Johann (Hans) Christiaan Wahl

Johann (Hans) Christiaan Wahl arrived in SA as a soldier in 1752 from Strelitz in the lake district of Strelitz-Mecklenburg - in Western Pomerania (now north east Germany).

Became a Burgher in 1756.

In those days, the German-speaking part of Europe consisted of a collection of duchies, principalities and city states - later unified by Otto von Bismarck in 1871. At the time that Johann Christian Wahl left for South Africa, Strelitz was the capital of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. The town had been destroyed by a fire in 1712 and rebuilt under the directions of the Duke as Neustrelitz (also referred to sometimes as Strelitz Alt) on the shore of a lake called Zierker See.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that there may have been a German/Jewish ancestry. Ada’s father mentioned that the Wahl’s were descended from ‘Duitse Jode’ and a search of the surname Wahl drew a hit on a Jewish genealogy website indicating a fair number of people with the surname Wahl, Wahle and Wohl in Germany and Hungary. Ada also ran across a Wahl in Durban who believed that the Wahl ancestry could be traced back to the House of King David! Perhaps worth (someone else!) looking into.

The fact that his second name was ‘Christian’ makes it unlikely that this man was a practicising Jew.

Johann Christian Wahl took citizenship in the Cape four years after arriving in 1756 and married the following year in 1757 to Christina Gerrits. They had two children.