My story begins in Bremen Town Hall where I was invited to celebrate "10 years of Democracy in South Africa". There I got to know the Bremer author Heinz Gustafsson, who had just presented his book “Namibia, Bremen and Germany, a Rocky Road to Friendship”. We started talking and I realised we both shared a passion for Africa. I told him about our pilot project (with the local Rotarians and the teachers of the "St. Enda's School" in Hillbrow) to give economically disadvantaged students vocational training and he spoke about his new project, the book "South Africa and Germany, looking for common roots".
He asked me if I could help him in the search for sources mentioning “the Jeppe Brothers”. I said yes not knowing where this would lead! Later, when the first documents were procured and the mountain of paper on my desk grew, I asked what he still needed for his book and he answered that he now had more than enough material. I enquired what would happen to the remaining papers remarking that they were too good to be disposed of. He grinned and said: ‘Why don’t you think about writing your own book"? Thus began my thrilling research adventure!
I began by looking at the life story of the Rostock seed dealer Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Jeppe (*1792-1852) and his descendants. As I only knew about his three sons I thought it would be a relatively simple project. I contacted the Chamber of Commerce in Rostock but...
