During his tenure there, Leutwein created a decentralized administration with three regional centers (Windhoek, Otjimbingwe and Keetmanshoop).

[1] His policies with the native Africans, which he called the "Leutwein System", was a mixture of diplomacy, "divide-and-rule" and military coercion.

Soon after the uprising began Wilhelm II replaced Leutwein with the notorious General Lothar von Trotha.

[1] In May 1904 he admitted that the Germans had not taken one Herero prisoner, following an inquiry by the social democratic Reichstag deputy August Bebel.

[2] In 1906, Leutwein published an autobiography, "Elf Jahre als Gouverneur in Deutsch-Südwestafrika"[3] ("Eleven Years as Governor in German South West Africa"), an historical account of his career in German Southwest Africa.