Died in living memory
Emil Weder died in 1969, and his family and people who knew him are still alive. This page draws on one published history. It is open to correction by his family and those who remember him, and the moderators will review it as responses come in.
Emil Weder was a German-born merchant who came to Genadendal in 1906 to manage the Moravian Mission Store on Church Square [MS]. He chaired the local school board and supported the effort to start a high school in the village, which was later named after him [MS]. It is now Emil Weder Secondary School, the valley’s only high school [IC].
What the letters in square brackets mean
Facts on this page are followed by a tag that shows where they come from.
- [IC] Independently Corroborated. Confirmed by at least two sources that do not depend on each other, or by an official record.
- [MS] Mission-Sourced. Comes from Moravian records and the histories written from them, above all Genadendal: A Long Walk by Isaac Balie. These often agree with each other because they share an origin.
- [TBV] To Be Verified. Seems likely, but nobody has confirmed it yet.
At a glance
| Born | 2 February 1881, at Forst in Germany [MS] |
| Died | 17 May 1969 [MS] |
| Known for | Managing the Mission Store at Genadendal, and supporting the founding of the high school named after him [MS] |
| Link to the valley | Merchant at Genadendal from 1906, and later in Greyton |
His life
Weder was born at Forst in Germany, into a Christian family whose forebears were Huguenots who had fled to Germany [MS]. He trained as a bookkeeper, and took a course in mission work at Ebersdorf [MS]. He came to South Africa in 1906 and took over the management of the Mission Store at Genadendal from Johannes Rapparlie [MS]. On 26 August 1908 he married Agnes Liesl Wedemann at Genadendal, the daughter of the missionary J.G. Wedemann [MS]. They had three sons and three daughters, and became South African citizens [MS].
Balie’s history says his was the first motor car seen on Genadendal’s roads [MS]. He served on the Caledon school board, and chaired the local school board when the high school opened in 1938, with H.A. Dudley as its first principal [MS]. He supported the effort to establish the school, and it was later named after him [MS]. In 1955 he moved to Greyton, where he opened his own business [MS]. He died on 17 May 1969 [MS].
The Mission Store building of 1899, which the Weders ran, is the youngest building on Church Square [MS]. Balie’s history notes that the anti-apartheid churchman Beyers Naudé was married into the Weder family, and that the wedding took place in the Moravian church at Genadendal [MS].
His legacy in the valley
- Emil Weder Secondary School bears his name [IC].
- The Mission Store building on Church Square now houses the museum’s information bureau [MS].
Links to other figures
- Louis Rudolph Schmidt served as missionary at Genadendal in the same years.
What is still open
- When the high school was named after him.
- The history of the Mission Store under the Weders, and of the business he opened in Greyton.
- How his family and former pupils of the school remember him.
Related
References
- Balie, I. (2023). Genadendal, The Valley of Grace: A Long Walk Through the History of the First Mission Station in South Africa. AuthorHouse. First published 2020. His birth, training, arrival, marriage, the Mission Store, the first car, the school board, his move to Greyton, and his death. Page numbers are on Genadendal: A Long Walk.