Talk:Ada Schnee

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Dclemens1971 talk 18:42, 8 September 2025 (UTC)

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Ada Schnee, c. 1918

• ... that Ada Schnee was an actress in Australia before marrying the governor of German East Africa in 1901?

• Source: Blackburn, Geoff (June 1999). "German Australians in von Lettow's Army, 1915–1918, or, The Governor's Wife Was an Australian Actress". www.mhsa.org.au. Sabretache. Military Historical Society of Australia. pp. 23–25. Retrieved 2025-07-31., p. 25: " Ada Woodhill was a Sydney based actress [...]. [...] she met Dr Schnee and travelled with him to New York where they married on the 7th November 1901. [...] He became the Governor of German East Africa in 1912."

• • ALT1: ... that Ada Schnee wrote a memoir in 1918 about her wartime experiences in German East Africa that was only translated into English in 1955?
  • Source: Ada Schnee. Meine Erlebnisse während der Kriegszeit in Deutsch-Ostafrika. Leipzig, Quelle & Meyer, 1918. (in German) English translation: Bibi Mkuba: My Experiences in German East Africa during World War I. San Bernadino, California: Borgu Press, 1995, ISBN 9780893703196.
  • ALT2: ... that Ada Schnee, an actress born in New Zealand, was the wife of the governor in German East Africa during World War I?
  • Source: Blackburn, Geoff (June 1999). "German Australians in von Lettow's Army, 1915–1918, or, The Governor's Wife Was an Australian Actress". www.mhsa.org.au. Sabretache. Military Historical Society of Australia. pp. 23–25. Retrieved 2025-07-31. p. 23: "According to the memoirs of the British General Fendall who was in Dar-es-Salaam during the East African campaign, the wife of Dr Heinrich Schnee, the Governor of GEA, was 'a native of Australia or New Zealand." and p.25: " Ada Schnee nee Woodhill was born at Naseby, situated on the South Island of New Zealand on the 17th October 1873 (birth number 427 from folio 1222/1872).
    • ALT3: ... that British-born former actress Ada Schnee published a memoir in 1918 about her wartime experiences in German East Africa?
    • Source: Blackburn, Geoff (June 1999). "German Australians in von Lettow's Army, 1915–1918, or, The Governor's Wife Was an Australian Actress". www.mhsa.org.au. Sabretache. Military Historical Society of Australia. pp. 23–25. Retrieved 2025-07-31.
    • ALT4: ... that British-born former actress Ada Schnee experienced World War I in East Africa as the wife of the German governor?
    • Source:Blackburn, Geoff, pp. 23-25
    • ALT5: ... that British-born Ada Schnee suffered the bitter fate of seeing the sons of her fatherland and of her adoptive country in battle against each other?
    • Source:Methner, Wilhelm (1938). Unter drei Gouverneuren: 16 jahre Dienst in deutschen Tropen [Under three Governors: 16 years of service in German tropical countries] (in German). Breslau: W. G. Korn. pp. 348–349.

References

• • Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/Andrey Zaliznyak

Created by Munfarid1 (talk). Number of QPQs required: 1. Nominator has 36 past nominations.

Munfarid1 (talk) 10:32, 5 August 2025 (UTC).

Substantial biography and legacy, on fine sources, offline sources accepted AGF, no copyvio obvious. The image is licensed and a good illustration. I am not happy with the original hook, because it doesn't point at her British background, and she didn't marry the governor, - he became governor much later. I am not happy with ALT1 because I feel that the late translation is less interesting than the content of the memoir. I am not happy with ALT2 because again it misses the British background that led to the conflict. Please try again, - variants of ALT1 look promising. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:40, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

Regarding the name, I can't see the source for birth name "Ada Adeline ..." but it looks strange. Ada seems a German form of the original Adeline. See here. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:46, 25 August 2025 (UTC)

Hi @Gerda Arendt:, I checked various sources from Australia and the entry about her husband at the Secret State Archive of Prussian Cultural Heritage, now added as ref 1. - All refer to either Ada Woodhill or Ada Adeline, née Woodhill. - So this is what the article can refer to.

Also, I have just added ALT3-5, taking up your suggestions. Munfarid1 (talk) 15:04, 27 August 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for the ALTs, ALT4 preferred. There's a problem with Ada Schnee not being her name as an actress, but what can we do in 200 chars? Perhaps this:

ALT4a: ... that Ada Schnee, a former actress born in New Zealand, experienced World War I in East Africa as the wife of the German governor? I hope people know enough history to connect to British, and what that meant for her position between enemies. "bitter fate", however, is not factual enough for my taste. Not striking, though, just my opinion.

I will not fuss about the name. (But would you call your child Sue Susan or Pat Patricia?) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 16:38, 27 August 2025 (UTC)

I looked at DNB, which has variants of her name but gives "Woodhill, Adeline" as former name. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 20:55, 27 August 2025 (UTC)

Lora Wildenthal

@Munfarid1:, I was confused by some details, so I read Gender and Colonial Politics after the Versailles Treaty via Google books and the Rice University repository [Gender and Colonial Politics after the Versailles Treaty here.

• I believe that in Wildenthal "colonial revision" refers to revising the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles about German colonies (page 343). I would replace "revisionist colonial attitudes" in the article with "opposition to the Treaty of Versailles", what do you think? Without further explanation, "revisionism" suggests historical revisionism to me. I would also remove the link to historical revisionism in the lead.
• I think "promoting the German colonial past" would sound more natural than "propagating German colonial past".
• In the article "In the following years, she was repeatedly invited to speak about her colonial experience as a German woman, for example by the Federation of German Women's Associations, an organization that continued to propagate German colonial past." conflates the Federation of German Women's Associations (Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine), which according to Wildenthal supported German colonies (page 344), and the Women's Welfare Association (Verein Frauenwohl), which invited Schnee to address a meeting (2001, page 280).

TSventon (talk) 14:19, 5 August 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for your close reading and helpful comments. It seems to me that "revisionist" in this context has a different meaning in German and English. I will change the text according to your suggestions. - This is a great example of cooperation to improve the article, which I hope you have enjoyed reading. Best regards, Munfarid1 (talk) 14:41, 5 August 2025 (UTC)

Yes, I enjoyed reading the article. I find I am unfamiliar with some of the uses of revisionism in both English and German, but it is likely that some main page readers will be equally unfamiliar. Also, I assumed that German Women for Empire, 1884-1945 2001 was the same as Gender and Colonial Politics after the Versailles Treaty 2010, which is wrong but the content seems to be similar. TSventon (talk) 15:48, 5 August 2025 (UTC)

@TSventon Thanks again for this. Since you already know the article so well, you would be the right person to review the nomination. Munfarid1 (talk) 17:21, 5 August 2025 (UTC)