TheGerman New Guinea Company (German:Deutsche Neuguinea-Kompagnie) was a GermanChartered Company which exploited insular territory in and near presentPapua New Guinea.

In the 1870s and 1880s German commercial firms began to site trading stations inNew Guinea. Agents ofJ.C. Godeffroy & Sohn reached theBismarck Archipelago from theCaroline Islands in 1872. In 1875, Hersheim & Company^[1] moved to the Archipelago.

In 1884, theNew Guinea Company was founded inBerlin byAdolph von Hansemann and a syndicate of German bankers for the purpose of colonizing and exploiting resources onNeuguinea (German New Guinea),^[2] whereGerman interest grew after BritishQueensland's annexation of part of easternNew Guinea. This expedition was with the knowledge and blessing of the German Chancellor, CountOtto von Bismarck, and with secrecy and speed an expedition was fitted out under DrOtto Finsch, ornithologist and explorer.

His task was to select land for plantation development on the north-east coast of New Guinea and establish trading posts. Its influence soon grew to encompass the entire north-eastern part of New Guinea and some of the islands off the coast.

The Neuguinea Compagnie expedition leftSydney for New Guinea in the steamerSamoa captained byEduard Dallmann. On 19 August, Chancellor Bismarck ordered the establishment of a German protectorate in the New Britain Archipelago and north-eastern New Guinea.

German colonial rule in New Guinea lasted for a period of thirty years, For the first fifteen years the colony was administered under imperial charters by a private company, in the manner of the oldBritish East India Company andDutch East India Company, but with far less success. From 1899 to 1914, the Imperial Government administered German New Guinea through a governor, who was assisted after 1904 by a nominated Government Council.

When the Imperial Government took over the running of the colony in 1899, its overriding objective was rapid economic development, based on a German- controlled plantation economy.^[3]

• WorldStatesmen – Papua New Guinea

• Documents and clippings about German New Guinea Company in the20th Century Press Archives of theZBW