Stutterheim is a town with a population of 46,730 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 ...

, situated in the Border region of the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

province. It is named after

Richard Von Stutterheim Baron Richard Carl Gustav Ludwig Wilhelm Julius von Stutterheim (10 August 1815 in Helmstedt – 9 November 1871 in Wiesbaden) was a Prussian – later also British – officer and commander of the British-German Legion. Von Stutterheim h ...

History

The area's earliest human population were

Bushmen The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, ...

Khoikhoi Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also ''Hottentot (racial term), Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 ...

groups roamed the area with their cattle before

Xhosa Xhosa may refer to: * Xhosa people, a nation, and ethnic group, who live in south-central and southeasterly region of South Africa * Xhosa language, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, principally spoken by the Xhosa people See als ...

groups moved in during the mid-17th century CE. Missionaries arrived in the area in the 1830s from the

Berlin Missionary Society The Berlin Missionary Society (BMS) or ''Society for the Advancement of evangelistic Missions amongst the Heathen'' (German: '' Berliner Missionsgesellschaft'' or ''Gesellschaft zur Beförderung der evangelischen Missionen unter den Heiden'') was a ...

, followed by German settlers from the 1850s, and further waves of English colonists later on. The town was originally named for Baron

Richard Carl Gustav Ludwig Wilhelm Julius von Stutterheim Baron Richard Carl Gustav Ludwig Wilhelm Julius von Stutterheim (10 August 1815 in Helmstedt – 9 November 1871 in Wiesbaden) was a Prussian – later also British – officer and commander of the British-German Legion. Von Stutterheim h ...

, who became a major-general in the British Army as the head of the

British German Legion The British German Legion (or Anglo-German Legion) was a group of German soldiers recruited to fight for Britain in the Crimean War. It is not to be confused with the King's German Legion, which was active during the Napoleonic Wars. Great Britain ...

and spent eight months in South Africa before returning to Germany. It was later renamed Dohne after the first missionary in the area,

Jacob Ludwig Döhne Jacob Ludwig Döhne (9 November 1811 Zierenberg – 2 June 1879 Fort Pine near Dundee, KwaZulu-Natal), from the Berlin Missionary Society, who was responsible for compiling ''A Zulu-Kafir Dictionary'' (Cape Town, 1857) after spending twenty years d ...

, but in 1857 it was reverted to its previous name, with the name Döhne referring only to a small station nearby. 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 ...

received a degree of independence in 1872 when

Responsible Government Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability, the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments (the equivalent of the executive bran ...

was declared and, in 1877, the government of Prime Minister

John Molteno Sir John Charles Molteno (5 June 1814 – 1 September 1886) was a soldier, businessman, champion of responsible government and the first Prime Minister of the Cape Colony. Early life Born in London into a large Anglo-Italian family, Molten ...

began construction of the railway line connecting Stutterheim to

East London East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

on the coast. This was officially opened in August 1878, and led to significant growth and economic development in and around the town. On 20 May 1879 Stutterheim was proclaimed a municipality. Today Stutterheim is part of a much larger municipality named

Amahlathi Local Municipality Amahlathi Local Municipality is an administrative area in the Amatole District of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Amahlati is an isiXhosa name that means "a place where many trees are grouped together, a forest". Forests are a key feature of t ...

.http://www.escaperoute.co.za/history-and-heritage/early-history-of-stutterheim

Economy and tourism

Due to its fair annual rainfall, Stutterheim is a flourishing forestry centre which includes large pine, gum and wattle plantations that are established on the slopes of the Kologha Mountains. This scenic town is situated about 70 km from

on the N6 highway to the north. It is the home of many picturesque hiking trails, as well as mountain streams. Nearby Gubu Dam is well-stocked with trout. A number of cattle and sheep stud farms are also to be found in Stutterheim. Wool, beef, dairy and poultry are other central products which the area yields.

References

External links

Municipality Website
Populated places in the Amahlathi Local Municipality German settlements in South Africa {{EasternCape-geo-stub