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Zes jaren in Suriname. Schetsen en tafereelen uit het maatschappelijke en militaire leven in deze kolonie. A. Kappler.  Utrecht: W.F. Dannenfelser, 1854.

August Kappler (Mannheim 1815 – Stuttgart 1887) was the founder of Albina on the banks of the Marowijne river in Suriname. As so many Germans  he arrived as a soldier in Suriname. In 1836, was he volunteerded as an adventurer t0 be embarked on a ship to Suriname. He stayed six years in the colony (1836-1841) and published  Sechs Jahre in Surinam (1854), of which this books is the first Dutch translation.

Kappler writes: “De helft van ons corps bestond uit Duitschers; en men zag vele zeer beschaafde mannen, die in hun vaderland in veel ruimer en beter omstandigheden geleefd hadden, hier op schildwacht staan. Doch de meesten hunner waren ondragelijke dronkaards, die uit verdriet of verveling hunne grillen met eenen borrel verdreven en elken cent, dien zij van de spaarzame soldij in handen kregen, naar de kroeg bragten” (Half of our corps consisted of Germans; and there were many very civilised men, who had a better life and better living conditions in their homeland, acting as guards. But most of them were unbearable drunks, who tried to abandon their sorrow or boredom with a drink and took every penny they got from their wages, to the pub- translation, ch). (Kappler 1854:86).

After a short stay with his family in Stuttgart (Baden-Württemberg) he left in 1842, again to Suriname. In 1846, he became government official with the task to keep supervision of the Marowijne marrons.  He tried several times to pursuade Germans  (Württembergers) to come to Suriname.  In 1879  Kappler went back to Germany. Here he wrote Holländisch Guiana; Erlebnisse und Erfahrungen während eines 43 Jährigen Aufenthalts of the colony Surinam (1881). On 10 October 1887 he was buried in Stuttgart.