Schlebusch is a district in the south-east of the municipality of

Leverkusen Leverkusen () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf. With about 161,000 inhabitants, Leverkusen is on ...

in the

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 ...

state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

. It has an area of 10.31 km² and in May 2013 had a population of 26,149. Its principal street is the Mülheimer Straße, which until 2014 formed part of

Bundesstraße 51 The Bundesstraße 51 (translates from German ''Federal road'', abbreviated as B 51) runs from Bremen in south-west direction though Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, and ends at the French border in the tow ...

. The settlement gives its name to a family. Reputedly derived from a German word for a thorn bush, the family name was originally von Schlebusch which may indicate a title. The first recorded bearer of this surname, in 1174, was Arnoldus de Rode von Schlebuschrode. The Schlebusch family was from the ''Ritterklasse'' (originating from a knighthood) meaning they were noble, but not necessarily titled. The Schlebusch family living in South Africa today descends from a single ancestor, Johannes Antonius Schlebusch, who had two sons and a daughter. He and his wife, Geertruyda Anna Timmer, arrived in South Africa from

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

in 1805 (his grandfather moved from the

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

region to Amsterdam). Today several thousand Schlebusch descendants live in

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 ...

. A small group of this family (Jan Louis Schlebusch and two of his sisters) emigrated to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in the early 1900s.

Alwyn Schlebusch Alwyn Louis Schlebusch (16 September 1917 – 7 January 2008) was a South African politician, the only holder of the title Vice State President of South Africa from 1 January 1982 to 14 September 1984. He was an Afrikaner with a surname o ...

was Vice President of South Africa from 1981 to 1984.

External links

*Schlebusch on Leverkusen’s official website: https://www.leverkusen.de/leben-in-lev/freizeit-tourismus/einkaufen/schlebusch.php *Schlebusch on Leverkusen.com: https://www.leverkusen.com/schlebusch/ * http://www.schlebusch.4t.com * http://www.leverkusen.com/guide/Archiv1.txt/Lev00040.html Surnames