Friemersheim

Wilkommen bei Friemersheim!

Oops sorry, wrong language, wrong town, wrong country. Scratch the above – we’re in South Africa, in the Western Cape, in the small dorp (town) of Friemersheim. Here in this Afrikaans speaking hamlet in the Outeniqua mountains, everybody says: Welkom in Friemersheim. Julle moes almal hier bly wees! ( Welcome to Friemersheim. You must all be happy here!)

The other, original Friemersheim is part of Duisburg in the Rhine- Westphalia district in Germany. Its much smaller South African counterpart, was established in the 1800s, starting off on the farm Gonnakraal, which was bought by the Reverend Johann Kretzen of the Lutheran Berliner Missionary Society for his sister. Kretzen held church services there once a month, and in 1869, he raised the funds to build a church and school there. After his sister’s death, the farm was bequeathed to the Dutch Reformed Church. The current, larger church (still tiny by most standards) was built in 1878 and consecrated in 1879.

The Western Cape Province of South Africa, has some wonderful small towns and enclaves, which are mostly unknown, as they do not appear in popular, mainstream guide books.

One of these is Friemersheim, a small village which falls under the Mossel Bay Municipality. Situated up in the Outeniqua Mountains, it is an easy 40km drive from Mossel Bay, or 50km from George. Friemersheim was named for its German counterpart, north of Dusseldorf, the birthplace of its founder.

This awfully neat, awfully clean little ‘dorpie’ (village in Afrikaans), is part of a farming community, with a population of just over 1200 persons.

What makes Friemersheim visitable is the delightful murals on a good number of houses.

During the Covid lockdown, artist Fourie Ackerman decided to bring a bit of fun to the village. Fourie is an extremely talented artist, and he painted all sorts scenes on houses. There are cheetahs on one building, an elephant playing with balloons on another, a boy riding an African Buffalo, and so many more totally delightful artworks to be seen.

The Afrikaans speaking residents welcome visitors, and happily had their houses photographed.

There is one shop on the main road – a lifesaver – we needed snacks and cooldrinks on the hot summer day. A few hundred metres from that, an ancient building, possibly the first shop there, now houses the Standard Bank Agency.

The Standard Bank Agency building was having its roof repaired.

The Church is now a Verenigende Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk (Uniting Reformed Church of [the Netherlands] of Southern Africa), a breakaway branch of the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (NGK), formed by the African and so called ‘Coloured’ NGK mission churches.

Friemersheim is also famous as the birthplace of the Volkwyn chair. Commonly seen in many South African homes are ‘riempie’ (woven leather thong) Volkwyn chairs, originally designed and made by the Volkwyn brothers of Friemersheim.