Friedrich Salomon Hall.

About Friedrich Salomon Hall

Friedrich Salomon Hall (1879–1964) was a German citizen with connections to Ethiopia. His parents lived in Ethiopia and served its emperor until they fell out of favour and moved to the Middle East after being rescued by the 1868 British Expedition to Abyssinia. Hall, born in the Middle East, moved to Ethiopia to join his mother who had returned there to serve the Royal Court. He became a hotel proprietor and tutor to Emperor Lij Iyassu. Hall afterwards left to act as an assistant to Julius Löytved-Hardegg, a German consul to the Ottoman Empire. During the early part of World War I Hall attempted to return to Ethiopia to negotiate with Lij Iyassu for Ethiopia's entry into the war. The espionage mission was disguised as the Seventh German Inner Africa Research Expedition but was detected by Italian authorities en-route and the participants returned home. Hall blamed the expedition leader Leo Frobenius for its failure. Hall attempted a second mission to carry messages to the German legation at Addis Ababa in June 1915 but was captured by the Italians and imprisoned for the remainder of the war.