Carl von Brandis

In the article below, journalist Lucille Davie describes some of the victories and defeats of the Parktown & Westcliff Heritage Trust as it made its transition to becoming the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation. The article was written in 2012 and published on Davie's website in 2020. Click here to view more of her work.

Joburg turned 126 years old on 4 October. On the same day the Parktown & Westcliff Heritage Trust became a new entity, the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation.

The trust has been the champion of heritage structures in the city for the past 30 years, and Flo Bird has been the chairperson for all those years. 

A fiery fighter of the city’s heritage, she says of the trust: “It was always a fighting organisation – we were not prepared to surrender heritage without a fight.”

One of the historic buildings the trust has saved is the Sunnyside Hotel, built in 1895 as the home of American Hennen Jennings, and from 1901, the official residence of Lord Alfred Milner and subsequent officials.

Sunnyside (The Heritage Portal)

Another home in Parktown that was saved from the bulldozers was built for James Goch. He arrived in the city in 1886 and set up a photographic studio. He moved into the house with his family around 1905. The double-storey house had 12...

If you visit the High Court in Johannesburg you will notice a massive statue on the western edge along Pritchard Street. The statue commemorates the life of Captain Carl von Brandis -the 'Father of Johannesburg'. In the following article, P. J. Edginton uncovers some fascinating biographical details. The article first appeared in the old Johannesburg Historical Foundation's journal Between the Chains.

A man who could efficiently carry out his duties as a senior Government official, keep order in an unruly community with tact and humour and yet hold the affection of the inhabitants of a rough mining town must have been a remarkable character. Such indeed was Captain Carl von Brandis, the first official Mining Commissioner of the Witwatersrand and, shortly thereafter, the first magistrate of Johannesburg.

Von Brandis Statue in 2015 (The Heritage Portal) - The paint you see has been removed by the City of Johannesburg

Born in Germany in 1827 of a military family, he saw service in Austro-Hungary and Italy. In 1857 he came to the Cape with the German Legion (a British regiment). It was here he met and marred Jane Margaret Hohne, who bore him four children and who was a devoted wife throughout his varied career. By 1859 he was serving the Government of the...