense to the Boxer Rebellion, a German ambassador was killed on the 20th of June, 1900, inflaming the Germans both abroad and back home, leading to a German army landing in China from Bremen. The subsequent intervention by the Eight Nations in the Boxer Rebellion was used as a precursor by Germany to force the Qing Dynasty to more than double the concession's size.[1]
After the outbreak of World War One, in 1917, the Chinese government announced the occupation of the German concession, changing it to Tianjin Special Administrative Region No. 1 (Special No. 1 District). Germany agreed to undertake the terms stipulated under the Concessions in China clause in the Treaty of Versailles; save for Qingdao and other Japan-occupied territories in China, the Chinese government formally absorbed the German concession.[1]
While extant sources are rather scarce, foreign nationals in Tianjin fondly recalled the concession, with British journalist H.G.W. Woodhead claiming in 1934 that it had the finest residential facilities for foreigners.[1] Notable locations in the German concession included:
and more. The Deutsch-Asiatische Bank was in charge of handling the concession's land-based matters and, for their "careful preparation [of the concession]", was well managed, according to former Italian consul of Tianjin Cesare Poma. Although most German firms ended up migrating to the commercially prosperous British concession, industries such as real estate, entertainment boomed; the concession also had some of the earliest electrical services in North China up until then.[4]
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