German South Africans refers to South Africans who have full or partial

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

heritage. A significant number of South Africans are descended from Germans. Most of these originally settled in the Cape Colony, but were absorbed into the

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...

and Afrikaans population, because they had religious & ethnic similarities to the Dutch and French. Later German migrants, especially during the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the Natal German settlers of the 1800s, were integrated into English-speaking communities of

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

and Kwa-Zulu Natal.

History

Hundreds of Germans emigrated to the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

during the Dutch rule between (1652-1806) and in the succeeding centuries. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company's established a supplies station at the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

under the command of

Jan van Riebeeck Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck (21 April 1619 – 18 January 1677) was a Dutch navigator and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company. Life Early life Jan van Riebeeck was born in Culemborg, as the son of a surgeon. He ...

. The party was made up of 90 settlers, most of them were Dutch & a number of people were from Germany. In the 1680s, more German farmers and women arrived at

. In 1691, the population was 1000

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004) ...

especially Dutch (85%), German (5%) &

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss politica ...

(10%) and 400 slaves. From this point onwards the white population increased to about 1300 by the year 1700. About 4000 Germans immigrated to the Cape during the Dutch period, almost all of them males. They came from all German-speaking areas of Europe. The Germans who arrived at the Cape in the seventeenth century were not emigrants but worked for the Dutch East India Company, perhaps initially in Holland, and then were sent to the Cape. Similarly in 19th century a lot of Germans came to the region on missionary purposes and settled in the region, followed by British assisted emigration of Germans to the Eastern cape region further boosted their population.

Natal German settlers: 1848

A group of German settlers came to Natal in March 1848 on the ship Beta, under a private scheme arranged by a German Jewish businessman Jonas Bergtheil. He arrived in Natal in 1843 and established the Natal Cotton Company three years later. Bergtheil saw the potential of European settlement along the coast and approached the British colonial office for immigrants. When first the British and then the Bavarian governments rejected his plans, he turned to the Kingdom of Hanover for support. Thirty-five peasant families (about 188 people) from the Osnabrück-Bremen district accepted his offer and arrived in Natal on 23 March 1848. They were settled near Port Natal and called their new home Neu-Deutschland ( New Germany). Bergtheil's cotton scheme failed after the first two crops were ravaged by bollworm. Furthermore, the ginning machinery he had ordered from England never arrived. The settlers soon abandoned cotton in favour of market gardening, and when their five-year contracts with Bergtheil ended many did not renew them. The initial years were a struggle for the settlers but gradually, with hard work, conditions improved. After about 10 years most had prospered and had been able to take ownership of their lands.

Notable Germans in South Africa

Rudi Ball Rudi Victor Ball (June 22, 1911 – September 19, 1975) was a Germany ice hockey player. He is a member of the IIHF Hall of Fame. Early and personal life Ball was born in Berlin, Germany and died in Johannesburg, South Africa. Jewish her ...

(1911-1975), German-South African Hall of Fame ice hockey player * Helen Zille (1951-present), Politician *

Harry Schwarz Harry Heinz Schwarz (13 May 1924 – 5 February 2010) was a South African lawyer, statesman and long-time political opposition leader against apartheid in South Africa, who eventually served as the South African Ambassador to the United States ...

(1924-2010), Activist * Debbie Schäfer (1966-present), Politician * James Barry Munnik Hertzog (1866-1942), Politician * Karl Wilhelm Posselt (1815-1885), German missionary *

Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Pappe Karl (or "Carl") Wilhelm Ludwig Pappe (1803, in Hamburg – 14 October 1862) was a German-born physician and botanist who lived and worked in South Africa. He was the first person to hold the position of government botanist and the first profess ...

(1803-1862), Physician and botanist *

Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher (2 August 1799 Dillenburg, Hessen, Germany – 13 December 1858 Cape Town), was a botanical and insect collector who collected extensively in South Africa. He was the author, with Christian Friedrich Ecklon, of ''Enumer ...

(1799-1858), botanist and insect collector * Johann Franz Drège (1794-1881), botanist * Baron von Ludwig (1784-1847), pharmacist and businessman * Christian Ferdinand Friedrich Krauss (1812-1890), scientist and traveler

References

{{Portal bar, Germany, South Africa German South African

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Society of South Africa History of the Dutch East India Company