St. Martini Kapstadt

My father made this speech in 2008 at a party at Aan De Waterkant, their home in Hout Bay. It tells of his establishment in South Africa as a 21 year old from Bielefeld in Germany. He had been to South Africa on assignment earlier and fell in love with the country, but was not permitted to emigrate by his dad, and hence had to wait until he came of age. He left behind 3 brothers, Karl-Heinz, Gerhard, Wilfried, and 3 sisters, Hildegard, Gisela, Anne. They all stayed in Germany except for Karl-Heinz who emigrated to Canada. The single suitcase that my dad arrived with is still in the family's possession.

 

Celebrating 50 very happy & successful years in South Africa 

I arrived in South Africa on the 4th February 1958 and on the 4th February 2008 I had the great pleasure of celebrating 50 very happy and successful years in South Africa.

Upon arrival, I first stayed at the Devonshire Hill Hotel in Rondebosch for about 6 months when I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Julius Behr who convinced me to come and live with him at his house in Lansdowne. Here I stayed for 4 months until we unfortunately had to vacate the area as it had become unsuitable for us. Fourteen years later I bought his hardware shop.

 

Two weeks before Christmas 1958, I moved into Red Gate in Newlands, the residence of Mrs Baumgarten and I must admit, this is where my luck began. I had the honour of boarding with Mrs Hedwig Baumgarten (who had lost her husband to cancer) and her two sons Ralph and Kurt and another boarder from Germany, Jens Kaspar who worked for 4711. In this fantastic home with its own tennis court, I met Ewald Baumgarten, his wife Daphne and their three daughters Ewalde, Ingrid and Hildegard. They were one of the finest families one could ever wish to meet. Ewald was most talented in playing various instruments and sang well. No party ended without the traditional song "Und sollt ich im Leben ein Mädel mal frei'n, so muss es in Südafrika geboren sein". I spent 14 unforgettable years in this home until Tante Hedwig sadly passed away.

 

After working for Herzberg Mullne for four years, I joined Press Supplies. It was in 1962/1963 during my employment there that had the pleasure of meeting many interesting people, amongst these was Leon Kaimowitz who worked for his family company, Universal, at the time. Around 1963 I also met Mr Leo Hols who was workshop manager of NCP who became one of my biggest supporters in business.

Around the same time whilst working at Press Supplies, I met Mr Helmut Kaiser who came from the Klimsch company in Germany. Klimsch was very much in demand within the repro industry at the time. One day Mr Kaiser informed me that he was trying to locate relatives of his in South Africa and had an idea that they may be in the Stellenbosch area. Together we fortunately managed to locate these relatives and this is when I met Walter Domesle, his late wife Edith who was always welcoming and a wonderful homemaker, as well as their two daughters in Lynedoch, Stellenbosch.

I became great friends with Walter and his family and together we had the opportunity to play a lot of chess with the family grandfather who was most experienced at the game and an absolute champion of a person.

 

In 1962 I also met Mr Keith Foster who worked for a printing company called Edson Clyde. We became great friends and to this day we would not like to miss his friendship and that of his lovely wife Diana not to forget Diana's dynamic ever young mother, Marjorie.

In 1967 at the age of 30, I started my own business servicing 6 companies 24 hours a day and seven days a week. One of these customers was Leon Kaimowitz of Universal. The others were Edson Clyde, Colemco, Trio Rand and Howard Brookman.

 

In the beginning of 1968 I met Peter Kromat who had arrived from Germany to start a litho plate manufacturing business in Cape Town. I had the great pleasure of assisting him to set up his business from A to Z and during our association, I had the pleasure of introducing him to the Domesle family and Hedwig Baumgarten, Red Gate in Newlands always being an open house where everybody was welcome. During my stay at Red Gate many people I met accompanied me to Tante Hedwig's home and one of these was Hermann Bauerrichter whom I met through Peter Kromat and was one of the many that I brought to Red Gate and introduced to Tante Hedwig. We all became everlasting friends. Peter married Elfi and Hermann Susi and I proudly became Godfather to each couple's son, Martin and Carl respectively.

 

On the day of Tante Hedwig's funeral in March 1971, I left Red Gate and moved into a flat in Rondebosch where I remained for about 8 months after which I moved into a flat at High Places, Tamboerskloof.

 

In September 1971, I met Ingrid whom I married within 3 months and who became the most important person in my life and blessed me with two children - Erika and Dirk, 13 months apart. The children gave us much pleasure throughout their lives and extended the family by choosing for us a delightful son-and daughter-in law, Bruno and Marcelle. We now have four healthy grandchildren between them: Kim 9 years, Daniel 27 months, Stefan 7 months and Sara 5 months.

 

Ingrid and I resided in Higgovale, Cape Town for 34 years and around 2004 moved to our grandparents' house in Hout Bay which we modernised to suit us. Here we can enjoy the setting while being close to Ingrid's mother, Rosalind.

My eldest sister's eldest son, Thomas, has visited South Africa with his wife Martina numerous times. They were so taken with the country that they undertook to settle here with their baby son for two years to increase the market share of DHL. Perhaps the intended two years stay will also stretch to 50 and more years in South Africa. We wish him well in his undertaking and assure him of our support.

 

I have been recently asked by my mother-in-law what would be my greatest wish....... My reply was " to have a healthy wife" and I wish the same for all of you.

 

Thank you all for coming and making this a memorable 50 years.