Manie Maritz (1876–1940), also known as Gerrit Maritz, was a Boer officer during the
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...
and a leading rebel of the 1914
Maritz Rebellion
The Maritz rebellion, also known as the Boer revolt or Five Shilling rebellion,General De Wet publicly unfurled the rebel banner in October, when he entered the town of Reitz at the head of an armed commando. He summoned all the town and dema ...
.
Early years
Maritz was born in
Kimberley, Northern Cape then in the British colony of the
Cape of Good Hope, and as such, was a British subject. He was christened Salomon Gerhardus Maritz. When he turned 19 he went to Johannesburg and was employed as a cab driver by his uncle. During the
Jameson Raid
The Jameson Raid (29 December 1895 – 2 January 1896) was a botched raid against the South African Republic (commonly known as the Transvaal) carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil ...
he volunteered as a guard of the Johannesburg fort. This entitled him to become a citizen of the
Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek
The South African Republic ( nl, Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, abbreviated ZAR; af, Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer Republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it ...
(ZAR). This, in turn, permitted him to join the
Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek Politie (ZARP), the police force in Johannesburg.
[Maritz, Manie, My lewe en strewe, published by the author in 1939.]
Second Boer War
Maritz joined the
Boksburg Commando and proceeded to the Natal front.
Later he joined
Daniel Theron
Daniël Johannes Stephanus "Danie" Theron (9 May 1872 – 5 September 1900) was a Boer Army military leader and master scout. Born in Tulbagh, Cape Colony, he was raised in Bethlehem, Orange Free State. He is best known as the driving force ...
's reconnaissance corps and then participated in the invasion of the Cape Colony. He eventually landed up in the desert-like terrain of the North-western Cape.
Maritz claims that
Jan Smuts
Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...
appointed him as a ''veggeneraal'' ('fighting-general').
At that time
Deneys Reitz
Deneys Reitz (1882—1944), son of Francis William Reitz, was a Boer warrior who fought in the Second Boer War for the South African Republic against the British Empire. After a period of exile in French Madagascar he returned to South Af ...
was on the staff of General Jan Smuts. Reitz writes that Maritz was only a "leader of various rebel bands".
[Reitz, Deneys, Commando:A Boer journal of the Boer War, Albion Press, 2015, Kindle Edition, locations 3916 - 3921.] If Smuts had appointed Maritz as a fighting general, Reitz would have known about it.
Near the end of the war Maritz ordered the killing of 35 Coloured (
Khoikhoi
Khoekhoen (singular Khoekhoe) (or Khoikhoi in the former orthography; formerly also '' Hottentots''"Hottentot, n. and adj." ''OED Online'', Oxford University Press, March 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/88829. Accessed 13 May 2018. Citing G. S. ...
) in what became known as the
Leliefontein massacre.
Gideon Scheepers and
Breaker Morant
Harry "The Breaker" Harbord Morant (born Edwin Henry Murrant, 9 December 1864 – 27 February 1902), more popularly known as Breaker Morant, was an Anglo-Australian drover, horseman, bush poet, military officer, and war criminal who was co ...
were court-martialled and shot for similar crimes. When peace was made, the burghers of the erstwhile republics were obliged to lay down their arms and sign an oath of allegiance to the British monarch. Instead Maritz slipped over the border to
German South West Africa
German South West Africa (german: Deutsch-Südwestafrika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With a total area of ...
. In his autobiography Maritz does not say why he did so.
Inter war years
He went to Europe and then to Madagascar and back to Europe. He returned to South Africa, where he farmed horses in the Cape and also helped the Germans during the
Herero and Namaqua genocide
The Herero and Namaqua genocide or the Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment waged by the German Empire against the Herero (Ovaherero) and the Nama in German South West Africa (now Namibia). I ...
. When he returned he went to the Transvaal, but was arrested for entering the colony, not having signed the oath of allegiance. He departed for the Cape. When the Free State received responsible government, he went there and later joined the police in the Transvaal.
First World War
In 1913 Maritz was offered a commission in the Active Citizen Force of the
Union Defence Force He accepted and, after attending a training course, he was appointed to command the military area abutting
German South-West Africa
German South West Africa (german: Deutsch-Südwestafrika) was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915, though Germany did not officially recognise its loss of this territory until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. With a total area of ...
. In August 1914 he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. There is evidence that he started colluded with the Germans at a very early stage. As early as the (southern hemisphere) autumn of 1913 he had contact with the German governor in the neighbouring country.
[Britz, Jurgens Johannes, Genl S G (Manie) Maritz se aandeel aan die rebellie van 1914 – 1915, unpublished M.A. dissertation University of Pretoria, 1979.]
On 23 September 1914 Maritz was ordered to advance in the direction of the German border, to support the Union's invasion in the vicinity of
Sandfontein, where a portion of Lieutenant-Colonel Lukin's force was stranded.
He refused to do so.
Then he was ordered to relinquish command to another officer and return to Pretoria, but again refused to do so.
On 9 October he eventually decided to rebel.
The next day he occupied the town of
Keimoes
Keimoes is a town in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It lies on the Orange River and is about halfway between Upington and Kakamas.
History
It attained municipal status in 1949. The name of the town translates in both the Khoekhoe and ...
. Then on 22 October he was wounded in a skirmish with government troops and he was taken to German South-West Africa.
Some people have named the rebellion after him. See
Maritz Rebellion
The Maritz rebellion, also known as the Boer revolt or Five Shilling rebellion,General De Wet publicly unfurled the rebel banner in October, when he entered the town of Reitz at the head of an armed commando. He summoned all the town and dema ...
Later life
When he returned to South Africa in 1923 he was arrested and charged with high treason. He was convicted and sentenced to three years' imprisonment.
When General Hertzog's
National Party won the
1924 election, they released Maritz after he had served only three months.
During the 1930s, Maritz became a Nazi sympathiser and was known as an outspoken proponent of the
Third Reich
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. In 1939 he published his autobiography called ''My Lewe en Strewe'' (''My life and aspiration''). Britz points out that the book was written many years after the events, lacks objectivity and has a strong emotional flavour.
The anti-Semitic statements in his book resulted in his prosecution for fomenting racial hatred. He was fined £75.
Death
He died in
Pretoria
Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa.
Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...
on 19 December 1940 and is buried in the Pretoria West Cemetery.
In popular culture
The character General Manie Roosa, in
James Rollins
James Paul Czajkowski (born August 20, 1961), better known by his pen name of James Rollins, is an American veterinarian and writer of action-adventure/thriller, mystery, and techno-thriller novels who gave up his veterinary practice in Sacra ...
and
Grant Blackwood
Grant Blackwood (born June 7, 1964) is an American thriller writer and ghostwriter. He wrote the Briggs Tanner series. He co-authored with Clive Cussler ''Spartan Gold'' which reached number 10 on the ''New York Times'' Hardcover Fiction Best Sel ...
's novel ''The Kill Switch'' (2014), is "very loosely based on the real-life Boer leader Manie Maritz.
Maritz is referred to many times in
John Buchan's ''
Greenmantle
''Greenmantle'' is the second of five novels by John Buchan featuring the character Richard Hannay. It was first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. It is one of two Hannay novels set during the First World War, the other being ' ...
'' (1916) in which the heroes, who are British spies, masquerade as veterans of Maritz's rebellion in order to infiltrate among German strategists.
Notes
References
*
*
*
* Jurgens Johannes Britz, Genl S G (Manie) Maritz se aandeel aan die rebellie van 1914 - 1915, unpublished M.A. dissertation University of Pretoria, 1979.
* Manie Maritz, "My lewe en strewe", published by author in 1939
Further reading
*
1. Boer Rebels and the Kaiser,s Men'
Die Boervolk van SA 25 August 2009.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maritz, Manie
1876 births
1940 deaths
People from Kimberley, Northern Cape
Afrikaner people
Second Boer War crimes
South African people of Dutch descent
South African Republic military personnel of the Second Boer War
Boer generals