Medal - German settlers in South Africa 50 years

Reverse

10-line inscription.

Script: Latin

Lettering: Zur Erinnerung an die 50 Jaehrige feiern der Landung Deutsche Ansiedler in Sued Afrika

Translation: in commemoration of the 50th anniversary celebration of the landing of German settlers in South Africa

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Plain

Comment

Kaffraria was briefly, between the years 1860 and 1865, a British Crown Colony in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. As a consequence of the Frontier Wars, which ended in 1852, the British Government wanted to increase the white settler population in the region as a buffer to protect the Cape Colony. Mercenary soldiers of the German Crimean League were offered land, and 2,500 settled there in 1857. More German settlers, this time peasant farmers from Pomerania, arrived in 1858. A third group of Germans from Lower Saxony arrived in 1877. Because of the lack of cohesion between the three diverse settler groups, and the difficult and dangerous nature of farming conditions, many of the original settlers left their farms to seek work in urban areas or from their more prosperous British counterparts.

The larger centres in this area are East London and King Williams Town, and the German influence in the area can be seen in place names, such as Berlin, Potsdam, Frankfurt, Stutterheim and Braunschweig.