Carl Peters was a German explorer, journalist and philosopher, instrumental in the founding of German East Africa and helped create the European "Scramble for Africa". Despite being vilified for cruelty to Africans and removed from office, he was later praised by Kaiser Wilhelm II and was considered a German hero by Hitler. Carl Peters was born the son of a minister on 27 September 1856. He attended the local monastery school in Ilfeld until 1876 and then attended college in Goettingen, Tingen, and Berlin where he studied history, philosophy, and law. His college time was financed by scholarships and through early successes in journalism and writing. In 1879 he left Berlin University with a degree in history. The following year, abandoning a career in law, he left for London where he stayed with a wealthy uncle. During his four years in London, Carl Peters studied British history and investigated its colonial policies and philosophy. Returning to Berlin after his uncle's suicide in 1884, he helped establish the "Society for German Colonisation" [Gesellschaft f Deutsche Kolonisation].