Heidelberg is a town with 35,500 inhabitants in the

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

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, some 50 kilometres south-east of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, close to the

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

border. It sits at the eastern end of the

Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve is a protected area which encompasses most of the Suikerbosrand Range, South Africa. It is one of Gauteng's most frequented ecotourism locations, located approximately 50 kilometres south-east of Johannesburg, jus ...

, next to the N3 highway connecting Johannesburg and

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

History

The area was once the

kraal Kraal (also spelled ''craal'' or ''kraul'') is an Afrikaans and Dutch language, Dutch word, also used in South African English, for an pen (enclosure), enclosure for cattle or other livestock, located within a Southern African Human settlement ...

of the

Bakwena The Bakwena or Bakoena ("those who venerate the crocodile") are a large Sotho-Tswana clan in Southern Africa of the Bantu peoples, southern Bantu group. They can be found in different parts of southern Africa such as Lesotho, Botswana, South Africa ...

, until colonization and the Basotho wars. Modern Heidelberg was founded in 1862 as a trading station by a German, Heinrich Julius Ueckermann. A town was laid out around the store and named after Ueckermann's alma mater. In 1866, the District of Heidelberg was created from the eastern portion of the

Potchefstroom Potchefstroom ( ; ), colloquially known as Potch, is an college town, academic city in the North West (South African province), North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstro ...

district with its own ''landdrost'' (magistrate), having been laid out as a churchplace in 1865. Suzans centennial

Heidelberg has played an important part in South African history, acting as a capital for the Boer republic during the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

with

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

under the Triumvirate of

Paul Kruger Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (; 10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904), better known as Paul Kruger, was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and State Preside ...

, P.J. Joubert and M.W. Pretorius, from 1880 to 1883. In 1885, the

Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand (, ; ; locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, w ...

gold reef was discovered, and the office of the Mining Commissioner was established there. Heidelberg developed as a typical rural Victorian town. Many buildings dating back to the period between 1890 and 1910 have been preserved, including the home of A.G. Visser, a well-loved medical doctor and famous

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

poet, which can still be seen situated close to the main road through town. Other historical landmarks in the town includes Visser's bust and the Klipkerk. The

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

built a

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

here during the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

to house

Boer Boers ( ; ; ) are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled the Dutch ...

women and children; a monument to their memory, and to those of the black women and children who also died during the war, was erected in the main cemetery in the late 1990s by the current ANC-led municipality. The

far right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...

secessionist Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

political organisation A political organization is any organization that involves itself in the political process, including political parties, non-governmental organizations, and special interest advocacy groups. Political organizations are those engaged in politic ...

(and former

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

group) the

Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging The (, meaning 'Afrikaner Resistance Movement'), commonly known by its abbreviation AWB (), is an Afrikaner nationalism, Afrikaner nationalist, white supremacist, and Neo-Nazism, neo-Nazi political party in South Africa. Founded in 1973 by Eug ...

(AWB) was founded by the late

white supremacist White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...

and white separatist leader

Eugène Terre'Blanche Eugène Ney Terre'Blanche (, 31 January 1941Terre'Blanche's year of birth is alternately given as 1941 or 1944. The majority of sources indicates 1941; sources that claim 1944 as his year of birth includ''The Star''Ventersdorp. The "Jo'burg to Sea" mountain bike stage race starts in Heidelberg. The "Outdoor X" show is held just outside Heidelberg on the Malonjeni Guest Farm.

Notable people

* (born 1968), actor * Fanie de Villiers (born 1964),

Protea ''Protea'' () is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: ''suikerbos''). It is the type genus of the Proteaceae family. About 92% of the species occur only in the Cape Floristic Region, a narrow belt of mo ...

bowler *(1934-2017), writer * Zack du Plessis (1950–2011), actor *, actor * Prince Hlela (born 1984), footballer * Johannes le Roux (1920–1944), RAF World War II flying ace * Godfrey Mokoena (born 1985), 2008 Olympic silver medalist in

long jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

* Ockie Oosthuizen (1955–2019),

Springbok The springbok or springbuck (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is an antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus (biology), genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first Species description, described by the Germa ...

prop * (born 1926), opera singer

References

External links

Google Map

{{Authority control Second Boer War concentration camps Populated places in the Lesedi Local Municipality Populated places established in 1886