Description

Today Qingdao is one of China’s most important cities. However, even though it lay at the mouth of the stellar natural harbour of Jiaozhou Bay, on the Shandong Peninsula, until the late 19th century it was an insignificant fishing village called “Jiao’ao”. In 1891, the Qing Empire decided to upgrade the town’s defences, finally recognizing its strategic location.

In 1898, Germany, taking advantage of the weakness of the ailing Qing regime, seized Qingdao. The emperor was thus compelled to grant the ‘Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory’ to Germany for a 99-year term, which comprised 552 km2 (213 sq. miles) of territory on the Shandong Peninsula, including all of what the Germans called ‘Tsingtau’.

The Germans quickly, yet methodically, constructed the city of Tsingtau into one of most orderly, clean, pleasant and well serviced urban spaces in East Asia. Thousands of Germans moved to the city, creating European-style businesses (such as Tsingtao Beer – still China’s favourite brew!) and Jugendstil buildings (many of which survive to the present day). While an imperialist environment to be sure, Tsingtao became an extraordinary society blending German and Chinese cultures. The Chinese Revolutionary leader Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, commented upon visiting Tsingtao in 1912, “I am impressed. The city is a true model for China’s future”. The city’s population in 1913 was recorded as being 187,000.

Tsingtao’s peaceful and industrious German era came to a crashing halt upon the advent of World War I. Ominously for Germany, Japan joined Britain on the Entente side, sealing the Protectorate’s fate. A Japanese-British fleet blockaded Tsingtao, with the city defended by only 3,650 German soldiers and 324 Austro-Hungarian sailors. As the blockade failed to convince the Germans to surrender, the Japanese-British side mounted what became known as the Siege of Tsingtao (October 31 – November 7, 1914), whereupon 23,000 Japanese troops and 1,500 British soldiers, backed by 10 large naval vessels, invested the city, after forming a barricade line along the neck of land that connected Tsingtao to the larger Shandong Peninsula. Tsingtao was surrounded, and the Japanese-British force proceeded to bring their lines ever closer to the city. Finally, on the night of November 6, the Japanese proceed to attack the defenders’ final defensive cordon, compelling the Germans to fly the white flag and call for parley. While the Germans had lost the battle and their fine city, they were nevertheless proud of the brave manner under which they, at least for a time, withstood a siege by a force six times their size.

The Japanese permitted the Germans an honourable surrender and took 4,700 Germans as POWs (the Japanese also agreed to accord the captured civilian prisoners full Geneva convention protections). The Germans were taken to Japan, and most were eventually housed at the Bando and Kurume POW camps. There the Japanese wardens, being of a ‘Samurai’ background, were honour-bound by their ancient code to treat war captives with respect and kindness. The ‘inmates’ were not only given ample access to quality food and recreational facilities, but were also permitted to organize regular musical concerts, sporting competitions and theatre performances, all held in a pleasant semi-tropical setting.

Japan proceeded to occupy Tsingtao and Kiautschou Bay Territory as a base for it to exploit the natural resources of the surrounding Shandong Province. It spent vast funds upgrading its infrastructure, as well as buildings new schools, hospitals and government buildings. The city also expanded rapidly up the harbour to the northeast (as seen on the maps within the present guidebook), including the ‘New City District’ of residential and commercial quarters for Japanese colonists (which were far more luxurious that than the established Chinese neighbourhoods).

In 1922, under diplomatic pressure, Japan reluctantly agreed to hand Tsingtao back to China. Tsingtao continued to grow rapidly, reaching a population of 385,00 in 1937 (today Qingdao is one of China’s most economically and culturally dynamic cities with a metro population of over 8 million!).

Adolf Haupt’s Qingdao Guidebook in Focus

During the German period of control of Tsingtau, the city developed a very vibrant publishing industry, and while most titles were ephemeral in nature, they tended to be of high quality in terms of their original content, and in many cases their design. This trend continued after the period of German hegemony, at least until World War II.

The present work is by far and away the finest guidebook to Tsingtao of the Roaring ’20s period, being the revised and more decorative first English edition of the prominent German printer Alfred Haupt’s Führer durch Tsingtau und Umgebung, issued earlier in 1927. It is also one of the first guides to the city from the automobile travel era, specifically including many itineraries that are to be done by car.

Published in Tsingtao by the Catholic Mission Press, of which Haupt was the director, the fine design of the work is immediately revealed by its lovely decorative cover, which shows a stylized view of the city’s harbour.

The text is divided into two parts. The First Part (pp. 1- 48) details the origins of Tsingtao’s name, its geography, its history (including a new section on the recent Japanese Occupation Period 1914-22, not present in the previous German edition), as well as discussing the formation and operations of its anchor companies/infrastructure, such as the Shantung Mining Company and the Shantung Railway Company. The section also describes what Tsingtao was like in 1927. There is then coverage of the vibrant commerce of the city.

The Second Part of the text (pp. 49 – 152) describes what it was like to arrive in Tsingtao; an account of a “Drive round the Town”, including visits to its various quarters; additional descriptions of various neighbourhoods and key sites; followed by many recommended scenic excursions out of town. The text is illustrated by 82 photographic images that feature every major site of interest.

A highlight of the work is its two large folding, coloured maps, printed on thick paper. The Map of Tsingtao (37 x 42 cm, located between pp. 48 and 49), is a detailed street plan of the city proper, with is various neighbourhoods and suburbs, the port and the line of the Shantung Railway, while numbers in red identify 23 ‘Places of Interest’, relating to a key on the verso. Also, on the verso, is a street gazetteer and an ‘Index of Chinese Postal Tariffs’.

At the end of the book is the Map of Tsingtao and Environs. Reproduced from the map published by the German Government (46.5 x 57.5 cm), a beautifully tri-chrome lithographed rendering of Tsingtao and its vicinity, locating the destinations of many of the automobile tours recommend in the text.

A lovely feature of the work are several pages of advertisements, some on coloured paper stock, that promote what were the most popular firms and attractions in Roaring ’20s Tsingtao.

 

Adolf Haupt: German Printer and Popular Author in Tsingtao

Adolf Haupt (fl. 1900 – 1933) was a German printer and book publisher who worked for many years in Tsingtau (Qingdao). A native of Aachen, he is first recorded as being in Tsingtau, working as a printer in the employ of the ‘Deutsche Druckerei und Verlagsanstalt’, which was apparently owned by a businessman in Shanghai. In 1903, the Deutsche Druckerei was purchased by the local merchant Victor Roehr who renamed the company as the ‘German-Chinese Printing and Publishing House’ and greatly augmented its operations. Haupt remained with the company for a time, and he is recorded as marrying in Tsingtau in 1904.

In January 1905, Haupt struck out on his own in Tsingtau, opening a shop in Friedrichstraße 405, simply called a firm for “Book printing, bookbinding, paper shop, business book and stamp factor”. He subsequnetly gave the firm a proper name, ‘Steindruckerei, Verlag, Liniiranstalt’, and was soon joined in business by his brother Willy (Wilhelm), who travelled from Germany.

From 1908 to 1912, the Haupt firm pushed the Kiautschou-Post, a weekly newspaper, edited by Hans von Kropff.

During this period, Haupt made his first attempt towards creating a guidebook for Tsingtau, the Tsingtau ein Führer durch das deutsche Schutzgebiet in Ostasien / herausgegeben vom Tsingtauer Verkehrs-Ausschuss (Tsingtau: Druck u. Verlag von Adolf Haupt, 1911), a modest work of only 46 pages.

Notably, the Haupt workshop issued a large format, profusely photo-illustrated work showcasing the city, the Tsingtau Souvenir (February 1910). Having renaming the firm as the ‘Adolf Haupt, Buchdruckerei’, Haupt issued an expanded edition of the photobook under the title Album von Tsingtau (April 1914).

During World War I, Adolf and Willy Haupt volunteered to defend the city during the Japanese Siege of Tsingtao (August 27, 1914 – November 7, 1914). When the city fell, they were taken as POWs and sent to Japan, where they were held under very good conditions until 1920.

After his release, Adolf and his family returned to Germany, as all his property in Tsingtao had been confiscated and liquidated by the Japanese. However, in 1923, Haupt made a return to China, sailing for Shanghai. There, Haupt found work as the director of the A.B.C. Press, a German language book publisher, owned by Eduard Hänggi.

In 1926, Haut returned to Tsingtao to become the director of the Steyler Mission, more popularly known as the ‘Catholic Mission Press’, which was reopened in March of that year. In 1927, Haupt self-published his first full-feature guidebook to Tsingtao, Führer durch Tsingtau und Umgebung, which consisted of 155 pages, 71 photographic illustrations and 2 maps.

A friend suggested to Haupt that he publish an edition of his Tsingtao guide in English to reach a larger audience. This resulted in the present Guide Book on Tsingtao and its Vicinity by Adolf Haupt. With two Maps and many illustrations (1927), but this time published by the Catholic Mission Press. It bears many similarities to the German edition, with similar content and fonts, having 156 pages, 82 pictures and 2 topographical maps of Qingdao; however, it had a far more decorative cover and features an additional section on the Japanese Occupation of Tsingtao (1914-22).

Along with the Tsingtau Souvenir / Album von Tsingtau, these guidebooks are Haupt’s finest and most significant works.

Haupt was in the process of preparing a second English edition of his guide to Tsingtao, but died on June 15, 1933, before it could be printed. At the behest of Haupt’s widow, the endeavour was taken up by Haupt’s friend and colleague, the local American bookdealer and publisher George G. Telberg, who published it as the Guide to Tsingtao and its surroundings / Second Revised Edition (Tsingtao: George G. Telberg’s International Book-Store, 1934).

 

A Note on Rarity

The work is rare, we can trace only 6 institutional examples, held by Stanford University; Cornell University Library; Florida International University; Humathèque Condorcet (Aubervilliers-Campus Condorcet); Centre d’études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine (Paris); and the 中央研究院 [Academia Sinica] (Taipei). We can trace sales records for 2 other examples from the last decade. The 1927 German edition and the 1934 second English edition are likewise rare.

References: Stanford University: DS796 .T7 H39 1927; Cornell University Library: DS796.T88 H37; Florida International University: DS796.T7 H3713 1927; Humathèque Condorcet (AUBERVILLIERS-Campus Condorcet): DS796.T7; OCLC: 1129124495; Harriet HARDISON ROBSON and Ruth EARNSHAW LO, Books for the Traveller or Sojourner in China: A Selective Bibliography (1937), p. 6; Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vols. 71-72 (Shanghai, 1940), p. 87; John MOSHER, Japanese Post Offices in China and Manchuria (1978), p. 206.