Mandenga Diek

Summary

Mandenga Diek was a shoemaker and businessman who is known as the first black person to acquire citizenship of the German Empire. Born in Belltown, Douala, Cameroon, into an upper-class family, Diek travelled to Hamburg in 1891 for education. At that time, his home was a German colony. In Hamburg, Diek started an apprenticeship with a shoemaker and passed his examinations as a journeyman. In 1895, his daughter, Erika Mandenga, was born; Diek obtained Hamburg citizenship in 1896 and married Erika's mother in 1897. He was not allowed to return to Cameroon with his family and became a salesman and trader in Hamburg. He later moved to Danzig (Gdańsk), where he married for a second time, fathering two daughters. He started a wholesale business trading in colonial goods and lived a comfortable life until the Nazi Party took power in 1933 and he and his family suffered harassment. After unsuccessfully attempting to return to Cameroon, Diek died in 1943.