On 1 December 1886, with a large consignment of equipment for beginning work on the new port installations planned for "Hohenzollernhafen", and directly after an apparently friendly meeting with the Sultan of Zanzibar, Karl Ludwig Jühlke was "treacherously murdered" ("heimtückisch ermordet"). The killing came shortly after his appointment as the company's Chief Representative for the Somali Coast was formalised.
