Jeppe Family History

On Friday 26th April, Jeppe High School for Boys in Kensington celebrated its heritage with the unveiling of two blue plaques and a superbly developed heritage route. They hosted a homecoming reunion celebration for old boys of the school (for all boys who had matriculated in the years ending with a '4'). The jubilee weekend also showed off student rugby at its best with a series of top games between Jeppe and King Edward VII School in matches hosted on Jeppe’s rugby fields. Beautifully attired young men in boaters and smart black and white blazers were the hosts to escort guests around the school. Good manners, raised hats and authentic smiles are the mark of the Jeppe boys, soon to step out into the world as Jeppe men.

Jeppe Boys as well as Jeppe Girls (also situated on Roberts Avenue) Kensington are both schools proud of their heritage and history. Both have produced fine school histories and both schools now have blue plaques.

Jeppe Koppie archaeological finds on display

There was a marvellous display of early archaeological / prehistoric finds of stone hand tools. These were examples of tools and implements of unknown people who must have inhabited the Jeppe koppie tens of thousands of years ago. It has been a painstaking task for Mrs Jean Meintjes, one of the school’s administrative staff members, to gather, study and catalogue these finds but there is rich enthusiasm and a considerable display of knowledge in evidence. It certainly made me want to explore the...

Five Jeppe men were prominent in the early history of the Transvaal and the Witwatersrand Gold fields. Three were brothers, two were the sons of the youngest brother.  Two played significant roles in state administration, two were entrepreneur-businessmen and one was a jurist. But by enunciating these men’s foundation careers, is to tell only part of the story, for they all pursued a myriad of interests, involvements and occupations. All appeared assuredly capable of operating in a broad professional and public arenas.

All were born in Germany, in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on the Baltic, east of Hamburg. The three brothers were the sons of Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Jeppe who was economic adviser to the grand duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. It is safe to assume that all were well educated. The first Jeppe Migrant was Hermann Otto, born in 1819, who arrived sometime in the 1850s. In 1861, he was followed by his younger brother, Friedrich Heinrich and their sister Francina and her German officer husband, a Captain Dietrich. A third brother, Julius Jeppe arrived in 1870.

Why did the brothers come to South Africa? As facts and articulated motives are scarce, one can only speculate. Their journeys here began with Herman Otto, who wanted to practice medicine, but poor eyesight prevented this. Perhaps he learnt that given a shortage of medical men, regulations in South Africa might not be as strict? He came to Cape Town, where he worked for the prominent apothecary, Otto Landsberg, learning much medical lore in the process. He...

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...